Let Them Eat Cake

 source

Ah, cake.  Mary Antoinette said it best.  Full of creamy, buttery sugar and fluffy carbs.  Yum!  This past weekend, we met up with our baker extraordinaire and brainstormed our ideas for our wedding cake.  I knew what I liked.  Of course, Pat had to put in his two cents.

At first, I had suggested cupcakes.  He didn’t like that idea because he felt it wasn’t as traditional.  I was cool with either.  Originally, I suggested cupcakes because it would save on cake cutting costs (for those who do not know, caterers often charge a cake cutting fee, per slice, to cut and serve your cake!).  After meeting with our caterer, we were informed that the cake cutting fee was included, so having a traditional cake was still on the table.  (hee hee yes... on the table!!! … bear with me, wedding planning is stressful.)

I showed Pat a few sample images of cakes that I liked:

Source: Image 1, Image 2, Image 3

He hated the look of the thin layer, particularly a square or rectangle one, with a round layer on top.  He said it looked like a top hat!  Of course, as soon as he said that, that’s ALL I saw.  Decorated top hats!

So we continued to brainstorm, and thanks to our baker, we came up with some great ideas that made us both happy.  The top and the bottom will be round and the middle layer will be square, with rounded edges, but not too thin, to avoid the top hat look!  Three different flavors will be incorporated into the cake: chocolate coffee for the top, lemon vanilla for the middle, and finally, red velvet cream cheese for the bottom layer.  And it will all be covered in white butter cream, with beautiful gold dots of fondant streaming down each cake layer.  Simple, elegant, but gorgeous.

My cousin Annick will be making the cake topper, and we have a beautiful silver tray that Patrick’s parents gave us to put the cake on.  They received the tray as a wedding gift when they got married and their names and wedding date are engraved on it.  We’ll be adding our names and date on it too.  I can’t wait to see it all come together!  m.

 

Entertainment for the People

Since I was a young girl, I have always loved watching lion dancers perform in Chinatown.  My parents used to bring us every fall to watch them.  The firecrackers, the drums... it is such a lively and energetic show.  Every time I watch a performance, it makes me proud to be of Chinese decent.  Having them perform at the wedding would be wonderful.  It is such a great tradition.

Lion dance

I also want to incorporate a Mauritian sega show, another part of our heritage.  This involves a few performers in traditional Mauritian sega clothing and is very festive.

Sega dance

“The sega is both the national dance and musical form of Mauritius. Introduced by African slaves during the French colonial period, the sega is an exotic, often erotic dance. Women in colorful skirts twirl and undulate, using graceful hand and arm motions while their feet shuffle along the ground.” source

Of course, both of these shows cost a pretty penny.  Pat thinks these are unnecessary expenses.  Obviously, they are not essential, but I think they could bring some nice cultural elements to the wedding.  It could come down to decor versus entertainment.  We’ll need to think about this one...  m.

The Batmobile wasn't available...

So Mel put me in charge of transportation for the wedding.  Great! I thought this was going to be a fun and easy job. I get to go find awesome cars to rent for the wedding day.  I was pretty gun-ho about the whole thing and was shocked about how expensive it could be! So here’s a summation of our thought process and what we’ve decided to do in the end.


Option #1 - Let’s rent a limo!  So do we rent a stretch limo or stretch SUV?  Mel informed me that her dress is somewhat poofy and so I thought to make things easier I’ll rent the stretch SUV.  FYI - there are dozens of website for renting a limo in Montreal and each offer various perks.  The ballpark cost for a limo + driver is $150 per hour + gratuity.  Oh and I forgot to mention, that rate is only applicable if you rent for a minimum of 4 hours!  So that`s $600 + gratuity to drive us around our home town.... hmmmmmm.... no thanks!

Option #2 - Rent an exotic SUV... maybe that Hummer or that blinged out Escalade... Nothing says making an entrance like showing up at the church in vehicle meant for the army or coming in all gangster in my rap mobile.  Ironically, it was quite difficult to find renting agencies for both those cars.  When I did find a few and checked out the quotes, they were just as expensive as renting the limo... so that option was axed.

