Let the tasting begin...

We decided early on that, no matter how trendy it is, we are definitely more cupcake kinda gals than traditional wedding cake extravaganza types. It's a very cute, mess-free and cost-effective way to provide dessert for our guests. The other perk to having cupcakes is being able to have a variety of flavors, mmmmmm :)

Out of the 50 bajillion cupcake cookbooks Kim owns (honestly, how many cupcake cookbooks does one girl need? Just one more reason to love her...) we picked a couple of recipes that a) sounded delicious and b) didn't seem like rocket science to make. Among the finalists were tiramisu, carrot, coconut lime and devil's food... Let the trials begin!

TRIAL #1: Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing
Kim was in charge of the cake batter while I ran to the grocery store and I was to be in charge of the icing upon my return. When I got back, one of the first things I hear is, "if we're going to make these, we need some other kitchen tool to deal with these carrots. I think part of my thumb is in the batter." First of all, ew. Second of all, I'm glad I didn't have to peel all those carrots.

Then there's the icing. So, I took a good bit of chemistry in my college days and I've also watched a good bit of Alton Brown. That being said, I should know better than to heat up butter to make it soften when it clearly says in the recipe "room temperature". That'll denature the fat and blah blah blah. Lesson learned. What I got instead of cream cheese icing was more of a cream cheese demi-glace. You'd think it'd be hard to screw up something whose ingredients were butter, cream cheese, vanilla and powdered sugar... wrong. So, we had a good laugh about my icing misadventure and I sat out 6 more tablespoons of butter to come to room temperature. Last night, I finally got the icing right and it was lickthebowlcleandelicious (how could it not be? you saw the ingredient list.) and the cake wasn't bad either. On a grading scale we decided that the cupcakes got an overall B+.

We also inherited some sort of Christmas apparatus that is going to be repurposed into a cupcake stand (I'll have to check my sources on this one, but it looks like it might have also been a cupcake stand in it's former life).  To the right, you see it in all it's holly, jolly glory. Below, after a little sweat, sandpaper and spray paint, is the new, soontoholdweddingcupcakes version.


The word on the street now is that we might just buy our cupcakes from a local grocery market bakery. A friend had them for her wedding and said they were delicious and reasonably priced. This also means that we don't have to stress about making 200 cupcakes the week of our wedding, wheeeeew. However, that doesn't mean we can't keep testing recipes ;)

Prop 8: The Race To Be Less Progressive Than Iowa.

I think I would be remiss if our gay wedding blog failed to address the issue of Proposition 8 in California. After all, it would be nice if our marriage were legally recognized so that we could tap the 1,138 Federal benefits and responsibilities that our heterosexual counterparts receive. It's more than that though. Hey, I'm not saying it wouldn't be nice to file our taxes together, but that's not the point.

Obviously, a majority of the voters in California were for Proposition 8 if it passed in the first place, but when I re-read that 53% of the voting population felt the need to "defend marriage" in 2008 I felt like I had been punched in the stomach by the bully on the playground. And I thought to myself, "and this is in California, what does the rest of America think of us?!?"

I know lots of really conservative people. I LOVE lots of really conservative people. A good portion of my own flesh and blood ARE those people. They love and respect us and our relationship and are happy for us to get married and spend the rest of our lives together and raise a family together. Unfortunately, we have friends that have not been as lucky in their honesty with their families. I just wish I could get into their brains and understand for just a second how they think that it's okay to discriminate because of who someone chooses to love. Hasn't this country learn or progressed since the Civil Rights Act??

When I read the articles about Judge Walker's decision, I felt refreshed and a little revived. He poignantly stated,

"Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples...The evidence shows that the movement of marriage away from a gendered institution and toward an institution free from state-mandated gender roles reflects an evolution in the understanding of gender rather than a change in marriage."  

