Boring wedding stuff

This is not my wedding dress



But I do look pretty cute in a Barbie wonderland bomb, no? This was me playing dress-up after getting the dress I'm really going to wear, and which was more than $1,000 less than this. I just asked the nice clerk at The Wedding Bell if she had something big, white, sparkly and poufy to try on just because how many more times am I going to be wedding shopping? Like, never.

So that mission accomplished.

Then, a week or so later it was on to Longview, where Kris has been gung ho about producing the ultimate delicious wedding cake. Apparently she's been busting out the algebra calculating the precise ratio of baking powder to batter weight for a 12" cake round (an uncommonly large size) and buying a thingy you soak in cold water then wrap around the cake pan to prevent the sides from cooking too fast compared to the middle. Actually, she bought two and McGyver'd them together. Then she did a test bake (judged by all to be a smashing success) with three kinds of icing options. This cake has been a challenge both mental and gustatorial!

The cake (which you can see here, and do check out the photostream, where it shows the steps to fill it and her hummingbird infestation) was coconut. The icing options were all coconut, rum-flavored filling inside, and lemon in and out. Ray and I absolutely adore all-coconut. We took that and the rum-filled leftovers home and I swear I ate a decent sized piece of cake twice a day for a week, and Ray had his cake, too. And ate it (goes without saying). Kris used the Alton Brown coconut cake recipe, modified for the cake size. It was also doubling as my pre-birthday birthday cake.

This is going to be the best-tasting wedding cake I've ever had. And all my lovely guests too. Kris is also making a red velvet cake for the "groom's cake." We're pretty sure there will be multiple servings per most people necessary because they're great cakes and the buffet will probably be serviceable buffet food.

So I had a dream last night that I had superpowers and there were these people who were also superpowered were out to kill me and they killed everyone I know and I found my old Philly house smeared with blood everywhere and I barely got out of there alive. That's where my dream kind of ended. Lots of my anxiety dreams have me running down this little path that cut through the block. Don't know why. That was a lovely little place when I was a kid, one I think back on very fondly.

But anyway, although my dream was technically a nightmare, I never really felt the kind of overwhelmed freaked-out feeling that I got at Macy's today setting up a wedding registry. I felt a little dizzy at one point.

I kind of picked myself up a bit and realized I was not spending this money, someone else might be. And I felt a little better and a lot guiltier. But then the bridal consultant showed us that almost all our items were under $50 (everything is basically on sale because there's a depression on), and even the sheets I said, "We're spending $200 on sheets?" about, are on sale so they aren't nearly that expensive.

Funniest registry moment was at the towel display.

Me: "I like these. Which colors you like?"

Ray: "These" (points to cranberry-colored towels)

Me: "No. And not the brown ones either. No more brown and white. I like these."

Ray: "Uh, okay, those are fine."

Me: "How many towels should we get? Four?"

Ray: (consternation in voice) "Four??!! That's a lot of towels. Just get one."

Me: "Who gets one towel? That's just weird."

Ray: "We don't need four new towels. We have a lot of towels."

Me: "Well, yeah, but getting one towel? One? Isn't the point to have multiple towels that match?"

Ray: (shrugs) "Yeah. Get two."

Me: "Okay."

Later in the car:

Ray: "I've been thinking about the towels. I have some towels that are kind of old. Maybe it's time to get rid of some of them."

The cheapest item is a lemon reamer (on sale, $3.99). On the website it just calls it a reamer, which, paired with its pic, makes it look totally naughty.

Oh, and it goes without saying that there is a non-profit that will be even more grateful for donations than we are, the 7th Street.

So there is your boring wedding stuff update.