Lu had class today (with homework due), so while our mini-moon is officially over, I'm still basking in the newlywed glow.

Since we're in the awkward in between stage, some of my posts will be broken into two parts: my real-life updates and wedding recaps. Hopefully, that'll help fill you in on the wedding and stay up-to-date with our marriage.

Real-life Update:
Today, I went to the Social Security office and the DMV to start the name change process, and it was actually fairly painless! I think the key is to go mid-week after the morning rush but before the lunch crowd trickles in because I waited less than 5 minutes at each office.... This means that I'm legally Ashley Reid Brown. Wow!

Time to start the onslaught of legal documentation that needs to be changed, but I'll handle that soon enough. In the meantime, I've got to clean up the house a bit and cook dinner. How domestic of me, right? lol

The reality is that I can't mentally de-stress in a messy house. That means everything needs to be in its place before I can start getting back to my normal routine... which brings me to dinner. I haven't cooked in at least two weeks. I'm sick of take out, microwave dinners, and even going to restaurants. I just want some food from my stove. And leftovers. Yes, I miss leftovers.

Wedding Recap:

While the wedding was amazing, I mentioned that there were several things that I didn't plan for in the days and hours leading up to it. Although, it all worked out in the end, these were some things that made me, Ms. Super-Planner, a bit edgy:

-- Shoe Switch-a-roo: The guys wore really cool black and white spectator shoes for the wedding. However, my sisters decided to change my father's shoes to all black a few days before he picked up his tux... without asking me. Since Lu's dad got black and white shoes, it would've thrown off the whole look. One call to Men's Wearhouse, and it was straightened out.

-- Snarky "Friends": While most people have been extremely understanding about our budget and guest list constraints, I had a few "friends" send me really weird texts along the lines of:

• "Are you getting married this weekend?! My invite must have gotten lost in the mail." [No, I just haven't seen you since 2006 and have only gotten random spam emails from you in the last two years. Therefore, I have no idea what your address is.]
• "Woooow! The wedding's so soon. I can't believe you didn't tell me. I thought we were so close." [If we were, wouldn't we have talked in the last six months??]
• "So I can't come to your wedding anyway, but if I would have been invited, then I would've sent a gift." [Darn! I forgot Bed, Bath, & Beyond required proof of invitation to give a gift! I wonder how our friends and family who got us gifts anyway because they care about us as a couple and are excited about our union got around that?]
• "If you want to invite people who are 'close' to you as a couple, then you shouldn't put so much of your business on Facebook and in your blog. That way people will know their real place in your life." [Whoa. Stalk much?]

Of course, instead of telling people what I really wanted to say, I gave the standard, "We both have big families and are working with a small budget, so we limited our list to people who have played a key role in our development as a couple." Quite frankly, in none of the above situations did the senders even say "Congratulations," so they're lucky they got an explanation at all.

-- Not-so Smarty Had a Party: Lu and I ordered our cake plates through a company called Smarty Had a Party. We received one case of 150 with silver trim and one pack of 15 with gold trim. They overnighted the correct plates the day before the wedding... which means that we didn't get them until everyone had already left for the ceremony the day of.  I really appreciated their effort, but the company called me FOUR times the day before our wedding to apologize. I had bigger concerns than cake plates!

-- HIV Testing at the Church: When I went to show Ms. P and Ms. S the church, we found out that the church was having HIV testing at the same day/time as the wedding. I'm all for knowing your status, but "Are you here for the wedding or for testing?" is an awkward question for guests!

-- T-Bone Scare (not the steak): Ms. P, Ms. S, and I almost got into a potentially fatal car accident a few hours before the rehearsal dinner when a teen driver decided to run a stop sign. I thank God for my quick instincts and empty lane beside me on the road because we were inches away from a serious accident.

-- Green Cake?!: Our rehearsal dinner cake was supposed to represent Spelman, Morehouse, and the University of Michigan. When we discussed it with the baker, she talked about having the symbols for Spelman and Morehouse with little "M"s around the sides for Michigan..... Instead, we got a football cake. I don't know what happened, or if she just took the "groom's cake" idea a little too far, but we were not expecting a football field at our rehearsal dinner! (Sorry hardcore Michigan fans.) It tasted delicious, and our wedding cake was gorgeous -- and elegant -- the next day. However, Ms. L had to step in and calm me down when I saw that green cake. 


