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Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Cookie Seating Cards

I am now married!

And I had a zany idea to make cookie seating cards instead of doing the same old printed seating cards. So off I went...

Day 1
I bought ten pounds of butter, a huge bag of flour, a dozen eggs, a new bottle of vanilla, 3 bags of sugar and some salt. I was on a mission! A mission that ended up taking...oh...only about 6 days to make and an extra day to pack....um...ya...the week before my wedding. I think that Bakerella would be proud! 

Day 2
Making the dough. To make the dough for these cookies I used my favourite sugar cookie recipe.  I divided each batch of dough in half, packaged each disc of dough in plastic wrap and refrigerated the dough overnight.

Day 3
I removed the discs of dough from the fridge and let them return to room temperature. I rolled out each disc on wax paper, piled up the rolled out dough and set it back into the fridge. The colder the cookie dough is, the easier it is to cut out the desired cookie shape.

After many hours of baking, I finally ended up with about 175 cookies!

I bought a new cutter for the occasion!  Love it!

Day 4
I finally found a fantastic recipe for royal icing!  I made large quantities of each, but I ended up having to double the recipe to pipe and flood all of the cookies. 

I found this recipe on Sweetopia who got it from Antonia74.

Antonia74’s Royal Icing Recipe
Ingredients:
6 oz (3/4 cup) of warm water
5 Tablespoons meringue powder
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 kilogram (2.25 lbs.) powdered icing sugar

Directions:
In mixer bowl, pour in the warm water and the meringue powder. Mix it with a whisk by hand until it is frothy and thickened…about 30 seconds. Add the cream of tartar and mix for 30 seconds more. Pour in all the icing sugar at once and place the bowl on the mixer. Using the paddle attachment on the LOWEST speed, mix slowly for a full 10 minutes. Icing will get thick and creamy. Cover the bowl with a dampened tea-towel to prevent crusting and drying. Tint with food colourings or thin the icing with small amounts of warm water to reach the desired consistency.

I found that even to piping the cookies, I did have to add warm water to thin out the icing. But overall, it turned out very well!  A recipe that I am thrilled to share.  To flood the cookies, I used the same icing but continued to add water to make it even thinner.

Day 5
I must have been so busy flooding the cookies that I didn't take a single picture of my repetitious acts of squeezing the bottle to color in the cookies!  They turned out so well with very few air bubbles.  If air bubbles form, have a toothpick on hand to pop them immediately.

Day 6
I used almost an entire container of brown food colour to colour the royal icing for personalizing!  It took a very long time to personalize every single cookie.  I wrote the table number in the heart and the names of each guest on the body of the cake! 

Our apartment turned into a bakery!  Rich loved that!  He even wrote about it in our speech!  Whoo...the cookies were done!!!  Now...for the packing party!

Day 7
My family and friend Marnie came over to help wrap everything up! First, we labelled the bags with stickers that said "Melissa and Richard, August 8, 2010," then we bagged, tied ribbon, curled the ribbon and placed the cookies in containers in alphabetical order.

Ta Da!!!

I was very happy with the final product.

The cookies seemed to go over pretty well!

I had to make us each our own cookie!
Just call me Mrs. Gardos!

100 comments:

  1. Amazing! Have a wonderful honeymoon...you certainly earned it! :)
    Love, Naomi

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  2. Wow! Incredible effort Mel! And beautiful results - you are one smart cookie (pardon the pun) :)

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  3. Congratulations! Great idea on the cookie place cards! So creative!

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  4. Mazel Tov! Fabulous place cards. Oh my gosh -You look stunning and very happy. I can't wait to show Hanna when she gets back from camp next week. Congratulations and best wishes.

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  5. Wow! I am very impressed! Talk about taking on a huge project right before your wedding. I thought my project of making all of my invitations by hand was big but I think the cookies a week before your wedding is massive. Congratulations!

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  6. Congrats and way to go! The cookies look great and I'm sure you felt awesome, considering you did them all alone :)

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  7. Amazing! You are so awesome. I can't wait to try the cookie recipe.

    I also marveled at your awesomeness on my recent blog post: http://crosscountrywed.blogspot.com/2010/08/bride-who-made-her-favors-with-love-and.html

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  8. Congrats on your wedding, you both look amazing and very happy :) Also love the cookies of course. I doubt anyone has ever been to a wedding with an edible name card on the table :) Happy honeymooning!

