Do you love weddings? Do you fancy the idea of writing about them? Do you have a passion for small weddings?

Help us spread the small wedding gospel here on Intimate Weddings! We are looking for bloggers to write fresh and snappy content for our blog. If you are full of great ideas, we want to hear them!

Qualifications

• Strong writing skills.
• Creativity.
• Experience with WordPress platform.
• Know how to find images, size them, input them into WordPress and credit them.
• Pinterest account.
• Keen sense of aesthetics.

Interested? Email christina(at)intimateweddings.com with Writer in the subject line.

With Easter just around the corner, I thought I would share some spring table setting ideas that recently caught my fancy.

I love these birds nests and the soft blue color scheme. Learn how to make the marbleized eggs here.

Another adorable way to use birds nests at a table setting.

These DIY doily baskets would be an elegant way to display chocolate eggs on your Easter table.

Leave it to Martha and her crew to come up with these clever bunny napkins.

Or you could wrap your napkins with real jelly beans!

Another way to use jelly beans is to put them in pretty dishes on your dinner table I love the soft peach color scheme of these table setting – and who doesn’t love tulips?

I’d love to be invited to this Easter brunch!

 Make daffodils – out of egg cartons – for a spring table setting.

 Add a spring bunting to hang over your Easter table.

Photo One, Two, Three, Four: Martha Stewart; Photo Five: Delish; Photo Six: NewlyWedWifeLife; Photo Seven: Intimate Weddings; Photo Eight: Etsy

Move over plain ol’ peanut butter cookies – there’s a new cookie in town; the peanut butter and jam cookie. It might just be the star of your cookie table! (Also a superb DIY wedding favor – assuming no one on your guest list has a peanut allergy.)

The peanut butter cookie base for these cookies is the same recipe that I used for peanut butter cookies with peanut butter cups recipe.

These cookies are soft and delicious – the jam (I used homemade raspberry jam)  just puts them over the top.

Recipe and Tutorial for Peanut Butter and Jam Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup peanut butter (I used crunchy peanut butter)
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk
• Raspberry or Strawberry Jam (preferably homemade)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda; set aside.

Cream together the butter, sugar, peanut butter and brown sugar until fluffy.

Place egg, vanilla and milk in a small bowl and dump into peanut butter mixture.

Beat in the egg, vanilla and milk.

Stir in the flour mixture with a wooden spoon.

Shape into 40 balls and place each into an ungreased cookie sheet. (If you want a cookie that is not flat, place the balls into an ungreased muffin tin like these peanut butter cookies. Next time, I make these cookies I will be trying this technique.)

Press thumb into dough ball.

Bake for 10 minutes in 375 degree oven.

If you did not put the dough balls in a muffin tin, you will notice that they flatten out quite a bit and that you will have to press your thumb into the cookies once they come out of the oven.

Fill thumbprints with jam.

Add to your cookie table or wrap as wedding favors.

I love deserted beaches. As an introvert, I prefer just about anything deserted, but beaches especially. I have this crazy love for sea glass and I heard that the North Carolina coast was a hot spot for it (whoever said that lied; I didn’t find a single piece – but we did find some fulgurite would made it all worthwhile!). I convinced my husband and two girls that the Outer Banks would be the perfect spot to vacation for the March Break.

Other families in our neck of the woods were jetting off to the packed, bikini-infested tropical beaches of the Caribbean, Mexico and Florida, which was all the more reason to stray off the beaten path. To us, the thought of mile long lines at Disney, crowded swimming pools, and an obstacles course of sunburned, beer-swilling beach revelers was not our idea of a fun vacation.

Because it was the off-season, we snagged a lovely nautical themed (everything, right down to the lampshades)  beach house in Kitty Hawk for 1/3 of the price it would have been in the spring and summer months. (To be honest, I would rent a place in Duck on my next trip to the Outer Banks. The area doesn’t seem as congested and its an overall nicer area.)

There are countless – and I mean COUNTLESS, vacation homes for rent on the ocean in the OBX. Some of the homes are mammoth – sleeping 20+ people, and would be perfect for an intimate, destination wedding. Why not have all of your guests stay at one place? And if you are on a budget you can get an awesome deal on these vacation homes by renting off-season.

There are plenty of things to do in the Outer Banks – even during the off season. One of the highlights for us was a 4 x 4 tour of Corolla, where we got to see wild horses. The Spanish Mustangs of Corolla have roamed the area freely for 500 years – but vacation homes and packed beaches have reduced the numbers from the thousands to less than 150. Seeing these wild horses roam the beaches is a beautiful experience – especially in the off-season when the beaches are less crowded.  Here are a few photos of some of the horses we saw:

Another highlight was Ocracoke Island. It was an all day excursion from Kitty Hawk to Ocracoke Island, so you might want to factor that in if you want to include this as part of your festivities for your destination wedding. There is a 45 minute ferry ride to get to island – which is a breeze when the ocean is calm. (I don’t know what it would be like in rough seas for someone like me who is prone to getting seasick.) The beaches on Ocracoke Island are some of the best in North America for shelling. There are also restaurants and shops in the village of Ocracoke, but many of them are closed (we couldn’t even get an ice cream) during the off season.

Overall, we had a wonderful time in the Outer Banks, but if you are like me and don’t like crowded beaches – visit during the off-season. If a destination wedding in the Outer Banks ignites your imagination, check out the Outer Banks Wedding Association.

Is there a better way to welcome spring than with a DIY ‘glitter’arium? I think not!

A ‘glitter’arium is my own sparkly twist on the current DIY terrarium rage. All you need to make it is a mason jar, glitter, rocks, glue, a fake bird, and a high tolerance for a big glittery mess that you will have to clean up when all is said and done. (But worth it! So worth it!)

To light up the ‘glitter’arium you will need a battery operated LED portable light that you can purchase here.

These whimsical little worlds would make enchanted centerpieces for an evening wedding or party.

You will need:

• A jar with an opening that is at least 6cm wide. My jar had a 6cm opening, but next time I would use a jar with a bigger mouth so that the light could be placed on the inside of the lid. Then you could simply screw the lid onto the jar and not have to worry about getting fancy with covering the top of the LED light.
• A Sylvania Dot-it Dimmable Bright White LED light
• rocks
• Martha Stewart Glitter in various colours (You don’t have to use the Martha Stewart brand, but I do find that fine glitter gives nicer coverage)
• White glue (I used Sobo glue)
• A foam brush or paint brush for spreading glue
• fake bird (I got mine from the dollar store)

The instructions for this DIY project are so easy, you could follow the illustration that my six-year old created for this tutorial:

But I did document the process with photos, so I might as well give you the entirely unnecessary step-by-step tutorial.

Using foam brush, cover rock with glue. (Messy, messy, messy!)

Coat rock with glitter. (Uber messy!!) Repeat with all rocks.

Cover bird with glue and add glitter.

Before:

After:

Place rocks inside jar.

Set bird on top of rocks. You might want to epoxy the bird onto one of the rocks for a more secure fit. Set LED light on top of jar. I covered the top of the LED light with some glittery paper and covered the sides of the light with ribbon. If you end up using a jar with a larger mouth, you can stick the light on the inside of the lid and close the jar.

Voila! A dazzling, unique centerpiece for your wedding or upcoming party. The ‘glitterarium’ is also a cool way to decorate a mantle or bathroom counter.