Auspicious giglet

I just played a wedding gig - a very, very, VERY short ceremony at our venue, the Fontainebleau! Yep, I got to spy a little bit.

Since the ceremony was in Lawrence Chapel (on the grounds but a short walk away from the Inn) and we weren't hired to do the cocktail hour, I was sad I wouldn't have a chance to see the Inn "in action." But we got there a little early, and I walked around near the chapel to take a few pictures.

Post-ceremony: guests walking from Lawrence Chapel to the Inn.

As it happens, we're not using the chapel for our ceremony - there's no iconography or anything in there, but it's still a little too church-like for us (and probably our rabbi, too!). Our ceremony will be held on the tented patio at the Inn itself. The chapel is beautiful and simple, though, and these pictures give you a little sense of what the grounds feel like. 

The back of the Inn, facing Cayuta Lake. source

Our ceremony will be in the area on the right, but in an enclosed tent.

Here's the front of the chapel and a glimpse of the inside (I felt a little weird taking non-pro pics in there); the couple set out a basket of programs and cute wooden fans... it was SO hot!

There's a beautiful cemetery that belonged to the original owners of the home, the Lawrence family - it dates back about 200 years. At the entrance, I found several patches of wild strawberries!

After the ceremony, we drove past the main building, where I saw Kate from Word of Mouth (our caterers too!) grilling outside. I hopped out of the car to say hi, and she took me in for a quick glance at what the inside looked like "all done up." She also gave me a few tips on centerpieces, since she thought the centerpieces at this wedding were a little too big. Looks like I made a good choice going with the narrower boxes (even though I was just being cheap).  :-D

Tina and Katie: small on web presence, big on talent. source

I can't wait to see the Fontainebleau in the fall, since I've now visited in the three other seasons! I think the trees will be absolutely stunning. As a matter of fact...

The lake view from the Fontainebleau, 53 weeks prior to our wedding!

Have you had a chance to see your venue "in action," or will your wedding day be the first time?

To quote Tessie...

"Oh my goodness oh my goodness oh my goodness!!!!!!!!!!!"

("Pipe down, all of you. 

Do you want Hannigan to hear you?")

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poster source

I just got very excited.

Thanks to Suzanne at RedKite, I was directed to cakecentral.com for ideas and inspiration. I started browsing through their extensive photo gallery and came first upon this:

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Then this:

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And then...

wait for it....

ta dah!!!!!

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Notice anything? Like, that it's almost exactly the same as my inspiration photo... but a smidge different?

That's because the woman who baked these cupcakes got the recipe from Woman's Day magazine - they're from Karen Tack and Alan Richardson's collection of amazing recipes.

I actually looked at Hello Cupcake at a bookstore a few weeks ago and didn't see this recipe - either it's not included in the book, or I missed it in my haste to look through every cupcake book on the shelf. (There were a lot.)

Now for the bad (perhaps just... odd) news. Here are some of the key ingredients. Remember - chocolate cupcakes.

1 stick mint chewing gum

9 green fruit chews (Jolly Rancher)

1 vanilla fruit chew (Tootsie Roll Midgee, AirHeads)

4 red fruit chews (Jolly Rancher)

8 orange fruit chews (Starburst)

Green apple and watermelon AirHeads

Yeah.......... I think I might, um, stay with the original plan. Does your gut - so to speak - tell you anything about this project?

Inside the box

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This centerpiece inspiration from The Knot was similar to the cupcake decorations in that oh-my-goodness-how-could-my-wedding-exist-without-this? kind of way. Like the cupcake-veggies, I have searched high and low for shallow wood boxes like the inspiration photo. (The father and the groom of that bride made the boxes from scratch - lucky girl!) I love how understated they are, with the lantern giving it a little bit of height. I was thinking about 12"x12" would be great, though I don't really care if it's perfectly square, and I'll put 3 jelly jar votives on each table. The chalkboard table "numbers" will either lean on the corner of the box or get some height with a small dowel rod - I'm thinking that might be better, since the centerpieces are so low. I just don't want to commit the age-old sin of blocking guests' views of each other... I was at a wedding recently at which guests were taking the stunning but giant centerpieces off the tables! No, they weren't as big as this:

No thanks!  Source

One of the first promising finds I found (through Elizabeth Anne Designs!) was this BJURON "plant pot" from Ikea. The wood is pretty, and it has a galvanized bottom that makes it great for... well... plants. But it's taller and deeper than the inspiration, and the dimension options are approximately 6" x 6", 8" x 8", or 9.5" x 5". If it were either shallower *or* bigger, I might be happy with it, but it's just not the right feel.

