Today, M and I decided that we'll have to bite the bullet and hire a housecleaner. The place simply gets too grimy to have it any other way. It's kind of pathethic that it's come to this. But what can we do?

We had two cake tasting/consultation appointments today and I think we finally found the cake of our dreams. Of course, it also happens to be the most expensive. Go figure.

I'm shocked to find the extreme disparity between wedding cakes. Three of the four tastings we had simply weren't very good... and the prices were all over the board. Of course, the one we like is perfect. And we're going to be paying for that perfectness. Oh, well. We have a lot of confidence in the designer. She's incredible! Her work has been featured in several magazines (even Martha Stewart Weddings). Plus, she's giving us a discount because she says she's always wanted to do our design. When we told her which design we were thinking of (one that we found on a random web site, but she said is originally a Martha Stewart design... and she rummaged through her Martha Stewart Weddings magazines to prove it to us), she literally gasped and said, "Now that is a striking cake design!"

We'll have the most beautiful cake in the world. It will be such a shame to cut it! I told M that all our guests will be taking photos of the cake beforehand. Hahahahah!

As I was painting my fingernails this evening (which I only very rarely do), I was devastated to find that one of the tiny diamonds in my ring had fallen out! M says he'll take it in to the jeweler on Tuesday and get it replaced. I'm so upset. This shouldn't have happened. I sure hope no more fall out!

We went menu tasting on Thursday night. That was fun! We decided we'd taste the mini crab cakes and vegetarian spring rolls for appetizers, the house and the pear & gorgonzola salads, and the New York steak and the chicken Salinas for the entrees.

The banquet manager was really nice and brought out an extra appetizer for us, the vegetable samosas. And he brought out three glasses of wine each for us to taste.

Everything was so delicious.

All of this was free! I was gloating about that afterward... until M reminded me that we'll be spending thousands of dollars there. Oh, right.

However, I think we've decided on providing four appetizers. We'll go with all the ones we tasted, plus add the mini meatballs. We also decided on the pear & gorgonzola salad and the chicken Salinas... as well as the house red and white wines (they were surprisingly tasty!). I've decided, though, that we'll splurge on my favorite champagne, Piper Sonoma.

We had a debate in the car on the way to the tasting whether we should offer two or more menu options for our guests... and finally decided against it. I think it will just complicate things. If someone's a vegetarian, they can easily email or call us and tell us beforehand. After all, we're all adults here. If they're offended by the chicken on their plate, it's their own damn fault.

You don't host a dinner party and ask your guests their meal preference beforehand, do you? Of course not. And we've learned you can't please everyone.

So there.

I've thought and talked enough about weddings for the day.

With that, goodnight.