A month or so ago, Dr. Light and I headed up to Arvada to the Das Meyer Fine Pastry Chalet, a cute little house that had been converted into a bakery many years ago. Every Saturday they host an open house cake tasting where you can sample wedding cake flavors. It's completely on the house, including milk, coffee, tea, etc.

The whole place is super quaint, and even better, they had gargoyle statues set up all over. It really made the ambiance. :)

This little guy was next to our table.


After taking a quick walk around the bakery (you can see photos of their work on their website), we went over to the cake counter and chose four flavors: strawberries & champagne, berries in a cloud, orange blossom, and some chocolatey thing Dr. Light wanted to try. (For the record, I'm not a huge fan of chocolate cake.)

We were pretty excited.


The strawberries & champagne was DEFINITELY the best, so that sits at the top of our list for this particular bakery. We weren't so in love that we decided to use them right there and then, so we'll tour elsewhere, but if you are looking for a bakery that is well known, time-tested, and Lilacwire-approved, Das Meyer is a good start!

Sit your ass down!

(While shaping this blog, I'm going to cross-post some items from my personal journal because they pertain to wedding/engagement/creativity.)

Dr. Light and I have vastly different ideas about how to seat our wedding guests during the reception. As we will be serving dinner, we'll have tables and chairs and that whole shebang, but we want to handle them differently. As a note, we haven't even STARTED on seating arrangements, as we haven't even sent out invites or save the dates (which would be at earliest next year), but I was sitting here at work, stapling papers, and got to thinking.



Source

Me? I could care less where anyone sits. I figure we've been seating ourselves for the last 17-70 years (our guests' age ranges, most likely), so folks won't have an issue finding seats. I know it's wedding tradition to have a good chart, but I've been to multiple weddings in the past few years that let people just seat their darned selves and it all worked out beautifully.

Dr. Light likes the idea of ye olde seating chart. Perhaps pair some people together that have never met. Or keep some people apart (hi, mom and dad! - more coming on them at another time). It's not that folks will be at these seats all night, or anything. Just for an hour or so while we nom nom nom. So it could be a great mix & mingle opportunity.

What I wanted to know - what do you think? What have your experiences been with the dreaded seating chart? Did you have fun getting sat next to new people, or did you secretly wish the entire time that you were sitting next to a friend across the room?

Engaged!

Although Mr. Light's intention to propose was no secret between us, it was still a pretty amazing moment when he did.

We'd been hanging out all night, enjoying a spaghetti dinner and conversation, when he slid off the couch and onto his knees. He told me that I was the only woman for him, that he loved me, and more that I can't remember because I have the crummiest auditory memory ever - but the look in his eyes was more than enough.

He popped the box open and I'm pretty sure I said "yes" somewhere in there, but as he slid the ring onto my finger, I made sure to say it about ten more times. I kind of love that it was at home where we are making our lives together, but most of all I cherish having his earnest look in my memory. So wonderful. <3

Shoes

There was a post over on Weddingbee today (Source) where a gal was asking if the dress was easier to find than the shoes.

Yes. A million times, yes.

I have a ton of time until this even becomes an issue, but my head is a-buzz of possibilities. I just posted a few weeks ago about desiring to go with shoes that break the mold of white, strappy, plain - but the more I think about it and discuss my thoughts with my sister and friends, the more nervous I am about heels. And flats. And anything else. It all starts glomming together into a ball of "oh, crap."

What if heels are too high? What if I want to dance and party in my dress all night long but I can't stand to STAND for that long in them? And if I take them off, the dress becomes too long? That's no good!


I love these, but are they two high? (Source)

What if I wear flats and it's the middle of October and there's snow? And we wanted to do some pics outside? That's no good!

What if I wear boots of some sort and my feet are hot the entire time? That's no good either!

Next week will mark the time that my dress will officially be ordered - with a set height (which can be altered, but at cost) - and I want to try and give the store the most accurate height measurement of Lilacwire with shoes on as possible.

As a regular-height gal living in an Express-height world, it means that most of my pants come too long and I have to hem them to a good place. And I'm 5'5". I stress about the length of items on my legs and feet almost every day. I guess this should be no different, but I kind of wish THE SHOES would launch themselves out of the woodwork like my dress did and make this whole decision ridiculously easy.

Unexpected Expenses

As I have began the process of purchasing the dress, I've had to set some money aside each week so I can pay half of the dress's cost. It's a pretty pricey piece of clothing, ringing in just under $2,000. I figure I can't take the money to the grave, and I'm lucky enough to have a job that pays me well, so I can do this.

On that note, things happen. My little poodle Loki has been a bit under the weather this week, needing to use the restroom in the middle of the night A LOT, so I had to take him in to the vet for meds and a checkup. Suddenly, that extra money that I was going to use toward a dress has gone to a vet.

My sister texted me via her boyfriend's phone a few minutes ago and informed me she had dropped her phone in the street and a passing car ran it over and destroyed it. Ouch. She helped me buy a laptop when I was jobless last year, so I've been paying her back. To get a phone, she needs some money pretty soon. Thus, her immediate need for cash becomes my immediate need, and I need to give another payment for the dress today.

It's those expenses that we never really figure for.

I'm lucky. I can help her out with a laptop payment and still do a payment on the dress - but her phone isn't inexpensive. I wonder what else she's going to have to put on hold while she builds back up that painful dent in her wallet.

Now I have to figure that as Mr. Light and I head into possible marriage plans, we're going to have more items like this happen. Things break or get stolen. People park by braille and put dents in cars. We require doctor's visits.

I wonder what other unexpected expenses have come up to stop a good wedding plan?