Our last wedding until next year took place this past weekend. It was a real communal affair with everyone pitching in with setup, cleanup, food, drinks, and lots of love. Miah and Christie were so smiley the entire evening.

The wedding took place during the annual HarFest at a friend’s ranch out in McDade, TX. Entertainment included bands jamming out, C-Man DJing, a bouncy house for the kids, and open mic toasts, incited by C-Man of course. People really brought their A-game with the potluck food. Our friend, Carly, even made the amazing wedding carrot cake.  There were kegs of beer, boxed wine, and home-brewed beer, mead, and cider. We camped out after the reception.

Below are some highlights of the wedding details:

For my contribution, I led the making of the bridal party bouquets (a couple are pictured with the cake above, it took about two hours for four people to arrange six bouquets), made Spicy Candied Bacon and Apple Canapes again since I knew they would keep well and were a hit at the Ladies Brunch, and assembled smores pops. I originally wanted to make these Wedding Marshmallow Pops served with graham crackers, but the mini-cake look wasn’t so pretty with dark chocolate.

Smores Pops 

Ingredients (for 72 pops):

• 1 1/2 lbs. melting chocolate (I used Guittard dark chocolate)
• 1/2 box graham crackers crumbled
• 2 bags of large marshmallows
• 72 lollipop sticks
• Optional: heart sprinkles, clear treat bags, and ribbon
• Optional: display box (I cut two pieces of foam posterboard to size, marked off 1.5 inch squares, punched out the holes on both sides of one foam piece using a screwdriver, and placed it in a basket draped with fabric)

Microwave a cup of the chocolate (or however much you feel comfortable working with at a time) in a microwave-safe bowl following the manufacturer’s directions. Be careful not to burn the chocolate. Dip the end of a lollipop stick in the melted chocolate and poke through a marshmallow. This helps keep the marshmallow on the stick. I found it was easier to prep 15-20 of the marshmallows on the stick before dipping them to minimize the number of times I had to reheat the chocolate.

Dip the entire marshmallow in the melted chocolate, then roll it in the graham cracker crumbles. I think it looks prettier to only half dip the marshmallow in chocolate, but I wanted more chocolate and graham cracker flavor in my pops. Optional: dip the bottom of a heart sprinkle in the melted chocolate and place on top of the marshmallow pop. This was purely for the wedding cuteness factor.

Set the smore pop in foam or a display box to harden. Optional: place the smore pop in a clear treat bag and tie with a ribbon bow.

The smores pops looked better than they tasted in the display, but people seemed to enjoy them anyways. Marshmallow pops are much easier to put together than some other pops, but in making 72 of them, it took about six hours. Consider yourself warned.

My favorite experience of the night:  seeing the Milky Way for the first time. Clearly I’m a city girl. 🙂