Option #3 - Contact private owners of exotic luxury cars to chauffeur us around for the afternoon.  I contacted this one fellow who owns a 1957 Chevy Belair with a dropped suspension.... why you would make the classic car a low rider is beyond me, but meh, to each their own...  Anyways, I was pretty excited about this option and quickly informed Mel, to which she asked.... does it have A/C?  I responded... it’s a classic car, the A/C is on when the car is in convertible mode.  After much rational arguing, Mel made a good case that A/C should be one of the criteria since it may be quite warm in June... so bye bye to option number 3.


Option #4 - As the batmobile was not available for the day (can you believe that?) we decided to rent a luxury car from our local car company (AVIS, Budget, Discount, Enterprise, etc...).  After shopping around for prices, the best bang for your buck is AVIS or Budget (price differs by only $20).  The only downside to this option is that we won’t know what model or colour the car will be until I go pick it up at the rental place.  The upside, for half the price it would cost me to rent a limo, I’m going to get a nice luxury car for the entire weekend! 


-- P

Double Rainbow - So Intense!

I know, you have the double rainbow song stuck in your head now

Yes, there are so many colours in the rainbow to choose from.  And settling on a select few was quite a tough decision for me.  I say “me” because Pat’s only request was that he did not want any pink.

I had visions of pale yellow dresses for the ladies and light gray suits for the gents.  Then I realized that yellow was not exactly an easy colour for Asian skin tones - you kind of have to be tanned for it to look buttery and soft.  Or else, you risked looking washed out.  And no one wants their ladies to look sickly.

I had always loved the colour purple.  The trick was to find a shade that was not too Barney-the-dinosaur, but rather, rich and jeweled-toned.  Not easy to find bridesmaid (aka BM) dresses with that description that were also affordable.  And re-wearable.

Not what I wanted our BMs to look like

So I began my search of BM dresses.  I scoured the malls during my lunch hour, looking for plausible options.  I reviewed the paint chips of the colours we had collected.  Purple-ish coloured dresses kept being saved in my folders.  Then, when I showed my mom some of the images, she said, “Yes, these are nice - they are a nice blue.”  Blue?  Really?  Not deep purple?  Or jeweled mauve?  That got me thinking.  Perhaps it was always the colour blue that I was attracted to.  I pondered this and expanded my search to include blue.

The inspiration did not hit me until I was searching for our first dance song.  A blogger noted that for their first dance, they danced to “Written in the Stars”, by Westlife.  I Googled the lyrics and YouTubed the music - it was beautiful!  That’s when I realized that I wanted our theme to be Under the Stars in an Asian garden.  And blue dresses would work perfectly!  Of course, Pat didn’t like the song... so we will not have it as our first dance.  But, our wedding theme and colour combination was born.

 

Westlife: Pat thinks they’re too cheese-y 

All this to say that our wedding colours are electric blue and deep purple, with hints of silver/gray, gold and a pop of red to represent the Chinese in us.

Previous brides and brides-to-be: was it hard choosing your colours?  Did you have a hard time? m.

"You've got 7 months to go!"

It's going to be almost a year since Pat proposed, and wedding planning is in high gear.

TheKnot.com recently sent me my monthly reminder.  You've got 7 months to go!, reads the subject header.  They recommend choosing bridesmaid dresses this month.  Woohoo - done!  We bought our ladies electric blue beauties that they can wear again.  No really, they can.  You'll see.  Finding bridesmaid dresses stressed me out more than looking for my own dress actually.

 

(print screen of email from theKnot.com)

They also mention the planning of the rehearsal dinner and finding a hairstyle as key to-dos.  I totally forgot about the rehearsal dinner.  I clicked on the link in the email from theKnot.com to check out their tips - wow.  Some people go to a restaurant and plan all kinds of things.  It's like a mini reception!  That's way too much for us.  Hmmm.

The last to-do this month is to find a "Hot Wedding Day Hairstyle".  I find the adjective "Hot" kind of strange in front of "Wedding Day Hairstyle".  I suppose I am on the right track - I have about a zillion hair images saved on my computer.  Although I don't know if I would qualify any of them as "hot"...

This blog, A Wedding In Progress, will chronicle Pat and Mel's experience in planning our wedding.  We hope that you enjoy reading it!  m.