Inspiration: Cake Ball Wedding Cake

My husband and I had the pleasure of having a child free night this past Saturday so that we could attend the wedding of a good friend.  It's no secret that my husband and I are former theatre actors (ok, well I'm former, he still does some stuff on occasion) and our friendship goes way back to my husband's Winedale days (Winedale is a summer intensive Shakespeare class that is offered through the English department at UT and held in Round Top, TX).  And on Saturday, Andy married his longtime love Nadine, who is an amazingly talented artist.  As an artist myself, I love finding inspiration in all sorts of places and Andy and Nadine's wedding was no exception!

The bride is Indonesian and so the ceremony included a traditional egg stomping ritual, in which the bride and groom take turns stomping on an egg, then wash it off the other's foot.

From the moment you walked in, you could tell this was no ordinary wedding.  They went for a whimsical and funky style that was simple and fun.  The location provided beautiful scenery (it's a house owned by a local gardening center) and the decor consisted of paired up stuffed animals and toys everywhere.  The tables centerpieces were stacks of board games which people could actually play.  I saw a mean game of Scrabble going down at one table!

Aren't these two adorable?

The bride made name tags for everyone that also included two or three "talking points"–what you did for a living, how you knew the bride and groom, your hobbies, or other little items that might spark interest from others.  It was great fun to read everyone's badges all night long and really got some great conversations going.

I got so many questions over who Alton Brown was; looks like I need to educate the world some more on the joy that is AB!

In lieu of a traditional guest book, the bride sketched and inked a tree onto a large piece of watercolor board and everyone stamped their fingerprints for the leaves.  You then signed your name on your fingerprint.  I can just imagine that hanging up on the wall with a collage of wedding snapshots and a framed shadowbox of mementos from the wedding.

The fun also extended to the food and cake.  There were two buffet lines set up with food from all of their favorite places; his on one side and hers on the other.  Nadine is Indonesian and I got a chance to try some amazing Indonesian dishes not to mention an entire roasted pig!  For the wedding cake, they had a local bakery make cake balls, which were then stuck onto a false 3 tier cake.  Some of the balls were different colors and then painted with shimmer dust while the majority were white.  It was really cute and I loved the idea!  I definitely have to try it sometime, if anything at least for the presentation.

The cake balls were provided by a bakery in town called Austin Cake Ball.  Seriously, go check out their website, they have got some great stuff!

I hope you get inspired by these ideas just as much as I was!  It certainly was a wedding to remember and the fun carried on until the wee hours of the morning.

Happy Caking,
Kelly