Cake
Honestly I could gush about the cake for the majority of this post. In fact I could have made the cake its own post. I was thrilled with the cake and the company we used, . Which seems funny now because when I first started planning I was least excited about the cake. In general I'm not a big fan of cake, so this was the one thing Rob was required to help with. It seems funny that I wanted a cake even though I don't normally care for cake. There are so many other ides out there instead, but I guess I still wanted to go traditional.
I picked my vendor from my previous job and according to theknot.com, it had gotten awards and great reviews. The Bridal Kitchen was one of the best smelling places you will ever walk into. Right up there with the bread shop at Silver Dollar City to me. We chatted with the owner before getting down to business. And business included being handed a sheet of paper with at least twenty types of cake. I was definitely not expecting so many choices, so saying that I was overwhelmed is putting it mildly. We certainly didn't get to try all of them but we did get to try a majority of them and they were all delicious! But the favorite all around (my parents went with us) was the strawberry. So that was our main choice - definitely our choice for the top layer of the cake - along with a chocolate and white, for those who are like the traditional choice. I am not a fan of any white cake or even icing for that matter but even I found it delicious. With this place, you couldn't go wrong.
I went through countless pages of countless albums on The Knot (by the way, I was planning before Pinterest or at least before I knew about it) to find what I wanted it to look like. Somewhere along the way I found one I love: square, white icing, color ribbon along the bottom of each layer, and each layer off-center from the previous layer. So armed with my picture, we went to the appointment. As I stood there waiting, I flipped through the brochure and on the back page was the exact cake. What are the chances of that?
I loved the simple look. Substitute the black ribbon for our royal blue and figure out what goes on top and you have our cake. So now the flavors were picked and the design decided upon, and that left me to figure out what goes on top. Honestly, I had no ideas. Not a single one on what I wanted. Did I want to go traditional with the people just standing there? Did I want the letter 'E'? Did I want flowers? Did I want something funny? I had no idea. I didn't even know what I liked. Unlike with everything else with the wedding, I had no picture in my mind. I saw dozens of cake toppers online, but I had yet to find anything I really like and knew was the one.
So doing what I did best, I started doing a broader search online. I started finding more I liked at least. Some I thought were funny. Some a bit more traditional. But at least I was getting closer and considering some. Then I found it. I'm not even sure I could find it again if I wanted to. It was perfect. It was us. The bride wore a flower in her hair, the grown had dark hair. But more than the looks, the groom was kissing the bride's cheek while she smiled straight ahead. That was a pose we do everywhere. We started doing it early in our relationship and it has become a tradition. If I pull out a camera, there's at least one with him kissing my cheek. The cake topper couldn't have been any more perfect.
So how did it all end up?
It ended up perfect and delicious. Although to be honest, neither Rob nor I actually ate any cake on our actual wedding day other than the traditional feeding each other a piece. We did have some the next day and it was just a delicious. And we are definitely looking forward to eating some in just a few days to celebrate our one year anniversary!
Music
The DJ did an amazing job. I'll go ahead and say that, but he's not the music I'm referring too. He kept the reception moving and I heard from a lot of people later that they had a blast, but I wanted to touch on the actual music we used for both the ceremony and reception. It seems like it would be a given that I would love the music I chose of my own wedding, but just in case you didn't figure it out for yourself, it's one of my favorite things. Plus we had some music that was less than traditional, so I thought I would also explain those choices. I was given quite a few compliments regarding my choice of music. It was definitely different. But like with everything else with this wedding, it was important I stayed true to me and of course our relationship.
Initially I wasn't sure what kind of music I wanted for the ceremony. Throughout the entire wedding I had mixed the traditional with the non-traditional. I was leaning towards less traditional even though we were in a church. I was very set against having anything that sounded like it should be at a funeral. To me, this was a celebration. It was marrying my best friend. I wanted happy, float down the aisle kind of music. However, Rob and I differed on what that meant. In his mind he was thinking organ, traditional music. And in my mind that was so far from what I wanted. I thought it was very important we stuck with who we are as a couple and very traditional we are not.
We waited quite a bit to really make any decisions regarding the songs, even though I secretly spent time looking. I wanted to have some options to take to him when the subject came up again. The first song I picked to use was an easy sell. It was a song he had actually first played for me. Like I said an easy sell. It was Your Hand in Mine by Explosions in the Sky. He was excited that I wanted to use this song. It was the main song we used for the ceremony. The song runs over seven minutes, so we were able to seat grandparents and parents, plus get the bridal party down the aisle during just this one song.
