Karen Smallbone

On August 23, Richard and I will celebrate our 10th anniversary. Wow, time really flies. I remember the day we got married like it was yesterday. I thought it would be fun to share our wedding day with you.

Richard and I designed our own invitaitons and my best friend Cindy printed them for us. Our colour theme was sage green, yellow and brick red. We used daisies throughout the wedding. We made our invitation in a square shape (which was unheard of at the time) and made square envelopes that folded over and were sealed with a daisy sticker.

We had our ceremony and reception at Rich’s parent’s. They lived out in the country and had lots of land for us to use. We built what we called the “structure” which we were going to use to get married in if it rained. We had our reception in a big tent.

Building the “structure”

Finished “structure”

I wanted to have an arch built out of twigs. Rich and his bestman Rob built this the day before the wedding.

Here are some of the photos from our wedding. We hired Marc Rochette from Reportage. He did a wonderful job. We really wanted the photo journalist style and didn’t want any posed photos. After a while we didn’t even realize they were there taking our pictures. We are big fans of black and white pictures so most of our photos were taken in b&w with a grainy texture.

Here is our cake. I was all about the cake. It was made by Cakewalkers in London. They did an awesome job. I really loved it.

Our favours. White boxes tied with yellow ribbon and a daisy on top. Inside was a miniture version of our wedding cake made with fruit cake (yuck. I’m not a fan of fruitcake, but Rich loves it.) The photos of the mini cakes aren’t great, we took it and this was the only one. Apparently they tasted good. We also had a small white box with 2 truffles inside tied with yellow ribbon and a daisy on the top. And we also gave a small package of daisy seeds.

Emma took this cool picture. Our wedding was right before she left for college to study photography. Too bad we didn’t get married later, we would have loved for Emma to take all of the pictures.

Megan had a fun and original idea for her favours. Instead of filling these cute little tins ahead of time, she decided to let her guests fill them up at the table. She filled a clear round vase full of assorted Jelly Bellys and used it as a centrepiece. The colourful beans added a punch of colour to the all white table. I love this idea! The guests loved it too and I heard that at least one table ate all of the beans!

We designed 5 different coloured labels and added different coloured ribbons to coordinate with the labels. We put everything together for Megan and Levi, but you can purchase all of the elements in our store.

Thanks again to Emma of barebonephoto for these amazing photos.

Congratulations Megan and Levi! It was a pleasure working with you. All the best!

I saw this gorgeous cake plate and thought I would share it with you. It would be lovely to use for a cupcake tower for a wedding or any other special party. It is available online at Bodie and Fou and was designed by Polly George. There is also a teapot that is just beautiful.

On May 13th it was my moms 60th birthday. My sister and I planned a surprise party to celebrate. Our colour theme was green and blue and we also used daisies.

I saw these large pompoms in Martha Stewart Weddings and decided to try to make them. They actually turned out pretty well and were easy to make, unlike some of the projects that are shown there.

Here are the 2 cakes that I made.

We gave out favours in the aqua and apple take out boxes. Inside was very yummy chocolate covered peanut brittle made by Jenny who is a friend from Stratford who has a business making peanut brittle.

Aidan was kind enough to provide the musical entertainment.

Me, my mom and my sister.

Thank you to everyone who helped us make Mom’s birthday a special surprise.

Hope you had a great birthday Mom. I can only hope that I look as good as you do when I turn 60!

Laura asked us to create some custom designed chocolate bar wrappers for her wedding. She wanted to give chocolate bars to her guests as favours but wanted to make them unique by having a wrapper that was fun and whimsical.

Here is what we designed for her.

I think they turned out great and they were fun to design.

Laura was kind enough to send me some photos of her wedding which I must say looks beautiful. I love the combination of pink and orange and I think this looks lovely.


Laura and Tim.

Congratulations Laura and Tim. We hope your wedding was everything you had hoped for. It looked beautiful.

If you were interested in having some chocolate bar wrappers designed for your event, please send us an email.

I love handbags and I love these. Sarah of Sarah and Company makes funky and gorgeous handbags. If I had an unlimited supply of money, I would buy all of the handbags on her site. Here are a few of my favourites.

I met Erika, owner of Petite Parfait, at Brides on Bloor way back in October. She creates the most beautiful couture flower girl dresses. The fabric she uses is gorgeous Silk dupioni and is available in lots of colours. Erika custom makes each dress to the measurements of your flower girl.

I guess it’s a good thing that I don’t have a girl. If I did, she would always be dressed in one of these amazing dresses complete with matching ballet slippers. I’m in love with the contrasting sashes.

Petite Parfait also creates christening gowns, super cute outfits for boys, ring pillows, jewellery and accessories.

If you are looking for a gorgeous dress for your flower girl visit Petite Parfait.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be adding some exciting new products to the shop. I wanted to give you a sneak peak.

I have a new line of Chinese food containers that are very cute, some gorgeous new ribbons, new colours of the Frosted Purses and some super fun Feather Boa bows. I also have a new Candy tube with a silver lid. I will be carrying the Round Clear top Tin in a smaller size and I will be adding a cool new Slider tin. Our Chinese food containers now come in Chocolate (hurray) and the Take out Containers will soon also be available in Chocolate. The Pillow box will now be available in silver and apple green.

If you are interested in any of these items now, please let me know and I can put them up on the site for you.

Frosted Chinese Food Container - Chocolate

Frosted Chinese Food Container - Red

Striped Chinese Food Container - Chocolate & Pink

Striped Chinese Food Container - Lime

Striped Chinese Food Container - Pink

Frosted Purse - Chocolate

Frosted Purse - Lime

Frosted Purse - Red

Round Boxes

Karen Smallbone is featured in the “Fine Online” section of the premier edition of Wedluxe Magazine. Wedluxe is a gorgeous Canadian luxury wedding magazine. It is available in throughout B.C and Alberta. Check out the Wedluxe website.

Helen and Dennis asked us to create a custom wine label to afix to the wine that they were giving to their guests. They wanted a clean look that reflected their tastes. This is what we designed for them. It was a pleasure to work with Helen and Dennis. We wish them all the best. Congratulations!