Hannah's Projects: Wedded Bliss

As I have mentioned in earlier posts, this is the summer when most of my friends have gotten married, making it the busiest summer of my life! Since my last post (over a month ago!) Whit married Britany, Stacey married Jonathon, and Jamie married Brett. I didn't have a lot to do project-wise with the first two weddings other than provide my husband as the best man in Whit's wedding, but I did make the cake for Jamie's wedding and the desserts for her reception, so naturally I have a few more pictures of those :-)

Whit and Britany

Whit married Britany on a gorgeous day on a golf course in Arlington, Washington. You could hear people golfing in the background as well as a small-engine plane buzzing overhead. The bridesmaids wore cowgirl boots and the groomsmen wore salmon-colored vests (David was not thrilled to be wearing pink, but he managed somehow...). I'm pretty sure Whit cried more than Britany. In this picture he's trying not to cry, and the ceremony hadn't even started yet!!

Here's Whit and my man, the best man.

Bridesmaids (including a bridesman)

Groomsmen.
Somehow I managed to cut the groomsmaid out of the picture.
Sorry Alexis :-(

Bride and Groom

After the ceremony, of course, was the reception, and what a reception it was! I saw tons of friends from high school and we did our share of reminiscing and reliving old drama (do you remember when so-and-so dated what's-his-name? What a jerk!) David gave a wonderful toast that I had to rewrite for him on the back of a real-estate flyer after he lost his polished typed copy. He snuck in a line thanking Whit for introducing him to me back on the first day of college. I teared up at that part.

Here's David and me with David's brother Matt
and Matt's girlfriend Cherry.

By the end of the night, everyone had had a good time and probably a few too many drinks. Whit's dad jumped from the back of his Tundra and landed relatively unharmed on the ground (I wish I had gotten a picture of this, it was priceless!). We managed to get Whit and Britany shipped off to the airport in time for their flight to Mexico, and David and I ended up being the designated drivers back to the hotel where we collected the tuxes of all the groomsmen to return the next day. Then we returned to our hotel exhausted but happy for the newlyweds

Stacey and Jonathon

I have a pitiful few pictures of Stacey's wedding, but I had a great time! Stacey and Jonathon got married up at Greenbluff in a beautiful outdoor ceremony. It was hot outside, but we were provided with really cute fold-out fans to keep cool--I thought that was a really nice and thoughtful detail! I got to catch up with more friends from high school. Everyone is so grown up with their real-life jobs and whatnot!

Stacey and her dad walking down the aisle.

Stacey and Jonathon exchanging vows. They did their vows Dr. Suess style.
"Do you take Stacey to be your wife, to love and honor your entire life?
Yes, I take Stacey to be my wife, to love and honor my entire life."
So stinkin' cute!

A view of everyone dancing at the reception.

Jamie and Brett

Jamie and Brett had an intimate destination wedding at a beach house in Olympia and then a big reception a week later at Jamie's parents' house in Nine Mile Falls. I had the honor of making the cake for the wedding and the desserts for the reception, and even though it was hard work, I can honestly say theirs was one of the coolest weddings I have been to (including my own!).

This week-and-a-half long excursion started on a Wednesday with me driving to the other side of the mountains. My in-laws live about 45 minutes away from the beach house, and even though David wasn't able to join me at the wedding, his parents were kind enough to let me stay at their house and crash their kitchen to bake the cake. Needless to say, I have the best in-laws ever!

Thursday was baking day.

My mother-in-law Margee was intent on capturing "action shots"
of me pouring, whipping, measuring, etc.

Toothpick test

Matt was happy to clean up the batter bowls for me.
Such a good helper :-)

All the finished layers of the cake ready to stack

Filling and stacking the layers. The cake was a twist on strawberry
shortcake: white cake with strawberry puree and whipped cream
filling.

At this point, I put a crumb-coat of frosting on the cake tiers and transported them to the beach house where I decorated them Friday morning. But before I get to that, Thursday night was the bachelorette party!

Here's Jamie with her bride goblet. Behind her you can see the
pin-the-kiss-on-the-dude-in-his-underwear game we played later.
I totally won that one!

At a certain point, we dragged Brett up to join in a round of the
Newlywed Game (or in their case, the Nearlywed Game).
A good sign for years to come: they matched on all their answers!

Friday was the day of the wedding and everyone, even those of us nursing hangovers, got started early getting decorations up, food prepared, flowers arranged, and tables set for the wedding in the early evening. Most of the 30 or so people who attended the wedding had spent the night at the beach house, and it was like one big happy party setting up for it. You could feel the celebration in the air.

Nicole, Kati, and I started out fluffing paper garlands. Brett's
mom and sisters joined in later.

Jamie and Alicia did all the flowers themselves, even
Jamie's bouquet!

Jamie's dad did a great job setting up the twinkle lights, then
Alicia and I hung the big white globe things and the paper
garlands from them.

At a certain point, I had to stop helping with setup to decorate the cake.

All done!

About 2 hours before the wedding, everyone disappeared into their bedrooms and the bathrooms to get ready.

The girls took over upstairs to beautify
while the boys had downstairs.

Then it was ceremony time!

And the party begins...

During dinner a couple of big wooly dogs crashed the wedding
and happily ate all the bacon the flower-girl could feed them.
About an hour later a man in a T-shirt showed up, making his
apologies, and called the dogs home.

3 beautiful sisters telling stories about the wacky videos they
made growing up (like this one)

Cake time!

At about midnight, the dancing wrapped up, Jamie and Brett went off to the hotel, and we all found our tired ways to bed. The next morning, I slipped out early and went back to spend a few more days with my in-laws (Margee's and my adventures in the Olympic Peninsula will be another whole post on their own...).

The next week, it was time to gear up again for the big reception. Matt followed me home to Spokane to spend a few days visiting David and me. He was a great help in the kitchen as I embarked on making 200 cupcakes and desserts for the reception.

miniature key lime pies...

strawberry lemonade cupcakes and Oreo cupcakes...

peach pies I later cut into small rounds...

Here's the dessert table all set up. In all, I made key lime pies, peach pie, mini-cheesecakes, mini-pineapple upside-down cakes, strawberry lemonade cupcakes, orange cream cupcakes, and Oreo cupcakes. I'm happy to say they were a hit!