Congrats, Oliver and Una!

If you can actually believe it, I was out and about traveling again this weekend! This insanity needs to stop soon, although next month, I'll be flying across the continent again for another wedding...

This time, I was in Cleveland, OH, attending a wedding for my judo buddy, Oliver, and his gorgeous new wife, Una. They had the most intimate and warm wedding celebration where each guest was truly invited to enjoy and share the love they had for each other. There were moments of truly moving expression of love between them, between their families, and between their friends that I really did get a teary-eyed. There was a whole lot of sniffling during the ceremony!!

Their reception was held in the backyard of their home in the suburbs of Cleveland, in a quaint and lovely neighborhood with houses that were comfortable in their surroundings, growing together with the trees (unlike many of the young Bay Area neighborhood that still have almost that movie-set-like 'newness' to them). Although it drizzled some, the added tent in the backyard and the garage they had converted into a wonderful buffet table provided enough shelter for us. Besides, the rain stopped in perfect timing as we exited the church and headed over to the reception, leaving us with a little drip-drop once in a while!

Although all the food was delicious, what really caught my attention and impressed me the most was their wedding cake. It was a multi-tiered cupcake wedding cake with a smaller round cake on top for them to save for their first anniversary. What a wonderful idea!!!!! Wedding cakes are often not as good as they look, and this, like Gwyn and Nic's wedding, was yet another ingenious solution to having a delicious wedding cake. Cupcakes bring back the happiest of childhood memories for so many of us - of those fun-filled birthday parties, sleepovers, and weekend afternoons, and now I have yet another happy memory associated with cupcakes.

Congratulations, Oliver and Una, and thank you for letting me share such a precious and invaluable weekend with you!