It was go time on May 16. I felt super confident in my baking abilities because the last cake I made came out perfectly. It was moist and had a great texture for decorating. You know the old saying about how the enemy of "good" is "better"? Well I thought I would make an effort to make the cake even moister and followed random online advice to add 1/4 cup of oil. I saw this advice several places and thought it was safe, but the cake fell apart. I looked at it and it fell apart, let alone attempting to get it out of a pan or frosted. I decided to make cupcakes with the rest of the batter. As you can see from the picture this was also a failure. I eventually used all the ruined cake and made cake balls. I didn't bother to subject my wedding/reception guests to them though. The great part about a laid back wedding is that nobody cared that we didn't have cake, least of all me.

I'm so happy to be married to this man.

Our wedding day included a last minute switch to the historic wedding chapel across from the Ringgold Courthouse. The lady pictured here is the owner and she saw us getting out of our cars and convinced us to get married in the chapel rather than the courthouse. My sweet younger brother, who was there with his family from Illinois, paid for the ceremony and also walked me down the aisle. It was awesome. 

My nieces and nephews got in on the impromptu action as well by acting as flower girls and ring bearers.

My nephew JT even found a piano at the coffee shop we went to afterwards and played a special song as a gift to us. 

It wasn't traditional but it was still the loveliest of all days.

We're Married

Hello good people of North America, and apparently somewhere in Moscow! I thought I would post a few random updates about what is happening in our lives lately. Here goes:

1.) I got hit in the head with a gravy boat. It hurt. It fell from the top shelf and hit my forehead. You really do see stars...that's not a metaphor.

2.) I'm getting married Friday. It's taking FOREVER to get here.

3.) I made my first cake from scratch last weekend. It was a trial run for Friday since I'm baking a wedding cake for the day's festivities. As usual I was a little hasty which resulted in it being a little lopsided and lumpy where I frosted it before it was cooled completely. I've got to say though that it was delicious. I followed a recipe found on the Bakerella blog.

4.) For Mother's Day, Patrick and Lydia picked me some wildflowers. I can't believe how good they look. Why pay for flowers in the spring time...ever?

 

5.) We briefly decided to move to Illinois and then changed our minds at that last minute. In the end I was relieved to not have to leave the TN valley that I love so much and so was Patrick. Lydia was a harder sell on staying, but she just made the dance team at her school and is looking forward to the coming year. Chattanooga never, ever fails to impress me. It has it's "shady under-belly" (Gilmore Girls reference) but there are SO many wonderful things about the town. I will post our pictures from Mother's Day at Coolidge Park shortly.

Hope you are having a fantastic week!

click here for the MOST adorable video of our new kitten playing with our dog. I love the way daisy just nudges the kitten with her nose. She seems to know she has to be careful. These two will be best friends I predict. By the way, meet Marie...