Concerning wedding cakes...

 THE CAKE. A spectacular and fundamental element of any wedding reception. Also the subject of numerous traditions...

First of all, there was 1) the cutting of the cake.

I remember posing for the picture with the knife in hand, and then came the arduous task of breaking through the fondant. The first cut was perfect - Matthew's strength was probably the biggest factor, since when I tried to complete the second cut on my own, crumbs went everywhere - on my face, on my dress, on the floor. In addition to showering the room with crumbs, I had apparently forgotten basic rule no. #1 of cake slicing, which states that your second cut needs to somehow meet up with your first cut in order to create a piece.


After a few more unsuccessful stabs, I attempted to flip out my "piece" with the brilliant method of shoving the cake server under the entire bottom layer and levering it up, a tragic, ill-fated endeavor that only resulted in more crumbs being sprayed on the carpet. At this point the slice I was determined to carve out had been mutilated past recognition, yet still the camera was waiting to take the shot of us feeding each other. The crowd was restless. I began to panic. In the end, I grabbed what I could with my fingers, like a savage, and applied myself to the next rite of passage - 2) the sharing of the first slice.

Plates are for WUSSES

We began the rite of feeding each other, finger-style (though I was so flustered that I probably would have used the cake server if someone had handed it to me). Fortunately for the pictures, the frosting on our cake was hardened, chewy fondant, and our fingers and faces were barely smudged at all. People cheered, I started to relax, and we happily defied that rogue, uncouth custom of smashing the cake in each other's faces (the topic had come up several months preceding our engagement: He was agreeable to whatever I wanted, and I was ADAMANT that NO CAKE WOULD BE SMASHED). P.S. If you're reading this and you happened to have done this at your wedding or you intend to do so at your wedding, no hard feelings. I mean, that's why you're not marrying me, savvy?


So! The cake had been cut and we had eaten a bite. Well, maybe more than a bite. Probably six or seven bites. We were really hungry all during the reception but were so busy being the bride and groom during the 2.5 hours that we were there that we only got to sample a tiny portion of the refreshments on our way out the door (by that point, all the good stuff had already been consumed, naturally). Ah, well; at least I can recreate the food with pictures, right?

Anyway, after scrounging down that piece of cake like two half-starved orphans, we proceeded to take pictures of all the other wedding traditions (garter, bouquet, dancing, hugging our parents and crying like it was our last day on Earth), and we left for our honeymoon. I almost thought it was the last we would see of our gorgeously decorated-to-PERFECTION wedding cake.

But no! When we came back from our honeymoon, we found the top layer of our cake waiting for us. It was so beautiful. And cute. And delicious-smelling. And . . . BIG. It dominated our tiny freezer for a few days, until we decided to break tradition and eat it on our honeymoon, rather than 3) waiting for a year to eat it on our first anniversary. I KNOW. We are such rebels.

But, rather than saving the cake, we saved the pictures, and I now post them, a year later, in honor of our first layer of cake, which was beautiful and tasty enough to deserve to be saved.

White grape juice and cake: Honeymoon diet

HAPPY FAKE ANNIVERSARY!

So in love we close our eyes when we kiss...

Matthew looking so cute

Odd mixture of classy and goofy

We love our left ears!

Maybe had a little too much to drink?

Family Portrait: Matthew, Me, Cakey, Bottle

Artsy!

Okay, now actually trying to cut

And THAT'S how you cut a slice! Future brides, take note.

Experienced wedding cake cutter/eater

The last known photo of Cakey

The One Year Mark

Today, it has been 373 days since our wedding. I know this because of this handy little website about our stories that I created last year that came with a countdown (which is now, awesomely, a countup). So, last Monday was our one-year anniversary, in addition to being Memorial Day (which, to be honest, we completely and regrettably ignored). After one year of marriage, we absolutely still feel like newlyweds, and are excited for many more years of new surprises, excitement, and happiness together.

And now for the day itself. I wanted to have a very private, special day with just me and Matthew doing everything together, but the universe had greater things in store for me. Here's how it went:

First, we began with a delicious gourmet meal of pancakes and hash browns, obviously prepared by the hands of a professional, and served to us with entertainment provided by Modern Family, Season 1.

Can you figure out which knee belongs to Matthew and which is mine? You may be surprised!

We spent the morning reminiscing about the last year (mostly about May 28 of the last year), and then Matthew left for his four-hour internship. Giving me ample time to direct my staff in recreating our wedding reception decorations.

"Fun!" pictures

"Pretty" pictures

"Fill the big white empty wall" pictures

Still blooming after a year! JUST LIKE OUR LOVE!!!

Our colors this year are red and blue - Surprise!

The present, which came home with Matthew, turned out to be the game Twister, which I happened to mention recently as being one favorite game from my childhood that I was sorry to have lost track of somehow over the years. We totally played like three rounds that night. There were several hotly contested debates over the rules, which makes this a very passionate gift.

Our anniversary culminated with a delicious dinner that cost a fortune and took our experienced chef several hours of sweat, blood, and tears to create. Good thing the result was fabulous!

Italian Bake: Too yummy to wait to cut until your wife - I mean, le chef - takes a picture.

A romantic, private, luxurious dinner followed...

 

During which an entire bottle of grape juice-flavored-fizzy-drink (inadvertently - and all the more likely providentially - saved for exactly an entire year from our wedding date) was enjoyed.

ENJOYED, I SAY!

After dinner came dessert, fruit and dip, which we had dined on every day during our real honeymoon (there was a lot of leftover fruit from our wedding luncheon).

Not pictured: Totally unhealthy fruit dip

As to the fate of the top layer of our wedding cake, it shall be revealed in a future post.

With food, presents, and dessert taken care of, you may ask, What more could two people want? Good question, Tevye. Turns out, a lot more. For one, the anniversary festivities could not be complete without that most extravagant and traditional of romantic gestures known as THE FANTASY SUITE.

Theme: "?"

Earlier this year, we had thought of going to the Anniversary Inn (where we spent our wedding night) in Salt Lake City for our first anniversary; I was mainly intrigued by remembering how good the complimentary cheesecake was, and by the excitement of picking a wild, exotic themed room to spend the night in. Eventually, however, we decided to go the cheap do-it-yourself route. Though I teased Matthew with the idea of a Twilight-theme, it was actually pretty obvious to me what theme to pick. And that theme was.... JUNGLE/SAHARA/DON'T JUDGE. Mainly because I had lots of stuffed animals and a lot of brown blankets close to hand.

ROMANTIC

Matthew liked it, so there.

After the fantasy suite was revealed, there was one final surprise... I put on my wedding dress again, for the first time since my wedding day. It was a little difficult to zip myself up without help, but it still was a perfect fit (woo-hoo!), and Matthew was inspired enough to attempt to dress up in part of a suit coat to complete the vision.

I love how the veil disguised my short hair.

TWUE LOVE!

And so ended our first anniversary. It was a wonderful day, spent with (or thinking about) my favorite person in the whole world. Every day I love my husband more and more, and I love that we are an eternal family together forever. Here's to our being crazy about each other forever and ever too!