Cake wasn't something at the forefront of my mind for a little while.  I'm more of a salty snacker and dreams of tiny cups of french fries or a late-night taco bar made me happier than cake.  

An engaged friend and I went to a local bridal fair to check out vendors together, however I was more enticed by the free food and champagne and the giveaways than the actual vendors.  I had most of my vendors booked at that point, so I wasn't really giving all the vendors a fair shot if I'm being honest.  It wasn't until I spotted a gorgeous cake in the corner that I even gave any of the tables my direct eye contact.  I met Meredith from Artisan Bake Shop and was immediately intrigued by this phenomenon known as "spackled buttercream":

Meredith's table was neatly designed and organized.  Her portfolio was modern and clean.  Not to mention her samples tasted like a little angel dropped red velvet cake squares directly from heaven and onto my plate.

I took her card and spent some time on her website after the fair.  I prayed to the wedding Gods that she would be within our measly $500 budget and e-mailed her soon after to set up a tasting appointment.  

Mr. Jet and I met with her at her home and detached barn/industrial kitchen/small bakery storefront/office.  She runs quite the operation out there in the woods of Rochester, MA!  

Meredith was friendly and informative without being pushy.  She listed all of our options on laminated cards (genius!) and let us taste some of the best sweets that have ever crossed my lips.

Some of the outstanding flavors for us were:

Red Velvet Cake
Chocolate Cake
Vanilla Cake
Lemon Cake

Almond Buttercream Filling
Bailey's Buttercream Filling
Peanut Butter Filling
Fresh Strawberry Purée Buttercream Filling

She also sketched out the ridiculous ideas that came from my head perfectly.  

"Spackled buttercream...kind of looks like a tree?...not too frilly...roundish...maybe a flower or two...rustic-modern...I don't really know what that means either..."

Her rendition of whatever that was was exactly as I pictured in my mushy brain!

The time had come to talk pricing.  Dun dun dun....

SHE FIT THE BUDGET, GUYS!

We chatted for awhile about budgetary concerns and how we can get what we want, while staying in our $500 range.  

For basic cake flavors, Meredith offers Chocolate and Vanilla.  For basic outer frosting and in-between layers, she offers Chocolate and Vanilla Buttercream.  Anything else would come with a reasonable upcharge.  To stay in budget, Mark and I decided to go with alternating layers of Chocolate and Vanilla cake from the basic list and upped it for the in-between with the Fresh Strawberry Purée Buttercream.  The cake itself will be frosted outside with Vanilla Buttercream.  This way, we could afford one of the fillings from the higher priced menu, while not blowing the budget!  She allowed us to mix and match any way we wanted.

Another way we kept the cost down was to have a "presentation cake" out for everyone to see that will feed about 60 people while having a large sheet cake hidden in the kitchen to be cut and served with the presentation cake.  No one will ever know!  (Unless you read this blog...)  This cut down on the per piece cost that Meredith charges by.

Needless to say, we were VERY happy after leaving that vendor meeting and we booked her that night!  Here are some more of her creations to make you swoon: 

So the ring came in nearly a month later and, on the night Mr. Jet picked it up, he drops a text on my telling me he has it at band practice and all the guys in the band think it's SooOoOoO pretty....

Jerk.

Now I know he has the ring and he's just torturing me for his sick pleasure!  

A few weeks later, I was packing up for a two-week business trip to China and I shared with Mr. Jet that I was a little relieved he didn't propose before I left - imagine how hard it would be to be proposed to then shipped off to a foreign country for two weeks?!

After a very pregnant pause, Mr. Jet revealed that he was going to propose at the airport in just a few hours when he dropped me off for the trip.

Oh.

He quickly added that he had another, better idea for later down the road but it was too late, I was already in tears claiming, "I RUINED IT!  I RUINED EVERYTHING!  I AM LITERALLY THE WORST!"  (Is anyone else noticing my uncanny resemblance to Lucy van Pelt??)

Thankful for Mr. Jet's uncanny ability to talk me down from any ledge, I finished packing and the we arrived at Logan Airport the next morning before dawn.  

As we hugged goodbye, Mr. Jet told me I hadn't ruined anything at all - and that I was far from the worst.

"Huh?"

