A Napa Fairytale: Cake Cutting

My mouth is watering as I sit to write this post! Our cake was delish! The bottom layer was red velvet, the middle, fruit basket, and the top tier was german chocolate.

 I almost didn't want to cut into it, it was so pretty! It was a surprise to both of us, as Mr. Barrettes' mom took the cake's care into her own from the beginning of our planning. I sent her some inspirational photos and she took care of the rest.

Click below to hear the song that DJ Adam played during our cake cutting! It was so cute and all of my cousins started singing along-- which naturally made me sing along!

We're not ones for cake-smushing, but we did rub it on each other's noses before feeding it. I'm not sure why we picked it up with our hands instead of using forks...

I think that is all the cake I had for the evening. Like I said before, I felt like I had to be everywhere at once so I didn't really sit down at all. I would have liked to dig into that deliciousness a little more.

My groom really liked doing the twisty arms drinking thing. It was cute. This was like the third time we did it already!

After the cake cutting, the dancefloor heated up again and outside in the courtyard, guests were enjoying the photobooth, the twinkling lights, and the cool Napa night!

A Napa Fairytale: We Dine and We Cheers

After our first dance and my dad's welcome speech it was finally time to eat. By this point I was starving and our dinner smelled so good! We decided on a family-style presentation, which all the guests ended up really liking. Our dinner was catered by Tra Vigne and included the following:

COSTATA DI BUE- braised beef short ribs with soft polenta and natural jus
SPINACI RAVIOLI- house made ravioli with spinach, ricotta, and sage butter
INSALATA MISTA- organic fall lettuces with pears, walnuts, blue cheese and champagne
vinaigrette

The kids dined on pizza and pasta, also served family-style at their tables.

The man-of-honor took his cue from the coordinator and grabbed the mic to start his speech. John is not a big public speaker and he later said that the sound of his voice on the microphone jarred him a bit and he had to wrap up his speech quickly before he started to cry. He said some really sweet things, including telling Mr. Barrettes to take care of "his" girl. Had he been straight, he assured us I would have been off the market years before. ;)

Next, the best man took the mic and quickly had us in stitches. He and Mr. Barrettes shared a weird noise they make when they see eachother, then he began to tell stories about them together and when he first met me at a gym. He claimed he knew right away I was a good match for his buddy because I had some guns...

He led a cheers to long and prosperous marriage. And to lots of babies.

(photos by Luke Snyder Studio)

Throughout dinner, we would kiss a lot. The glass clinking was in full force, and although you think it can be annoying, there is nothing like having to kiss your new spouse in order to make it stop. It's the only evening it will ever be for you so enjoy it!

If You'd Like Chicken, Please Have it for Lunch...

Mr. Barrettes spoke with our potential catering company yesterday and we're up to our eyeballs in heavy hors d'oeuvres. My mouth waters just reading the list of potential players:

-French crepes with boursin cheese, asparagus, and fire roasted peppers

-Grilled fig and goat cheese crostini

-Salmon tartare on potato gaufrette with creme fraiche and caviar

-Tandoori grilled prawn with mint and cilantro aioli

-Lobster spring roll with avocado and spicy red
grapefruit aioli

-Wild mushroom crostini with pancetta and triple cream brie

-Black pepper herb crusted beef tenderloin with sun-dried tomato chutney, horseradish cream

-Petite croque-monsieur with black forest ham, havarti, swiss and cranberry mustard

And the list goes on and on.... How are we ever going to decide when there are something like 45 options to choose from? There is a veggie list, a shellfish list, coastal fish list, poultry list, meat list, hot list, cold list, stationary list, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

At the very least we have decided against chicken. Sorry chicken, its not that I don't love you. I eat you often, and I assume most of my guests do as well. But you're just not special enough to make the list for the big day. You taste the same all the time. Even if you're marinated, fried, skewered, glazed or roasted, you still taste like chicken. We're not flying to Napa Valley to eat chicken.

How did you decide what to keep and what to cut?

photo source

What About 100 Pizzas?

(personal photo)

OH-EM-JEE. I don't even want to think about catering for at least 2 more days. I'm going to have to promise my firstborn child to Angelina Jolie in order to actually get what I want. Why does 5 hours of hot hors'doeurves cost over $xx,xxx? It absolutely makes zero sense to me and my head is pounding.

Ryan says, "Honey, we're not getting married in the middle of nowhere. We're getting married in Napa. There's a difference."

Even shopping around, we still were given about the same price range at each company. The food cost is appropriate, but adding the servers, the linens, the clean-up and trash disposal, the CA state tax, the service charge, and the we-need-to-make-profit-so-lets-jack-it-up-because-we-live-in-Napa charge, the company we really want is going to come in at A LOT. *Cue tears*

For a slightly smaller price we can do less hors'doeurves and more of a buffet style thing, which I can deal with, but then I'd have to do table seating. I've been trying to avoid that. So really at this point, I've given the whole thing up to Mr. Barrettes. I will more than likely barely eat anything other than bread...nerves, ya know? I don't even eat cheese and I'm the one fighting to keep the huge cheese table.

I'm sure everything will be okay and I'm overreacting. I've never thrown a party for 150 people before so maybe these costs are just normal and I'm having sticker shock. My biggest priorities are the invitations and the photography so as long as I can have what I want in those areas, I'm willing to give a little in other areas. With all the wine flowing and people dancing and everyone in various states of bliss, I doubt anyone will be upset with the food. Even the pizza in Napa is amazing.


Did you have sticker shock about the cost of catering?