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Then I found several things like this terra cotta plate. Terra cotta is also great for live plants, so they had that going for them. The color, though, could be kind of obtrusive with the purple/dark red/teal color scheme. I thought about painting them, but since they still were neither the shape nor the material I wanted, I kept looking.

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In my head, I had already ruled out Jamali Garden because of price or shipping distance, but it turns out I was totally wrong. Not only do they ship from NYC (4 hours from me - not too bad), their prices are actually pretty reasonable, especially for these wood trays that can be re-used by us and by guests. The wood is less distressed than I would have liked, but I think that makes them more usable in the future.

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I decided against the version that actually is 12" x 12" (my hoped-for dimensions - this one is 11" x 8") and has a galvanized liner, because it's twice as expensive. I know this choice limits my options as far as what to fill the tray with, but honestly, I'm sort of glad not to have to worry about growing stuff for the centerpieces given my black thumb. I'll fill them with different varieties of moss that comes pre-packaged, and that can all be assembled the week before the wedding. I'll probably stick a few flowers in there for color (with a little foam), some rocks, and/or a few pieces of fruit or veggies. When I'm home from my travels next month, I hope the trays will have arrived so I can do some mock-ups. 

What do you think? Any other ideas for low-maintenance, rustic fill, or for a way to create some textural variety with different mosses/similar materials? 

These are the lanterns I purchased from eBay seller K&R Gifts. I was thrilled with how meticulously they were packaged and how quickly they arrived, in perfect condition. I decided against the teal version because, even though it's so pretty and is in our color scheme, I thought the light from these would be a little nicer. I might buy a few of the teal ones to hang from shepherd's hooks near the ceremony tent.

I also purchased long-lasting, cleaner-burning soy tealights from Etsy seller Worthy Soy Candles (who only lives 80 minutes from me!), although I'm still thinking about going with LED votives for safety reasons. The candles are SO great and burn for such a long time that I'd be more than happy to have 100 for personal use were I to go with the LEDs.

Have you "cheated" on any of your original grand plans by taking an easier route? Do you deem yourself guilty or not guilty? (For the record, I plead not guilty. Anything that makes it easier/lower-maintenance but equally attractive is legal in my book!)

Beet it

After I wrote about the cake decoration issue the other day, I was inundated with responses to my Alchemy bid. OK, not inundated, maybe, but I did get at least eight responses. I thought that was pretty awesome!

The two that piqued my interest the most were wonderworks and BCDGifts. wonderworks' shop is all polymer clay miniatures that are colorful, detailed, and adorable. She wrote and said she could make the veggies I want out of gumpaste, which I know would be easy to mail, take color well, and last a few days without compromising its [somewhat marginal because gumpaste just is] taste. She assured me she could imitate with gumpaste anything she does with clay.

Adorable, right? The detail is amazing. source

BCDGifts' shop, on the other hand, is part crafts and part food. Most of the food work she does is chocolate, both milk/dark (normal brown color) and dyed white (bright colors). These would also last several days without worrying about taste, and it'll be cooler so we likely won't have to worry about melting.

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I'm not sure, though, which will complement Grandpa's beet cake more successfully. Even though I am a chocolate fiend and would certainly love the taste of it more, I wonder whether it would be overkill atop a beet cake cupcake. However, why should I compromise the taste?

Should I spend money to order samples from both sellers, or do you have an experience with either of these materials that would help me decide? Or since I'm sure some of you have already made the recipe :-) ...which do you think would taste better with beet cake?

Is it because I ate too close to bedtime?

Last night I dreamed that it was the day before the wedding and I hadn't chosen the music. For me, this qualifies as a nightmare. The (now) funniest part of it is that one of my bridesmaids, Gabby, was trying to convince me to use all sorts of music that was completely the opposite of what I want, and would have made Tim barf.

Not exactly what Gabby was suggesting, but close.

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I'll (grudgingly) admit it: we're music snobs. I'm terrified of the music I choose for our wedding saying something about me that isn't accurate. As performers, we both play a lot of new music, but I don't want to alienate our guests by choosing music that's hard to understand/enjoy on a first listening.* Tim, on the other hand, couldn't care less about alienating people... he thinks it would be funny. In fact, it's a running joke--rooted in reality, I'm afraid to say--that he wants our friend James to play at the wedding.

