My Brother's Wedding Cookies.

Welcome!
Thank you for visiting!! This post is very special to me because this is one of the grandest projects I've ever done... AND it was for my brother's wedding *big smiles*

Since this was going to be one of the biggest projects I've done I didn't stress myself over getting a million perfect pictures. I actually got very few process pictures because it was mostly just time consuming. Lots and lots and lots of white. Lol.
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As you will see they were ALL flooded with white first. 
The plan was 3 designs and about 100 cookies. 

I made about 35-36 of each design... or that's how it started... lol

All of these were flooded with white, then the leaf was put on and I piped the flowers with a stiff white icing and hand painted them all with bronze and champagne edible paint. 
I love that bronze SO MUCH it's sooo pretty. 

I love seeing my cookies all packaged up! I don't know why but I just love how they look. 
It just gives me a feeling of satisfaction. 

Oh boy. Next up. This thing lol

This cutter is one of Satan's favorite, I assure you. 
I love how beautiful the cookies came out but they were impossible to handle.
Many many many of them broke and my heart with each one.
After a while I just stopped looking. 
The pedestal piece just needed to be a bit wider... 

This is the part where I split the designs into technically 4 because I remembered I had this scalloped cutter that would compliment the cake cutter perfectly... 
​So I had to... and the Bride approved.
But first, more cake chronicles...

As I stated earlier, process photos were hard to come by with this set but there's a few here and there. I decided to do 2 different cake designs instead of them all just being one design especially since I had 2 circle cutters now...
So we've now increased the designs to.... 5... 

These were all flooded white. Half were decorated with horizontal lines and half I left solid. 
I piped flowers on both, with stiff white icing and hand painted them again with the champagne gold and bronze. The leaves were piped on directly.
Lastly, the ruffles were piped on.

This set gave me A TON of practice with my icing consistencies. I learned so much from doing this set... I know that all my other sets after this one will be improved just from what I learned having to do a set in such volume. Truly thankful for the experience I earned doing these.

*Please note I have ZERO desire to do sets this big EVER. 
I am super happy just doing my small personal sets. 
Once I get up in numbers and the repetiveness of designs I start to seriously hate the work because it's draining and not inspiring or fun... I have no desire to do assembly line work.
I think that's why I had to add different options and designs to this one. 
This set was special enough though that it was an honor to do them and I loved waking up to them as they were being created. I was pretty impressed with myself seeing as I've never done anything on this scale. 

Now swoon over some close ups...

Somewhere along the lines, again, I decided I didn't have enough work to do so I made some more cookies LOL.
I know... 
I was kind of in a love/hate relationship with my pedestal cakes. 
On the one hand, man they are so pretty!!
On the other hand-snap, snap, snap...
Even just trying to put them in bags they were snapping... 
I must have fixed 10 of them before I was like yeahhhhh I'm gonna make extras lol 

This was a bit of uncharted territory because these were NOT what the bride asked for...
BUT... I was not in the business of delivering bad news to brides (ESPECIALLY my brother's soon-to-be wifey....) soooo I decided extra unbroken cookies were better than a disappointing message or phone call a week before the wedding. 

I can't remember now but I think I did an extra dozen total... 6 of each cake. 
I really put myself to work because these cakes are huge but I knew they would hold up as I've used this cutter multiple times and sent them all over the US.
These were decorated the same... flooded white, half with horizontal lines, half without, flowers piped on with stiff white icing and the flowers were hand painted.
The leaves were piped on directly. 

CLOSE UPS!! 

I LOVE THAT BRONZE.
I promise I'm going to use it every chance I get it's so pretty!!


So last but not least, the initial cookies.
I did do these in the proper order at least. I decided to tackle them from most difficult to least difficult and I'm glad I had that forethought.
These were a breeeeeze and the hard work was already done by now...
These were all flooded white, initials piped in white and then hand painted.

I did get a little carried away with some of these but I could barely contain myself with this set y'all don't even know how bad I wanted to add splatters and all kinds of extra flair...
"Simple" isn't really my thing but I held it together for my sister-in-law because honestly they fit her style like a glove... they were perfect... 
Plus with the amount I was doing she was very very gracious to me... She could have requested some CRAZY stuff (I've seen how elaborate weddings can get) so I'm thankful!

I did consider using transfers for the initials (there's no way to make them identical when hand piped) but I think it would have taken me twice as long and caused me twice as much pain so I opted for the "homemade" touch...

Once those were piped and dried I had to go back and hand paint them all as well.
It was late when I finished painting so I don't think I got any pictures until they were bagged.
I did get lots of pictures of them all bagged up though and they are beautiful!!! 

I had so many cookies I really didn't know what the count was until I got them all together to take pictures. I had been sealing them and storing them as I was creating them so it was wild to see them all together at the end. 
I ended up with 115 cookies total and the pic below is what that looks like.

I know there are those crazy amazing people out there that do this on the daily without a sweat but I am not one of those particular crazies...
I admire them greatly but I am not one of them... 
So 115 cookies is a big deal for me. Rare circumstance.

PHOTOSHOOT TIME!

Funny aside about this...
I had so many cookies I couldn't even get the final pictures right lol 
This first set I only had 4...
​I thought something was missing and I was like OH YEAH the leaves!! 

(As I baked, decorated and sealed these I kept an extra of each one in a ziploc for photoshoot time. I just kept forgetting about them LOL.)

So. I took more with the leaves and I still felt like something was off...

Ah indeed the other round cookie with the scallops!! 
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Okay so the full set went from 3 designs to 7 lol
But I loved them and so did the bride so WHO CARES!?
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Just for those who are curious she only asked for the cake with the horizontal lines, the leaf and the round with initials. The rest were my input LOL.
I could not help myself and just so y'all know I was disappointed I didn't DO MORE.

More bagged pictures...

AND AFTER A WEEK OF WORK and an 850 mile drive (WITH THE COOKIES IN THE BACK)
I finally got to see my work on the big day!!!
We get to the tables and there they all are looking fabulous!!
I was so happy to be able to add something sweet to my brother's special day!!

THANK YOU for joining me on this special adventure!
I hope you enjoyed all the pretty pictures!
I wish I would have snapped a few more but I'm glad I have these!!
I hope you all have a beautiful day and I'll see you on the next one!! 
Much Love
Amanda