DIY wedding cake
Onto a rather controversial topic…wedding cake.
From the start, I’ve said that I’m going to make it myself. At some point I made a concession that we’d order a small wedding cake from someone and then I’d make a few additional cakes. Let’s be honest though, I really just want to do it myself. Generally speaking, don’t people hate wedding cakes anyway? If we’re gonna serve cake, it better be a good cake, and I make a damn good cake.
My plan is to make a handful of cakes rather than one giant one. Then we’ll have a bunch of different flavors and I don’t have to worry about tiers. Here is some of the inspiration I’ve found.
I totally fell for these art deco cakes courtesy of Martha Stewart (of course!). Simple but varied designs with limited color palate. I love that all the cakes are different sizes.
Seriously, who doesn’t like a choice in cake? Check out this pound cake table from Once Wed. Gorgeous!
I was also thinking something like these rustic cakes. The idea of not having to pipe anything seems pretty appealing. I’m also into the fact that they’re kind of tall. Kind of into the idea of tall cakes.
I’m really excited about the whole project. I am looking forward to spending a day baking without having to worry about all the other wedding stuff (although I’m sure I will anyway).
Now we just need to decide what flavors…and how many…
More wedding planning
I have a confession to make. I have wedding brain. I have tried to fight it, to continue with my everyday life, but I’ve given up the fight. My frequencies are now tuned into all wedding all the time. Having written this, I realize it’s not entirely true, but wedding thoughts do take up a very large percentage. Somehow, realizing and accepting this really helped me not get so stressed about everything (that’s not to say I’m not at all stressed). Mostly, reading this pushed me towards reaching some sort of pre-wedding zen.
To aid my scattered thoughts, I made a to do list and posted it on the wall in our apartment. Major help. Now when I think of something I just write it on the list and it doesn’t have to stay in my brain. Then I just check in with the list, which is posted prominently on the wall and I don’t feel like I’m constantly forgetting something.
The other thing that is relieving stress is that I feel like I’m actually accomplishing goals. I finished & sent out invitations, which was a huge huge deal (they took me FOREVER to make). We have an officiant. I have my dress. We finally booked our caterer. There is still a lot left to be done and figured out, but things seem to be coming together. There is progress. Looking back to my end of year to do list, I knocked off a few major items and made serious dents in others. There are still things that I have no idea how we’re going to pull off but I’m hopeful (I should remind myself of this when I’m laying in bed, unable to sleep, worrying about how to display escort cards).
Anyway, as we get closer I hope I’ll be able to share a few more details, but obviously a lot of it will have to wait until after the wedding. There’s a sneak peak at our invitations in progress at the top, just to entice you a little. There are so many things I’ve been dying to share for months, like our guest gifts, which has been driving me a little bit bonkers as well.
We’re in the final countdown.
Vegan Brownies
It all started when Tara inquired with a few vegan ladies about the best way to make vegan brownies. We planned to get together and try out some possibilities. I had all my ingredients packed up and recipes to try.
Then disaster struck. Well, not really disaster. More like a wedding with a vengeance. Ok, not that either. Really just normal wedding stuff. Normal “we haven’t gotten everything sorted and our wedding is in a month from today” craziness. Which turned into me spending the day planning and strategizing (which is pretty much what I do everyday now). Which meant, no brownies for me. Sad face.
Then, the same night of my brownie flakiness (not the delicious flakiness either) I received an email from my mom’s friend in desperate need of vegan brownie help. She had tried to make some herself and despite her best efforts, they had come out oily and burnt. You know you must help someone when they exclaim in an email,
“I’m a bloody vegan brownie killer!!!”
So, since I’m no brownie pro myself, I figured I’d better test the recipe I had before I sent it along. And with no time to be experimental, I turned to The Joy of Vegan Baking
I have to admit, these brownies were pretty darn good. They definitely leaned towards the gooey fudge side of brownies, which I rather like. I undercooked them a bit, on purpose to make sure they would be soft, and without eggs to worry about it’s not really a big deal. They didn’t quite amount to the perfect brownie though. My biggest complaint being that they weren’t chocolatey enough. I also wished they were a bit more flakey on top while retaining their fudginess.
I think I will be back to the drawing boards with this brownie experiment.