-- Rehearsal Smackdown: Okay, so that's a little misleading. The church came with a coordinator, and we had two directors to make sure all of the behind-the-scenes things ran smoothly.  On the day of the rehearsal, there were a few debates about how things should be done and why -- who stands where, who walks when, etc.. However, it all turned out great in the end.

-- Bachelor/Bachelorette Party Rules Broken: Lu went to a club with the guys and had a bit too much to drink. My girls got me a stripper, complete with the police officer outfit.... And to protect the innocent, all other details on both ends will be private!

-- Check Engine... Five Hours Before the Wedding: My car's check engine light has only come on once, and the car literally conked out on me in the parking lot of the mechanic's office. Therefore, when the light came on the morning of my wedding, while taking Ms. N to her hair appointment, I freaked. We got lost getting to the Metro station, I was almost late getting my hair done, and I was sitting at the mechanic two hours before the ceremony not knowing whether we'd be able to start our honeymoon on Sunday or not.

But through it all, God is good.... The truth is that no matter how much planning you do, unexpected things will happen. However, knowing the way that things are "supposed to be" and having everything organized will enable you to get through the potentially-stressful times with a smile on your face.

WE'RE GOING WITH COTTON'S GOURMET!!!!!

I got an email from Gary (the director of hospitality at our reception venue) yesterday, and I just got off the phone with Cotton confirming our switch in bakers. :-)

The design consultation with Cotton was totally different than with our previous baker. At the first bakeshop, the consultation was really detailed. We talked about cake shape, cake flavors, what color cake we wanted, she wanted to see pictures of cake designs we were considering, she took pictures of the bouquet, and I even gave her fabric swatches of the dress. I was definitely confident that she'd make a great cake for us -- mostly because we pretty much designed the whole thing.

This time, things were different. We discussed the theme of the wedding, my dress, our flowers/boutonnieres, how much color we wanted on the cake, and any details that we liked. Cotton took notes, and is going to just go with it.

And you know what? My micro-managing, detail-oriented, "Can we please also document this conversation in an email?" self is totally fine with her taking the lead!

I'm a big fan of shows like Cake Boss, so I'm excited to get my own big reveal. With Mrs. Oliver, I think I would've have been more worried about the cake being "exactly the way we discussed." With Cotton, I'm looking forward to seeing what she puts together. I know it'll be colorful, I know it'll be vintage, and I think it'll have some feathers. We'll see!

Cotton is also going to do our Spelman/Morehouse/UMich groom's cake for the rehearsal dinner, so that will be like our "preview" of the next day.

Now the hard part, which flavors to choose?! (Yes, yes. Sweet potato will definitely be one!)

The wedding package that Lu and I booked through the Atrium came with a baker that we loved. In June, we did our cake tasting and were totally wowed by the choices and creativity. We checked another item off of our to do list and moved on.

.... Or so we thought. When we contacted our baker, Mrs. Oliver, to let her know that we'd be having closer to 165 guests, she told us that the cake that came with our package was for 100 people and that we'd be charged $200+ to add servings to our cake.

We told her that he hadn't been informed of that when we signed the contract. Sorry, but that was the agreement with the Atrium.

We asked about having a less elaborate cake that served more people. No.

We asked about having a two-tier cake instead. No.

Time out.

When we signed our contract, we were told that the cost for each additional guest over the 100 people that the package covered was $16. Apparently, this cost was just for catering -- not for the cake. But since every guest wants a piece of wedding cake (even if they don't eat the whole thing), we contacted Gary and let him know the situation.

We asked what he could do about this unexpected expense. If nothing, then we suggested that he raise the package price to an extra $20/guest for future brides. (When you're signing a contract for $11,500, an extra $200 is nothing. When you're eight weeks away from the date, every penny counts!)

Gary immediately apologized and recommended another baker, Cotton's Gourmet, and promised that her cakes were delicious. Within 20 minutes of receiving the email response from Gary, I got a call from Cotton.

Cotton was professional and courteous, and she had that "old friend" quality about her. We talked about the wedding, we talked about flavors, and she insured us that she could do a cake for 165 people plus an anniversary cake for us. I was so happy about Cotton that we set up a tasting for the following weekend.

Then I went home, looked at her website... and fell in love. Not only were her cakes beautiful and unique (no cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all design), but her flavors sounded amazing: sweet potato poundcake, caramel apple, chocolate, hazelnut, pina colada, peachy keen, almond poppyseed -- and the list goes on. We were so excited to meet Cotton and have our tasting.

