The Cake

I’m envisioning it now… square, three layers, lots of chocolate, dragonflies, and Japanese cherry blossoms. Or something like that. Keep in mind that the cake is something I haven’t crossed off my list yet—I haven’t even met with a baker or anything. I’m merely in the process of brainstorming at this point in time.

My ideas stem from a cake I saw about a year ago while flipping through a bridal magazine. Check it out:

But imagine this as a much smaller square cake. And the colors would be something like this: white for the base color, green for the ribbon-looking thingies, and orange for the middle of the cherry blossoms. I’m also interested in adding button-like shapes around the bottom edges of the cake, as seen on this cake:

This cake is actually made at Homeland, and for a pretty decent price, I might add. After I saw this in their bakery catalogue, Homeland made my list of contenders for the cake. Although I do like this design, I think it’s both a bit too simple for me and a bit too flowery. I also like their cake topper, but Keegan and I have already picked one out.

As some of you may know, Coheed & Cambria is mine and Keegan’s favorite band. And Keegan owns just about every big preorder package that Coheed has released. In one of the packages was a dragonfly—one of Coheed’s major logos. It’s a pretty good size and is made of some kind of impressive metal (ask Keegan—he’s the one with the chemistry degree). All that to say, I really wanted to incorporate some kind of dragonfly design into the cake. And when Keegan suggested Coheed’s dragonfly as our cake topper, I thought this would be the perfect way to do it. 

Thanks to Keegan for taking this photo

So I guess if I were to combine all of the ideas I’ve told you about, it would look something like this (again, please forgive my crude drawing skills—or lack thereof):

Of course that’s not exactly how the dragonfly will actually look, but because of my lack of artistic skills, I just did the best I could at drawing my own version of a dragonfly. Of course it’s also not drawn to scale. And the cake doesn’t have to turn out exactly like this, but this is the idea that I was able to translate from my brain onto paper in the best way I could.

If you have any suggestions or cool new ideas, let me know. I’m happy to hear your opinion!

-Paige

You Are What You Eat...

Happy Thanksgiving!

In honor of this special holiday, I thought food would be a fitting topic for today. And besides, who doesn’t want to talk about food? Food connects us all and transcends language and culture. Food brings everyone together (as proved by countless family gatherings across the nation today), and it has the power to help people communicate even when they don’t share a common language.

When I was in China, I shared many meals with both my American companions and my new Chinese friends. One evening during dinner, a very friendly Chinese man sat with us. He couldn’t speak any English (with the exception of “I’m full”), but I was able to communicate with him because of the food that we shared. He wanted to teach me how to properly use chopsticks, so instead of using words, he used his hands and the food on our plates to communicate with me. And we understood each other—my chopstick hold has improved and I think of him every time I use chopsticks. 

Lots of yummy food we had in China. (Learn Chinese: "I'm full" -- 我饱了

。

Wǒ bǎo le.)

So the moral of the story is that food is international, and it brings people together. Well, that’s exactly how we want our wedding to be—our theme is internationality, and the celebration of our partnership will bring many people together. We feel that the food at our wedding should be the same way. And because mine and Keegan’s taste buds reside on completely different planets, we plan to serve many different kinds of foods—from all around the world.

We’ve come up with a sort of “Venn diagram” of food, if you will. On one table, there will be Keegan’s favorite food—Mexican. We’re not sure on the specifics of what we’ll have, but we’re thinking along the lines of things like burritos, nachos, tomales, etc. On another table, we’ll serve my favorite food—Asian. I’m hoping we can have sushi and other side dishes like spring rolls or edamame. And yet another table will feature Italian food—this is where mine and Keegan’s taste buds overlap. I thought lasagna would be a pretty good Italian dish to serve. And since I’m a vegetarian, I’d love for there to be a veggie or all-cheese lasagna in addition to Keegan’s meat lovers version. Plus, this would give my vegetarian friends some more options.

So as you can see, we’re planning on serving a wide variety of food at our wedding. It fits with our theme, our taste buds, and I think it will give people plenty of options to eat something they’ll enjoy.

