Ten years ago today Josh and I got married! Where does the time go? It was a gorgeous April morning, the high that day was around 80 degrees. While everything turned out wonderful, let’s just say there were some bumps along the way.
Friday was the rehearsal. We went ultra casual and had our rehearsal dinner at the minor league baseball game. We rented the pavilion and let all the kids run wild and have fun. We invited all our out-of-town guests and showed what life in South Carolina is like, many had not been to our state before. It was a small wedding, only about 60 people total. I think that was the best part, being able to converse with everyone and have a wonderful time. No stress, until…
During the game my mom wasn’t feeling well. My dad decided to take her to the emergency room. We were worried, but yet not overly stressed, YET. I went back to my parents’ house along with my two bridesmaids, Jens (a friend from Germany) and Josh. While most brides are supposed to relax a little the night before their wedding, I had work to do.
Among friends and family I, mom too for that matter, am very well-known for my baking. I am also extremely picky. While a pretty cake is nice, it MUST taste phenomenal. Here in sleepy Columbia that wasn’t going to happen. You guessed it, my mom and I made our cakes. I say cakes because a girl can’t just choose one, can she?!
We had six cakes total. One was the more tradition two tiered wedding cake, lemon cake with raspberry filling and lemon cream cheese frosting. We also had red velvet, carrot, strawberry, chocolate with an oreo filling and ganache topping and a Frangelico cake. Remember, this is a SMALL wedding!! Have no fear, we also provided cake boxes for guests to take home samples of any cake they wanted.
So back to my stress, we returned to the house and I still had to frost the two tiered wedding cake, by myself since my mom was in the ER. Stress levels shoot through the roof. With my hands shaking I managed to pull off a somewhat decent basket weave design. Josh calmed me down before he headed back to his place.
It was a rough night, worry running through me since my mom wasn’t home from the ER yet. Frankly, I wasn’t worried about the wedding. I knew I would marry Josh the next day and didn’t care what else happened! Fast forward to early Saturday morning. My mom got home around 5AM! She had a massive bruise on her arm from IV fluids and blood sample needle stabs. Luckily she had a jacket to wear. The biggest problem, lack of sleep. Our wedding was at 11AM. She got a short nap and was ready to help me get ready. She is the best mom ever!
So on to the wedding. It went off without any problems. We had what we refer to the “squeaky reading”, as in my aunt was crying while doing her reading. It was so sweet. Everyone had so much fun, an outdoor wedding on a gorgeous day in the South. We had mimosas, cheese straws and a Southern buffet. The joy of having an early wedding was being done early. We invited everyone to our house to continue the party afterwards. A wedding is an excuse to party and celebrate ALL DAY LONG!!
And now finally to the recipe for this post. We honeymooned in Key West. It was a surprise honeymoon. Josh planned it all, the flights, the convertible rental, the house rental. I packed for warm weather and he packed a few things for me. Anyway, one day we went to a place on the water and had absolutely wonderful mango mojitos. It was the beginning of my love affair with mangoes.
I have since made them several times with mango rum. Unfortunately there is only so much room to keep alcohol in this house. If I had all the flavors of rum and vodka we liked we would be overrun with bottles! Besides, why have an artificially flavored rum when you can us fresh fruit. So here we have it, fresh mint, lime, mango and rum in a glass with my sweetheart. Complete bliss. Happy 10th anniversary Handsome.
Mango Mojito
2 oz. rum
2 Tbs. mango pulp (can be purchased or pulse fresh/frozen mango in the food processor)
1 oz. brown sugar simple syrup
10 mint leaves
Seltzer
Place everything but the seltzer in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a tall glass over ice. Add as little or much seltzer as you please, garnish with mint leaves if desired.
*To make brown sugar simple syrup simply mix equal parts water and brown sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir well until sugar is dissolved. Store in the refrigerator. Brown sugar simple syrup goes extremely well with bourbon and rum recipes, among other things!
Yields one serving
Feeding My 3 Sons 
Such a brilliantly written post. I could feel your emotions and stress all the way as I was reading it! So lovely that you kept your eye on the important bit ‘I knew I would marry Josh the next day and didn’t care what else happened!’
Happy anniversary, Cheers! 🙂
Thank you so much. Indeed, all the stress goes away as you start to walk down the aisle, nothing else matters!
awwwww…what a sweet story. Congratulations to you and Josh. And glad everything turned out a-ok in the end. Sounds like plenty of stress. And I totally get the six kinds of cake. I’ve made three for simple family birthday parties. If you can’t go all the heck out for your own wedding, when can you? Thanks for sharing your memories–and a mojito 😀
For a while I made one of the cakes for each anniversary, through I never did get to all six. Way too difficult to choose just one! I too have had at least three cakes for my birthday, my 18th celebrated in Germany was fabulous! The boys will be decorating my cakes/cupcakes tomorrow with my mom…my birthday is Easter Sunday this year. I have a feeling they will be covered in sprinkles, but they really wanted to help and my mom and I couldn’t say no. Never discourage a desire to help in the kitchen!
You were such a beautiful bride. And, my, what a day; nothing goes as planned, does it? Still, all’s well that ends well. Beautiful cakes your mom made (red velvet….mmmm!). Obviously, I don’t protest bright and fresh mojitos. 🙂 Greg was just in SC for a job interview. He absolutely LOVED the food, people and city of Charleston. I see why you wanted to share your state. Happy Anniversary to you and Josh, Gretchen – and many more!
Thank you so much for your kindness Shanna. We had a wonderful time and continue to celebrate. I am glad Greg enjoyed Charleston. It is a wonderful city and the food is definitely great. So much seafood right on the coast! I hope you are surviving his travels and pregnancy well. Enjoy your weekend.
Thanks for sharing such a beautiful story. Time goes by so fast, sometimes I wish I could run and catch it. The basket weave is a favourite of mine. It looks pretty decent. More important: the wedding went on okay and you are still together, 10 years down the line. I wish you a very Happy Anniversary and many more to come. I’m glad “love is still in the air”. Enjoy the weekend. I hope you have a long one too!
We had a grand time. We went out of town without the kids and had such a good time. We would have stayed longer but needed to be home tonight to perform Easter bunny duty and tomorrow is also my birthday. The boys decorated cakes with my mom today and are thrilled to,show them to me tomorrow! Enjoy you Easter and long weekend!
Omg I wish you a very happy birthday. You have a truly great family. I hope you enjoyed “ALL” the birthday cakes. The Easter weekend is perfect and sunny. We’re wearing tee shirts…how lovely. I hope you live to blow many more candles. Enjoy your birthday!!!
I’ve yet to hear a wedding story that was without a hitch, though yours was bit more stressful than most. Still, the look on your faces as newlyweds says it all. I hope you had a wonderful anniversary and may your Easter be equally happy.
Thank you John. We certainly did enjoy our anniversary, especially since we went out of town without the kids! We returned Saturday late afternoon to perform our bunny duties. Today was wonderful with brunch at my mom’s house and sampling all 5 of my birthday cakes! They were all the same flavor, just decorated differently and the boys were so excited to have decorate them I had to sample all! I hope you enjoyed your Easter as well.
wow!! that looks amazing! 🙂 you made a beautiful bride….. 🙂 The two tiered cake looks amazing despite your nervousness at that point !
Thank you so much! We certainly enjoyed our wedding day to the fullest!