After our fantabulous first dance, it as straight into the Father/Daughter Dance. My dad had been trying to convince me the months before to do some cool hip hop routine, or just some cool routine in general. I kept saying no because really, we didn’t need TWO performances. I know he really wanted to do something funky because he always wants to do something funky. But it was my day with John, so instead we kept it to just your normal, average father/daughter dance. After the roaring applause of our First Dance, he understood why I didn’t want to do a funky father/daughter dance. I mean, how could we possibly try and top an entire choreographed number with the bridal party?!?
My dad and I danced to Rascal Flatt’s My Wish. The first time I heard the song I cried. I thought it was so beautiful and so meaningful. Every time I heard it, I cried, and I knew it was the song I wanted to dance with my father. He, on the other hand, wasn’t so impressed, especially when all he had wanted was a funky dance. I don’t know if he ever listened to the lyrics, maybe he would’ve appreciated it more if he read the lyrics:
I hope that the days come easy and the moments pass slow,
And each road leads you where you want to go,
And if you’re faced with a choice, and you have to choose,
I hope you choose the one that means the most to you.
And if one door opens to another door closed,
I hope you keep on walkin’ till you find the window,
If it’s cold outside, show the world the warmth of your smile,
But more than anything, more than anything,
[Chorus]
My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,
Your dreams stay big, and your worries stay small,
You never need to carry more than you can hold,
And while you’re out there getting where you’re getting to,
I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,
Yeah, this, is my wish.
I hope you never look back, but ya never forget,
All the ones who love you, in the place you left,
I hope you always forgive, and you never regret,
And you help somebody every chance you get,
Oh, you find God’s grace, in every mistake,
And always give more than you take.
But more than anything, yea, more than anything,
[Chorus 2x]
This is my wish.
I hope you know somebody loves you.
May all your dreams stay big.
Jen captured this handsome shot of John watching me dance with my dad. I love it because he just looks so proud.
I have to throw a picture of us actually looking at the camera because my dad think he closed his eyes in the one above. I think he was squinting in the one above from just looking at me lovingly.
My dad is the crier between my mom and my dad and I really thought I’d get to see some awesome shots of my dad crying on my wedding day, but no such luck. He got choked up as we were dancing, but never really let on. It was surreal for both of us, I think. My dad called me the day after I left for Wisconsin and said that it didn’t hit him that I was married until I had left, and he was putting some of my things back into my room. And that’s what made him cry. While we were dancing he took the opportunity to give me advice on having a successful marriage, on how to ask for help if I ever need it, and to know that they’ll always be there if I need anything. It was nice, and I’ll always remember it.
After my father/daughter dance, it was on to the Mother/Son dance. John and I were so lucky that his mom caved in to dancing with him. His mom was completely opposed to dancing with him the entire time we were planning the wedding, and had only agreed to dance a couple weeks before our wedding.
They danced to Mariah Carey’s “Always be my baby,” which is really a perfect song for them. John was a huge mama’s boy, and was definitely well taken care of growing up. John later told me that after dancing for five seconds, his mom was already saying she was done dancing. She doesn’t dance, so this was a stretch for her. He convinced her to dance for maybe a minute and a half. He said that she kept scolding him for wanting to dance longer because his knee (he had ACL re-construction surgery in Feb.) and that people were drinking. John just reminding his mom that the photographers and videographers and all the guests were watching them, and that she should be smiling. I thought it was funny.
Then John gave his mom a big kiss on the cheek, and their dance was over. And on to the cake!
I absolutely loved our cake. It was everything that I wished and hoped for. It was six perfectly stacked round tiers. The inspiration for this cake came from a small picture of the cake I found on a photographer’s blog. It was a random picture on his constantly changing header. I saw it and fell in love. The picture itself was only 2″ x 2″ so I thought it might be a little challenging to the Fairmont’s pastry chef. But I had nothing to worry about because the cake was beautiful! John and I had seen so many cakes online, and I left most of the food related items up to John. His taste is a lot more traditional and classic than mine, but since I pretty much planned the wedding I figured he could choose the cake. He wanted nothing but round stacked tiers, that was clear early on. So no squares, hexagons, pentagons. No lopsided, irregularly stacked tiers. No gaps between tiers, no flowers between tiers nothing. After all these restrictions and constraints, I’m so absolutely thrilled that we had a cake that we both loved. Oh, and piping was important to him. The cake had to be piped.
