Our featured bouquet this week is a timeless hand-tied arrangement of light pink peonies, Esperance roses, Sweet Escimo roses, and light pink spray roses.  The stems were wrapped with ivory ribbon and a pearl finish.  Approximate price would be $135-$155.

The outdoor wedding reception and party season is here, and that means afternoons looking for something cool.  We recently found the coolest of all somethings--an ice cream sundae bar!  Featuring homemade ice cream and hand made waffle cone bowls (colored to match your wedding or event), Kaliedo Kone Creamery serves up delicious and cool treats to your guests.  We recently had a chance to sample some of their ice cream, and it was very good.  If the ice cream and waffle cone bowls aren't enough, your guests can add one or all of a dozen toppings to their sundae.  Yum!

Shown below is Kaliedo Kone's toppings bar, featuring chopped peanuts, sprinkles, hot fudge, butterscotch, cherries and more!  Click the photo for a larger view.  Their services also include an ice cream cart and uniformed staff member to scoop the ice cream.

You can contact Kaliedo Kone Creamery at 724-368-3119, or kaliedokone@earthlink.net.

Birchcraft Studios has recently added a larg selection of wedding accessories to our website at http://www.yourinvitationplace.com/bloomeryweddings.  These accessories include place cards, napkins, matchbooks and notepads.  All of these are available in a number of styles and ink choices to complement your wedding colors and invitations. 

Birchcraft recommends ordering your invitations first, and then adding accessories to your order.  If you have already ordered your invitations, no big deal--you can still easily order these accessories online.  And, whether you're ordering matchbooks or napkins or any other accessories, you'll receive a 20% discount when you order through our website at http://www.yourinvitationplace.com/bloomeryweddings.

The California Cut Flower Commission has added a new Seasonal Availability Database to their website.  You can check the availability of flowers by searching the flower's name, or you can select a month and see what's commercially available.  Clicking on the flower's name brings up a photo of that flower, the flower's meaning, and a chart of which months that flower is in season.

This database is for California grown flowers only.  The South American, African, Dutch or Anzac markets may have different availabilities, and flowers which are out of season in California may be in season from other areas.  It's good to work with a florist who is familiar with worldwide availability if you're looking for a very special flower.

A recent article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette talked about tacky behavior in public.  The lead-in talked about stolen wedding cookies:

Heather Vaill had 1,500 of her mother's most delectable homemade cookies set out at her wedding reception several years ago.

"Thumbprints, pizzelles, ladylocks -- all the good stuff," she recalls.

Even with more than 200 guests, the bride still was surprised the sweet treats went so quickly.

"I was disappointed when [a few hours into the reception] I went to get a cookie -- one stinking cookie -- and the trays held nothing but crumbs," says Ms. Vaill, 36, of Plum.

She later learned a cousin had brought Tupperware containers to the reception and absconded with a sizable amount of her wedding cookies.

"A few months later, this same tacky cousin served the cookies she stole at her mother's wedding reception!"

Oh my!  Read the full story at http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07121/782297-51.stm.  The expert interviewed founded a website full of more:

Jeanne Hamilton, who catalogs thousands of tacky tales spanning the depth and breadth of human rudeness on her Web site, www.etiquettehell.com, says America's self-centered, me, me, me culture is to blame for the erosion of class.

EtiquetteHell.com is both hilarious and depressing, with years of stories about weddings and everyday events.  Both ways, there's plenty to read.

If you're a cake lover, May is going to be a very sweet month for you!  Both Warren Brown, owner of CakeLove and host of Food Network's "Sugar Rush", and Duff Goldman, owner of Charm City Cakes and profiled in Food Network's "Ace of Cakes" series, are both coming to Pittsburgh.

[Warren Brown] will bring his cake-making prowess to Pittsburgh on May 5, appearing at Ross Park Mall as part of Simon SuperChefs Live!, a tour billed as a "daylong celebration of food."

Hosted by Marc Silverstein of the Food Network, the event from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. also will feature local chefs in a cooking competition, cooking demonstrations, food and beverage sampling, autographs and cookbook sales. Admission is free.

Mr. Brown will stir it up with demonstrations of how to make buttercream (around 1 p.m.) and vanilla cake batter (around 3 p.m.), extolling the crowd to extinguish any fear of baking from scratch.

Full story at http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07116/780978-34.stm.

Coming to the Pittsburgh area for public appearances in May is another maker of cakes -- actually, the "Ace of Cakes" from that Food Network show, Duff Goldman.

..

Check out Duff Goldman at one of his Giant Eagle Market District store appearances on May 19:

* 10 a.m. to noon at Shadyside (5550 Centre Ave.)
* 2 to 4 p.m. at Bethel Park (South Hills Village Square Mall).

Full story at http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07116/780948-34.stm.

We weren't part of this wedding, but it did happen practically in our back yard:

(KDKA) CHERRY TWP. A Butler County man is behind bars after becoming a real-life wedding crasher at his own daughter's wedding over the weekend.

Police say Thomas Gulish became intoxicated and irate after seeing underage drinking happening at his daughter's wedding reception Saturday in Cherry Township, Butler County.

After throwing a chair at his wife and striking her daughter, he then jumped into his pickup truck and drove the vehicle directly into the wedding tent.

Fortunately, no one was injured.  Full story at http://kdka.com/topstories/local_story_114232702.html.

Dear Polly,

Thank you for the wonderful job you did on our wedding flowers.  Everything looked beautiful!  It was such a pleasure to just tell you what we wanted--then have everything show up & be perfect.  Your work enhanced the beauty of our day!

Thanks!

L. & T. N.