Strawberry Blonde Bride: You're My Everything: Let's Eat!

Once the final toast had concluded, it was time for us to cut into the cake! As I mentioned earlier, based on some droopy cake, we made the game-time decision to cut our cake relatively early in the reception, which turned out to be a very smooth switch. Our coordinator came to the cake table and motioned for us to join her while Dean Martin's "That's Amore" played. We quickly found a spot where the ribbon ends met each other on one of the bottom tiers, pulled the ribbon apart, and dove in!

That's my "I'm concentrating" face, complete with the tip of the tongue sticking out.

Mr. Snow Cone knew better than to even consider cake-smashing. About an hour after we got engaged, I made him promise that absolutely, positively, under no condition would a crumb of cake intentionally end up on my face. I was confident he'd stay true to his word, but I also slipped one final reminder/warning as we were preparing to feed each other. He responded with an exasperated but not entirely surprised, "Trust me, I know!"

I don't know what I thought was so funny at this exact moment, but I think I was just pleased as punch at every single second of every minute, regardless of what was actually happening.

When all was said and done, our focused effort with the cake-cutting resulted in barely a dent. I shouldn't really be surprised, though, considering that I struggle to cut a pan of brownies with any level of skill or precision.

Photo by my brother P

We returned to our seats as GM A provided a blessing for the meal. We asked him to do the blessing about a week prior to the big day, but reminding him slipped off the to-do list. As a result, he was pretty bewildered when he was handed the mike, having forgotten about our request. He handled it really well, providing a good impromptu prayer for the whole group.

And with that, dinner was served! Mr. Snow Cone and I spent a lot of time picking out our menu, aiming for a truly personalized meal. For the first course, we had a chilled strawberry soup, which was Mr. Snow Cone's most favorite dish from our spring break cruise to the Bahamas in college. A lot of our guests had never had anything quite like it before, and it was perfect on our balmy August wedding day!

Next, we had a bibb and spinach salad. No particular personal significance there; salad's just good.

For our main course, we offered our guests the choice between chicken cordon bleu and a vegetarian lasagna. My personal favorite part of the meal, though, would have to be the family-style bowls of macaroni and cheese we had at each table. Macaroni and cheese is my favorite food, and I was pretty much adamant that it show up at the wedding. We couldn't figure out how to present it on the plated main courses, so we decided to plop a big bowl of it at each table, letting people take as much or as little as they wanted. It provided a really casual, fun twist to the otherwise formal meal. Judging by how many comments we heard about the m&c, I'd have to say it was our guests' favorite detail of the meal!

Our sweetheart table worked out wonderfully. I half-expected a relatively constant stream of guests coming up to the table, which would have been perfectly fine. Instead, it was like we were surrounded by a miniature force field. We enjoyed our wedding meal just the two of us, remarking at how smoothly the day was going and reminding each other to take in the moment. Eating dinner, largely by ourselves, was one of the highlights of the entire day. It allowed us to slow the pace down and actually be with each other. We weren't expected to pose for pictures, and we temporarily let ourselves off the hook visiting with guests. We truly had nothing to do for a few precious minutes besides enjoy each other's company and our delicious meals.

Before the reception, Mr. Snow Cone and I decided we'd try to visit every table during dinner, but we also intended to enjoy our meals. We pretty much decided to eat as much as we wanted and make the most of the remaining time to visit with guests. We didn't end up visiting even half of the tables, but given that we had a receiving line and cocktail hour, it wasn't a big faux pas on our part. When we did visit, we started with our families who had traveled from out of town, figuring we'd spent the "party" portion of the reception with the younger crowd. Even though we weren't terribly successful in our goal of visiting every table, it was still nice to get up from our sweetheart table and get some one-on-one conversations in with our guests.