Oh and another thing, in case you hadn’t been poking around here recently…I’m getting married in a month (exactly from today)! So yeah, there might just be a bit more wedding talk than usual. Just thought you guys deserved fair warning!
Ponderings on perfection
Dear friends, we’re in the home stretch for the wedding. Only 5 weeks remain until the big day. With everything so close upon us, I’ve become a bit introspective on the whole thing. So friends, settle in for maybe a bit more reading than usual in this post, but surely on topics beyond just a wedding.
Between Shawn and I, we know how to do a lot of things. We’re makers, so to speak. He knows tons about photography. I know about sewing and crafting and baking. We’re both planners. We know what it takes to get something done. So when entering the world of wedding planning, this knowledge, for me in particular, has often been something I’ve had to reconcile with, rather than being helpful.
How do you choose a photographer when you yourself take better photos than most of the “professionals” out there? How do you order a wedding cake when you bake a better vegan cake than you could buy? It’s tricky these questions, because obviously you can’t do everything.
Personally, I like to do things myself. I take issue with paying for something I’m capable of, unless I know someone will do it better than I will. Even more than that, I have a hard time letting others do things for me, even if I’m not paying, for fear it won’t be exactly what I want. Face it, I’m a little bit of a control freak. It is the downfall of knowing how to do things. You expect perfection.
The wedding process has been a lot about letting go for me. Letting go of control. It’s not easy. It’s against my personality. I think this is what happens with big life events though and I really feel it’s for the better. That’s not to say it hasn’t been a struggle.
It’s also, in my mind, been about merging my wishes and desires with Shawn’s. Even being in a committed relationship, two people are still somewhat separate in decision making. There is this strange place where you are not compromising on things but actually agreeing, and it’s odd but wonderful. This is the first task where we’ve had to really agree on everything. I think we had a similar experience when making Brainwashed Love, but our differences worked to keep the movie on course.
I think if I designed the whole affair, it would be some sort of small soiree in the woods. (You should see this wedding, which I’m sure is the most fantastic wedding I’ve ever seen.) Instead our wedding is indoors, and will be fairly large (by my standards anyway). I’m happy about this too. Our secret location is really the coolest and I’m excited that we’ll get to celebrate with so many people that love us. I’m glad we’ll be bringing our families together from across the country.
Most of these thoughts have come up for me since I now have my finished dress. The truth is, that there are a few little things that bother me about it. I can’t quite figure out if I’m just being obsessive or if it is a real flaw. Am I aiming for perfection when it’s just a dress? Is it something I can fix or should I just leave it alone?
There is still so much to do and I have a number of tasks that I’m responsible for, but I’m leaving a few major things in the hands of others. I’m trying to let things happen how they will. I haven’t thought about flowers or decorations or much of that sort of thing at all, nor will I unless someone asks me. I’m hoping all the things I’m not taking care of work out, as they should, without me managing every detail. And say they shouldn’t, I’m trying to prepare myself to be ok with this.
I’m not trying to ignore the details or not worry about the whole event, instead I’m just trying to face the reality of it all.
*a note about the photos. these are from a trip shawn and i took to pennsylvania in 2008. they make me happy as the woods do. they are a reminder of calmness for me. and the owl’s name is morris.
Snow Day
You may recall, last week I was fantasizing about having a snowy adventure. Well, despite living in Los Angeles, we made it happen. We drove up to nearby Mt. Baldy to go play in the snow for the day.
The crew threw on all their warm gear, loaded up in our cars and drove up the mountain…to snow!
Even though I read the weather before hand, it still seems so unbelievable that there could be snow so close to where we live. It wasn’t until we were nearly at the top of the mountain that things became dusted and then covered in white.
We took the scenic ski lift all the way to the top. I have to admit, it did make me a little nervous.
This was right before Shawn realized I didn’t have a strap on my camera (right after I leaned over the side with it in my hands to take a photo of a squirrel).
At the top, we were above the clouds. They turned into a sea of white.
It was so much fun. It made me want to rent a cabin, snuggle up by a fire at night and build snowman in the day. I want to go sledding.
I’m so happy we were able to make the trip, even though it was brief, as it really made it feel like real winter.
