We decided on a masquerade ball for the theme of our wedding. I remember the two of us talking about how most people wear masks in the various interactions through life. I felt then that I didn't, but could definitely see how others did. Jessie liked this idea very well and that's what we did.
Our wedding was on December 31, 2002 and we were able to book a room in which to hold it in a hotel on the oceanfront in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
We found a really accomplished cake decorator and ordered a fabulous cake that was also very symbolic of us and our life at that time. It looked amazing and tasted more wonderful than words can describe! But let me try to share some of it's amazing loveliness with you. Each cake was a different flavor with a complimentary flavor filling in between the layers and an awesome buttercream topped by a tastey rolled fondant (most rolled fondant I'd had up to that point was horrible... peel-off-able!). Each cake had a topper. Both the flavors of the cakes and their toppers were symbolically relevant. Unfortunately, I cannot locate my notes about the flavors right now. The biggest cake was "our" cake. The topper was a hand-sculped sugar mask rendition of Jessie's sun/moon tatoo. The next smaller cake was "Jessie's" and had an awesome sugar crown for the topper. I called him my 'king' at that time. Next down in size (but higher in the display), was mine. The topper was hand-scullpted sugar wings because Jessie used to call me his angel. The smallest cake's topper, the one we saved for our first year anniversary, was a store-bought topper of a woman holding a man up in both her arms. I painted them so that the man was in orange and the woman was in blue, just as Jessie and I were. The cake maker was also a master stylist. The table was stunning. Folks from the murder/mystery dinner celebration came to see it very frequently.
Favors for weddings can be rather plain and unimaginative, at least, that was our impression at the time. Because our wedding was meant to be a masquerade ball, we purchased various kinds of masks as our wedding favors. They were very cool. More than 10 years later we still have some! Our children have enjoyed playing with many of them, which we imagined we would enjoy. I think we may have enjoyed it even more than we imagined.
The night of our wedding we and our friends and family set everything up. Then we began our party/reception. We went to another room for our ceremony. After exchanging vows, we went back to the party room and continued our reception including cutting our cake. It was really quite fun!