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  9. Wow! That is amazing! They looked great :)

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  10. Those were the most delicious place cards I've ever eaten. Great idea.

    I think I see my name once or twice up there. :)

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  11. congratulations!
    those cookies are sooo cute!

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  12. Ok, so I just made some cookies and my royal icing was wayyyyy too runny and my cookies kinda looked like a small child decorated them. Hmph. Must try your recipe for royal icing, if only I could find the meringue powder!

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  13. Congratulations. Talk about a labor of love!

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  14. You both look amazing. Congrats !!!!! I love the cookie/name card idea .

    Mavel Tov!!!!

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  15. Congrats Mrs. Gardos!! I loved your idea!! I wish you a long, loving and sweet life!!!

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  16. Congrats! I can't believe you made all those! They are super cute!

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  17. @ Miss S:

    you can find meringue powder at walmart in the wilton decorating section or online at amazon, walmart or wilton. :)

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  18. That is fabulous! What an awesome bride you were. Your guests must have loved that sweet treat.

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  19. Congrats on your big day! Amazing job on the cookies and wow i can't believe you did those for your wedding! Have a great honeymoon and the start to your amazing life together!

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  20. Congratulations! What a beautiful couple you are... And, the cookies... Truly an Outstanding effort!

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  21. Your cookies are beautiful! I tried the recipe this weekend. Turned out wonderful!!! I was wondering if anyone ever has a problem with the Royal Icing getting too hard on the cookies? I haven't, but the more I read online seems like people stay away from the Royal Icing. Out of Color Flow and Royal Icing, which is better to decorate cookies? Thanks!

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  22. what an awesome idea. incredibly ambitious. they look fantastic as do the bride and groom.

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  23. Love your cookies. Funny, I'm just writing a post now about wedding favour cookies. Acts of Sweetness sent me here. Glad they did!

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  24. What an awesome idea! They look so tasty and lovely -- and such a good tribute to your proposal story!

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  25. Ah...awesome!!! This sounds like something crazy stellar I would do for my wedding...whenever that is! But congratulations and the cookies are so cool!

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  26. What a huge project but it turned out beautifully! Congratulations & best wishes!

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  27. How amazing that you did all that the week before your wedding. Hope your wedding day was as beautiful as your cookies. Best wishes and many Blessings!

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  28. Hey there! Stopping by from Bakerella's blog and wanted to say a belated CONGRATS! You picked a good day to get married; I married my husband on August 8th of last year! :-)

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  29. Oh my gosh this is incredible. You did such an amazing job! Congrats on your marriage!

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  30. I just read your story on Bakerella and I was in tears! How sweet is that! I am a new fan of your blog and I sure will be following your posts.

    Sophy

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  31. Wow that just show how in love you are! If you put that much effort into cookie, I can only imagine how much you're going to put forth into marriage. I loved the video on Bakerella's site. Best wishes for an incredible adventure!

    <3 MommyB Knows Best

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  32. You're incredible Melissa! All the best! <3 With love, Cherie from Singapore!

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  33. i saw the proposal on bakerella, and thought it was so sweet, and i'm so happy for you guys (even though i don't know y'all)! your cookies are incredible, and the fact that you could get that done a week before your wedding is... amazing? shocking? fantastic? all of the above! congratulations, and i hope y'all have your happily ever after. :)

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  34. Congrats! Enjoy yr marriage and honeymoon. I do envy u in making all those cookies, OMG! You really have the patience.

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  35. Mazel tov!! Those cookies and dedication are amazing, well done.

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  36. Came over here from Bakerella's site—I just had to tell you how envious I am of your piping handwriting! Your cookies look gorgeous. Many many congratulations and blessings for the future : )

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  37. This is amazing! The cookies are sooo cute and what a courage to do all this a week before your wedding!
    Congratulations and all the best to you both!

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  38. These are adorable! Congratulations to both of you!

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  39. These cookies are awesome. I love your wedding dress, too! :) Congratulations and best wishes.

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  40. Congrats! You are one amazing bride!

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  41. Great job! I did 500 painted cookies for a friend's wedding so I understand about turning the apt into a bakery.
    Congratulations!

