You guys, remember my friend Sara’s wedding in Santa Barbara that we went to in the summer? It’s been featured on the wedding blog Style Me Pretty! All the beautiful details that Sara planned for came together with help from their wedding planner Joie de Vivre. And all these lovely photos by Ian Grant make my heart sing. That cake! I still dream about how pretty it was.

I know for a fact that Sara put a lot into making her big day a wonderful experience for us, too, down to the votive candleholder favors made by her dad. Yes, as in MADE, because he’s an actual potter in Hawaii, with a kiln and all. He even made me the cake stand I used in this post, and I only use it for very special occasions.

And, one last story. That beautiful cake in the first photo? Well, that sugar peony on the second tier had had ENOUGH of being ignored off to the side and decided to fall. I was actually walking toward it to take a closer look when it slid down the side of the cake. HORRORS! There was chocolate cake under the frosting, so you could see brown cake through a small gash that the fallen flower had made. I grabbed the closest butter knife and fixed it ever so gingerly, repositioning the flower and working the buttercream in strokes as close to how the cake was originally decorated. I have to say, I didn’t do a bad job retouching! Sara sent me this photo today of me working the buttercream, and it made me laugh. The camera caught my “Gently…gentlyyyyyy…” face.

Congratulations again, Sara! For the beautiful wedding that we’re now re-living through these lovely photos, and for the kick-a** mention on SMP.