I adore James, and the theremin is awesome. However.

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It's the understatement of the century to say that we're incredibly lucky to have the Jupiter Quartet playing in our wedding. I mentioned Meg & Dan recently - they are a badass violinist and cellist, respectively, who play in one of the best young professional string quartets in the world. The violist is Meg's sister and my close friend Liz, and the first violinist is our good friend Nelson. The personal dynamic of the group is amazing. Playing in a quartet is often likened to being married to three other people (legally!), and somehow they make it work with one pair actually married to each other and another pair being siblings and best friends. Not only do they make it work (Tim Gunn-style) - they sound phenomenal.

They don't look bad, either. Here are the Jupiters caught in a rare moment of seriousness, though it does appear they're on the verge of laughter. source They usually look more like this.

The Quartet has an extremely demanding international tour schedule. As it happens, they're also playing at our very good friend Rebecca's wedding in September, and she went so far as to plan her wedding date around their schedule. I didn't think that far ahead! But I was on pins and needles while they waited to hear from their manager whether they'd be out of town for our wedding. I was ecstatic when I ran into them last month and they told me it was all good!

Some of the composers I've considered so far are Bartok, Britten, Debussy, Ives, and Ravel. I love their music and they all have string quartets, but I'm not sure it's appropriate for a wedding - even one with a less-than-traditional bride and groom.

What makes this less than traditional is that sadly, before our engagement pictures, almost all our photos together looked like this.

Do the two of you have differences in opinion over what music is appropriate for your wedding? Are you as petrified as I am about making the wrong choice?

*This kind of music is my favorite because it's thought-provoking and often (I hope) makes people want to hear it again, but guests at the wedding might not be inclined to take their program home and go buy a CD!

Cake quandary

Even before the market theme came to fruition (holy crap! I didn't even realize it was a pun until I proofread), one of my favorite ideas was to use my grandpa's chocolate beet cake recipe for our wedding cake.

That's right, everyone. Beets. I read somewhere that your wedding cake should be the best cake you've ever eaten, and this cake* takes the... well, you know. My grandpa has been making it for as long as I can remember, and it's the stuff of legend. And many a weekend breakfast at our family's house, I'm embarrassed to say.

I gave the recipe to our caterer soon after we booked them, because I mentioned it at our first meeting and they were very intrigued. They were even more excited when they found out it uses canned beets rather than fresh ones, significantly lowering the mess factor. My first thought was to make mini bundt cakes - my grandpa always makes the cake in a bundt pan. 

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But my life changed - seriously - when I found a certain picture, whose source I cannot find for the LIFE of me. I have become obsessed. 

With some brides, it's the Badgley Mischka dress. Others, the perfect pink peony. But me? For me, it's all about chocolate and mini shovels:

Is that not THE most perfect thing you could imagine for this wedding? I want to lick the screen every time I look at the picture.

 I really do have that impulse. What kind of deficiency is that?

A few things are complicating my mission, though. Our caterers are understandably wary of doing the vegetables because they'd be a totally time-consuming labor of love. I'd be happy to find another baker to do it, but there aren't that many options around here: one only decorates with fresh flowers, one is horrendously expensive, several won't use a family recipe - you get the picture. 

I wrote to Keavy from the fabulous Kumquat Cupcakery in Brooklyn, and she said she'd be happy to do it (and I think she'd do an amazing job), but with that option, one of our friends would have to drive them all the way from NYC. Stressful for everyone involved. I'm thinking of branching out to bakers in the Syracuse, Binghamton, and Rochester areas, but what I'd really like to do is have our caterers make the cupcakes or mini bundts and have someone else make the veggies - it would be so much less expensive! (I've looked online to purchase them, but the only things I can find are made of marzipan, which isn't my favorite.) I posted an Etsy Alchemy request and hope to hear something soon. Etsy don't fail me now...

Keavy's gorgeous creations. source

How far should I take this before I give up on it? Do you have one inspiration photo you've found, or one idea you've had, that you just can't let go of?

*Not my grandpa's recipe... that just wouldn't be fair. But it's close.

