Take a look at this year’s creation

Each Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 5-9pm from now until Sunday, December 19 visitors are invited to stroll  the lighted paths, explore the Hart Family Maze Garden and vote for your favorite gingerbread house. Santa will visit from the North Pole for photo opportunities in the Model T from 5:30 until 8pm and drop-in craft activities will be offered from 6-8pm

Come visit us at the HoHo! Cafe (aka Magnolia Cafe in season) and warm up with a delicious hot chocolate or mulled cider. Grab something sweet while you roast your complimentary marshmallows over the outdoor fire pits provided by Cape Cod Fire Log!

Un-Birthday Mini Cupcakes

Queen of Hearts Tarts
Heart-Shaped Raspberry Tarts

Cheshire Smiles Shortbread

Jam Tomorrow Scones

Rabbit Treats
Ginger & Carrot Cream on Date Nut Bread
Cucumber & Mint Tea Sandwiches
Curried Chicken & Apricot Puffs

House of Cards
Diamond, Heart & Spade Shaped Tea Sandwiches
Peanut Butter & Jam, Egg Salad, Ham & Cheese

Lemonade, Iced Tea & Brewed Tea

And take a look at the decor!

Here is some more information about Hidden Hollow:

Proceeds from the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party went to Hidden Hollow, Heritage Museums and Gardens’ Family Adventure Garden. Specifically designed for families with children ages 3-8, this new space will open to the public on April 1, 2010 and will feature several activity areas, including a tree house, large outdoor instruments, a nature art table, block building, sand play, a worm farm, fort building, an amphitheater, and places to climb, crawl, play and learn while enjoying nature together.

Research shows that children benefit greatly from experiencing the natural world and that these benefits have a lasting impact, especially when positive outdoor experiences come at an early age. You have likely noticed yourself, however, that children in today’s world are growing increasingly disconnected from nature. The mission of Hidden Hollow is to reconnect children with the natural world by making developmentally appropriate nature education an enriching part of the lives of our visitors. In addition to being a lot of fun, we are hoping that Hidden Hollow will be the first certified Nature Explore Classroom in New England. This national initiative, sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation and Dimensions Educational Research Foundation, recognizes organizations that have made a commitment to providing outdoor spaces and programming to help children use the natural world as an integral part of learning.

Congrats to Heritage Museums and Gardens on a successful event!

I don’t mean over planning every single detail of the event. It is all about finding a way to express authentically who they are as a couple and allowing their guests to see and feel and share in the joy of the day. We specialize in non traditional weddings and Cape Cod is a destination wedding location, so perhaps here at the Casual Gourmet we have the opportunity to see more than our share of personal and unique touches.

Let me share with you a few stories of how couples I have worked with have spiced up their weddings with games, with gifts and by adding to (or even throwing out) tradition.

The Ceremony at Heritage where the bride and groom played Rock, Paper, Scissors. Click to enlarge.

Earlier this summer, I had a lovely couple who had a simple, but beautiful, wedding at Heritage Museums and Gardens in Sandwich. They were sweet and very in love and planned every detail of the wedding together. Having each written beautiful and meaningful vows they could not decide who should speak first, so right in front of all their friends and family, they played a little game of Rock, Paper and Scissors!

This is a perfect example of the couple taking ownership of their wedding. It was unique, fun and only worked because their family and friends instantly recognized how it fit the couple’s style of communication.

The next story took place back in 2003 with both the ceremony and reception at the groom’s family’s home on Pleasant Bay in Orleans. Everything about this wedding, from the ceremony under a driftwood arch, to the bouquet of wild flowers gathered by family members, to the dancing, the bride and groom made it their own very personal celebration!

To begin the festivities at the reception, guests were told to flip over their seating card where they found a picture of another guest. They then had to go find the person and introduce themselves, as this person would become important to them later in the evening. Pleasant chaos ensued as the guests laughingly found the person in their picture

Then reception started with the bride and groom toasting all their friends instead of vice versa.

After the buffet dinner was served, it was time for the first dance. The bride, having been a dance teacher, had made up a dance for her guests. The bride and groom gave a quick lesson, then told the guests that their partner would be the person they met earlier in the evening. Everyone of the 175 guests found their partner and danced the bride’s special dance in unison with the bride and groom leading the way.

The last story I have for you took place two years ago at the bride’s family’s home in Osterville. The bride and groom were some of the sweetest people I have ever met and they did not just want to thank their guests for coming but they also wanted to wish them good luck.

Could a line on the invitation or ceremony program could have taken care of this? Sure. But that would not have been very memorable.

The card with a lottery ticket and quote that we put under each salad plate. Click to Enlarge. (Photo by Bello Photography)

Instead, the couple had us put lottery scratch tickets under each salad plate with a great quote that said:

Where there is great love there are always miracles. -Will Cather

When we cleared the salad plates, you could hear the oooh and ahhs from the guests as they got a pleasant little surprise that said thank you and good luck!

These stories are just a few examples of the many couples who have taken the step from a great wedding to their perfect wedding. Make sure as you plan your wedding you make find a way to add your own personal touch to it — it’s that little extra that makes your day perfect!