Four Weddings and Funeral- Montana

" Do you think not being married to me might be something you could consider doing for the rest of your life?"

I won't lie, I've never seen the movie, but after wiki-ing the plot, and that it's pre-solicitation arrest Hugh, I will add it to my nonexistent Netflix queue.

But the title aptly sums up the large events of the year attending four weddings. The year started off with a funeral, but I was unable to attend.

My first wedding of the season was that of my best friend's, in Montana, of all places. I had long waited for this day to come, years in fact, since she and I started discussing it, and I when I started my pastry training, I decided I wanted to make her wedding cake, because it would would be my own personal test of ability, not just the nerve racking practical I had to take to prove that two years in Western PA wasn't a a complete waste of time. Plus, feeding people has always been the way I show my love.

Weddings don't happen overnight. There's a lot of stress, planning, number crunching, and hair pulling to get everything to happen on one day (two days, if you're my sister, but that's the next post).

My part in the planning started a year before the actual wedding, in which Kara and I planned a whirlwind weekend to both make it back to the Bay for about 14 hours of together time so we could have a round of cake tasting, wedding dress shopping, and pupusas and beers. (I had put aside the next day for my sister and her wedding dress; what a way to spend 60 hours, let me tell you). 

Pupusas from La Bamba

Fast forward to a year later of not seeing Kara, I arrived in cold and wet Kalispell, Montana, from a muggy 90 degree summer day in Pittsburgh. We had spent the year between mailing cake samples, discussing cake designs, feasibility, logistics, with details still changing up until the week before my arrival. I packed as much of my kitchen as I could have, made sure TSA did not throw out my 8 pounds of white fondant because it looked like cocaine, and headed over to Costco with Kara to buy 16 pounds of butter, 7 dozen eggs, 10 pounds of sugar, 10 pounds of flour, and a slew of other ingredients. 

Our final products were to be: one 10" square cake at least 5 inches tall, covered in white fondant, and made to look like a Montana fire watch tower, 240 regular size cupcakes in two flavors: strawberries and cream (yellow cake with macerated strawberries, Italian buttercream), and chocolate caramel whiskey (chocolate cake with chocolate chips, with a caramel whiskey Italian buttercream). There was also going to be a surprise Kahlua cream puff tower for the rehearsal dinner. 

Let's just say that my training from the last 2 years and a lot of luck were very integral to getting everything done. I was lucky that one of the wedding guest/family friends happened to have spent some time in a kitchen and didn't flinch at using a piping bag. Coming from a professional kitchen with all its space and equipment, it's not as easy to turn over 240 cupcakes with only 4 Wilton pans and 1 Kitchen Aid. 

Day one, 11 hours, resulted in 10 cake layer baked, 180 cupcakes baked, filled, garnished, packed and delivered to the venue, which thank goodness, had space in their walk-in cooler. Well deserved drinks and food were had facing snow-capped mountains on a beautiful compound for the large bridal family (the rain from my arrival had been snow at higher altitudes and will factor in at the end of my trip).

Day two, sans hangover (not by choice): the 5 inch cake was short by an inch, the rolled fondant cracked as I tried to fondant my first square cake, the chocolate roof had the San Andreas running through it was a result of trying to make my connection Minneapolis, but here is the final result:

Montana fire watchtowers, which have special significance to the couple. The idea was that no one would think it was a cake until we removed the solid chocolate roof, and cut into it. The windows are white chocolate as well. The white base/stand was made by the couple, who are civil engineers.

I hadn't imagined that I would be locked up in a condo by myself when I traveled halfway across the country to celebrate my best friend's wedding, covered in frosting, but the view from her condo, or rather, the sound of the rushing Swan River from the balcony reminded me of the beautiful and wild land that I was itching to explore... And then the time went off, and I had to go back in and pull out the cream puffs.

I ran out of cream puffs; the intention was to hide the bottle of Wigle whiskey, that would be discovered upon eating.

The day of the wedding gave me a few hours to myself before I had to get ready. I spent it lounging on a boat on the pristine and icy Flathead Lake, on a kayak I rented from a guy on the side of road, who promptly ran out of gas as we were cruising into Flathead Lake State Park... Yay for fumes and gravity. 

Flathead Lake

I was official dress lacer, in addition to my OCD need to be the one to place the cake down on the stand, so I was there for the makeup and drinks session as well as family photo shoot. Can I just say that the first time I saw Kara in a dress was when we were forced to wear pioneer outfits at the Old Sierra Camp in the 4th grade on an overnight trip? There is an unflattering picture of us somewhere, that doesn't need to make it onto the internet. We've come a long way from those awkward girls, to be slightly less awkward young women in our late 20's... 

There was food, there was drink, there was merry, and there was dancing. Much preliminary smack talk was issued for a white water rafting trip the next day, but most importantly, my best friend got married to her (other) best friend and chosen companion for life, and I couldn't be happier for her.

Those snow capped mountains that I had be gazing at all week had started to melt, but of course, who ever thinks of that when you're rushing down a river at full speed? Well, it matters when your guide asks you who wants to have a little more fun? Well, jump on out! And then we do. Holy. Frozen. Ballls. And then I did it again. It was a 9 mile run, which normally has Class 2 rapids and takes 3 hours. We had Class 4 rapids, and finished our trip in 1.5 hours due to the glacier runoff from the snow earlier that week (perfect 70 degree weather, not a cloud in the sky for us for the wedding weekend). Pictures don't exist because water and cameras don't go together, but the drive up was gorgeous. 

Mustard fields on the way up to Glacier National Park.

And so, my best friend got married. Here's to the happy couple!