Monday, May 16, 2010

Hi,

Another nice weekend.  The dreary weather finally left us Friday and stayed spectacular all weekend. It’s a wonderful rain storm today, no heavy winds or massive down pours, just a nice steady soaking of the ground.  The plants are happy.

Maria booked her and Frank here for their third anniversary, they were my first wedding here.  Such a nice couple, she is due with their first in five weeks, she looks great.  Maria was too funny, they found my Inn while it was still under construction.  At that point, I hadn’t have an event, so I wasn’t sure how many guests I could host.  I asked them how many they figured for their guest list and they said about 200.  I figured I could host about 150 at most.  They said they’d cut the list.  Basically, that was the last time I talked to Maria before the wedding.  She kept Jay, from Catered Elegance informed and I spoke with Frank.  They couldn’t get the guest list below 180, so we ended up tenting “The West Event Space”, my parking lot!  🙂  They had the dinner there and walked through the connecting door to the Ballroom and had the dancing and festivities there.  A great time was had by all.  Last year, Frank was in the Trib a few weeks before the Pittsburgh Marathon and I saw it.  The Marathon, last year went right past my Inn and who’d I see running but Maria.  I shouted that I saw her famous husband in the newspaper and she laughed and kept on running.  🙂

I subscribe to Fine Cooking, I love that magazine.  Generally, most of their recipes don’t interest me, but when there’s one that grabs me it’s a winner (the other recipes are great, they don’t do a lot of breakfast items which is what I generally am looking for).  What I love about the magazine are the tidbits you find in there and then the easy to follow recipes when you find some thing you like.  But I digress, speaking of tidbits, they had an article on brides having cheese wedding cakes.  How great is that?  I’m not suggesting this is right for everyone, or even many.  But for those that are looking for something different and love cheese, this is right up your alley.  Since reading it, my mind has been in overdrive and coming up with all kinds of ideas for icings, etc.  Here’s a link to a picture of one of their “cakes“.  I’ m not  as knowledgeable about cheese as they are and a bit more of a traditionalist and can envision a really cool looking “traditional” wedding “cake” with an “icing” made from some complimentary or contrasting soft cheese.  Also, they have this massive store/website/etc that appears really cool right up in Ontario.   Their web site is very attractive, but I don’t find it very easy to navigate, for one thing, they don’t have a contact page, they do have an easy to find contact E-mail button.  Yesterday, I had a hard time finding a picture of their “cake” and so I used their contact E-mail button and sent them an E-mail assuming I would hear from them today, Monday.  Low and behold, Alex responded within a half an hour and told me the cake was hard to find and gave me a direct link to the picture above.  I love businesses that go the extra mile of providing service during non traditional hours.

Speaking of things a bit different, Kerry at KS Kennedy Floral has a strolling table for hors d oeuvres or desserts.  There’s a model (she can be in any costume to fit the occasion) with the table around her and it’s on wheels the the table looks like her dress.  Check it out.

My Chinese white lilac tree is about half open, it should be in full bloom for Christina and Jason’s wedding this weekend.  The Japanese Dog Wood also will be in full bloom for them.  The scent from the lilac is so strong, it will be real nice for this afternoon event.

That’s all for today, keep dry.

ed