Grandparentage

My dad's mom, or "Gram," as my brother and I called her, passed away when I was 21. We had always been very close, and I went to visit her in San Diego every year in addition to her treks to the Midwest to see us. I have wonderful memories of my San Diego vacations and of my time with Gram, and it was really, really hard for me when she died - especially because I was just finishing the school year and couldn't be out in CA with my parents.

One of our yearly San Diego adventures - the  San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park! source

She and I had a lot in common - loves of reading, arguing, politics, Brahms, and Scrabble. Ohhhh the Scrabble games - she taught me a lot about strategy and two-letter words. I never got to meet Gramps, who died before I was born, but Gram and her later-life companion, Ernie, played VERY competitive Scrabble every night. In fact, sometimes they went to Elderhostels that were actually Scrabble tournaments! After she died - Ernie had died several years earlier - I inherited their well-worn Scrabble board and dictionary. In the Scrabble dictionary was a letter from Ernie that began "My Love" and proceeded to describe one of the tournaments in detail. It's simultaneously hilarious, adorable, and poignant - I still look at it sometimes.

Gram's favorite game - here are some of her most-used words.

One thing I loved about Gram (and admittedly resented sometimes) was her love of winning, and she wasn't about to let her granddaughter off the hook when playing Scrabble together. I vividly remember the only time I ever beat her - we were sitting at her dining room table, eating her favorite Trader Joe's blue corn chips and silently surveying the board. When I realized I was about to win, I got a little nervous that she was going to be mad. Well......... she might not have been mad per se, but we did have a pretty quiet evening after that!

I mentioned my idea of using French beaded flowers to incorporate my mom's mom's memory (Grandma) into the wedding; Grandpa (94 and still working 2 days a week) also recently gave me Grandma's beautiful ring to use as my wedding band. But I was struggling with a creative idea for Gram - I have her beautiful star opal/yellow gold engagement ring, but I already wear that a lot. Then I was reading this post from Offbeat Bride, and I thought, "Of course! I've seen these all over Etsy!"

sources: pendant 1, pendant 2

These charms are made from Scrabble tiles, and most sellers will work with you to incorporate your own picture. The photo side of the charm is covered with a sturdy, shiny resin. I think I'd like at least one of them - maybe a picture of Gram & Gramps, or separate pictures - to hang from my bouquet. I hope I can request specific letters so I can get her initials!

bouquet charm source

I know that some details like this will go unnoticed by most people, and that's why I love it: having that little secret makes me feel like my grandparents are there for me on our wedding day. Gram would have loved Tim, and it's always made me sad that they were never able to meet. This is a way for her to be there with the two of us... without Tim having to play Scrabble, which he hates. :-)

What creative and meaningful ways have you chosen to incorporate absent family & friends?

Looking for a sign

Our venue is way off the beaten path. Since most guests are coming from out of town (and many of the in-town guests haven't been there), some will be coming in shuttles and others will be driving rental cars. Getting there is fairly straightforward, but it's always good to have a little reinforcement. And the last time I drove out there, I discovered that I didn't get cell phone service for the last mile of the drive from Ithaca. Hmm...

So I'd like to greet our guests with rustic wood signs, kind of like these from the now-Mrs. Penguin of Weddingbee:

Should ours say Cathy + Mark, too?

I'm also interested in finding some vintage or vintage-looking "farmers' market" signs to put around the buffet tables and make our theme a little clearer:

source - looky what came up when I googled "farmers' market sign!"

Here's the problem: I'm totally fighting myself over the cuteness of the theme and Tim's and my aversion to all things cutesy. All right, that's a blatant lie. But I want our wedding to be special and sweet and unique, not cute.

This is SO up Tim's alley! (It might even be a little much for me...)

So I think I'll try my hand at some of the name/direction signs. What do you think about having one that says "T & W's farmers' market" or "T & W's market" near the food? Overboard? Help!

And while I'm here... how much of your wedding's "aesthetic" is yours, and how much is your S.O's? If s/he doesn't really care about creative input, are you taking tastes into consideration, or are you going with things *you* like?

glug glug glug

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A few weeks ago, when I was visiting my parents in Milwaukee, I was awakened by a crazy Midwestern thunderstorm that was so loud I couldn't fall back asleep. So I did what any normal woman would do at 7:17 a.m. in her pajamas. I went shopping!