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  42. To undertake such a task days before the big one you must be barking mad!!!!!!!! Thank goodness then that you are also genius, talented, amazing, artistic, awesome, inspiring, etc etc. You look lovely and I am now a loyal follower. xxx

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  43. Omgoodness.....must've taken you ages! I think I'll cry from icing and writing too much! Kudos to you! And congrats on the wedding! Many happy years of blissful marriage ahead! :D

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  44. i've read about your engagement and wedding at Bakerella's site and OMG i was so fascinated about everything. I'm a huge fan of people falling in love and ending up together. And I'm a huge fan of great bakers as well... I love how you made your way to baking and flooding all those cookies. Well, I wish you both marriage bliss and lotsa kids.

    congratulations and best wishes!
    Joanna, Philippines

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  45. Congratulations on your wedding and on the feat of making, decorating and bagging this many cookies.

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  46. one word. wow! (and congratulations too :D)

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  47. What a labor of love! I read your story on Bakerella, I've just started to decorate cookies and I'm subscribing to your great cookie blog. Congratulations, long and happy life together!

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  48. Now that's organised! And such beautiful biscuits - I'd have about 10 looking like that and the rest would be a little random!
    Congratulations

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  49. Wow! You deserve a well earned Honeymoon! Congrats!

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  50. You did an awesome job on these, they look so pretty!!! You looked amazing and so in love. It was the picture perfect wedding. I wish both of you the very best! :)

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  51. That is devotion. They, and you, look gorgeous and I'm sure everyone was amazed

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  52. woooooooooooooooooow
    Very Nice

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  53. Congratulations, and what an absolutely amazing job you did on these! Ideas like these make me want to get married all over again!

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  54. Thank you for sharing your wonderful idea and the recipes...I have yet to find a royal icing recipe I REALLY love, and this one sounds like a winner!! Congrats on the wedding and kudos for the cookie seating idea!!

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  55. Oh my goodness! I was thought I was crazy last year when I made close to 200 large cookies for a friends wedding! Yikes! You hand personalized all yours! AMAZING and BEAUTIFUL!! Congratulations and best wishes to you and your future together! Best success in your sweet treat blog as well!

    Angela Barton
    www.angelabartonscakes.blogspot.com

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  56. Just saw Bakerella's post about your wedding and these amazing cookies! Congratulations on your wedding and on completing such an ambitious baking feat the week before your wedding!

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  57. OMG.......................i'm speachless..............

    congratulations.................and again.....wow

    those cookies are amazing !

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  58. I am in awe of not only ALL the gorgeous cookies you made and decorated but also of your beautiful wedding (I saw the video on Bakerella's site)....simply precious. Congratulations!!!!

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  59. Wonderful!!! Congratulation :) Looks like a lovely wedding.

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  60. sooo amazing! i found you thru bakerella! loved the way your hubby proposed!!!!!! happy wedding day and best wishes!!! xo

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  61. The song is called "Be My Only" by Schuyler Fisk and Tim Myers

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  62. Congratulations! You're lucky to have Bakerella as a friend :)

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  63. Followed the link from Bakerella and am totally amazed at the work you did DAYS before you got married!!! Beautiful! Congratulations!!! May you have a sweet life together.

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  64. Just found you through Bakerella. Well done. You are nothing short of amazing to pull this off so close to the date. Bravo!

    Christene @ Whipperberry.com

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  65. Hello! Omigosh you are wonderwoman to get all those cookies baked, decorated and packaged up days before your wedding! I found you via Bakerella and am happy I did! I think I might want to do this same exact thing for my wedding next March. hehe. Thanks for the inspiration. I'll be following you. :O)

    ~ www.billiemonster.com ~

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  66. I read your update on the wedding from Bakerella. Beautiful work Melissa! I bet no one wanted to eat them they were so pretty! I'm definitely trying your sugar cookie recipe too. Best wishes on a long and "sweet" life with Rich!

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  67. I just saw the wedding video thru Bakerella. Amazing. The part where your veil comes down and you have a tear in your eyes. Beautiful. Wishing you years of love and laughter.