So that was one song checked off our list of songs needed. For the ceremony we still had my entrance, the recessional, and to decide if we were going to do anything extra that would require another song. On the something extra I actually went back and forth on several times. I had found a song that I loved and would have loved to use: Love is Not a Fight by Warren Barfield. But in the end I decided against doing anything extra so the song was tossed. I did end up using the lyrics in our programs however.
As for my entrance, I went through dozens of songs. Traditional, modern, unusual, downright weird. Little did I realize the song I was looking for was already on my computer, just waiting for me. I knew I wanted something cheery. I wanted something that would make me smile. I wanted to feel like dancing down the aisle. But still sticking to no lyrics like Rob had requested. I couldn't tell you how I stumbled back across the song I already owned, but like with many things with this wedding it came together. The song was called Grumption, which was the perfect name, written by Hans Zimmer from the movie 'The Holiday.' I wanted that movie moment with the music and the romance and the glee, and I got my perfect moment.
The recessional song doesn't exactly bring back as happy of memories. Don't get me wrong I liked the one we ended up with. But in every wedding you have that moment when you just break and no matter what happens you and your groom can't seem to see eye-to-eye. Well the recessional song was that moment. It was our breaking point. I'm not going to go into all the details. Instead we are going to focus on the happy. We did find a song to agree on and it was one of "our" songs called 1234 by the Plain White T's. I'm not unhappy with our choice, it was a good song. It was a happy song.
Our music choices got a little weirder into our reception. They were definitely unconventional. I'm sure none of you were expecting our first dance song to be what it was. But that's just how we roll. We had many people scratching their heads at our song choice, probably thinking we were crazy. Who honestly would choose a song called 'Let's Call the Whole Thing Off' as their first dance song at their wedding? Well, obviously two crazy kids like me and the hubs. I was browsing The Knot for first dance song ideas. I had no idea what I wanted. I didn't really want to go with the cheesy, corny, mushy choice so I knew I really had my work cut out for me. I found a section called cheeky first dance songs. I listened to all of them but only one stood there. When Rob got home I played the song for him and his reaction was the same as mine: he liked it, it was quirky. It was fitting. The song is about how different they are so they might as well call everything off but if they did that then that would break their hearts. It really is a charming, cute song. It is very me and Rob. Most people don't realize how different we really are but none of that matters because we were meant for each other. Wow, now I've gone cheesy.
For those of you who were at the wedding, you probably won't soon forget the father/daughter dance. It was definitely memorable. And a blast to do. It's hard to remember where the idea came from exactly but somehow we decided we were going to do this and surprise everyone. I put together a mix and we came up with easy dance moves. We had limited practices to make sure we weren't going to make sure we weren't going to make complete fools of ourselves. Rob and my mom were our audience. I even made Rob practice with me a few times. And the rest is history. Without a doubt this was one of my favorite moments of the wedding.
There's not a lot I can say about the mother/son dance. I wasn't involved. I didn't pick the music. I got to just chill during this dance before going back to dance the night away! The song he chose was 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. It was a nice moment for Rob and his mom.
To me, music can be everything. It reflects the bride and groom and their relationship. It makes it fun and original. It gives you something as a couple to go back to years later and listen to again in order to bring back all those memories of that day. It can truly make it special.
Photography
Photography is definitely not a requirement. I guess nothing is really a requirement with a wedding other than someone to actually marry you and officiate the wedding. But I'm a big fan of pictures so it was a requirement for our wedding. It also turned out to be one of the most expensive aspects of the wedding. But it was worth the money in my opinion. We got some amazing pictures. It is also one of those things that last long after the wedding. We used a company called Cornerstone Photography based in downtown KC. They were easy to work with and very friendly. We were able to choose the photographer by looking through different portfolios to get a feel for their work. So you could really chose the style you were looking for. We were given shared rights to our pictures, so we could get them made anywhere. They did also have rights so they could use them as they wanted as well.
We got some great shots from the wedding. And my favorites now hang on our wall (or will once again after the move). It's great to be able to look back on that day and and remember through pictures. I could easily show you so many of those favorites here but come back in a few days as wedding week continues to see my favorite photos from that day.
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It seems all my favorites are something I keep - cake topper, music, pictures. There were many other things that I loved. In fact, I loved my entire wedding. The runner-ups to my top favorites are the centerpieces that were designed by me and the hubs plus those amazing table numbers my mom and aunt did.
I also loved the flowers especially those tall vases with gerbs underwater.
I also loved our reception site, Adams Pointe Conference Center. They did an amazing job and took so much stress out of the day. Plus the food was pretty amazing to boot.
So make sure to come back tomorrow for all things paper!
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