A Minnesota Wedding

As hard as it is to believe, Schleppy and I did not spend our entire weekend in Minnesota exploring the shore and eating pie. We could have, but we had more important things to attend to. Like the wedding!

And oh what a wedding it was. The weather, as I mentioned, was perfect perfect perfect. I didn't even need my sweater at the outdoor ceremony, which took advantage of the views I showed you here.

The ceremony was beautiful--short and sweet and very personal, exactly what I expected from the lovely creative couple tying the knot.

Afterward, we enjoyed cocktails on a deck overlooking the spectacular scenery and then dinner in the dining room which, of course, also overlooked the spectacular scenery.

Cara's crafty touches were present throughout, particularly on the tables.

And, of course, the couple's two adorable rescue dogs were there in spirit since they couldn't be there in real life.

First, they helped direct guests to their tables.

Then they made an appearance atop one of the two cakes, which I thought I had a photo of but can't find. You can see the cake topper in Schleppy's post over at the Fresh Home blog, though.

The groom made the chocolate one, a rich, dark, semisweet chocolate cake.

And the bride made the white one, a light sweet dessert with a lovely hint of vanilla bean. It was a contest to see who could make the best wedding cake, but I don't know that anyone could declare one cake a winner over the other. Both were to-die-for.

After the dining came the dance, which was full of fun surprises like giant balloons that were thrown onto the dance floor from the balcony and a photo booth upstairs.

The dance was a blast and would have been the perfect end to the night, only it wasn't. Because next we all changed into casual clothes (bride and groom included) and headed down to the beach to start a huge bonfire and roast marshmallows. Could there be a more perfect end to a most perfect wedding day?

I think not.