The bride was heading toward the altar when she discovered the cake wasn't there.

The bride came down the staircase of her parents’ home on her way to the altar in the back yard.  In her rather emotional state, she just noticed that the wedding cake was not on the dining room table where she expected it to be.  “Where is the cake?” she asked her wedding coordinator.  “It’s on its  way. Don’t worry,” was the reply.  And by the time dinner was served, the cake was on the table.  The bride and the groom were perfectly content.

Now, here’s what really happened:  The mercury that day was over 90 degrees.  A more experienced baker probably would have frozen the cake so that the buttercream frosting didn’t melt.  But this baker just loaded the cake into her van and drove through the heat.  By the time she reached the house, the cake had imploded.  Someone buttonholed me before she went back to her kitchen, so I had a minute to talk to her.  Needless to say, she was in a bit of a panic.

“What time do you have to have the cake here?” she asked me.

“You have exactly three hours,” I said.

“I’ll be back before then.”  And she was.  She ended up bringing a small wedding cake and a sheet cake, instead of the larger cake she had promised.  But it was still a small miracle that she managed to deliver at all.

Now, when the bride came downstairs and saw that there was no cake, I knew that the cake had fallen and that the baker was, at that moment, frantically re-baking it.  But there was no way I was going to let on to the bride that anything was wrong.  She had been very stressed earlier in the day, and I didn’t want her worrying as she went to marry her sweetheart.  Nor did I want to lie to her.  So, I told her the minimum amount of information she needed to know and made sure she didn’t worry.  Her family and friends didn’t have to deal with the situation.  And, in the end, everyone was happy.

I just got the photos from the wedding I wrote about back in May.  They are really nice photos and are all posted in my photo gallery.  Click on the photo below to go straight to the pictures from this wedding. Many thanks to Christy Tyler for sharing her photos.

Photo courtesy of christytylerphotography.com.

Here is the lovely couple. Photo shamelessly borrowed from their wedding website.

I had the best time yesterday coordinating a wedding.  The bride was a lovely Chinese-American woman.  The groom was Cuban-American.  They had a pretty simple church ceremony, but at the reception, their families’ heritages were on full display.

The reception had most of the usual traditions you would expect at a wedding.  The bride and groom had their first dance together; the bride tossed her bouquet; and the groom tossed the garter.  But after the first dance, the bride changed from her white wedding gown into a gorgeous red dress.  (Red is a traditional lucky color in Chinese culture.  Many Chinese brides wear red.)  She also put on a heavily embroidered Chinese jacket called a kwa and some special jewelry.  Then she and her new husband performed a traditional Chinese tea ceremony, which involved them serving tea to their parents and grandparents and receiving gifts from them.  Her aunts made the special tea and her uncles read a description so everyone felt involved in the ceremony.

After the tea ceremony, the groom’s family’s culture came to the forefront.  The groom’s mother is old friends with the leader of a hot Cuban salsa band.  The band played a late-evening set that got the crowd out onto the dance floor to dance salsa, cha-cha, and cumbia.  Everyone felt like celebrating–and there are some fine salsa dancers among the groom’s family and friends.

Finally, at the end of the evening, the groom had a surprise for everyone.  He’s a big fan of Michael Jackson, and he came out dressed in a full MJ outfit to dance to “Billie Jean.”  Let me tell you, this guy had all the moves.  The night ended on a high note.

And where was your humble wedding coordinator during all this?  I was in two places at once, most of the night.  I was lining up the wedding party for their introductions; making sure the best man and matron of honor were in place to make their well-spoken toasts; getting a dad and a mom ready to dance with the bride and groom; moving chairs and tables for the tea ceremony; making sure the bride had changed in time for the tea ceremony and had remembered to put on her garter; telling the band leader when to start playing, and when to stop; keeping the bride from finding out that her new husband was going to do a surprise dance for her; informing the DJ, photographer, and videographer about the next event; working with the banquet hall staff; and making sure everyone was happy.  It was a lot of work, but for such nice people, it was a pleasure.

I’m really looking forward to seeing the photos from this very special wedding.  I’ll post them as soon as I get them so you can see for yourself how beautiful it was.