Double the Fun!

I guess I haven't mentioned it yet but we are planning to have a big reception back in Red Bud 3 weeks after our wedding. It's just not possible to invite everyone to our wedding since it is in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Rhett & I both have large families so their are a lot of people we want to share our special day with. We will have approx 40 people at our wedding and around 350 will be invited to our reception in RB. It is going to be held at the good ol red bud catholic school gym. Since Rhett went to grade school there it will be a little bit cheaper to rent. I did not want to have it at hecker and the shooting complex was too expensive so after my mom suggested I call about the catholic school gym it worked out perfectly. Our wedding is October 6th and the reception is the 27th so I will get a nice little break between the 2 big days. I think it will actually be nice to have them separately.  I can hopefully enjoy myself and not have to stress as much with that extra time in between. Also the fun part with having 2 different days to celebrate is Double the Fun!! I get to wear my dress twice, have multiple wedding cakes, get pictures taken with 2 different photographers. Now that also means dble the money but I try not to think about that. After the wedding ceremony we are having a little mini reception at Inn of the Oarks hotel in Eureka Springs. Here is a link to check it out: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Inn-of-the-Ozarks-Receptions/134664136556775?ref=ts  If you are ever bored look through all the grooms cakes in the pics. Their are some crazy ones!!

When my Mom & I went to do wedding planning in October we spent one whole day looking for a place to gather after the wedding with our family. I didn't really want a "reception" since we are having the bigger one weeks later but it became clear that finding a place to just eat with a large amount of people at a specific time wasn't going to be easy or cheap or kid friendly. I have 11 nieces/nephews and they will all be at my wedding so I wanted to go somewhere that accomodated all of them. Eureka Springs is a cute little town but every where we looked just wasn't going to work. We rode the trolley around town searching for the perfect place to eat our post wedding meal. At the end of the day feeling kinda bummed we decided to stop at the hotel Best Western Inn of the Ozarks. Someone had mentioned it at one point during the day so why not check it out. I explained what we were looking for and two nice ladies showed me a little banquet room downstairs. It was just ok but looking better than what we had planned so far which was..nothing. Another woman said oh honey you don't want to have it down here you need to see the convention center. She sent us around back to meet with a woman by the name of Cathy. She proceeded to give us info on what they could offer in the form of a mini reception. She took us to the convention center directly behind the hotel and showed us the "Red Bud room". It was fate OMG the red bud room this was looking better by the second. It sounds silly but it felt just right with the name. Its actually 3 rooms that can be condensed or kept open in 1 large room. The three rooms together are called the woods. Their is a balcony off the back that we can go out on during our reception as well. The menu for food has a wide variety to choose from and is cost friendly too so that helps. We found ourselves the perfect place! I plan to take my ihome and ipod and that will be our music. We don't need anything extremely fancy. They hotel also directs you to different vendors if you choose to use them such as cake, dj, decorator, florist...I am planning to get a cake through Robyn Capps and this is what it will look like
Obviously with our initals though! It is fun and non traditional and since I get another cake at our big reception I'm going for it. I have heard good things about her cakes so I am putting faith in what I have heard from others.

Another thing that I did very early on after getting engaged was order the grooms cake for our big reception. It is coming from Patty Cakes in Highland. They have been featured on ultimate cake off on TLC.  
 http://www.pat-t-cakes.com/index.html   I have heard that their cakes are delicious so I just had to get something from them. When I called the lady prob thought I was crazy since it was only 1 year & 2 months before my wedding date. What can I say I like to plan ahead! It is a mallard duck which is my fav type of duck. I think they are so pretty so that is why I chose it & Rhett loves waterfowl hunting so it fits. I wish I had a pic in color but they no longer have it on the website & I previously printed it off in b/w. You basically get the gist of it


Our big cake at reception is going to be made by Becky Cowell. Her cakes are awesome & I have always said that when I get married she would make my cake. I am planning for it to look like this:


So there you have it 3 cakes all rustic like of course. I'm hoping they all turn out and taste delicious! Now I am sure you are all hungry for cake so I will apologize in advance. Sorry!!