No matter the conversation the night before, Mr. Jet was determined to send me off to China has his fiancée - come hell or high (tearful) water!  I, obviously, said yes and spent the next two weeks without a phone or Facebook to share the news. (THERE IS NO FACEBOOK IN CHINA, HOW AWFUL IS THAT?!) I did manage to send out a quick text and photo to my close friends and family and Mark broke the news on his Facebook page. 

The next few weeks in China went by really quickly and I shared the news with all of my colleagues there, however I did feel terribly lonely that I wasn't able to celebrate with my brand new fiancé!  By the time I got to Hong Kong on my way home, I had so many "likes" and "comments" and that lonely hotel room was filled with the love of all of my people back in the States.  I returned to Mr. Jet with the biggest bear hug and plans for a special dinner to celebrate our news.

Okay, so I'm totally crazy and type-A and need everything to be perfect and HATE surprises - that makes me the perfect person to be proposed to, right?

The first few years of dating Mr. Jet, marriage didn't really cross my mind.  We had moved in together after 11 months of dating, and I was serious about him, but being a wife wasn't at the top of my list of priorities just yet.  I was still young and trying to figure out what I could do with a Communications degree and how to buy a new car with nothing to put down.  

We casually talked about "forever" once in a while and I knew pretty early on he was the one for me and I for him.  We just wanted to take things slow and enjoy life as we knew it - raising our chihuahua mix, Bruce Banner, paying our bills on time and exploring our hobbies together and individually.

It wasn't until 4 years into our relationship that I started to get...the fever.  The more we did things like get a joint checking account and invest in furniture together, the more I realized that this WAS forever.  I wanted to keep him forever.  I wanted a proposal from him so that I knew he felt the same way.

In the winter of 2011, I really pushed the issue with Mr. Jet.  I was ready and needed him to know it.  He said he wanted forever too, and it would happen if I was patient.

Me?  Patient?  Has he actually MET me?

One night over a shared scorpion bowl at our favorite Chinese restaurant, I got him to agree to look at rings with me.  We stopped into a local, family-owned jewelry store and I pointed out exactly what I wanted.  (I had been there a few times before with my equally-as-obsessed friend, Chelsea).  Oh, just an Asscher cut diamond, in an antique-style pavé setting in white gold where the diamonds only go half-way around to prevent gunk build-up.  Nothing really particular about that.

Mr. Jet completely surprised me when he came out with this one:

"Okay, let's get it."

"Say whaaaaaa?" says me in a scorpion bowl-induced stupor.

We ordered the ring that night and we left hand-in-hand with a real promise for our future.

On a hot, nearly-summer day in 2007, a friend of mine was set to wed a friend of Mr Jet's.  I was single at the time, and not even remotely looking for my Mr. Right.  I unfortunately had a thing for a co-worker who was very much in a relationship at the time, but that was my M.O. - like the guy who's unavailable, unattainable and otherwise off-limits.

Mr. Jet was single as well, hot off a relationship that ended badly for him and left him with a sour taste for the opposite sex.

We were coincidentally seated at the same table, and while he eyed me with his dark beard and brown eyes thinking maybe girls weren't so bad for him,  I wondered what we were having for dinner and where the bar was.

Needless to say, I doubt either of us left a big impression on each other, but future run-ins that summer led me to believe there was something interesting about the bearded man from that wedding.

We casually talked throughout the summer, then one night I got up my (liquid) courage to ask a mutual friend his age.  "He has grey hairs, it could mean he's like...30 or something," my 23-year old self declared.

"I'll find out," said the mutual friend.

"Okay, but don't tell him I'm interested...I just want to know if he's too old for me."

"Yah yah, don't worry."

::cut to mutual friend approaching Mr. Jet::

"How old are you?"

"27, why?"

"Oh, my friend likes you.  She wanted to make sure you weren't too old for her."

"Really?  Who?  The girl with the tattoo of Massachusetts on her arm?"

"Yeah, why?  Do you like her too?"

"Yeah."

The rest, as they say, was history.

We started dating that Fall and are set to be married this Fall, almost exactly 6 years to the day he asked me to be his girlfriend.  That bearded wedding guest was the love of my life, I just didn't know it yet,