I really wanted to write a detailed account of the wedding. It was such a beautiful day, and I'd like to remember it as best I can. Since I haven't had time to fulfull that wish, I'm at least going to write some quickies to help jog my memory later on.
My brother came out early, and we took him to the Shedd Aquarium, Art of Pizza, and other important Chicago landmarks. Because it was so close to the wedding, it wasn't quite as easy-going a trip as we hope for. Next time will be relaxed, really.
We arrived in Kalamazoo on Wednesday. Basically my entire pre-wedding experience was going to revolve around making the cake, so I was mobilizing my mind the whole time thinking about when I should do all the different things: the raspberry sauce, the layers, where I should build it, how I should build it, and so on.
As it turns out, the only cake stuff I did that day was the raspberry sauce. Imagine taking three bags of frozen raspberries and turning them into six ounces of super-concentrated sauce. It's like a raspberry black hole; nothing escapes its gravity.
The other big task for this first day was figuring out who we had to pick up, and when. There really weren't that many people we had to worry about. Most had rented cars and found their hotel on their own, but we managed to pick up all the ones who hadn't done one or the other (Josh and Mary, Dave and Ross).
For me, this was the day of baking the layers. Six layers of chocolatey goodness, in six, nine, and twelve inch rounds. With a Kitchenaid mixer, it turns out to be a lot less work. It's still a lot to do, but not nearly as much as with a hand mixer. If I ever make another wedding cake, I'll need to buy one of these mixers first.
We picked up our tuxes, picked up friends, picked up the mess from the cakes, and got ready for Gender-Segregated Fun And Games, as we lovingly called our bachelor and bachelorette parties.
The bachelor party was kept a secret from me. For now, I'll just say it involved going out to a cabin in the middle of the woods, building a fire, and being dumb. Not necessarily in that order. There was also ice cream.
At this point, we still hadn't quite written our vows.
The day before was a very stressful day for me, stretching from nine in the morning to two the following morning. We were pretty sure the weather was going to turn out okay, even though it had been a little gloomy, sometimes wet, most of the week. The rental equipment was arranged for the following morning, the food was ready, the band was arranged, the families and wedding party were in town.
The cake, however, wasn't done. That was the only thing I wanted to see done, but I wasn't able to start until two in the afternoon or so because of the craziness. I wanted to crawl into a burrow with my vat of buttercream frosting and layers of cake, and just work. Things don't really work that way.
I worked on it at the Sauck's house while family and friends arrived for the rehearsal, giving the evil eye to anyone that tried to talk to me. Couldn't they see I was under the gun? It may have been a gun I was pointing at myself, but a gun it was. My blood pressure wasn't helped by the fact that the cake bible's recipe for frosting for the cake wasn't enough. I couldn't believe it -- the frosting recipe for a nine inch cake makes twice as much as I need, and the recipe for a full wedding cake wasn't nearly enough. I'd have to go back to the Bigelows' house and bring back more frosting. Sigh.
I took a break for the rehearsal, and we worked out the details with Julie about where everyone should stand, walk, and everything. We did a dry run and it looked lovely. The only problem was Julie's wireless microphone not working. The rental company gave us a really bad one, so Eric (who does sound work at the Bigelows' church) offered to bring one from there. That turned out to work much better.
After the rehearsal, we went to dinner. I resigned myself to finishing the cake that night instead of before, and to just relax until I had to start again. The dinner was also lovely -- we had about thirty guests, including my dear friend Mary who was living in Tucson at the time, and arrived about halfway through. Lisa and I gave our gifts to the wedding party: she gave necklaces, I gave Zippo lighters with engraved nicknames (nicknames Lisa and I made up when we bought them, like Davey Ze Shark, and Josh the Knife). The food was good, the company was better.
I returned that night at about nine or ten to finish building and frosting the cake. The vanilla buttercream that I used to decorate the edges was melting in the bag, making very sloppy shells along the edge, so I tried freezing it for a couple minutes. It reacted quickly, becoming impossible to pipe. Five seconds in the microwave was too much, melting it again. I couldn't win. Eventually I got the right combination to make it workable. I finally finished at 1:30 in the morning, and Elen and her daughters were still going on their food, making candy grapes and all kinds of goodies. I don't know when they went to bed, but I went back, collapsing at two.
The wedding morning was gloomy, grey clouds hanging over everything, looking morose. Fortunately, as the morning went on things cleared up, and by the time we got started, it was absolutely beautiful, sunny, and warm.
The wedding day was about as perfect as I could imagine. Lisa was beautiful as always (but more so), the men were dashing, the women were lovely, the atmosphere was full of love. Except for forgetting the order of the vows (only about 8 lines, so I decided to try to memorize them) and the ring not fitting on my swollen finger (I wore it on my pinky), everything went smoothly. We didn't even spill water on ourselves with the wedding vase.
It was the best start to a marriage I think anyone has ever had.
After we wed, ate, took pictures, tried to talk to everyone, played drums with the band, and made merry, we went back to the Bigelows' for a light dinner. As evening drew near, Lisa and I were very much longing to sleep. Carly, hearing our tired bones creaking, decided we needed some exercise. She escaped minutes before we were to leave for our hotel, and started chasing rabbits and squirrels throughout the neighborhood. Some of us chased her around, while others waited at the house, calling her. After about fifteen minutes she came back home, but unfortunately those of us in the search party were too far away to hear. We gave up after forty minutes, returning home to find Carly was already there. Running around in the cool night air had given me a slightly sore throat, but otherwise all was well.
Lisa and I drove the hotel, got our room, and collapsed.
Many people came back to the Chez Bigelow for a brunch of wedding leftovers and other yummies. We got the chance to sit around and talk with some of the friends we had only seen a little in the whirlwind of the wedding reception, and generally relax. After eating, people gradually left, and everyone was gone by the middle of the afternoon. It was truly an empty nest.
Driving back to Chicago that evening was good and bad. We were relieved to have finally made it to the wedding, but it was hard to see all these people we love for such a short and busy time. It would be great to draw everyone together for a big, week- or month-long party to have more time to spend with each person. In the absense of that, we'll just have to wait for Christmas and New Year's parties.
Weddings are great expressions of love, both between the bride and groom, and among all the guests. We always thought the expression The Happiest Day Of Your Life was forced, but this may have been just that.