Friday morning, I took a brief break from wedding ministrations for breakfast with Vinny at Cafe on the Common.



Vinny and I enjoyed people-watching. This spot was surprisingly hopping for 8:00 on a weekday morning.



Vin ordered the combo breakfast with eggs, bacon, sausage, and blueberry pancakes. I sampled, obviously.

I had been debating between the large and small oatmeal and asked the server for her opinion. I am glad she advised me to go for the small — it was bigger than my head! Let’s take another look at my yummy yummy banana walnut oats with brown sugar on the side:

After breakfast, it was back to the Gunns. Centerpieces under construction:



And Siobhan continued her work on the cake. Bottom tier:



Middle tier:



Top tier:



Siobhan also undertook this crazy ambitious pumpkin cage cake-topper that involved drizzling caramelized sugar over foil wrapped pumpkin molds:



The concept blew me away. Look how cool:



Jess jumped in for the assist to piece the halves together:



Sadly, the cage ended up melting 😦 We had been not been expecting 70 degree temps for October 31! It was fun while it lasted, though.

In the late morning, Erin, Catherine, and I went to the wedding site for the “official drop” of centerpieces and other wedding party accessories. After the drop, I borrowed Erin’s car for a grocery store run and then headed to my mom’s house to make use of the kitchen … and her assistance!



Erin wanted an afternoon tea for Saturday to fuel all of us ladies while we got ready for the wedding, and she put me in charge. I spent the majority of Friday afternoon creating the menu and doing the legwork (or directing my mom in doing the legwork :-P).



While mom sliced and de-crusted the bread, I mixed up all the fillings and got started on the dessert …



… of dark chocolate covered strawberries, special request of the bride!



Once the tea menu was under control, I threw together scraps from my various projects for a quick snack with mom: cucumber, granny smith apple, almond butter, and melted dark chocolate.



From there, I swept back up to the Gunns to collect Erin and make our way to the official rehearsal dinner Monster Mash!

Top three tea sandwich fillings? See if you can guess which ones I made 🙂