And the Oscar goes to...

It's a wonderful night for Oscar...Oscar, Oscar, who will win?

Well, the answer is: At the Ruby Slippers Wedding, EVERYONE.

Back in January or February when we first decided to do a bit of a film theme, one of the first ideas that we had (actually I think this might have been Best-Friend-Ruby-Slippers' idea, to be honest) was to use an Oscar statuette somehow. I love the Oscars. I think they're totally fixed, and half the winners are undeserving, but there's just something fabulous about them. I love that they're so glitzy and full of stars...ok, I don't even know why I love 'em, I just do. And, as a side note, I can totally remember Oscar stats and facts. Ask me what film won Best Picture in any year, ever, and I can tell you. It's my party trick.

So at first we toyed with the idea of an Oscar-themed invitation, but it semed a little bit too "theme-party"-ish, so we scrapped that, and went with the Golden Tickets, which, you know, aren't themed at all. :-) But I did picture them being designed by Mr Ruby Slippers - after all, he did paint this backdrop for a musical show we did a few years ago:


Ahem. We now return to the scheduled Oscar blog post, after that shameless bit of boasting about Mr Slippers' artistic talents.

So at this point Best Friend-RS had the brilliant idea of Oscar chocolate favours. One little statuette for everybody! I loved it. So I bought three Oscar moulds from the local chocolate shop, and set to work.

What I discovered on this chocolatey journey was this: No matter how many hollow Easter Eggs you've made in your life, the intricate pattern of an Oscar mould is not conducive to being made hollow. That's right, folks - I bought eighteen little bulldog clips and wasted over thirty chocolates before I figured that one out. Well, not wasted; I remelted them. The ones I didn't eat in frustration, that is.

So then I decided to make two solid sides and "glue" them together with melted chocolate - and this, I must say, went swimmingly. Over the month it took to make seventy of them. Boy, am I glad I don't have a big family. But the biggest problem was still ahead: how to paint them gold? I wanted this:

But all I could find was gold dusting powder, and a vaguely unhelpful shop assistant who said I should just rub it on with my fingers. Um...I think not. Enter a nice old lady who eavesdropped on my conversation with a colleague last week. She apparently makes cake decorations for a living, and she recommended that I mix the powder with a drop or two of brandy, and paint it on that way. Maybe this technique is common knowledge, but it wasn't to me. Mr RS had a wee bottle of brandy, so I tried her advice out yesterday, and by golly, it worked! Those little bald boys gilded up like no man's business. Here they are in their naked chocolateyness:


And here's the very first one I tried:

Isn't he SWEET? Here are a bunch more. My camera died right after this, but I was on such a roll that I painted all eighty-something last night. (We only need 70, but I'm a great believer in spares in case of accidents).


Skreee! I'm sooo excited about how cute they turned out, you have no idea! Each one is going to be in his own cellophane bag, with our signature black satin ribbon around the top, with a note that doubles as a placecard attached to the ribbon, reading:

"And the Oscar goes to.....NAME"

These will be sitting on the tables in each person's designated spot, so once they've found out which table they're at, these will help them find their seats and be favours. Oh, the cleverness of me. And BFF-RS, she admitted grudgingly.

Uniquely you

Mr Ruby Slippers and I love movies - I'd go so far as to use the term "Movie geeks". Seriously, I first started fancying him after I saw what movies he had in his dvd collection. So when it came to our wedding, it was easy to decide what theme would be running through the day. Originally we were going to use movie titles as the table names, but we couldn't agree on anything clever or interesting enough, so then we decided, because of the Old Hollywood feel I wanted to bring to the day, to put an emphasis on the classics. I cleverly got Mr RS to think he'd thought of the idea of using our favourite classic stars as table names, so on each table there'll be a framed photo of them with their name on a clapper board next to the photo - because, heck, few people are going to be able to recognise what table they're at just by the photo! (And because we already bought the clapper boards so we'd better darn well use them!)


We are having eight tables, possibly nine, so we each got to pick four actors or actresses. Funnily enough, I picked the girls and Mr RS picked the guys! (With one spare in case of that ninth table). Here they are in one pic - a virtual bouquet to anyone who can namethem all! Go on, I dare you. ;-)


Aren't they just too cool? Man, I love those oldie guys (and gals).

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love the Oscars. They always choose the wrong winner (No Country for Old Men? Seriously, WTF?) but I can't help it, I love 'em anyway. I have oodles of Oscar statistics in my head. It's a great party trick. Anyway, our favours are going to be little chocolate Oscars that I'm making, painted gold - hopefully - with a little card saying "And The Oscar Goes To...MARY" which will double as the guest's placecard.

If only mine could be made by celebrity chef Wolfgang Petersen...

We don't want to go too overboard with the movie stuff, because then it could easily descend into themed kiddies birthday party territory, which is NOT what we're going for!