What kind of cake do YOU want?

We did our first cake tasting yesterday, and wow, are there a lot of choices. I thought it might be fun and beneficial to get the input of some other people about what combinations they might like -- rather than just picking our favorites and hoping everybody else goes along! We've already asked our parents for their input, and thought we'd open it up to the citizens of the blog universe as well.

So, go ahead, post a comment on the one cake flavor and one filling flavor you'd like to see. The frosting on top will be buttercream.

No guarantees we'll be able to do it, but I'd like to hear your opinion! We should be able to choose 3-5 combinations.

CAKE FLAVORS
Chocolate Mud Cake
Red Velvet Cake
Coconut Italian Cream Cake
Lemon Cream Cake
Strawberry Divine Cake
Orange Dream Cake
Banana Cake
White Chocolate Mud Cake
Amaretto Cake
Coconut Cake
Chocolate Hazelnut Cake
Mixed Berry Cake
Poppy Seed Cake
Carrot Cake
Rum Cake
Spice Cake
Butter Vanilla Cake

FILLINGS (there might be more -- list something else if you'd rather)
European Raspberry
Strawberry Amaretto Custard
Lemon Strawberry Mousse
Vanilla Custard Chocolate Mousse
Chocolate Custard Apricot Mousse
Chocolate Fudge Lemon Mousse
Pineapple Caramel Mousse
German Chocolate Raspberry Mousse
Apricot White Chocolate Bavarian
Cherry Amaretto
Coconut Cream
Banana Cream
Cream cheese
Amaretto Custard
Strawberry Mousse
Chocolate Mousse
Apricot Mousse
Lemon Mousse
Caramel Mousse
Raspberry Mousse
White Chocolate Bavarian
Peanut Butter Cup
Chocolate Ganache

Thinking about flavors makes me want cake... Mmmm... Cake...

Becky

Double Digits!

One of our registries lists the number of days until the big event. I see that as of today, we're down to 99 days.

Wow.

We're Registered

What to say, what to say?

A few of you have asked if we're registered. We are. In fact, we're registered with no fewer than four fine retailers. Lots of cool stuff there, as well as a few very random things. What can I say? The awesome power of the bar code scanner went to my head. Becky tried to restrain me, but she's just one woman.

All joking aside, we both come at this with very mixed feelings. On the one hand, I have maintained for a long time that the wedding registry is perhaps the greatest scam ever perpetrated. We get to run amok in stores we like, making long lists of gifts for people to buy for us. And then - this is the amazing part - people actually buy us those things. How cool is that? I tried to work a similar deal every Christmas when I was a kid, making a very careful list of preferred toys in the Sears Christmas catalog, even noting the page numbers so Santa would know exactly what I wanted. It rarely worked. The wedding registry is like that, only with far better toys.

But on the other hand, the whole thing seems a little weird and greedy. That's OK when you're an eight year old at Christmas, but it's different when you're an allegedly mature adult. If you're coming to our wedding, we're pretty thrilled about that - why should we expect you to come bearing the consumer products or our choice as well? The tradition of the registry goes back to times when people married earlier and needed all that help just to set up their homes. But the truth of the thing is that we're marrying at a little older age (me especially - Becky's still a spring chicken) and already have a lot of stuff.

So it comes down to this. We've added links to our registries in the links section of the site (Here). If you want to buy us a wedding gift, there are plenty to choose from (and might I say the 12 Reeses Big Cups on the Target registry are a particular favorite). But please don't feel pressured. We're mostly excited about celebrating the big day with all of you. Your presence at our wedding really is gift enough.

Hope to see you there.

No Cornerstone for us this year

I just posted a message to our little mailing list which contains so many of our friends who usually go to Cornestone Music Festival with us each summer. I thought I might post some of those thoughts here, too, because Cornerstone occupies a significant spot in our lives and our relationship.

Cornerstone is a music festival put on by a bunch of Jesus-Freak hippies out of Chicago. The fest is in outside the tiny town of Bushnell, IL in western Illinois and draws tens of thousands of people every year. From Austin, it's a two day drive, but it's worth it!

We're not able to go this year, mainly because of the need to take vacation time for wedding planning and a honeymoon this fall. But, we're both missing it incredibly.

Steve and I went to our first Cornerstone in 1998. Matt's been doing the trip since he lived in the midwest -- about 10 years now.

We met there, really, for the first time in 1998. I don't think Matt and I took much notice to each other that first year (or at least not I to him -- it was just so overwhelming to finally be in Bushnell for the festival at all!). By the time 2000 rolled around, though, I was at the fest while back home we were packing for me to move to Austin and Mom & Dad to move to Connecticut. The story goes on from there. But, this year, no Austin contingency (or at least not *this* Austin contingency) in the "hiz-house" (or however you spell that phrase!).

Steve will still be at the fest, along with quite a few dear friends. But, many of the usual crowd will be missing, including us, for one reason or another. I hope those who do go will enjoy the fest a little bit on our behalf.

I'll be here: working, planning a retreat, planning a wedding, preparing for nasal-reconstruction surgery on the 7th, and so much more.

We'll be missing stoping enroute at Andy's Frozen Custard in Springfield Missouri. I'll be missing joking with Matt about every single sign to the Precious Moments Chapel -- but I bet he won't mind me not jokingly wanting to stop (get that, I don't really want to stop!) We'll not be seeing the Meramac Caverns billboards that take you across Missouri, nor the "Den of Metal Arts" along the interstate, nor all the places that sell walnut bowls. And, we won't be stopping at as many QTs as possible (for icy cold drinks).