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  68. This was amazing and something the guests will talk about for years! Of course...if I was a family member..I think I would expect a cookie in the mail as a baby announcement instead of the normal announcements (whenever the time comes of course..since I don't know you I just have to assume you will have a kid or two or...let's stop at 2) (and forgive me..I have babies on the brain. haha)

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  69. Now..that is dedication! Amazing and congratulations :)

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  70. What an incredible job! I am jealous of your ambition! How exactly do you flood the cookies? Sorry, have never heard that before.

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  71. That's a crazy undertaking the week before your wedding! You are a cookie champ :)

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  72. that is A-mazing.. i don't know how you did it! 1..7..5.. !!

    congrats on your wedding :)

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  73. Congrats on getting married and congrats on having the most amazing place cards EVER! Great idea!

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  74. wow now that is impressive. congrats on the marriage!!!

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  75. Adorable cookies! Beautiful couple, too! Best wishes!

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  76. Wow, what a large undertaking days before your wedding. This is a great idea, so thoughtful for all your guests! The cookies look fabulous! Congratulations on your wedding!

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  77. AMAZING! They're beautiful and I love your lettering! Wow, as if the week before your wedding wasn't crazy enough:)
    I also made 175 wedding cake cookies for my niece the day before her wedding, when we returned from a Hawaii vacation! Yikes!

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  78. Hi Mel:
    They are A BEAUTY!!! you did a great job with your cookie...really amazing detail for your guests....congrats for your wedding!!! I'm from Mazatlan Sinaloa in México...and love your blog..I saw it in bakerella's...thanks a lot for all your great ideas...I also like a lot to bake and do some sweet stuff, hope to show you some day....:)
    Have a nice day..
    Consuelo..:)

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  79. Wow how spectacularly ambitious! They turned out gorgeous. Well done - I'm fretting over PTA bake sales, you are an inspiration ;o)

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  80. Came to your site from Bakerella where your engagement post originally made me cry. So impressed with your cookies! My mom baked little chocolate chip cookies as favors for my guests but you girl out did yourself. I have to say though, my favorite part of the pictures is your HAIR! You looked beautiful and your stylist did a fab job on the do!

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  81. What a great idea! I am a Bakerella fan, and LOVED your proposal! I cried. Literally. What a great way to do table numbers! Congratulations. You are a stunning bride!

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  82. Wow, what a wonderful idea and holy cow you did a lot of work! They turned out so cute! I am super impressed and congrats on your wedding! I am a Bakerella fan and I loved your proposal! I am happy that the two of you are doing great!

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  83. Just watched your video on Bakerella - absolutely beautiful! Congrats on your wedding! And those cookies? How'd you ever find the time?! They look delicious and gorgeous! Best of luck!

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  84. Congratulations you guys!! Melissa, you look lovely in your wedding dress! :) But, truly, you are a modern hero, to take on so many cookies!!! Kudos! And here's sending you prayers and best wishes for a happy married life!

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  85. Wow!! That sure is one ambitious adventure!! You look beautiful :)

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  86. I saw the proposal and now the update on Bakerella's blog. I have never met either of you, but your video brought me to tears! Congrats and best wishes on a long and happy life together.

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  87. I love it... so adorable!! The night before my wedding I was making meringue kisses for favors, totally share the craziness. Now my sis just got engaged, your cookies are an adorable idea & I love making cookies!!

    Congratulations you were a beautiful bride!

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  88. Just beautiful, congratulations on becoming a married couple!!

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  89. W-O-W!!!! those are amazing cookies. i'm actually looking for a good sugar cookie recipe and yours looks great, thanks for the link, i'll definitely have to try it out!

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  90. Found you from Bakerella, and I just wanted to commend you on your hard work! And congrats on your marriage! I wish you all the happiness in the world :)

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  91. Incredible! They look wonderful and so do you!

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  92. Fantastic!!! Your cookies are amazing and so are you! Wedding and decorating! Wow!!

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  93. These are fantastic! I would love it if you would be interested in guest blogging on my wedding blog. If you're interested, please send me an email at brideonbudget (at) gmail (dot) com

    http://brideonbudget.blogspot.com

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  94. mrs gardos best wishes on your marriage!i love ur blog and your incredible ideas!just so u know this is shelly from brownridge!

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  95. Did you make your own powered icing sugar?

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  96. This is just beautiful card you have shared...do you used plastic card printing for it.

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