What’s all this marriage stuff about anyway?
Friday afternoon, my siblings and I headed over to the cottage where our brother Chad was getting ready for his big day:
The girls and I held down the fort and nibbled on fritos while the boys lived out a high-anxiety cuff-links drama of sorts.
Once the cuff links situation was resolved, pre-wedding photography was able to resume.
Chad went off to collect his bride, and the rest of us headed down to the beach (the site of my early morning runs!) to stake out the perfect wedding location:
And then the family photos commenced. Kids:
Left to right: me, brother Mark, sister Emily, brother Chad, new sister-in-law Laura, sister Allison, “cousins” Charles and Rob.
Bliss …
Bliss continued …
See the couple looking slightly stressed directly behind me to the right? That would be the baby’s parents wondering where their two-month-old son went. Just kidding … sort of.
As soon as I saw my brother’s best friend walking down the beach steps with baby Jack in his arms, I immediately transferred veil-holding duties to my sister and beelined straight for Chris with a “sogoodtoseeyouagaindoyouwantmetoholdyourbaby?”
Successssss 😀
After the ceremony, we headed up to La Playa for cocktail hour … which was a dinner in itself!
I had a few bites here and there (including a couple slices of that incredible pizza), but my hands and attention were otherwise busy with baby!
Once inside, I found my seat and marveled at my luck:
A straight shot to the six wedding cakes!!!!!
But first, I happily sat through a delicious salad with gorgonzola and walnuts:
And my entree: local crab ravioli with prawns in a tarragon butter sauce with julienne veggies.
This was amaaaazing. I definitely picked the winner!
The other option was this osso bucco with citrus glaze and risotto cakes:
I wolfed my meal down so I could go and kidnap this little guy again:
Just kidding. I asked permission first.
Jack got hungry for his mama just in time for the cake cutting …
Seriously, between the cakes and the baby, I wasn’t sure I was still awake. This sort of thing only happens in my dreams!
There was a multi-layer chocolate cake, a coffee cake, a carrot cake …
Almond cake …
Cinnamon cake:
And raspberry-lemon cake:
Chad and Laura opted for cinnamon for their first slice:
And then I swooped in for one of each.
Almond, coffee, and carrot:
Cinnamon, chocolate, and raspberry-lemon:
They were terrible:
The raspberry-lemon and carrot were tied for my favorites.
Post-cake, I ordered myself some Earl Grey to try and quell the sugar shakes:
The tea that arrived was fancy and robust:
Murphy was particularly impressed with the leaf on the end of the pyramid bag and insisted on hand modeling:
He also insisted on me eating more cake and posing with it.
And then, tragedy struck. All of the unmarried ladies were rounded up for the bouquet toss, whether they were interested or not. I strategically placed myself at the back of the pack and pulled my big sister Allison in front of me with the command, “Block me, Allie. Keep that thing away from me.” Next thing I know, the bouquet comes sailing straight for my chest (ummmm, big sister, what happened to your job???), where it decided to lodge itself. This had to be the most passive, hands-free bouquet catch ever. I almost broke out in tears. The offender:
Seriously, if it were up to me, I would skip the whole marriage thing and just continue poaching other people’s babies for the rest of my life. Oh wait, it is up to me!!! 😀
How do you feel about the bouquet toss?
Tales of Expansion: Baby Butternut Edition 
I am seriously impressed with your cake-eating abilities — and bouquet-catching to boot! Having never been to a wedding with a bouquet toss, I have no feelings about the 🙂 I do love the beach wedding, though!!
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HAHAHAHA I can’t believe you caught it! 🙂
Cake and babies are actually two of my favorite things as well. Congrats to your brother, they make a beautiful couple!
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Greetings Sarah, from Barb (your friendly wedding cake baker). I’ve taken a peek at your blog a couple of times since the “big event”. Happy to see that you’ve captured some nice pics of them (from a different angle than I got). Thanks — glad you enjoyed them!!
Barb
Oakland, CA
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Wow – 6 cakes and tea forte ….love it!
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i can’t believe you caught the bouquet!!!! that’s awesome… hahaha. i caught my sister siobhan’s bouquet a few years ago. trust me, other people got married before me. but it’s all in good fun!
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What a GORGEOUS wedding!! And, four different flavors of cake? That’s my dream right there. They all sounded great, especially the coffee cake, that’s new to me at a wedding! Good thing the baby was ready for momma just in time 🙂
I don’t like the bouquet toss. Why? I never catch it. Also the bride is always aiming for one person in particular…it’s dumb.
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hahah i love your smooth letmeholdyourbabyrightnow line!! He is seriously a cuuuutie, and what a beautiful wedding!!! I want to have one just to wear a gorgie dress, look pretty, test cakes and be the center of attention 😀
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When I’m at other people’s weddings I avoid the bouquet like the plague (always have) but we did do it at ours. We did it quick and casual and the photos of Adam getting my garter are actually my favorite wedding shots! My toss was uneventful but the garter was caught by my dad’s best friend who is a lifelong bachelor and was mortified 🙂
http://eatventures.wordpress.com
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Nice blogging!!! I love having the event captured as seen through the food choices and your taste buds. Trust me, those were very important details for us. We knew you were coming after all :)!!!
And I still can’t believe you caught the bouquet. I can’t believe Allie let you down on that. But truly, that catch was a highlight for me.
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I was going to say how cute your dress was, but yeah, you are totally being upstaged by the baby!! I can’t even imagine a wedding with 6 cakes, that’s like out of a fantasty.
http://eatventures.wordpress.com
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nice! good job on catching the boquet!! i love your dress btw- too cute;
i would skip the wedding thing, i dont like being the center of attention..
i did catch a bouquet once and only to mess up the fact that the bridge and groom were trying to “ring” the bouquet toss.. i pushed the intended girl out of the way to prove a point.. lol.. then for the garter toss the intended guy was shoved aside.. TAKE that party poopers!!
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What a beautiful wedding! And that baby is freakin adorable. I would have stolen him too 🙂
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Gorgeous! I love wedding posts and this one was beautiful! I love how your dress marries the blanket of the baby.
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