Before I dive into this tasty spiced pear bundt cake with vanilla glaze, I wanted to share a little bit about my special day with you guys. If you just want the pear bundt cake recipe, though, go ahead and scroll to the bottom 🙂 It certainly has taken me a long while to come around to writing this post, but its just been difficult to put into words the emotions and excitement that my wedding day brought. So I decided to make a list, because I love making lists and I don’t think I’d be able to get nearly half of the things I make myself do done without them. So here it goes, all the things I loved most about my wedding.

1) My close friends here in Los Angeles and my close friends back home in Oregon were all in the same place, which kind of blew my mind. And also made me wish I could throw a giant party every month just so they could all be together.

2) Having my family meet all of my friends, near and far. Now mom can finally put a face to a name during our daily morning phone calls. Hurray!

3) Getting married with Mount Hood as the backdrop. Also being surrounded by acres of organic apple and pear orchards and gorgeous flower arrangements everywhere. Both of these things made me go “eeeeeeeeEEEEEEEE!” with joy in that same escalating fashion whenever I looked around.

4) Walking down the aisle with my dad and mom and seeing how happy they were.

5) Being able to see family members I hadn’t seen in many, many years.

6) Wearing a dress that made me feel like a queen. I felt like I should have been reigning over some antique New Orleans quarter in the 1920’s, especially with the sweeping bouquet our florist Jo made. There were little berries on the vines. BERRIES.

7) After being pronounced husband and wife, we walked back down the aisle to a slowed-down classical version of “Friday I’m in Love” performed by our awesome live violinist and acoustic guitarist duo. I’d picked out the recessional song without telling Jeremy to surprise him (yes, we both love The Cure that much), and while walking he turned and simply said “This is the best music.” And then the “eeeeEEEE!” of joy starting happening in my head again.

8) Getting to eat some of the most delicious and beautifully prepared food I’d ever seen. Our caterer locally sourced everything on the menu while keeping it all organic, and you could taste it in every bite. Plus the family-style service (a large platter of each course for each table) really made it feel warm and personal, like an enormous holiday meal.

9) Having my dear friend Amanda officiate the ceremony. Being a Greek lass herself, she was able to incorporate some Greek traditions into the ceremony while keeping it to everyone and moving.

10) Marrying my best friend.

As those of you who were reading my posts leading up to the wedding know, the weeks beforehand were very frenzied and stressful, and it all culminated in a single, irrational, flood of tears. The day before the wedding, I made the mistake of deciding that was the day to make all of the baked goods for the big day’s dessert table (aside from the cake, which we got from an awesome bakery in Hood River). All my bridesmaids came over and lent a hand, but even with all the help we weren’t able to get it done in the timeframe I had hoped. The macarons took longer to fill than I expected and I was just able to wrap them up in time for all our relatives to come over to my parents’ house for dinner. It was very hectic and stressful and I was pretty much at the end of my rope once everyone starting coming into the house.

Jeremy’s family arrived from Missoula and that was the first time I’d seen them in over a year, so I was already a bit emotional because I was so happy to see them. But Jeremy’s dad had brought a little something along with him. Jeremy’s dad is an amazing wood carver, and we had asked him to carve two little deer for our cake topper. We didn’t give any specific instructions other than we wanted a boy deer and a girl deer, so I didn’t really know what to expect. But when they came he handed Jeremy a box, and Jeremy opened it and called me over to come look at it. In my frenzied state of mind saying hi to everyone and mentally going over my checklist in my head, I didn’t even think about the cake toppers and when I looked down into the box and saw what his dad had made for us, I burst into hot, ridiculous tears. It was the kind of crying where you justcannotstop crying. I couldn’t even talk. I had to bury my face into Jeremy’s chest to wait it out to see if I could compose myself, but after thoroughly soaking his shirt I gave up and went to the upstairs bathroom to calm myself down.

While I was crying into Jeremy’s shirt his dad asked “…..did I ruin it?” and Jeremy said “No, this is a good cry.”(You know you chose the right one when he can tell the difference between your good cries and your bad ones.) So once I collected myself and looked relatively normal aside from my excess face-puffiness, I came back down and gave his dad a big hug. There was just something about knowing that he spent so much time whittling and carving them, and seeing how incredible they looked, even more beautiful than I could have imagined, that made me reach my emotional apex. All the emotions I’d been feeling the past few days just spilled out in that one moment. And even though it was slightly embarrassing, I am glad I got it all out. On the day of the wedding itself, however, I was weirdly calm. Just filled with an intense, calming joy. I think I had spent sooooo much time planning everything that I knew that everything would work out okay at its worst, and amazing at its best, and I had an awesome wedding coordinator that I trusted to take care of all the details. I didn’t cry once the whole day, although I did get a little watery when my parents walked me down the aisle, but aside from that there were no tears shed, just pure, abounding smiles of happiness. It was hands down the best day of my life.

And I have a lot of people to thank for that. Thank you so, so much to everyone below who helped bring my woodsy dream wedding vision into reality. You are all awesome and I couldn’t have asked for better people to work with and friends to make.

Music: Wendy Golden (live violin and acoustic guitar duo, no website but email me if you want her email)But the biggest thanks goes to my Mom and brother, who helped put together an absurd amount of favors and crafts. You guys are the best!!!