I checked out the online registry for Gillian and Mike, high school friends who were getting married that weekend (hence the Milwaukee trip), and bought two things from their Williams-Sonoma registry. They live in Brooklyn and don't have a huge kitchen, and I know they're worried they won't be able to fit their gifts in the house. Since I was late in getting to the registry, though, I wasn't left with a lot of options. I have a feeling my bundt pan and pastry decorating set might not get much use for a few years yet.

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The other gift I bought is for Meg and Dan, who got married in May. Of.... um.... 2007. Oops. Tim and I couldn't go to their wedding because we had a concert in Rome the same weekend, and I was really bummed. I mean, obviously I was beyond thrilled to get a paid trip to Rome with my man, but I was honestly torn when I found out it was the same weekend as the wedding. I've been friends with them since college and also went to grad school with them, and they're really some of my favorite people. They were also around when Tim and I first started dating, and they put up with my whining about this annoying guy who kept taking the train to Boston just to see me. And they put up with me when I admitted I actually liked him.

For over a year I had been guiltily reminding myself that I owed them a wedding present. They are some of the most generous friends around, and I feel like such a tool that I kept putting it off... but the year was really tough with the move and so much traveling, and whenever I had a spare bit of money, it disappeared all too quickly. But living with my parents for a week left me with a little leftover cash, and Meg & Dan's present immediately came to mind.

They actually didn't register for gifts, opting to ask for donations to several charitable causes. I made a small donation in their honor but still wanted to get them something tangible, and I found the *perfect* thing (which I unfortunately couldn't help telling them about EIGHT MONTHS AGO): the gurgle pot!

Make sure your sound is on when you click this! source

Oh yes indeed, I'll admit it: this is one of those gifts I would love for myself. In a similar vein, Tim and I gave our friends Brian and Molly a gift certificate to Blik for their wedding this past winter.

One of Blik's freakin' awesome designs. Oh Blik, how I yearn to affix you to my paper-white walls...

Yup, we're that "quirky, artsy" couple who likes to stray from the registry. I'm convinced that Blik is one of the awesomest things ever and would TOTALLY buy some for our house if I had 60 extra bucks. The gurgle pot, though, strikes me as a true necessity. It's random enough that hipsters would love it, but it's also similar enough to this that even a Boston society girl might display it in her china cabinet.

What do you think? Do you strictly purchase gifts from friends' registries, or do you buy something more unique if you know the couple better?

Not a ringing endorsement.

The other day we took a trip to the Big Mall because Tim's hard drive conked out. Luckily, he had everything except iTunes backed up, but it still meant 2+ hours of driving and a sorely tempting trip to the mall for a shallow-pocketed shopaholic (that would be me).

Of course, I'm remarkably good at finding things to do in a mall even when I don't have money to spend. Some people call this window shopping - I prefer "simulated buying" (like filling up online "shopping carts" and closing Safari before I get my wallet out).

That's not me, though I know the exposed midriff had you confused. source

While we waited for his computer, I had the brilliant idea of stopping by a jeweler to check his ring size and suss out what a good width might be. Since my ring is handmade and pretty unique, I'd like to find something for Tim that's equally offbeat (Etsy to the rescue, yet again!), and we're not likely to find that at this mall. Still, since there's no shortage of jewelers at the Carousel Center, I figured we should just find one that didn't look too busy and have him try on a few rings.

We went into a chain jewelry store that didn't have any customers at the moment, and I told the woman outright that we were having a ring custom-made and that he just wanted to try on a few for reference. I realize this might seem really obnoxious, but she wasn't busy (it was a weekday afternoon), and if it were me, I'd rather know from the get-go that the customer wasn't planning to buy. Tim put on about 8 different rings and had the same range of responses to the widths of all of them: "........................." or [shrug] or :::sideways glance at me:::. Not exactly helpful. I kept prodding, saying things like, "Well, you could get

that width but not as bulky," and "Which fit feels the best?" just trying to gauge *any* kind of reaction. Nothing. And he and I could both see the saleswoman's annoyance that she wasn't going to make a sale.

