Thank you to Amy and her fiance Sean for this entry into our Win a Custom Wedding Cake Topper Essay Contest! Amy’s idea is to create a custom wedding cake topper with a tall bride (Amy is 6 feet tall) and a short groom blushing as she licks his head. Read more to find out why!
THE STORY
It all started on April 4, 2009. I had just got out of a five year, abusive and not going anywhere, relationship and my roommate invited me to one of her friends weddings to get me out of my funk. I really didn’t want to go, I was feeling wamp wamp, but once she said “open bar” – I was game. Who wouldn’t be?
The wedding was at the Fontenot Grand Mansion in Spring, TX. Prior to the wedding, I did not know what to wear. I had only gone to one wedding before, so I just starting searching through my closet since it was last minute. I really didn’t have time to find a dress, nor did I want to, but shoes…that was a must. I had purchased a pair of zebra heals accented with red for the occasion and wore your basic black dress.
We get there and the place was amazing. Red, black and white themed. Very original. The wedding starts outside on the stairs of the mansion. Music plays, the vows, and the “I do’s” are made, and then we walk into the venue. The party gets started thanks to the DJ. My friend and I find our names on the table, and then I make way to the bar walking away double fisted.
Second round, heading to the bar, I see this bald guy looking like Justin Timberlake (suit on the Futuresex/lovesounds album) in my right peripheral and he gives me “the eyebrow”. Apparently I ran into the bar by giving him the up down, but that is a later argument to discuss. I get back to the table and tell my friend about the guy. How attractive he is and that he IS getting my number.
A few (many) drinks later my friend and I go to the bathroom. Funny how that happens. I notice that the guy I am interested in works for the venue and is running back and forth crazy like a chicken with his head cut off. Bummer. The DJ is asking for people to request songs. I HAD to request “Single Ladies” for my friend because that was her song. He sends down the guy that I am interested in. That was a surprise! I told him that I wanted to request that song for her. I then I asked him if I could ask him a question. I proceeded to tell him how I enjoyed bald heads and that I wanted to lick his. He got all red and told me that he couldn’t because his boss may see. I was like come on, I can do it right here, no one would see. So, I grabbed his head and licked it!
After that, he ran up the stairs and didn’t say a word. I constantly kept looking for him. But I figured that I made him feel uncomfortable. I ran into him right before we were going to leave. He gives me his business card and tells me, ” Here, I think you want this”. It had two numbers numbers on the back. One with the last four scratched out and the other four was there. I called both numbers after the party and left voicemails. I was bummed. I was hoping to hang out with him that night.
A few days went by and he found me on Myspace. My default image was of me licking a stuffed bobcat and apparently it is rare to find females 6 ft tall in Houston. He explained to me why I did not hear back from him because he had put the wrong phone number on the back of his card – twice. He was so in shock that apparently he gave me the wrong numbers. I still have that business card in my purse, and have had him at “lick” ever since.
WEDDING AND TOPPER IDEA
Our wedding theme is modern. I want to focus on the day we met. The topper would be a bald guy with brown eyes in a black tie and black suit (blushing), and I would be with my brown curly hair down, blue eyes, in my black dress with the zebra shoes. I would be position over his head, licking it. I am 6’0 and he is 5’6 tall. Our date is April 4, 2014. We would love to have it at the Fontenot Grand Mansion, but I do not think they are open anymore after researching. So Vegas, here we come! 🙂
Custom pet cake toppers
Before Gus and I had our kids, our dogs, Stella and Gretchen, were our babies. We went to the dog park and spent hours chit chatting with the other dog owners about how they were eating, sleeping and getting along with others. So, I totally get it when a customer requests a custom wedding cake topper of their dogs.
For just $159 + shipping, we’ll custom sculpt your pets and turn them into a dashing groom and blushing bride. We just need photos in the pose you’d like them sculpted in.
Bow wow wonderful!
“Willow, she makes a lousy little pillow;
when you lay your head on her to dream,
your pillow wakes up and she screams!”
Anyway, it has been far too long since I have had a cock-a-may-me idea (as my mother likes to call them) so it was time for a tutorial.
You’re going to need some cotton, some batting and some fabric transfers for this one, kids.
Start by taking a photo of your baby against a dark background – full length is best and you’ll want arms and legs out straight. Harder than this looks…
In Pshop, I separate baby body from background and create a solid red background to go with her outfit. 
I print a regular version and a flipped version (you could also make a solid back) onto transfer paper. The largest my printer will print is tabloid sized so I fill that size.
The images are transferred on to the fabric. You can use an iron-on transfer for this.
I pin the two sides together back side up and pin it. Then my mother, who allows about 1 hour a week towards cock-a-may-me ideas gets to sewing around the figure.
Flip it back right side and stuff it. Sew up your little gap and you’re all done!
