Hawkily Ever After: How Sweet It Is

This may sound silly, but the part of the reception that gave me the most pause was the cutting of the cake. No, it had nothing to do with the fact that we had no idea what we were doing or that we hadn't practiced or even discussed how we would cut it. The concern I felt had everything to do with the dreaded cake smashing.

Mr. Hawk fancies himself quite the jokester. For the entire fourteen months of our engagement, he promised that he was going to smear cake and icing all over my face, and I promised that if he did, there would be hell to pay. Thankfully, Mr. Hawk got the message, but the uncertainty in my face says it all.

The "I don't know what I'm doing" face

The "I'm watching you" face

The "don't you even think about it" eyes 

The "get this icing off my finger" look

No smearing! Success!

I've never really understood the whole cake smashing tradition. After all, who wants to pay hundreds of dollars on hair and makeup to be covered in icing?

What's your take on cake smashing?

All photos by Valerie Demo Photography

Miss a Hawk recap? Don't fret! Catch up here:

We review our planning journey

We rehearse and welcome our guests
The girls get pretty
I share my bridal details
Mr. Hawk becomes a groom
Our first look 
We take photos at Crim Dell Bridge
We explore campus for more photography
The groomsmen ham it up
The bridal party channels their inner model
The entire wedding party regroups
My last moments as a Miss
Welcome to our wedding ceremony
The bridal party procession
Miss Hawk's walk down the aisle 
We're married!
We were surrounded by love during our impromptu receiving line

We take our family formals

All our reception details

I scarf bread ends while our guests enjoy cocktail hour
We make our grand entrances
Mr. Hawk and I have our first dance

Daddy Hawk and I dance

Mr. Hawk's mother-son moment
We eat! (Yes, we actually ate!)
Cheesin' it up in the photo booth
We dance and the boys break out cigars

Hawkily Ever After: A recap before the recaps

I recently received this lovely little package from my photographer.


Gifts!

 It also, of course, contained the flash drive with all of my wedding day images!

Horray!

But before I jump straight into wedding day recaps, I figured I'd do a short review of our planning journey for those of you who might not have been around. Here is the Hawk engagement: Cliffs Notes version.

Mr. Hawk and I met through mutual friends. A few years later we became an official couple. We moved in together, went ring shopping, and I got a little impatient before Mr. H asked me to marry him in March of 2011.


 We decided to have our wedding ceremony at my alma mater in picturesque Williamsburg, Virginia, but faced some sticker shock when picking our reception venue. We settled on Legacy Hall, which was both beautiful and affordable. Since we saved on our venue,  I found myself drooling over upgrades like chiavari chairs and professional lighting.


The Wren Building. Photo by Holland Photo Arts

We found a fantastic DJ, and I was thrilled when we decided to rent a photobooth, which would also serve as our guestbook. Mr. H was pretty laid back when it came to planning, but let me know that pulled pork HAD to be a part of the reception menu. Not being big fans of cake, we also decided to serve cupcakes as dessert.

When it came to color scheme, I originally thought I wanted to incorporate gray, but eventually decided on a more spring-y palette. Yellow bridesmaids dresses and bow ties definitely fit the bill.


Top row, from left to right: Bouquet via Kelly’s Wedding Flowers Gallery; Love Birds Topper via Vintage Green Modern on Etsy; Cupcakes via Wedding Magazine / Cupcakes by Cakes by Robin; Monogram via Charming Little Nest / Monogram by Southern Proper Monogram; Shoes via Hayden Olivia / Photo by Critsey Rowe; Sign via Family Attic on Etsy; Arrangement via White on Rice Couple
Bottom Row: Table setting via Green Wedding Shoes / Photo by Edyta Szyszlo Photography; Bouquet and bow ties via Southern Weddings / Photo via 1313 Photography; Lemonade stand via Brenda’s Wedding Blog / Photo by Bello Photography / Styling by Desiree Spinner Events

For our paper elements we incorporated our engagement photos in our save-the-dates. Our invitations featured a hand drawn image of our ceremony spot. I obsessed over monograms, and it became a theme featured on hand-painted glassware, matchbook covers, tote bags, seating chart, OOT bags, and OOT information packets.