We got our cake topper at some cake store in Campbell recommended to me by my friend Marianne. They had a bunch of different cake toppers there, and since I procrastinated the whole cake topper thing, I had to act fast. It took John and I a long time to actually come to an agreement on the cake topper, but after seeing how beautiful our cake topper was on our cake, I know we made the right decision. The cake topper was probably $65, which seems pricey for a cake topper. However, it actually came with a stand, making it really easy to display as just a figurine on a side table. I wanted a cake topper that wouldn’t just be stuffed in a box, left useless. I figure that it’s beautiful and neutral enough that maybe my children, sister, brother, cousin, etc. may borrow it for their own weddings someday. I know the likelihood of that happening is slim to none seeing as how I pretty much borrowed nothing for our wedding. But it never hurts to try to start a tradition!
Our cake cutting set was given to us as an early wedding present from one of my childhood friends. We chose the Lenox Jubilee set because of its gorgeous pearls. I think the Swarovski crystal flutes and cake cutting set are absolutely fabulous too, but at $250, I couldn’t have possibly put that on my registry with good conscience.
The matching flutes were given to us my one of my bridesmaids. John and I prefer the classic look, so these were perfect!
The whole cake cutting segment of our wedding pictures made me realize that when I think no one is watching me, I make funny faces.
My aunt (aka our DOC) asked us if we knew what we were doing, and of course we said no. She told us to cut the bottom tier and feed each other. I thought that was interesting because for some reason I always thought that the tradition was to cut into a middle tier of the cake. I never found out if I was wrong or if she was wrong, but in any case, we cut into the bottom tier. Can I also mention how much I loved the cake table itself. The rose petal table top matched perfectly with our cake. And the round, mirrored cake stand that our cake was put on made the cake look even larger. The simple tea lights were provided by our venue, and it matched the whole table so well. I had asked our florist to just decorate the cake with roses a little everywhere and I think it looked perfect.
If someone was to tell me that the small piece we cut for our cake cutting would be the only piece of cake we would taste, I really would have cut a bigger piece. It was delicious nonetheless. We had alternating tiers of white cake with fresh strawberry filling, and white cake with mango and black currant filling. YUM!!!
Another thing I didn’t question at the time was the use of forks. The majority of weddings that I have attended, the bride and groom never used forks to feed each other. I rarely saw it. Yet, for my own wedding we fed each other with forks. I remember seeing John pick up a fork, and I thought “really? weird.” but then proceeded to pick up a fork of my own.
I think that the bride and groom traditionally use forks, but maybe couples stopped using forks because how can you smash cake in someone’s face with a fork?!? Sounds like a hazard to me.
No smashing here, just eating, which was good. We hardly ate anything all night!
That’s the small sliver of cake we had. So so small relative to the size of the rest of the cake.
I’m licking my finger, and John is laughing because I stuck my finger in the cake and put “frosting” on his nose. Did it work? No. We had fondant. So nothing was actually on my finger.
This is exactly what I’m talking about. I was afraid that we’d tip our drinks or clink our glasses, so I made a face. And that face was captured by Jen. As you can see, John’s face says it all. “I am now married to THIS woman.” Ha!
CHEERS! And that was our yummy cake cutting.
Another thing I wanted to mention was the placement of our cake. We put our cake between the head table and the dance floor that it was showcased during the entire reception. I thought that this was a great idea, because not only could everyone have a great view of the cake, but it also added color to the dancefloor. Putting the cake between the head table and dance floor, it was captured throughout our reception, and not just the cake cutting segment:
Like during the intros…
…during the singing…
…and during the dancing.
The cake was like the “where’s waldo” of my reception pictures. The cake added to the decor. It was a multi-purpose cake!
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