Well, folks, this is it… the last photo recap of our wedding. Next, I’ll share with you our budget breakdown, and then it’s on to our Zihuatanejo honeymoon. After that, who knows!

My first detail recap showed you the people and accessories that gave celebration special warmth and feeling.

Today’s post focuses on some of the details that made our wedding unique: DIY projects, decorations, food and beverage, transportation, et cetera. I’ve picked lots of colorful photos to share each detail with you and, wherever possible, linked you to my past posts with more information or other external resources. Enjoy!

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Filed under: Ambiance, Cake, Flowers, Food & Drink, Handmade, Music, Paper Goods & Favors, Photos, Recap on March 26th, 2009 | 2 Comments »

After a delicious dinner and wonderful toasts, we slipped momentarily away for some private portraits, some of which you saw earlier, and more of which I will show you later. (As luck would have it, the pouring rain stopped just as we finished eating!) Then, we hurried back to the reception tent, where our delectable desserts were waiting for us: A vanilla-huckleberry cake with buttercream frosting and mini cherry & huckleberry tartlets, all made fresh by the famous bakery at the Polebridge Mercantile.

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Filed under: Cake, Photos, Recap on March 9th, 2009 | 3 Comments »

September, in the remote, Northwest reaches of Montana, our wedding was about to start.

While I waited in the wings for the processional to play, dramatic clouds boiled and broke overhead, throwing the mountains into sun and shadows, sprinkling us with the lightest of showers…

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Filed under: Cake, Music, Recap, Wedding Party on February 17th, 2009 | 2 Comments »

After our cocktail hour it was time to head to the tent for dinner: a Polebridge-catered buffet of baked ruby trout, buffalo tri-tip, grilled veggies, herbed potatoes, fresh-baked bread, garlic noodles, and organic salad greens. YEEEE-HAW!!

Our guests were getting restless, hungry, and probably a bit drunk off the “purple stuff,” so our coordinators led them back to the tent when the buffet was ready. But we were so engrossed in taking photos that we didn’t notice our allotted hour had passed! Everyone had been helping themselves to the buffet for more than a few minutes when one of the team though to come get us. Oops!

We took a few more pics, and might have been tempted to use up the last of the waning light, when it started to rain. The timing was perfect. The rain forced us into the tent and the tent walls were closed behind us, just as it started to ABSOLUTELY POUR.

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Filed under: Cake, Food & Drink, Photos, Recap, Weather on November 25th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Justin and I have been struggling with what to do about a wedding cake and all because of our desserty namesake.

The problem is that neither of us are huge fans of wedding cake. I mean, we enjoy cake, but not any more than other desserts, and we can’t think of a wedding cake that we’ve ever enjoyed that much. If there’s one thing that Justin loves, however, it’s… cherry pie.

He’s been generally ambivalent about wedding-related decisions so far; simply content to offer his feedback and support when needed. But on the subject of desserts, he enthusiastically declared his support for pie. As for me, I could give or take cherry pie in general, but because it’s so beloved to my sweetheart, I greenlighted its use as a wedding dessert. I want Justin to be able to include things that are special to him, too. And, really, nothing says “American summer” like Cherry Pie! ( Except maybe bottled Coca-Cola.)

But to be honest, I would still rather cut a cake together than a pie. And serving slices just seems messy. So we’re having a compromise!

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Filed under: Cake on April 21st, 2008 | 6 Comments »

I spoke with Katalin (the wedding planner) this morning about how ideas are progressing. Basically, everything is going smoothly, despite the loss of one potential cake baker. The bakery in Polebridge, at the moment “for sale,” has apparently been trying to sell for years– to a very carefully chosen buyer. It is likely they will be around to make us a cake (and lovely cakes they do make). Even if they’re not available, we can bring in tartlets and pies from town much more easily than schlepping a tiered wedding cake down a dirt road. Ain’t anybody said this is a traditional wedding, so I am comfortable nixing the cake if drastic measures call for such a thing.