We'll be missing eating a yummy rib-eye sandwich at the fest, cooked up by the Bushnell Locker. Austin needs a real midwestern meat locker and a nice small-town style bakery, but that's another story.

We'll be missing out on the sunburns, the showers that smell like sulfur, the porta-poties, the silly t-shirt vendors, the kids in temporary mohawks, the sore feet after walking too far, the strawberry-lemon shakeups, the funnel cakes & elephant ears (no, we don't exactly eat healthy there...), the crazy golf-cart drivers, the unending game to come up with new band names, and everything else.

We'll be missing the concerts -- staying awake through & loving Over the Rhine, managing to sleep through some a screaming "band" or two, discovering something new, wanting The Violet Burning to play in Austin sometime, and all the rest. (We will not, however, be missing ApologetiX, who for some unknown reason are playing the fest this year -- but that's also another story only appreciated by a few of you, so I'll stop!)

But, mostly, we'll be missing the friends and what that place means to us. Silly to think of something like that in such sentimental terms, but there you go. :)

I hope to see everyone again next year, if not sooner...

Becky

Hotel Lists

If you are thinking about coming for our wedding, please watch the site for hotel lists to be posted soon. I'm touring a hotels over the next few days and will then post the names of the hotel(s) that are offering a special rate. With Austin being such a large city, we're working hard to find hotels that are conveniently located to the wedding activities and in good areas with easy access to out-of-town guests, and offer reasonable rates. I've been calling hotels for the past two weeks and should have something to show for this work in a day or two.

We know many of you won't be able to be here, and we understand completely. Anyone who can come in from out of town will be a very special guest in our minds! And, anyone who can't make it will still be loved. :)

Planning Proceeds

I think we're in a weird part of the wedding planning cycle. There's definitely a lot going on, but we haven't really finalized anything yet. We're pretty sure we've chosen a caterer, but we haven't signed a contract. We've done research on photographers, but we haven't made a final decision. We think we know where we're going to go for the honeymoon, but don't have airline tickets. We're about ready to start talking through the details of the rehearsal, etc.. And, seriously, if you can recomend wedding vendors around Austin, please do.

On and on it goes. Busy, busy, busy.

And it seems as though both of our jobs are going to be taking an increasing percentage of our time for the next couple of months. Becky's in charge of the Gateway leadership retreat that's happening in about six weeks. That's a lot of work, especially on top of the rest of her job. In my world, the marketing people have signed us up for a really aggressive schedule that should dominate my life for the next couple of months. It's the chance to shine that I've wanted, but will require a large time commitment. This stuff won't wait, but we both know that the wedding will be here in no time flat - sooner than we think, probably.

Several of our friends have stepped up to help with a lot of detail stuff. You know who you are; we can't thank you enough.

Mostly, I'm glad that I have Becky during these stressful times. She makes the world seem a lot brighter.

I'm a lucky man.

Recommendations for us?

For any Austinites who are reading our blog...

If you've gotten married around here (or just know about this stuff) and have recommendations for services or professionals to use or avoid, please write a comment to this post.

We've done some research, but would be open to suggestions on any of these:

• Florists
• Hotels for booking a block of rooms for our out-of-town guests
• Photography
• Videography (maybe)
• Etc.

Thank you! :)

Becky

Wedding Anniversaries

Today is my parent's anniversary, and my grandparent's anniversary too (as well as a few other relatives in my dad's line). As a child it was an easy day to remember -- mainly because for most of our time in Madison, either Dad or Dad & Steve & I were playing in the municipal band, and we'd do a concert for Flag Day. However, today, here in Austin, there's no municipal band and no Flag Day concert to remind me what day it is. And, despite all the electronic bells and chimes in my office designed to keep my calendar straight, sometimes it just doesn't sink in what day it is -- especially not lately.

So, long story short, I forgot what day it was. I talked to mom this morning, even, and it didn't come up. It took watching the evening news and seeing "June 14" displayed large on the screen for me to remember what day it was, and why that particular day has any meaning. I called right away to say Happy Anniversary, and we all got a laugh out of it. :)

Someday in the future, when it's *our* anniversary, will I still be so absentminded about what day it is? *sigh*

Mom & Dad, please know that I love you and do wish you a happy anniversary.

Becky

The things I've learned

Here's a tip: if your fiance' emails you a link to potential honeymoon destinations on a Monday morning, don't read it right then. At least, not if you value productivity.

I went from "fired up, gonna set the world on fire" to "I wanna go to Bora Bora!" in eight seconds flat.

It's Official!

Becky tells me that it's official - our wedding date is October 7th. We've signed the contract with the location, paid the twelve different deposits, and secured the date. Good to have that nailed down.

Meanwhile, more planning is ongoing. I'm looking at narrowing down the list of potential photographers to two or three that we can interview. Becky's been looking at a lot of other details. There's talk of a shower, too.

And we're talking about the honeymoon. The two most likely destinations at this point are French Polynesia or Zihuatenejo. The former is described as the ultimate romantic island getaway. The latter is a beautiful former fishing village on the Pacific coast of Mexico. Which will we choose? Hard to say at this point. But it's certainly exciting to think about it.

Pictures page updated

I uploaded some pictures of Star Hill Ranch to the Pictures page.

Becky

Becky's Parents in Ireland

In case anybody's interested, here are some pictures from my parents, who are currenly in Ireland.

http://mywebspace.quinnipiac.edu/bwhite/Ireland/default.htm

(Dad's looking at teaching a class there next summer; his university has a program there.)

Becky