My lovely ladies threw me a fun bridal shower and bachelorette weekend in DC to celebrate my last single days. Our impending marriage started to feel more real when we bought our wedding rings and finally obtained our marriage license.


When our wedding day arrived, we followed the timeline to a "t", but it was still over in the blink of an eye.


Photo by Valerie Demo Photography


I can't wait to relive every moment of our special day with y'all. Now, on to the recaps!

First up: The day before we wed!

Cupcake Sugar Coma

It's been a while since I've talked cupcakes, but over the weekend, the mister and I headed to our favorite local cupcake shop, Pearl's, to have our tasting. (It's actually quite surprising that there were flavors for us left to try! When one of the owners asked us how we heard about their shop, another lady working said, "oh, they're regulars!" Embarassing? Maybe a little. But I am powerless to resist their cupcakes. I'm not afraid to admit it.)

Since our dinner menu is featuring southern staples, we wanted to keep with the theme and tried blackberry cobbler, peach cobbler, and bourbon pecan. We also sampled the "Wilma Ray," a champagne flavored cupcake.

In the end the bourbon pecan was the clear favorite of those we tasted, and Mr. H decided to chose it as his cupcake flavor. I previously selected the Deep Dish Apple Pie as my cupcake choice. We still have one open spot on the cupcake roster. We were hoping to have three choices in total: "his," "hers," and "something we agree on". Currently the front-runner for our third and final choice is the blackberry cobber, but I think we might have to make a few more weekend trips to Pearl's just to be sure.

How did you pick your dessert? Did you want it to follow a theme or did you just pick something you really love? (Luckily for us, we get both!)

All photos personal

No Cake For You.

I am not a cake person. For some reason it's just never been my thing. Even as a child I would pass on the birthday cake. Now show me some warm chocolate chip or peanut butter cookies, and we have a different story; however, in the past year or so I discovered something very curious: my distaste for cake comes to a screeching halt when cake becomes CUPcakes. I think has a lot to do with the fact that cupcakes come in so many flavors: key lime, apple pie, salted caramel, carrot cake, red velvet, s'mores, banana split, peach cobbler... (I could fill a whole post, but for y'alls' sakes, I'll keep myself in check.)

Trying new flavors and cupcake shops has almost become a sport for Mr. Hawk and I. If we find a new shop in town, we pick out a half dozen to take home and feast on them rest of the week. (Correction: mine last a week. Mr. Hawk eats all of his within two days and then pouts until I share my half with him.) We even have our favorites cupcakes and shops ranked. (Moistness of cake, cake to icing ratio, and cupcake size are all considered.) It.Is.Serious.

Pearl's Deep Dish Apple Pie my absolute favorite! Via Foodspotting

So naturally since cupcakes are somewhat of a large presence in our lives, they must be a part of the wedding dessert menu. It makes me a little sad to be missing out on some gorgeous wedding cakes, but it just wouldn't be the Hawk wedding without cupcakes.

That being said, I've begun to think a lot about the cake-cutting. I honestly don't think I would be devastated to miss it, but it is a really sweet moment between bride and groom. I suppose we could feed each other cupcake, but then we wouldn't have a reason to buy an awesome Kate Spade cake cutter! But in all seriousness, I've been wondering if we should compromise and get a small cake for the top tier of our cupcake stand.

Image via Top Wedding Cakes

Hive, help me out. Did you/are you considering serving cupcakes as your main wedding dessert? If so, did you forgo cake all together?

(Totally off subject but does anyone else immediately think of the Bachelor/Bachelorette and their inability to pronounce  the word "forgo" on the overnight dates?!!)