I had an idea on how to decorate the tables that will be holding the food. To go along with our theme and to represent each of the different foods, I thought about either hanging a flag from that food’s country on the table or just using tablecloths in the pattern of the flag. And yes—they actually make those (although I’m having a hard time finding one for Japan—though it would be easy enough to make). See for yourself:

Irish Flag Tablecloth 

And if you were wondering, we are planning on having all of this catered, but we haven’t officially booked our caterer yet. Our university actually has its own catering branch, and because we’re students, we get discounts, which is always great! So our university’s catering service is a major contender—we just haven’t had the time to make it official yet.

Once we do figure out our catering plans, I’ll be sure to talk about them in another entry.

Again, I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy this time spent with family and friends.

-Paige

Location, Location, Location

UPDATE: Our save-the-dates came in! They’re BEAUTIFUL. I won’t give away too much, but we’re very happy with the company that made them—Wedding Paper Divas. They came way before the estimated arrival date, they turned out perfectly, and the envelopes they came with are actually more solid than I thought they would be (so we may not have to buy extra envelopes). I’m so excited! Okay, I’ll say no more—you’ll just have to see for yourself when they come to you in the mail!

Onto today’s topic: the venue.

Location is everything, right?

When it comes to our wedding, I’d tend to agree. And that’s why we’re having the ceremony (and probably reception) at our church. It’s where we met, after all. And as we’re both Christians and most of our family members are as well, it’s important to us to have our wedding at a church—preferably ours.

Here’s the thing about our church: it’s not built yet. Don’t get me wrong—our congregation is currently renting out a place in a small strip mall. But we’re working on building a new building (very exciting stuff!), and it’s not finished yet. It’s estimated that it’ll be finished in spring of 2013, but that’s cutting it a little close, and as you can imagine—it’s a little nerve-racking.

But progress has already been made—the new building has a roof now! It’s pretty exciting to pass by it and see the dreams of many coming into fruition. I know the building will be beautiful when it’s finished, and there will be lots of stories told, hearts moved, lives changed, friendships made, and celebrations to be had in our new building. I know there will be at least one celebration there—our wedding.

Although we’re not 100% certain what the interior will look like, an artist has drawn up some sketches of what the building may look like. Here, take a look for yourself:

Artist renditions by Randy Foster, Kaighn and Assoc., courtesy of Sheri Lashley and BridgeView United Methodist Church

Artist renditions by Randy Foster, Kaighn and Assoc., courtesy of Sheri Lashley and BridgeView United Methodist Church

Artist renditions by Randy Foster, Kaighn and Assoc., courtesy of Sheri Lashley and BridgeView United Methodist Church

I’ve started brainstorming about decorations, but it’s been a bit challenging since I’m not exactly sure what it will look like. But I’ve got ideas—they include candles, white Christmas lights, Japanese shoji screens, and Coheed and Cambria’s Keywork. Here’s a vague sketch of an idea I had for the main decorations during the ceremony (please forgive my lack of artistic skills):

As for the reception, this is where a lot of obstacles come into play. There are plans for a separate fellowship hall to be built in addition to the main building on down the line, but for now, the sanctuary will double as a fellowship hall. So at this point, there’s not really another place in the building where we could hold the reception. And we really don’t have the money to have our reception anywhere else. So we’re thinking we’ll hold the reception shortly after the ceremony, both being held in the sanctuary.

But there might be some challenges to that. First of all, seating—chairs or tables? Chairs are fine for the ceremony, but if we want to bring tables in for the reception (which, we will since we’re having food), that’s going to take a few extra hands to help out and a potentially long wait for the guests between the ceremony and reception. And I know how people get antsy during that time at weddings. And then there’s the food—it’ll have to be brought in and set up.

We’ve talked with our pastor and she’s made some good suggestions about all this. There will be a kitchen area that’s right off the sanctuary. If we already had the food mostly ready to go, waiting in the kitchen or in the corner of the sanctuary behind a partition or something, we could bring it in with little or no problems. But, of course, that correlates with the tables. My mom suggested having the tables already set up so that guests would sit at the tables during the ceremony as well. Although I was against the idea at first, I’m slowly warming up to it because, in reality, that would make things a lot easier.

But we’re definitely still at the brainstorming stage for all of this, so if you have any suggestions, feel free to leave a comment. Your opinion is always appreciated.

