When my cousin's daughter got engaged in February, they called me to see if I would be willing to do the wedding cake for them. After talking it over with Bryan, we decided that it would be fun to do! So I got a plane tickets, they sent me pictures of what they wanted, I gave them a list of ingredients I needed, and then I was off. I am so glad I went!
I left really early on Wednesday, August 8th and got into Dulles in the afternoon, just in time for dinner and to go help decorate the Church. Then we went back home and made truffles for hours....and laughed...and laughed. I had forgotten how little sleep I get when I get together with Connie!
Thursday morning we made more truffles, decorated the Church more and then went to the DC Temple for Steph's endowment session. I had never seen the temple before and it was beautiful! It was also fun to see all the Conover family who were there for a reunion and the wedding.
After the session, we went to Cafe Rio for dinner and the home to make more truffles and laugh some more and stay up really late. Seriously, I was glad that I went from the West Coast to the East Coast otherwise I would have DIED staying up until 2 a.m. each night and back up at 6 a.m.
Friday morning I began the cake and spent all day making it while everyone else went to the Church to decorate (I think I got the easy part). When the cake was baking, I hemmed 2 bridesmaids dresses, so I felt useful.
When the cake was finished, Connie's sister-in-law gave me a ride over to the Church to put it in the fridge and then my job was done...except I helped Connie fit her skirt for the wedding (it was 6 sizes too big so we put elastic in the waist)...and stayed up laughing.
The water pressure in their house is kind of funny, so I woke up really early to take a shower before anyone else got up. Then we took off for the Temple and the wedding! It was a beautiful sealing ceremony.
Here they are as husband and wife!
After pictures were taken, Connie's sister-in-law and I took off so we could help at the luncheon, but Mitt Romney was in DC so his motorcade blocked off the freeway. We went around it but the rest of the family went right down the freeway and ended up getting to the luncheon about 1 1/2 hours late, but it all worked out just fine.
Before the luncheon began, while we were waiting, my other cousin Karen (Connie's sister) drove me over to the Church and I put the cake out and my job was done! The cultural hall was gorgeous! I was so impressed by how it all turned out.
The reception began and I was assigned to take pictures of all the guests as they came in. I did that until I was asked to help with something else and then it was time to cut the cake. So it was busy!
Here is what the cake looked like (sorry, it's blurry but I took this picture during the reception and it was dark):
Here they are cutting the cake:
The top layer was chocolate nutella, the middle layer was chocolate mint and the bottom layer was raspberry hot chocolate. I was asked to cut up the cake and serve it. Here is the aftermath:
When the bride threw her bouquet she had quite a few eligible young women waiting to catch it! The main contenders were Shannon (a cousin) and Ashley (a sister). Steph threw the bouquet and....the 10 year old little sister caught it!! She told us that we have to go to her wedding in another 40 years. When we asked why it would be so far out she said "There are just too many cute boys out there to choose from!" She is hilarious!
Anyway, the two girls had to have a rematch in the hallway. As you can tell from the photo below, they really got into this tradition. hahaha. No, it was a lot of fun and both are beautiful girls so I can't figure out why they are still on the market!
The bride and groom took off wile we were blowing bubbles at them. It was cute!
Anyway, it took hours and days to put up all the decorations and it only took 1 to 1 1/2 hours to take it all down. Talk about depressing, but we had a lot of help and, when you take things down, you don't have to give a lot of instruction so it goes faster. We were still up pretty late hauling things from the Church to Connie's house....and talking....and laughing.
Sunday morning I woke up, got packed up and then Connie and Mark drove me back to Dulles to catch my flight. I was sad to leave because I don't see them very often since we live so far apart, but I had a great time while I was there!
The flight home seemed really long (I was anxious to get home since it was Courtney's birthday!) but I got some much needed rest!
Oh, just a little side note: A few years ago Connie told me about an LDS author that "is in my ward" and I started reading her books. They are really good books and I have become a big fan of her writing. Her name is Traci Abramson. Anyway, the day before I left for DC, I went to Seagull book and bought the latest 2 books written by Traci to read on the plane. One of which had only been out about 5 days. Imagine my complete surprise when Connie introduces me to her best friend, who she has known from college and who is her visiting teaching companion and who is doing the food...Traci Abramson. I was proud that I didn't make a fool of myself. She is a really nice lady and we had a lot of fun laughing while we tried to figure out food (and why Connie and I had bought so much of it!) and hearing stories from the past. Before I left for Dulles on Sunday, she had us come over to her house so she could autograph (and write a little message) in my 2 books. It was so cool!! I also learned that it's Connie's fault any time there is a large lag time between books because Traci said it takes her about 2 months to write a book unless she and Connie are goofing off. hahaha