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Tim has never worn a ring before, and he's concerned about it fitting badly and feeling weird and/or too heavy. The tricky part is that he wants it to look very irregular and handmade, so it might be hard to find something comfortable that has those characteristics. The rings he likes look like these, but in matte yellow gold and [I would imagine] about 5-6 mm wide:

sources: ring 1, ring 2

I think it would be good to ask the designer (we're honing in on one - more soon) to make the ring as thin as possible, with the inside being polished smooth and the outside texture taking care of making it look "substantial." The woman at the jewelry store warned that anything besides a comfort-fit band would create a callous, which freaked Tim out. Hmm. Now, I have a very, very faint callous from the irregular silver ring I wore for 10 years, and my engagement ring (definitely not comfort fit!) hasn't caused any problems so far. He'll probably have to take his ring off when he plays most of his instruments, anyway, so although it should be comfortable enough to play once in awhile, that's likely not too much of an issue. (N.B.: This resulted in a Wendy-instigated bickering session about how I think he'll leave it in his jeans pocket and put it through the wash.)

Do you have other ideas of how we can find Tim the perfect (not-too-expensive) ring that will satisfy all our criteria? 

To market, to market...

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I've made several references to our farmers' market theme, but I think it's high time I explain how it came to be!

Part 1: Davis, CA and Hong Kong

Tim and I actually set a date for the wedding before we were "officially" engaged. We had talked for a long time about getting married, had some discussions about wedding size and location, and even picked out a ring. After being together for (at that point) almost 6 years, I didn't want a long engagement. 

Also, because Tim is in academia and my work schedule changes so much, it was going to be hard to find a date that worked - and better to schedule it before more things came up. (I know, it's our wedding! but the nature of our work is such that it's really difficult to turn things down.) We both love fall, so that was that (and it worked out with the timeline); the date we chose ended up being the only one that fit into the schedule of my group. I did a bunch of online research, made some calls, went with Tim to visit the Fontainebleau, loved it, put down a deposit, and that was it. One venue visit. Done.

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Soon after that visit to the Fontainebleau, we had the incredible opportunity to go to Hong Kong with the very same ART production we were in after my accident. Tim had the ring sent to Davis, CA, where we had several days of pre-tour rehearsals. 

After a series of classic Tim-and-Wendy mishaps involving 1) his wanting to open the FedEx box in front of me in the hotel room (and leaving the bright-orange-wrapped box atop the TV for two days) and then 2) his taking me to a rose garden that was, uh.... dead, we visited the coolest farmers' market EVER - where he proposed! It was the perfect place, and honestly, the blips made it that much more special. I will reiterate, though, that he stuck the ring on top of the TV for two days. :::shaking head:::

The amazing amazing amazing carousel at the Davis Farmers' Market, right where Tim proposed; the two of us atop Victoria Peak in Hong Kong, two weeks later. Yeah... it was windy. I swear my hair is better than that.

[Above: the un-bling, custom-made by Todd Reed. Tim is pickier than I am when it comes to jewelry, and this designer's work is one of the few we've been able to agree on (and still, not unilaterally!). It's channel-set, multi-colored raw diamonds, with one princess cut stone. Very unique; kind of weird; very much our style. It was really important to me that Tim love the ring too, especially because he insisted on paying for the whole thing.]

Part 2: Back to Ithaca

When we got back from HK, I happened to have a really light week, and my brain was immediately held hostage by all things wedding. I had already contacted Chrissy about my dress, and in a rare [prolonged] moment of decisiveness, I found ALL our major vendors. One of them was Audrey Norberg of Plenty of Posies - she has a very popular stand at the Ithaca Market. I had fleetingly thought about doing my own flowers, but Audrey's prices are so ridiculously reasonable (in addition to her work being gorgeous, of course!) that I couldn't justify the stress of DIY flowers. She also grows all her own flowers unless you have a request for something specific like calla lilies, which I do want for my bouquet. Her farm is local, sustainable, and as organic as is practically possible for her.

Audrey's farm (source); one of her stunning creations (source)

I had already been toying with ideas of using fruit as decoration, things that could be repurposed after the wedding, that sort of thing... and I had a light bulb moment. Ithaca is home to an incredible farmers' market, and we got engaged at an equally amazing one all the way across the country! I'd never been too keen on "theming" the wedding, but this seemed original, a little quirky, and fun to plan. And since I don't want to go overboard with the theme, we can stick with the "rustic elegance" thing and just add a few market-related touches. So - I'm picturing chalkboards aplenty, baskets of fruit with the cupcakes at dessert, and a couple other little things. 

Martha's summery fruit baskets

I'm trying to think of a few more key ways to incorporate the theme in a way that's not too over-the-top. Could you help me out?