Ft. Wayne, Indiana Mashed Potato Bar

My cousin Kelly got married this weekend to an awesome awesome girl, Fabiana, and the wedding was nothing less than amazing. We are all so very excited for them, and so happy to have Fabi in our family. It got me thinking about wedding planning. I've decide to "broadcast" the best piece of wedding planning advice that I have: Make your wedding your own.

James and I had the exact wedding that we wanted, and it was very "us". We had lots of little fun, unique ideas that represented our personalities, and were able to incorporate them into our wedding, even if they posed challenges or costly. We had a very Do-It-Yourself wedding that was less than "traditional" so to speak.

Baldwin Family Photo at Shields wedding

One of the amazing things about Kelly and Fabi's wedding was they took a very traditional wedding (ceremony in church, reception at Country Club), and added fun unique twists to make it true to them:

A) The ceremony was in two languages. Fabi is from Brazil and her family doesn't speak English. They had one of the readings said in Portuguese and had it printed in English in the program. They also had the priest do a short second homily in Portuguese (he did so awesome!). And finally, as a surprise to everyone, even the wedding planner, they said their vows in both languages. It was so touching and thoughtful.

B) Their entrance to the reception was one of the best I have seen (aside from ours, of course): Kelly and Fabi and their wedding party marched down the 18th fairway of the golf course behind an Irish bagpiper and drummer while everyone was watching on the balcony over-looking the hole. It was AWESOME. We have a hard-core Irish family and it was such a cool way to incorporate some of our culture and heritage.

C) The Guestbook: they had a "Faux-tographer" open-photo booth where guests went in groups for pictures by a mannequin holding a camera in front of a back-drop. Then the pictures printed out on a custom sleeve of 4 in two copies within like 2 minutes: one was for you to keep, and one was to put into their "guest book" with a note you wrote to them.

These were two of the shots we did

This is the mannequin that took the pictures. Camera was on timer where you pushed button to start and then it took 4 pictures.

For anyone looking to do this, it was so cool. They used www.iduweddings.com. P.S. if you have had a few adult beverages, you might think the mannequin was a real person at first. Not me, of course, but someone. But not me.

D) Glow sticks! So random, but so much fun. My cousin Timmy, the groom's brother, ordered 600, yes, 600, glow-sticks. Once the party got going and people were dancing, the glow sticks flowed and it was so cool. People were making them into head-bands, wrist bands, putting them in their belt buckles, you name it. Then, when they made their exit, everyone held up the glow sticks for them to walk under and it looked so cool.

E) Mashed Potato Bar! (See below)

I could go on and on about the little things they did. Kelly had belt buckles made as his groomsman gift that was personalized to each guy (Timmy's said "Bestman", his dad's said "Wingman", etc.) and they all wore them with their tuxes. So many little details!

There is a food-ending to this story: Mashed Potato Bar. This is a great idea for a party or group gathering at your house too. You can serve them in martini or wine glasses to make for a fun presentation.

Cheesy Factor (1 no cheese, 10 all cheese): what is a mashed potato bar without cheese?! Get serious!
Dummy Factor (1 easiest, 10 hardest): 1
Time Factor (1 shortest, 10 longest): could be time consuming if you make all toppings yourself

Mashed Potato Bar
Mashed potatoes
Shredded Cheese
Bacon bits
Chives
Mushroom gravy
Baby shrimp
Sour Cream
Chopped tomatoes

Serve mashed potatoes into bowl, martini glass, or wine glass. Put all chosen toppings into separate containers and allow eaters to make their own, buffet-style.

For the mashed potatoes, you can even buy the bagged/instant ones. Otherwise, peel potatoes, boil until super soft, then blend with milk until creamy and desired consistency. For the bacon bits, obviously cooking your own bacon and crumbling it will taste better, but they make some decent bagged bacon bits that you can find in the salad dressing aisle of the grocery store now. Mushroom gravy can be home-made or store bought as well.

This is just a fun dinner-party meal. Fun for kids too, although I maybe wouldn't serve kids theirs in the martini or wine glasses unless you have floors and furniture made of cushions. I think this is also a cool food idea because you can make it as home-made and complicated as you want, or can go super easy and all store bought for something different.

Dear Parking Lot C Angry-at-Life Shuttle Driver Lady,

Dear LAX Parking Lot C Angry-at-Life Shuttle Driver Lady,

         Thank you so much for helping the foreigner-who-lost-his-car-in-what-he-thought-was-maybe,-perhaps,-could-be-parking-lot C,-but-he's-not-really-sure-it-might-even-be-a-different-lot,-but-you-wouldn't-know-that-because-he-can't-speak-English-guy. That was so very nice of you to take 10 minutes of not only your time, but everyone else's time. We were all so happy to be a part of it.

Also, thank you for taking a 10 minute smoke break in the middle of the shuttle ride. I'm sure no one was in a hurry to make a flight, and you were correct when you yelled that it isn't your fault that no one allowed enough time at the airport, so there was clearly no reason not to!

Finally, thank you for being so courteous and understanding to everyone when cramming 20 people in space for 5 because you decided to pick up someone in a large wheelchair who wanted to go to the bus station, since it was on the way to the airport, even though you told them it wasn't the right bus. We were all hoping that we could hug a bunch of strangers, and since we were already rubbing up against each other with so much space, we were so glad you volunteered the free space to a passerby.

All of this was what made it possible for us to miss our flight Thursday night, and we surely couldn't have done it without you. I was so excited to hang out at the airport for an additional two hours. It was so much fun! It was also because of you that I was able to take two flights instead of one! I love when that happens! Layovers are my favorite.

If there is anything I can do to show you my appreciation for you and your envious work ethic, please let me know.

Abby