Katalin has been talking with others who were married at Polebridge and has confirmed what we both already knew: it’s a lovely, out of the way, anti-conformist hippie town. This means that our wedding WON’T be one of contracts, signatures, late fees, and fine print. They just don’t seem to do things that way there. And if we try to push too much for formalities and cemented commitments, we seem to run the risk of being seen peeing in the local pool, so to speak.

You know, I’m quite happy with casual agreements, and more than a little relieved that there won’t be any fine print. When folk say “yeah sure bring your own wine in” they just mean “yeah sure,” not “but only if you purchase from one of three vendors at a 50% markup and consume all alcoholic beverages under the green awning by 9:47 pm or risk violation of contract.” Working this way will just be different than I expected. It’s also different than Katalin’s normal MO, but I am fully confident that she can handle it. Knowing now that we will be going this route, without paperwork and deadlines and legalese, actually makes me even more glad we hired her. I can keep all of that in my head, as much as I don’t want to. But now what I really need her for is to keep things running smoothly in case we hit any “oh shoot” or “I forgot” snags. For that, she will be a great help.

Filed under: Cake, Venue, Wedding Madness! on November 9th, 2007 | No Comments »

We had it all figured out. Mikie, of Mikie’s Cheesecakes in Kalispell, MT, was going to design our wedding cake, but yesterday she called to announce that her son has decided to get married on the same day as us. So obviously, she can’t bake us a cake. Well, it looks like we have to find another baker! Good thing we still have time. She recommended “Let Them Eat Cake” in Montana. We’ll also ask Katalin (the wedding planner) what she thinks, as I’m sure she is full of suggestions.

Now that I’m back from Japan and free from trip-planning responsibilities, it’s time to get on the wedding-wagon for real!

Filed under: Cake on November 6th, 2007 | 2 Comments »

Amusingly, there has been some debate about wedding desserts between Justin and I. Yes, we will have cake at our wedding! However, we will ALSO likely have pie. We’re hoping to have a 3-tiered cake that serves between 45 and 60 along with about 60 tartlets in different flavors. There will be enough that everyone will get to choose which dessert they would like, and possibly for some hungry guests to have seconds.

The reason we’re having pie is because Justin absolutely loves a good cherry pie more than anything else. He hasn’t had much input on wedding design so far except to say that he wants some pie… because it’s his special day too and I’d like to encourage him to contribute to planning, I made certain we’d have pie in some form. Right now we’re thinking cherry, and possibly raspberry or huckleberry. Yum.

We are also going to have a 3-tiered round cake with buttercream frosting and differently flavored layers. We have talked with one cake vendor so far and I really like her– but whether she can transport cakes to Polebridge down a bumpy dirt road is another matter entirely.

What will our cake look like? Well, we’re not sure yet. But I have some ideas, so I’ve made another flickr gallery of thematic wedding cake elements of which I am fond. I’m fairly certain we want the cake to be round, because square cakes don’t do it for me. Then again, this rounded-corner square cake is rather lovely.

I’m pretty set on some kind of color banding between the layers… with frosting or ribbons. I like simple cakes with not a whole lot of flourish, but I wouldn’t mind a few pretty curliques (like on Rachel and Micah’s cake!).

I don’t want the cake to be too fancy or victorian because, after all, we are having an outdoor wedding in a rustic Montana town– it just wouldn’t be proper. Therefore, while I might stick with a traditional white frosting, I definitely want to incorporate some color. There needs to be something organic and elegant about the cake too. I’m thinking colorful flowers, maybe in a cascade, possibly with some frosting design… like the branches on this cake but not as dark and foreboding.

There’s a lot to think about, and plenty of sources of inspiration. Thankfully, I’m not too picky and even if the dessert ends up completely different from the direction I’m leaning, I won’t care so long as it’s delicious.

Filed under: Cake on October 18th, 2007 | No Comments »