Willow loves her little Willow Pillow. 🙂
Essay submissions for our custom wedding cake topper contest are rolling in. We’re having a blast reading all these romantic stories but this one is really cute from Jade in Saskatchewan, Canada:
I’ve been putting off writing this essay for a few days now, but today is Valentines Day & I’m in a romantic mood, so I think I’ll finally go for it.
I met my fiancee Scott purely by chance on New Year’s Eve in 2007. The concert my friend and I had intended to go to that night had sold out (which is a rarity in our tiny city), so I sent out an SOS to my friend Brian & asked him what else was happening that night. I’d known Brian for a few months online & we’d talked back and forth but hadn’t met up before then — it was really lucky that not only did he reply, but he told my girlfriend & I to meet him & his friends for another show downtown. We hadn’t been at the new show for 10 minutes before Scott showed up — he was a friend of Brian’s and was introduced to me like this “See the drunk guy coming in the door with the tiger hat on? That’s my drummer, Scott.”
Loud, boisterous and already a few drinks in — Scott really made an impression that night. Long after I lost Brian in the crowd, Scott hung out with me near the stage to listen to local band, The Sheepdogs play a 3 hour long set. (You may have heard of them — they were on the cover of Rolling Stone last year!) He played interference when some creep tried to dance too close to me, but disappeared after he nearly tipped over a stage speaker onto my toes — it was a really strange, odd night. Looking back at it now, I’m still not sure exactly -when- Scott ended up leaving for good that night. The bar was incredibly full & stuffy and it was impossible to keep track of him as he darted around. It was probably a good thing though because it lead me to track Scott down on facebook the next morning to make sure he’d gotten home safely the night before.
… He had — and that small reach out turned into chatting, which turned into late night phone calls, which turned into being nearly inseparable just two weeks later. Soon enough, we were spending most of our time off work together & alternating between staying at each other’s places (Since this started, we’ve only spent 1 night apart). I’d never met anyone before that I had clicked so perfectly with; We were completely comfortable with each other almost instantly and could talk about anything & everything.
Officially, Scott moved in with me in October of 2008 — but to be honest, we’ve probably been living together since mid-January 2008.
Being this close to someone naturally makes keeping secrets impossible — I don’t think we’ve had a single birthday or Christmas that we haven’t spoiled completely. As soon as either of us buys a gift we start to squirm, which leads to spilling the secret a few hours later. That said, imagine just how surprised I was when Scott proposed & managed to keep it a secret from me. He’d thought of everything: the perfect date, the perfect place & the perfect ring and had managed to keep me in the dark.
Since Scott’s parents spend their winters in Palm Springs, we’d planned to visit them and make a trip to Disneyland during our trip. His parents had chosen to drive down to Palm Springs so for his engagement plan to work, Scott had to purchase the ring months in advance & send it with them so it would be there and waiting for him.
His mother later told me that the ring had traveled with her into every hotel & rest stop & never once left her side! But of course nothing ever goes off without a hitch and since everything had gone smoothly so far, something had to go wrong, right? Sure enough, on the morning of our Disneyland trip (which coincidentally was the 3rd anniversary of us becoming an ‘official’ couple), Scott realized he had a slight problem. The messenger bag he’d ordered online to carry his coat & my ring in all day hadn’t arrived and he was left without a way to hide the ring’s box all day. Still clueless to the fact that Scott was planning on proposing that evening, I offered to carry his coat inside my own bag. Without any other option, Scott buried the ring box in his coat’s pocket & crossed his fingers that I wouldn’t discover it before it was time.
Our day together at Disneyland was probably one of the best we’ve ever spent together — from Scott’s first time on a roller coaster (The Matterhorn, if you’re curious), to meeting Mickey Mouse & eating lunch while listening to a barbershop quartet, every single moment was magical. In retrospective though, the most ‘magical’ part was probably the fact that I never once realized I was carrying around my own engagement ring in my purse. (I didn’t even notice it when I unpacked Scott’s coat for him!) Imagine my surprise when that evening during the “Remember…Dreams come true” fireworks show Scott got down on one knee and proposed. After I said yes we wandered through the park and continued to watch the end of the fireworks, Scott’s arm wrapped firmly around my waist. It felt like the perfect ending to a perfect day & more importantly, it felt like the perfect beginning to our future married life together.
As soon as we returned home from Palm Springs, we began to plan our dream wedding. Since we’ve been together so long & a wedding won’t change much in our day to day lives, we decided to pick a date far enough off so we could have the wedding of our dreams. We’ve been lucky (once again) & gotten our first choices for our planner, venue, caterer & desserts. Our wedding will have a vintage theme, complete with clotheslines of photos of our life together & pictures of past marriages in our families — we’re a fun couple with a taste for finer things and we want that to be reflected in the decor. (I’ve included a picture of the rough draft of our invitations for an example — please excuse the pen notes on it!) We’re getting married September 15th this year in an outdoor wedding garden & our reception will be (a huge party) in a hotel ballroom (kegs, dancing music & possibly Scott himself playing some live polka music for his mother!). Our honeymoon will be in Disneyworld (which seems entirely fitting after our engagement)!
