Cake and flowers

Today we headed up to Canmore to figure out cake and flowers.

Our first meeting was with the flower guy, Leah at 11. We think that's his name. It could be Leia or Leo. Everyone we talked to always had a different name for him. So we're getting calla lilies for everything except the parents' boutinnieres. They get orchids. Me and the boy get purplish lilies and the rest of the wedding party has creamy lilies. The orchids are white but with purple highlights.

The cost: too expensive. When doing the original budget, we only put $70 for the bridesmaids' bouquets. Oops. But we're about $170 off our estimate which I guess is okay since we are saving money with invitations and such but we'll see. The good thing about calla lilies is they will not wilt. As Leah/Leia/Leo said, his lilies stood up to 34 degree weather during his wedding, so that's a good sign.

Our appointment was quick and our next appointment wasn't until 2 p.m so we checked out Riverside Park and the Nordic Centre. We haven't pinned down where in exactly Riverside Park we'll have the ceremony, but we want to wait for the trees to bloom and the grass to become greener. A down side with the outside ceremony is deer crap. It's not all over the place but in enough sections of the park to be, hmm, disgusting.

Speaking of crap, Murray aka Maru came over to play Risk with Tony and Bramandon, and said he was up at the Nordic Centre. He said it was all torn up and smelt like horse manure. Fantastic! When we got up there, it was torn up but didn't smell too bad. However, the field where races usually end looked like a strip mine. The scoreboard and bridge have moved and now you can see them from the reception area. Under the reception area's patio, the land is pretty torn up and it's going to stay that way until the put the road which won't be until November. A lot of the trees have been torn out to make way for more parking.

I remember how concerned we were when we found out about the construction, but it doesn't look too bad. The main reason we picked the Nordic Centre was the view and they haven't moved the mountains (I don't think the Klein government is that generous). According to our cake lady, she said a lot of couples cancelled because they can't see past the construction. Too bad the couple on our original date has an imagination.

So we ate lunch and thought of getting a coffee. Like bad consumer whores we are (and how!), we opted for Starbucks even though Canmore is throughly infested with a billion coffee shops. But, we spied a different flower store. The owner admitted Starbucks probably helps her business since they come for a coffee and then see the store. She gave us a cheaper quote, although not by much. I guess we'll ask our quasi-wedding planner which one is better.

The cake lady was pretty cool. Turns out we need three tiers and a slab cake to feed 117 people. For flavours, and here's where you can give your $0.02, are chocolate with raspberry preserves, vanilla with a lemon curd/cream cheese filling, and marble.

Barbara was really enthusiastic about Daorcey's idea. He was thinking of vertical lines in alternating purple and green on the cake but not a regular pattern. I'm unconvinced but I'll see what he creates. The other idea is ribbon along the bottom and silver dots on the cake. Up top, no matter which design, will have two purple calla lilies up top, I guess symbolizing us or something. I think the Mulder and Scully figures will be on the side. Sorry Arone.