A Match Made In Heaven

With cupcakes being all-the-rage at weddings these days, check out this delicious twist for your dessert table! The Oreo and Cheesecake compliment each other so perfectly that it takes cupcakes to a whole new level. Rest assured, Oreo's are not just for kids.

Cookies and Cream Cheesecake Cupcakes
From Martha Stewart's Cupcakes
Makes 30

• Ingredients:
• 42 cream-filled sandwich cookies, such as Oreo's, 30 left whole, and 12 coarsely chopped
• 2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
• 1 cup sour cream
• Pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.

2. With an electric mixer on medium high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.

3. Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.

4. Divide batter evenly among cookie-lined cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.

I'm not usually the best gourmet chef, but when I bit into my homemade Oreo and Cheesecake Cupcakes I swear I heard these lovely lyrics in my head: 'Cause we go together like birds of a feather'....

- Julie "Jewels" Morell, Northstar California Resort Sales Coordinator

A sweet treat!

Why have just one when you can have an assortment of smaller wedding cakes? I love the simple beauty of this set by Flour Girl Wedding Cakes, photographed by the very talented Leah McCormick. Enjoy!

The Victorian House in Reno

Hello lovely couples! Today I made two new friends from Take the Cake Events and they shared a new concept with me called the Victorian House. So, OF COURSE I wanted to share it with you all right away. Most Northstar Weddings are destination weddings. At the Victorian House they make it easy for you to interview an entire collection of wedding vendors all at once...in their Victorian house. Get it? And you don't have to choose all of them for your big day. If you decide to just go with Tiers of Joy (which is one of Northstar's preferred bakeries) for example, for your cake and not the DJ or photographer, that's cool. I think this is a very efficient use of a busy bride's time, especially if you haven't chosen any or many of your vendors yet. Happy planning! Bxo

Wedding Advice from Glow Event Design

We are so lucky to have some tips from a pro event designer like Christina with Glow Event Design, and even better is that she was a REAL Northstar bride last year! Guess she knows what she's talking about then huh? Read on...

What was your favorite design element at your wedding?

My favorite design element to our decor was that everything we used was natural - nothing plastic or fake. I was really inspired by the beauty of Tahoe, and I wanted our day to reflect upon the beautiful plants and trees around us. For an aisle runner, we used flower blooms and pine cones to fill glass hurricanes placed at every-other seat. We brought in aspen trees and a wooden archway to decorate the ceremony site. Our tables were named after ski resorts we'd been to, and we placed the table name signs in wooden frames at each table. Probably my favorite decor item was the escort card tray which we filled with split green peas. We also used the peas to fill mini hurricanes with tea lights placed on the cocktail tables.The peas were actually the inspiration for the green in our color scheme.

Did you have a theme?

I called it "Mountain Chic." We wanted everything to be authentic and natural, but still very upscale and sophisticated.

Describe your color palette.

Our main colors were green, cream and chocolate brown. We added accents of coral for a pop - and also because coral tied in with the existing orange color on the outdoor patio furniture!

What would you have done different?

We got married in August and had prepared for extreme heat during the day. We rented extra umbrellas, had a cold drink station, etc. Unfortunately, a cold-front blew in the day of, and it was actually FREEZING! We had purchased a few blankets to place around the fire pits at night, but not many. If I could do it all over again, I would have made a contingency plan for the cold weather and stocked up on fleece blankets to give out to guests, and added a warm drink to the bar menu (like a spiced wine, hot chocolate, etc).

Any other words of advice?

Relax and enjoy your day! Don't stress about last minute details - none of your guests will know if the napkin is folded wrong, or their place card is crooked. The day goes by in a flash, so make sure throughout the night you take the time to look around and savor the moment.

Jo + Hiro 10.17.10

As promised, more REAL Northstar Weddings...LOVE the flowers and thank you to Matt Theilen Photography for these images. Apparently, he photographed "the best cake smash ever" at their Wedding. I was wondering, how do you smash a cake that beautiful? Check out his blog for more. Congrats Jo and Hiro! xoxo

Sacramento Bridal Show

Hi y'all! So I went to the show this past weekend and brought back my top three faves to share with you:

1. Rocket Photo Booths They are adding video to their booths in the next couple months!


2. Sweet Candy Land (916)792-0500 They trick out a candy booth for you, and stick around to keep it stocked!


3. Pose Prints Create caricatures of you and your sweety then "pose" on custom save-the-dates, thank you notes, etc. Guess who this is?