mrs. cupcake's wedding blog: May 2009

All photos below by The Wiebners unless otherwise noted. We purchased a disc of all unedited images from our wedding day, so some post-processing has been done by me for the purpose of sharing the photos with you. Click on any photo to enlarge.

After we cut the cake, we had planned to say a few words of thanks to our guests. While we didn't write anything down ahead of time, we knew that we just wanted to express to everyone how amazing it was to have them all there, in one room, supporting our relationship and celebrating with us.

I took a moment to thank those of our guests who were attending the third wedding for my immediate family in just 15 months! Brother and SIL Cupcake got married in June 2007, Momma and Stepdad Cupcake got married in February 2008, and we were celebrating our wedding day in September! It was a busy, busy 15 months for our family and close friends.

Admittedly, I had an ulterior motive for saying our words of thanks at this time... it gave the staff a few minutes to take our cake back into the kitchen for cutting, and replace it in the ballroom with a little surprise I had put together for Mr. C.

When we finished thanking our guests, the sound of Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" began playing. Mr. Cupcake had no idea that I had anything planned.

Here it comes....

He sees it....

And it clicks!!

My surprise for Mr. Cupcake was a Boston Red Sox hat cake, made by the spectacular Suzy of Cakes by Suzy (whom I found thanks to Weddingbee reader and former Real Weddings subject Rebecca!).

Mr. C grew up in Central PA without a "home" sports team to admire, so he somehow became a Red Sox fan at a young age. He has since also become a Philles fan now that he lives in Philadelphia, but he'll always have a special place in his heart for the Red Sox.

Despite his love for the Sox, he had never been to a Red Sox game at Fenway Park (or even been to Boston). Last Christmas I surprised Mr. C with Red Sox tickets, and in June we took a weekend trip and experienced the magic of Fenway Park together. We always travel well together, but this trip was especially fantastic and we still talk about it constantly. During the 8th inning of every Red Sox home game, "Sweet Caroline" plays in the ballpark and everyone sings along. Considering that Mr. C also loves Neil Diamond — well, let's just say he had some happy tears in his eyes when he got to be there in person for all of this.

Obligatory "point at sign and smile" shot... we are cheesy { photo by Mrs. Cupcake }

{ photo by Mrs. Cupcake }

Mr. C's love for the Red Sox combined with the meaning behind that trip for us made this cake a no-brainer for me! I had toyed with the idea for months, and finally a few weeks before the wedding I decided I couldn't NOT do it — I contacted Suzy and went for it, and she was awesome to work with. I didn't have time for a tasting so I trusted Rebecca's recommendation that the spice cake was delicious, I sent Suzy some requests and photos for reference, and let her do her thing. It turned out even more amazing than I had hoped! (As an aside — you all know I'm obsessed with Sweet Jazmine's, but alas they do not make cakes in special shapes so they couldn't help me out with this surprise.)

Alongside the hat is a baseball, some Red Sox shoelaces, and a game ticket. The shoelaces actually have a cute story behind them: one Christmas when Mr. C was a kid, MIL Cupcake put some Red Sox shoelaces in his Christmas stocking. However, they fell to the bottom of the stocking and he never saw them, until the next year when he pulled them out and his mom exclaimed that they were from the year before! Every Christmas since then, Mr. C has pulled and out and put back the very same pair of Red Sox shoelaces in his Christmas stocking. It's a silly little tradition, but I love the sentimental meaning behind it!

The game ticket is something I laid out in Adobe InDesign and emailed to Suzy — she printed it out on fondant with edible ink (who knew?!?), and it has the date of the game that we attended.

The Groom's Cake is not really a well-known tradition in the Northeast as this seems to be more of a Southern tradition (although it seems to be a growing trend elsewhere), so I made a little sign that sat in front of the cake with a description of the tradition. I also made a sign with a photo of us at Fenway Park last June that explained the meaning of the ticket and shoelaces.

Mr. Cupcake was totally caught off-guard and LOVED the surprise! He was so excited, he couldn't stop smooching me :-)

I think my Mr. Sensitive even got a little teary-eyed (again)... imagine that ;-) Hehe.

His mom was in on the whole plan and had sent me a photo of the shoelaces so Suzy could make replicas out of fondant!

Again with the smooching... sheesh.

Perhaps my favorite part of the Groom's Cake: the paparazzi that it attracted.

I love this photo... that's my "Yup, I did this just for you!" face.

In case you're wondering, here's how the whole thing unfolded as seen on home video (and what a great transition it ended up being to get everyone back on the dance floor). Please don't mind how horribly annoying my voice sounds at the end of my little speech. I don't *think* that's what I really sound like... or is it???

In between my dance with my dad and Mr. C's dance with his mom, dinner courses was served to our guests to keep the evening flowing. While we had promised ourselves that we were actually going to eat at our wedding, we admittedly ate fairly quickly so we could mingle with our guests.

It was delicious!

We did our best to talk to as many people as possible, but it is really hard to make sure to visit with everyone! We were so glad that we had had some time during our cocktail hour to chat with our guests as well.

It was so fun to see everyone showing off their photo booth pictures while we made the rounds; renting that photo booth was maybe the best decision we made for our wedding day!

Some of our friends were getting creative with the photo booth — they wrote messages for us on napkins to hold up in the booth :-)

Overall, the chatter and laughter that could be heard throughout the reception was so heartwarming and wonderful.

Our timeline for the evening was set up so that our parent dances would be between the meal courses, and then we'd cut the cake at the end of the meal and before dancing would begin; this way, once everyone was on the dance floor, there would be no interruptions in the flow of the fun :-) However... we have some extremely enthusiastic friends and family members who were apparently ready to get their grooves on already, and the impromptu dance party broke out before we ever intended. But I am NOT complaining... it was wonderfully spontaneous and fabulous to see everyone having so much fun!

I have this "signature move" that came to be known as "the Brookie dance" in college. It was inevitable that it would make an appearance.

There it is!

My new in-laws were on the dance floor and noticed that the groom wasn't dancing... they beckoned for him to get his butt out there.

I took matters into my own hands and escorted him onto the dance floor myself!

We hated to interrupt the fun, but we still had a cake to cut! Our guests cleared the dance floor for just a few minutes so we could dig into that lemon poundcake deliciousness from Sweet Jazmine's. Om nom nom...

After I listened to a little tutorial on what to do (while Mr. Cupcake seemingly wanted nothing to do with a tutorial and just wanted to cut into that thing already)...

We dug in! Harry Connick Jr.'s A Wink and A Smile played as we took the knife to that glorious creation.

There was no cake smash for us — we lovingly fed each other cake the way that newlyweds should!

Sealed with a kiss :-)

It looks like I'm disgusted at something in the below photo... but believe you me, there was absolutely nothing disgusting about that cake. I'm sure I'm just saying something smart-assy with a mouthful of cake. I'm klassy.

Our cake was served to guests with our little cake flags (one of my favorite easy DIY projects!) and with fresh strawberries and vanilla ice cream. The flags said "love is sweet" on one side and our names and wedding dates on the other side.

{ guest photo }

mrs. cupcake's wedding blog

Monday, May 11, 2009

Love is All About "We": A Surprise for My Groom

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Love is All About "We": Mingling, Impromptu Dancing, and Cutting the Cake!

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