HEY TARA


where ya been??

(oops sorry - didn't mean to hijack the thread!)

Originally Posted by DelightsByE

HEY TARA


where ya been??

(oops sorry - didn't mean to hijack the thread!)

at my house i'll PM you

Originally Posted by MessyBaker

You did a terrifiic job! I get so stressed with cake orders, I can't imagine making my own wedding cake!

I wish you and your hubby all the best and hope you have a wonderful life together!

Now to the real question..........WHY ARE YOU ON CC THE DAY AFTER YOU WEDDING?

-grin- It's family tradition, actually... The evening of my parents' wedding, my dad showed up on his mom's doorstep (having lived with his folks until he got married, to help them with bills), and wanted his chess set, so he and Mom could play. His mom yelled that no son of hers would be playing CHESS of all things, on his wedding night! LOL

Well, Dad informed her that he and Mom had the rest of their lives to 'canoodle'... but right now, they wanted to sit back, relax, have a glass of wine, and play a game of chess.

Our wedding night, I was so darned tired, I just had a half a glass of wine, and passed out. My DH's best friend/best man stayed with us, and my sweetie stayed up with him, chatting, watching movies, and playing with my DH's wedding gift, a great RC helicopter. Men! But I was too tired to do much of anything fun at that point, and he knew it. LOL

And yesterday, we got up early to take the best man to breakfast before he had to get on the road back to base, then we headed over to Mom and Dad's to watch the Panthers' season opener on their big screen HDTV. Got home late last night, and DH wanted to play some more with his helicopter. So I came in here to download all the pics my mom had taken at the wedding, and to load the cake pic for you guys.

To be honest, since we lived together for 6 years beforehand, not much is different, except that now we giggle at each other when we pass in the hall, and say silly stuff like, "hi, hubby!" or "Know what?? We's'a got MARRIED!!!" Yeah... we're silly like that.

It took three days. Three very FULL days! LOL

Wednesday before the wedding, I started baking. I started at 6 am, and didn't stop until almost 4, when I had to jet off to meet my aunt three cities over, to shop for last minute wedding stuff. Came home, baked two more sets, and went to bed.

Thursday, while the baking was finishing up, I frosted. And frosted, and frosted, and leveled and layered and topped and frosted! My living room will never be the same... (We have cats, so I did all decorating in the living room, with the door shut) Then I had to leave about 5 to go to the site and help with the clean up.

FRiday: load up cakes, which weren't done at all, various layers that still needed to be leveled and frosted, and ALL the stuff to make the wedding happen, that hadn't gone to site the night before. Unload stuff at site, then turn around and run to get the tables from the rental place. Back to site with a massive load of heavy tables, unload those, then it was frost, decorate, frost, stress, decorate, etc, until folks got there to start decorating and setting up. Had to stop when the trailer of chairs got there, and then again when the girls decided we needed a break and I had to wear my tiara and sash to dinner. Back to site after getting mooned by drunk bikers (long story... be careful what you wish for!), then one last hour of frosting and decorating, and it was DONE. Cake got completely set up on friday evening, in tiem for my sweetie to walk in and see it.

Saturday: fountain set up and turned on, pictures taken, then I had to jet down to the main house to get my hair done and get ready!

All in all, it was actually not that stressful a project. I was able to make up a baking schedule that allowed me to alternate different sized pans, so that no pans were needed back to back, and I could literally slide one batch out, put one batch in, then go back to frosting while those were cooling. It was a bit hectic, and I stressed a bit on Friday, trying to figure out how I was going to get it all done. But I finished before midnight on friday, and that was my goal.

As to how I could do it all... well, the deal was that if I did the cake, I wasn't allowed to do anything else but shop! So the decorating committee took care of decorations, the 'moving committee' took care of arranging tables and chairs, and I had two food wranglers who were in charge of making sure the buffet table was set up right and stuff was put out in a sane order. not an easy job when it's a potluck! But there was an amazing amount of food, and if folks went hungry, it certainly wasn't anyone's fault but their own!

My cousin cut the cake, which rocked. She's a preacher's daughter, and had watched so many weddings through her life, watched people botch cutting the cake, and wanted, just once, to do a big, beautiful, professional-type wedding cake. She did a beautiful job, and even had the kids organized as 'cake runners', so that folks could stay seated. She'd just call out which flavor she was cutting, and folks would raise their hands if they wanted that flavor.

the funny part of it all??? With 32 layers, all I got out of it was some cake batter and the one tiny piece we fed each other for the official cake cutting. I didnt' get any until we took one of the leftover tiers to Mom's yesterday, and THEN I managed to get a piece of my own wedding cake! LOL

I think the key to it all was a) organization, b) extra pans so that entire two-tier cakes could be baked at once, and c) delegating jobs to volunteers. there were enough people who wanted to help out, that I was able to concentrate on the most important part of the whole thing for DH and me... the cake!

And I'm so very glad I did. I wouldn't trade that one moment of pride and joy for anything in this world! I gave him a dream. I gave us both a dream. There's nothing better than that!

And I have to add that having the huge, beautiful cake justified it when my friends gave me the Kitchen Aid mixer (professional 600!) -grin-

ahhh... sorry so long... just thought you'd like to hear the process and the insanity! LOL

But ya know... if I had it to do all over again... I'd do it again in a heartbeat. It was worth every moment of stress, in the end.