Isabella's Project Diary

My sister's wedding week is over, and we all survived more or less intact. I was lucky to already have accumulated a week of PTO, so I had the three days before the wedding (she got married on a Thursday) to finish my dress and make the cake.

I finished the dress Monday, after getting it mostly done over the weekend. I was worried that the taffeta would look too different next to the sequined lace the other girls were wearing, but it all ended up looking good together. I used the Butterick cross-front Edwardian pattern, since I had made it before and knew its quirks already. There are some minor fit issues, but it was wearable and looked decent, and I can fix them later if I want to wear the gown for an event.



It took two fifteen-hour days, plus two more hours the day-of to get the cake assembled and painted, but the cake all came together in the end, it looked pretty good, and it was delicious.



The day of the wedding was a whirlwind. The venue unlocked its doors at 9, so we packed up the cars with everything we could and caravanned over first thing in the morning. It took two trips for me to get all the cake tiers to the venue. I assembled the tiers at the venue, since I figured it would be easier to assemble everything there rather than try and manhandle a 4-tier cake into the Volvo. I did the final decorating there, too, which involved painting on the woodgrain with vodka-thinned food coloring, and arranging the gumpaste pinecones and that stupid, uncooperative flower, which kept wanting to fall apart. I managed to situate the flower just so, and it stayed together until the cake cutting, and by that time I didn't care if it fell apart. It was a white cake with mascarpone filling, raspberry jam, and fresh raspberries, and it was amazing, if I do say so myself. I have so much white cake left over that I'm going to make a strawberry shortcake for next weekend.

Hair and makeup took forever (and cost an arm and a leg), but we actually finished up everyone ahead of schedule, so we had some time to hang out in the bridal suite and drink champagne, which was fun.

The wedding was beautiful and a lot of fun. I'm not a very emotional person, but I did cry when I saw my sister come down the aisle, and when she and Dad had their father-daughter dance. The photographer my sister used is really amazing, too, and I can't wait to see all the pictures she took.

The day after the wedding (Friday), the families and everyone in the bridal party met up at a café in Fort Worth for the wedding brunch. The portions were enormous, and 90% of what they served were different takes on chicken fried steak. I ate the nachos, which were amazing, and a "Cowboy Style" CFS, which was just served the normal way with gravy and mashed potatoes. It was okay, but I've had better.

Fatigue finally caught up with me on Saturday. I slept until 11, and then I just sort of stayed in bed with the cats and watched the Walking Dead marathon until dinnertime. It was a good day.

Today it's back to the regular routine, which means sitting in my office doing a whole lot of nothing for the next 6 hours. (I'm not complaining, it's nice to have a job where I'm basically paid to surf the internet.) My German family (aunt, uncle, and cousin) are here until the 2nd of November, so we'll likely be doing some things with them over the next week. There's a new English Country Dance group in Fort Worth I want to check out on Friday when they have their next class, and I'm going to try and get my butt back in gear so I can finish sewing for the Georgian Picnic. I need to redo some parts of the blue and ivory dress that I rushed through before, and M's embroidered waistcoat needs finishing and he needs new breeches for the burgundy suit. (I feel like I've written that sentence a lot...I just need to get this stuff done, already!)