One of Cotton's fall-themed cakes with a coordinating anniversary cake. How cute is that?!

One problem: By this point, our initial baker had decided that she could do the cake for 160 people at no extra charge after all.  Gary told us that he would prefer it if we stuck with Mrs. Oliver since she'd decided to be accommodating, even if it was belated, but he would definitely just swallow any cancellation fees if we went with Cotton.

Gary's been great, so we didn't want to saddle him with an extra fee. We also definitely enjoyed our initial tasting with Mrs. Oliver, and we'd already had our menu cards printed. It just made more sense to stick with her and maybe just use one of Cotton's cakes for our rehearsal dinner the night before.

That is, until we had our tasting.

Lu and I changed our mind almost immediately after taking the first bite of Cotton's sweet potato poundcake. We literally devoured four cupcakes in five minutes -- including one flavor called Wacky Tacky Watermelon. (Who would've thought a watermelon cake would be so good?!)

The carrot cake was amazing, the strawberries and cream was delicious, and the sweet potato poundcake was quite possibly the best cake that I've ever had in my life. And trust me, I've had a whole lot of cake!

We were so impressed with Cotton's cake and her attitude -- so accommodating and down-to-earth -- that we called her back to thank her again for how delicious everything was, and we decided that we wanted her to do our wedding cake.

But we found out that Gary had already sent a check for our wedding cake to Mrs. Oliver. :-(

We're hoping -- more like praying really hard -- that the check can be applied to another Atrium client's bill, and that Cotton will be the baker for our wedding. She's absolutely amazing as both a baker and as a person.

Who cares if we have to get our menu cards reprinted?! We just have to share her dessert with as many people as possible.

In my last post, I left off with Lu and me finishing the Bride and Groom Challenge and sucessfully making it to Maryland. Instead of going straight home, we detoured to see our photographer and baker. Since Lu's latest obsession is photography, then I'll leave that post to him. However, since my lifelong obsession is dessert, then I get to share the details about our cake tasting and design.

We arrived at the bakery at about 3:00 pm, a few hours after lunch, and just in time for a late-afternoon sugar fix. Whew! Did we ever get one at Mrs. Oliver's Cakes!

When we walked in the door, we were greeted by Toni, the owner of the bakery and a variety of samples, including: lemon cake with lemon curd filling, chocolate cake filled with coconut, chocolate filled with chocolate buttercream, almond filled with buttercream, red velvet with cream cheese, and butter rum with almond icing.


After trying to daintily take a forkful of each -- at least I was, Lu was shamelessly enjoying everything -- we got down to details.

I didn't realize how important it was to try to bring everything from the wedding into the cake design. I thought it'd be a matter of just selecting colors and a design that looks cool. Of course, you can select a cake that way, but it's fun to pull in the parts you want to highlight.

In addition to talking about cake flavors and round vs. square layers, we really sat down and discussed a way to make our cake be a mini, edible representation of our wedding. I brought in fabric swatches of the bridesmaids and junior bridesmaids dresses with me, as well as a sample bouquet with our flower colors. I'd also emailed Toni the previous week with our inspiration board and pictures of my dress.

To summarize what we came up with in one sentence: I'm in love with our cake.

The cake is going to be covered in yellow fondant with rouching to complement my wedding dress. The rouching will be joined with edible brooches to pull in the vintage theme. Our "topper" will be a cluster of burgundy, yellow, and orange sugar flowers, and there will also be a few flowers on each of the three layers. The base of each layer will have a white fondant "ribbon" around it, dotted with fondant pearls. Finally, if it doesn't look too busy, there will be a lace pattern (similar to the one below, also in the fondant) in the background.



The cake will look almost too good to eat, but wait until you hear about the flavors we selected:

Bottom Layer: Lemon Cake with Raspberry Filling
Middle Layer: Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Filling
Top Layer: Chocolate Cake with Kahlua Filling

It's going to be absolutely delicious! I was a bit worried about the fondant taking away from the flavor. After all, most fondant tastes like play-doh. (Who cares how pretty the cake is if it tastes like something you ate when you were in first grade?!) However, Toni was adamant that the fondant that she uses actually blends into the cake. Still skeptical, she let us sample the fondant with the cake, and she was right! Instead of play-doh, the fondant tastes more like marshmallows. Yuummmmm!!!

Maybe we'll start a new wedding tradition by eating the cake first....