For our custom cake topper, we’d love to be have a sculpture of the two of us in our wedding clothing standing together with Scott’s arm wrapped around my waist. It would be really great if there could be a ‘hidden mickey’ somewhere on my dress (it’s a lace bodice) as a nod to our Disneyland engagement. In a further nod to our engagement, we’d love if you could add our two pet cats next to our feet (possibly wearing Mickey ears?). They’re a huge part of our lives & we’d love to have them included.
Thanks so much for the opportunity & for reading. Happy Valentines Day!
-Jade
Willow, my little bee, you are now 4.5 months old and jeez girl, you are a total pain in my ass. Cute as a button, don’t get me wrong, with a smile that would stop traffic and makes everyone lucky enough to witness it coo with delight. Your single dimple is more like a moon crater in your sweet and peachy cream face with your adorable round cheekies and perfect, pouty cherry lips. Oh, and your eyes. They are a fascinating dark slate grey with hints of rust – pools of perfection. But your attitude and demeanor, lord have mercy, you are a pain in my ass.
You’re a good eater but you prefer to snack every 20-30 minutes rather than sticking around for a regular meal. This has made milk production rather strange and we are glued to one another. That was all fine and good until I started feeling weird urges to join the rest of the adult world and have an evening (or gosh, maybe a weekend) out, by myself, without you. Darn it, I forget to teach you to eat out of a bottle. I’m screwed.
You aren’t sleeping well during the day and you prefer to be held and cuddled for naps which is pretty impossible since I have three jobs and another kid to contend with. Night time is ok – you have been waking 2-3 times to eat but from my recollection, you are a better night sleeper than your big bruddah who ate ’round the clock.
At 4.5 months, you are working on rolling over, sitting up and standing. You are incredibly strong and a big girl! 95th percentile for height and weight.
Well, you just woke up from your nap, so I better go before you get really angry at me.
I keep a ton of construction paper on hand because it’s cheap, durable and colorful. While I’m setting up the cards, Ryder starts to work on the coloring pages. He gets to select the images for each card and color them. I let Ryder apply some glue to the back side of one sheet and then fold it in half and again in quarters to create a nice durable card. A heart is cut out of craft felt and then glued on to the front. We use puffy stickers that Ryder selects to decorate the outside of the card. When the coloring pages are done in a couple of minutes, I cut out the characters and let Ryder glue them to the inside of the card.
As a special treat, I let Ryder use a marker to write on the card. I stand behind him and help him write the letters as I spell them out for him. We have been talking about writing cards for the last week so he knows to write, “Dear Mimi,” and then “Love, Ryder.” He gets a kick out of knowing what the card should say.
All in all, allow about 15 minutes for the total project. Ryder will hand these out to his Mimi and Papa tomorrow and we’ll give Omi’s to her on Valentines Day. I think they’ll love them! Especially Mimi because she is a talented card maker herself.
Here’s a relatively easy way to achieve the same effect using water slide decal paper. Water slide decal paper is available for either ink jet printers or laser printers. I personally have never used the ink jet paper but I’m sure it’s a similar process. I get my decal paper from Bel Decal.
STEP 1:
Paint your nails white. Another light color will work ok too but the transfers are transparent so white will be the brightest.
STEP 2:
Print your photos starting at .5″ wide and about an inch long. Create a template with all 10 photos at the largest size and then copy them and make them a little smaller. Make 5 versions of all the photos in largest to smallest. The largest images will be used on your thumbs and the smallest will be on your pinkies.
STEP 3:
Cut the photos out and roughly size them to your nails. Cut a round shape on the bottom and straight on the sides and top. Allow a little overhang on the top.
STEP 4:
Soak one at a time in some warm water for a few seconds. You will be able to easily remove the decal from the backing and slide it on your nail. Let it dry before continuing.
STEP 5:
Once you have all your nails done, use a coat of clear nail polish to seal the photo on. The nail polish will soften the extra decal material that hangs over and form a nice little edge.
That’s it!
You’ll have to play around with your photos to see which ones work best. Personally, I think the head shots work better than full length shots. Try different things. Enjoy!
We had an order for a custom ring bearer pillow and flower girl basket with galaxy blue dedrobium orchids and I thought, sure, no problem. How hard can it be to find these particular silk orchids?
Well, impossible. Seriously, they do not exist. I have seen a few sites in the UK and Australia selling fake flower bouquets made with these orchids but I could not source them in the states.
So, I ordered the real touch violet, dark purple orchid that florists use to create these orchids. Apparently, if you place the stems of the dark purple orchids in blue floral die, they become this lovely turquoise, violet shade. I ordered one stem from Afloral.com. With the promo code and shipping, it was just under $10.
I sprayed the individual orchids with water in a spray bottle and blotted them dry with a clean towel. Then, I applied varying shades of blue highlighter pen which soaked in to the moistened flowers really nicely and created a pretty gradient. I continued this until the desired effect was achieved.
Beautiful!
Bobblegram 