Ideas for next entry:

-Food

-Decorations

-Cake

-Honeymoon

-Your Suggestion

-Paige

Save The Date for Save-The-Dates

And… the countdown is on! We’re about to hit the six-months-out mark in December, so we’re in the middle of searching for the perfect save-the-dates. And let me tell you, it’s been a little difficult—probably a bit more difficult than it should be (but I’m extremely picky).

The thing is, I know what I want, but apparently I have expensive taste, so it’s been hard to find what I want in my price range. So I’ve slowly started accepting (although reluctantly) different ideas for our save-the-dates. But I’ll go ahead and tell you what I originally wanted. Our theme is “internationality,” and so I really liked the idea of having our save-the-dates in the form of a passport, complete with a picture of the two of us on one of our trips. But I wanted it to be authentic-looking—none of this cheesy “Passport to Love” stuff. I wanted it to actually look like a passport. And, of course, that’s pretty hard to find.

To give you an idea of what I really want (but can’t afford), here’s someone on Etsy who seems to be doing this out of their home and customizing them to your specific wants and needs:

Passport Save-The-Dates

I love them. They’re perfect. But they are NOT in my price range. Although they’re beautiful and the designer gives you LOTS of options to customize them, I still think they’re outrageously priced. Plus, they want you to pay a $50 deposit in addition to the cost of the actual save-the-dates. And the cheapest save-the-dates are $3.75—each! Frankly, I can’t afford this at all.

But here are some I found that I got ideas from but definitely wasn’t going to order:

Passport to Romance Save-The-Dates

These just look way too cheesy. I might have considered them if it weren’t for what it says on the front: “Passport to Romance.” Seriously. Gag me with a pitch fork. And if I feel like gagging, then why wouldn’t our guests who receive these want to gag? Plus, I wouldn’t really say Keegan and I are romantic (although I like romantic literature and ballet—not the genre, the time period). So romantic + cheesy = not us.

This is about as romantic as we get. And this was five years ago.

Well, I guess we can look romantic when we want to. Many thanks go to London for the use of this photo!

I’ve seen a lot of save-the-date magnets lately, and I know they’re gaining popularity. But I really like the concept—they’re not going to get lost in someone’s pile of junk mail since they can conveniently stick on the fridge all year ‘round, and it can be a keepsake for the guest. So when I did a Google search for “passport save-the-dates” I ran into this: (by the way, it’s that easy. If you’re looking for something and you’re not quite sure where to find it, all you have to do is type it into Google. You may or may not find what you’re looking for, but it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll get some good ideas if you look long enough.)

Passport To Love Save-The-Date Magnets

These are a good size and a decent price, I think. I did a little research on them and found out that the colors, fonts, and pictures are all customizable, so that’s a plus. And of course you get to add a personal picture, and that’s something I really wanted to include in our save-the-dates.

Passport To Love Save-The-Date Mini Magnet

These are the “mini” version of the same design. We measured them out on a piece of paper and they’re actually really small. And while they don’t exactly look like a passport (do they look like a passport to you?), I like the format (and the pricing) of the smaller magnets better than the larger size. But if I really wanted to make our picture noticeable, I don’t think I could really do that with these since they’re so small.

I also ran into these:

Love Airways Save-The-Date Magnet

I really love this format. And yes, it’s not what I originally wanted, but I think they’re pretty cute. The only problem I have with these is that I think they’re going to make people think we’re having a destination wedding, which we’re not. So I don’t want to give people the wrong idea about the location of our wedding (especially since you don’t normally include the location on the save-the-dates). What do you think? If you got this from a distant relative that you don’t know very well, would you think their wedding was going to be a destination wedding? I honestly could be overanalyzing things, but that’s just what I do (I’m a writer, after all).

So I think these are some major contenders. But unfortunately, I don’t think anything will measure up to the ones I found from that designer on Etsy.

Please, please, please feel free to comment—hearing your opinions on this will help me make a decision (and I need to make one pronto!). If you have any suggestions, questions, or other advice, I’d love to talk with you. Your opinions are always appreciated.

Ideas for next week’s entry:

-Bridal shows

-Cookware/China

-Food

-Invitations

-Paige