After I read that I thought to myself, "You go boy!" It felt really good to know we have people in our corner, ready to fight for our Civil Rights as Americans. It felt really good until I stumbled upon protectmarriage.com where I read this:

Traditional marriage is the foundation of society and has served our state well for centuries. California’s constitutional marriage amendment exists to strengthen society, encourage monogamous and loving marriages and to provide the optimal environment to ensure the well being of children. 

So what you're saying to me is that homosexual marriages will weaken society, encourage promiscuity and polygamy, loveless marriages and be a detriment to the children raised in such an environment? Talk about wanting to punch someone in the face. FIRST OF ALL, I know PLENTY of heterosexual couples who are in loveless, unfaithful marriages where the well-being of their children is absolutely in question. Not to mention, there are plenty of single mothers and fathers who raise perfectly well-adjusted children without the presence of a marriage, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

I could rant, rant, rant all day, but it will only be a matter of time that we will win the Civil Rights battle. It's been done in this country before, and it will be done again. In the meantime, I'm happy to know that, recognized legally or not, I'll spend the rest of my life with the person I love.

We all deserve the right to strap on the ole ball and chain ;)

Number Crunchers.

So you know how I went on a rant about how Southern Season was so awesome because it included everything and was going to save us so much money if we chose it for our reception? Much to our surprise after doing a few calculations, the NC Botanical Gardens came out on top. Impossible! Right? Who? What? Where? When? How? (We were both secretly soooo excited because we loved NCBG)

Food is how. Looking at other catering possibilities for a casual BBQ buffet, it looks like we can save at the Botanical Gardens. Let's also not forget that the quality and style of BBQ are important. No self-respecting Eastern North Carolinian would let just any pork show up at her wedding. Blasphemy. Despite spending more on chairs, tables, linens, etc, it's far outweighed by saving on food. So, while also very stressful, number crunching turned out to be delightfully surprising.

What else? Ah yes, photography. We met with our first photographer yesterday. Kelly Martin has some great packages though and it was fun to meet with her and start to envision what we might do with the photos that are going to last us a lifetime :)

For future posting: Kim has become the paper craft guru - I'm going to let her share about save the dates, invitations and envelopes, oh my! I'm not quite sure what my wedding craft specialty is yet, but she's certainly on top of her game. Let's not forget about flowers, centerpieces, bouquets, dresses, linens and other decor!

Adios for now muchachos!

Assignment numero uno: find a venue.

Scratch that. Actually, the first thing we did was decide what a "reasonable" amount of money to spend on our wedding. Mind you, we are also preparing to move to St. Kitts at the beginning of May, so this is still a large chunk of change. Dear Chelsea Clinton and your 3 million dollar budget: suck it.

Anywho, what that means we have to consider in our venue shopping are items that are or are not included. For example, chairs. Sounds simple, right? However, at any venue NOT providing this simple item, we shall pay $ per tookus we decide is deserving of a place to rest. Under any other circumstance, $ is no big deal - tall americano from Starbucks, for instance. Let's not forget though that we are probably expecting ~125 guests. Now, chairs cost $$$. Do this again for tables, linens, china, flatware, blah blah blah and you see where I'm going with this? (I won't even attempt to talk about feeding and providing booze for all those people in this post)

All that griping about money aside, and we've already seen a few beautiful places that we would be more than happy to begin our lives of wedded bliss at. Here are a few of our top picks that we've visited so far:

NC Botanical Gardens

The Patio at A Southern Season

Gene Strowd Community Rose Garden

At the NC Botanical Gardens, there is enough space (indoor and out) to host our wedding ceremony and reception. But what do you get for the rental cost? Just the space. While it is fairly reasonable in price, we have to factor in all the setup costs. 

The Southern Season patio, on the other hand, provides pretty much everything and only requires a food and beverage minimum price to be met - quite a deal. If we were to have the reception here, we would have to find another space (close by, of course) for the ceremony. That's where the Rose Garden comes in: FREE. 

As we adventure more into venue-shopping-land, you'll be sure to get the 411 :)