Martha Stewart is a genius.

(image from Martha Stewart)

Martha suggested a money-saving option for the cake. Buy different-sized sheet cakes and stack them yourself with cake dowels, which are easily available at any bakery supply store or I think, probably Michael's. You get your tiers without the sticker shock.

As some of you may know, I was planning on baking the wedding cake myself, and I've been practicing. Upon further thought, I think it may be too much to do. We have a big guest list and no time. I don't know. I still might, or perhaps I'll bake a groom's cake. I change my mind on everything so why not this?

Anyway this idea from Martha is brilliant. We don't want a fancy cake. We'd prefer a clean, simple design. With this, we would save money and get the cake look we'd like.

I am an unabashed thief.

We went to a stunning wedding last weekend at the Airlie Center in Warrenton, VA. Lush, serene grounds and gardens. And the center is green-certified. You get to have a gorgeous wedding and lessen the environmental impact of your event. Pretty cool, huh? I hope this trend will increase.

Anyway, check this out. Instead of having a guest book, they had a marriage certificate made and all the guests signed it as witnesses. I think this is a great idea, and I will totally will steal it. Also, I'll probably try to steal the bride's talent, as she is a gifted graphic designer and crafter.

Other ideas I will steal:

Bubbles for the send-off. We're getting married in the daytime. I'm thinking bubbles and pinwheels.

Colorful Japanese lanterns in the pavilion.

Wish bottle. My friend had a beautiful glass bottle and strips of nice paper. People wrote well-wishes for the couple, rolled it up, and stuck it in. They opened it on their one-year anniversary. Cute, huh?

Anything on Martha Stewart that is brightly colored and doesn't require too much work.

I swear this will be the last wedding(s) I'll ever have. . .

Onto plan 563.1a, folks. That's right. We and our families have finally settled on one of the numerous iterations of our wedding, and we have signed a binding contract. You see, the fire hall is ready to give us our deposit back if we changed our minds more than 60 days before the event. And apparently we did change our minds. I just wasn't really aware of it. Or maybe I was, and I was ignoring my parents' suggestions to consider other venues because frankly I was tired of looking for a venue that suited everyone, so I chose a venue that didn't really suit anyone.

Anyway it came to light that my parents didn't want to have the reception at the fire hall, and they were willing to cut the guest list so that we could afford to have the reception at a nicer venue. Who am I to argue with that?

The bad news was that the Bristow Manor Golf Club was booked for the evening of June 19, 2010. Ack! This is what happens when you don't actually communicate for several months. The good news is that they were available for a daytime reception. We thought about changing our date and redoing all the work we had done to book the church, etc. And then we decided it was just easier to keep the date and do the wedding in the morning (which it was already scheduled as such) and a wedding brunch instead of an evening reception. Then, we'd have the Cambodian ceremony and lunch the next day. This is our compromise.

My parents' compromise is we'll do the complete Cambodian wedding (not the shortened version as originally planned) plus the Chinese wedding banquet on Sunday night. They will pay for it on their own. They will invite less to the Saturday event, but they will invite whoever they want to the Sunday event. They will do all the planning for Sunday. And so we will be having the wedding that we want on Saturday, AND the wedding that they want on Sunday. Which of course, makes the total cost of the wedding(s) sort of ridiculous. But it is a small price to pay for their happiness and the removal of blockages in further wedding planning.

So yes, we are having two weddings. It will be sort of crazy, but it was always going to be. I hope that now it will be fairly smooth sailing to next June. Wish me luck!


This is our new venue: Bristow Manor Golf Club.