Let's talk about flowers

I decided long ago that I wanted fake flowers. I didn't want to spend a thousand or two at a florist on flowers that were going to die. I also didn't have the resources to order fresh flowers online, store them in my fridge and then tie them into bouquets right before the wedding. Using fake flowers, I get to keep my wedding bouquet indefinitely, I get to make them way ahead of time and not worry about them and I can get flowers from any season.

I played around with the idea of making ribbon flowers, or just sewing fabric into ruffles and using that as a bouquet. Crepe paper flowers were also attractive and there are books you can download online that can teach you how to make different crepe paper flowers. Both ribbon and paper flowers can be quite pretty. They both also require a lot more work than I'm willing to put out these days.

Lately, I've been feeling exhausted. There are too many demands on my time and energy right now and there are always tasks in the back of my mind nagging me that I need to check off. It's hard to concentrate on any one thing when there are so many directions you're being pulled at once.

So anyways, back to the flowers. I definitely wanted daisies. Chaucer said that the daisy was the flower of true love because the yellow center represented happiness and warmth like the warmth of the sun, and the white petals represented purity, truth and innocence, free from guile. The popular red rose, he said, was false love and represented lust, and not true love. That is why I've always had a thing for daisies.

I also love lotuses. Not only are they pretty, but in buddhist culture, the lotus is revered for growing in the dirtiest of waters and still blooms clean. Unfortunately, they are not as popular a flower and thus, they are harder to find as silk flowers. Roses are everywhere and you can usually find hydrangeas as well. I specifically wanted lavender lotuses, but most of the ones I found weren't the right shade.

So I ordered cream gerbera daisies for my bridesmaids and little white daisies for the bouts. I'm also ordering lavender roses as filler flowers for the daisy bouquets and the bouts. I'm not sure I'll be using any filler flowers in my own bouquet. I supposed we'll see once the flowers all come in. The truth is, fake flowers are not necessarily cheaper than real ones, but I'm paying for the convenience of putting them together way ahead of time.

All in all, I have to make one bridal bouquet, a smaller toss bouquet, 4 bridesmaids bouquets, the groom's bout, 2 groomsmen bouts, 2 mommy corsages and 2 daddy bouts. So that's a total of 6 bouquets, 5 bouts and 2 corsages. If I have any time and resources left over, I'll make 3 extra corsages for the groom's sisters.

Wow, that's a lot of work! Lol!

Save the Date emails

So I finally got my rear in gear and sent out my Save-The-Date emails. It was a pain the butt getting the guest list together mainly because my better half wasn't very good about getting his list together right. The good news is that that is all in the past now! It's done!

The Save-The-Date emails were great because they forced us to get that guest list together. In turn, getting that guest list together and having to actually send something out based on it, brought a lot of questions to mind.

The first question was, do we send everyone we have an email address for a STD email? The answer was ultimately no. Some guests, like my grandmother, do not have email addresses. Some guests already know the date and are bad with emails. Some guests, we're still not sure we want to invite, and for some guests, we're only inviting part of a group and want to minimize talk by giving them less time to talk about who in the group is invited and who is not.

The second question that came up was how to address people. My feeling, after reading lots of wedding websites, was to address married couples as "Mr. and Mrs. John Doe." If Mr. and Mrs. Doe has children who are invited, it was, "Mr. and Mrs. John Doe and Family." Singles were addressed as "Ms. Jane Doe and Guest" or "Mr. John Doe and Guest, though we left off the "Guest" part for the STDs.

I'm thinking now, for the invitations, keeping it less formal when I know the names of both parties in couples. It feels weird when I know a couple as John and Jane and addressing them as Mr. and Mrs. John Doe, as if the woman doesn't deserve mention. I know I'm being a bit sensitive here, but it does irk me ever so slightly.

Anyways, I'm glad this task has finally been checked off my list! Yay!

Make your own reusable ice pack

I had no idea it could be done this way.

http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/how-to/how-to-make-your-own-lunch-box-ice-packs-113998

Veil pix

Finally! Here are the pictures of the veil I made for my friend. Please excuse my pajamas. :-)

My first seder at home

The very first seder I have ever attended was at my fiance's grandmother's apartment last year. This year, we had our own little seder dinner in our own apartment. It is the first seder where my fiance played "leader" and it is the first seder I have ever hosted and cooked for. It was fun!

It was not a traditional seder, but it was a seder nonetheless. We bought an apple, walnuts, eggs, horseradish root, Kedem kosher wine and Haggadahs all in preparation for this night. My fiance had already started on a box of matzoh this week, so we were good on the matzoh. We used his grandmother's crystal for our wine glasses and had his grandmother's seder plate on display. I helped to cook the food and I have to say that everything turned out very delicious!

The charoset was made with one very sweet green apple, a handful of walnuts, a splash of lemon juice and some kosher wine. It's a basic recipe and turned out very yummy! Everything was pulsed into a fine pulp in the food processor. I didn't measure everything out but I made sure I only used about a teaspoon to a tablespoon of lemon juice and enough kosher wine that it sweetened and moistened everything, but didn't cover up the taste of the apples and lemon.

I also roasted a hard boiled egg in the toaster oven to make the beitzah. I probably should have poked a few holes in the shell before I put it in the oven because it cracked dramatically while roasting! My fiance didn't mind it, saying that in his family, they don't eat the egg so it doesn't matter that it cracked. Well, since I would rather not waste food, once the seder was over, I ate the egg. Lol! There was a slightly smoky flavor to the egg and it was delicious in the salt water.

As for the bitter herb, we used horseradish. It was a big root and we only needed a little for the seder. So after my fiance cut out the portion he wanted to use, I made the rest into prepared horseradish to put into our mashed potatoes. It's actually very easy! After you skin the root, cut it up into pieces and pulse in the food processor until fine. Because fresh horseradish can make your eyes burn and make you really, really uncomfortable, you should grind horseradish outside or near an open window with a fan blowing. Our root was rather old and not very strong, so we just did it near the window. Once you have the horseradish ground fine, add enough vinegar to coat and a tiny pinch of sea salt to taste. It tasted wonderful! I don't think I'll ever have the store-bought stuff and be satisfied anymore! We did put a little of the prepared horseradish on the plate with the bitter herb for the hillel sandwich.

So then we sat with our haggadahs and did our very own seder. For the festive meal, we were so stuffed already, we just had some horseradish mashed potatoes. Basically mashed potatoes flavored with the fresh prepared horseradish I made earlier. It was so good, we stuffed ourselves on it and couldn't eat anything else for the meal! After the seder was over and everything washed and put away, we still had a lot of leftover matzoh.

So I made some chocolate-covered matzoh! The method is very simple. Wrap an oven rack in foil and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Then take equal amounts of butter and brown sugar and boil it for three minutes in a saucepan, stirring constantly. Pour it over the matzoh and spread to coat. Then place the matzoh in the oven and reduce the heat to 350 degrees F. Keep an eye on the matzoh to make sure it doesn't burn. If it starts to burn, reduce the heat to 325 degrees F. and you can take the matzoh out for a bit to cool it down a little. Bubbling is okay though. Bake for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, chop up some Toblerone chocolate, or whatever chocolate you have on hand, or use semisweet chocolate chips. Once the 15 minutes are up, take the matzoh out of the oven and spread the chocolate out on it. Wait a few minutes and begin spreading the melted chocolate to coat. Allow the matzoh to cool completely before enjoying. We actually ate half the matzoh before the chocolate cooled completely. Lol! It was soooooooo delicious!