Hey, I can't see the point of a silver cake server either. Somehow I've managed to serve a lot of cake without one, and it would be just one more piece of clutter cramming my kitchen cabinets (actually to be honest I would have sloughed it off years ago). If there isn't one borrow-able from a family member the catering company or the hotel will have a fancy server for the cake-cutting ritual. Trust me, the caterers or hotel staff are not going to use it to cut the cake up for serving - they'll be going at it back in the kitchen with real knives. BTDT. When DH and I were married, we had an extremely small budget but DH's family was quite adamant that we get properly married in church (and we were ruthless in paring the guest list down to 55, had it been up to them there would have been 250!). We eliminated a lot of "wedding magazine musts" that we thought were pointless and usually big wastes of money and the Wedding Police did not arrest us for doing so. We skipped the dancing because neither my father nor I could do so (he was an amputee and I was doing well to stay standing up at that point, I actually had to sit down through most of the actual ceremony) so that would have been very awkward, and we were actually very pleased that the parish hall's insurance did not permit serving alcohol because that cut costs a great deal and we would not have to deal with drunk guests and even worse drunk driving. I'll admit I can see a big TV and video game unit being rolled into one end of the ballroom after the cake and a dancing period and time to circulate and chitchat, and the B&G (still in meringue-gown and tux) giving the guests a Guitar Hero serenade. But then, several of my friends are hugely into Guitar Hero/Rock Band and that's what they'd do, and then they'd start inviting people to play with them (the new version of Guitar Hero, coming out 9/1/09 - just in time for them to start practicing! - is a four-player format) and sing along and cheer a good performance. Why can't a formal wedding reception turn into a heckuva party, anyway? Who says it has to stay all within the wedding books' notion of "romantic"? Why can't the groom's interests (especially since they ARE shared by the bride) be considered instead of pushing him into the standard artificial self-propelled-tuxedoed-mannequin groom role he doesn't seem to be happy about just so some great-auntie isn't offended? It's not great-auntie's wedding. It's B&G's wedding and G matters as much as B does. (And goodness knows great-auntie will probably have enough to chew on with all the tattoos anyway, since the B doesn't sound like the type to wear long opaque sleeves and high necks to hide them. LOL) People will be talking about that wedding long after the details of a more generic wedding have faded into a blur. I do like the idea of a beer (and perhaps wine) tasting bar, maybe instead of the standard hard-liquor bar. It'd likely be cheaper and probably fewer people would get wasted. (If one can't make it through a few hours without a hard-liquor drink, even with annoying relatives around, one has a problem.) Have they considered doing a double cake - one traditional froufrou cake and one fun-and-funky one like they do on the Food Network show Ace of Cakes? It seems like it would fit their personalities.

Cheeky is quite a nice word. It's almost always used by an adult to a child. If it's said in an angry tone, it means impertinent. For example, Stewed Eel purveyor above might well have said "You cheeky little bugger!" (Actually, in the forties, he wouldn't have said that to a girl, but he would to a boy, probably accompanied with a clip round the ear!) But if it's said in an affectionate tone (particularly to a small child) it means cute and endearing. Indulgent grandmother to small grandchild "Oh, aren't you a cheeky boy!" There is also the noun "cheek" - "The cheek of him, saying that to me !" Particularly rude or blatant "cheek" is usually "bare-faced cheek" !

Good point, Alisande. Watching that, I think Dad had better moves than his daughter, have to wonder how he acquired - and kept - the dance skills.

I heard on tv somewhere that her dress was silk cotton lace - that sounds soft and lovely to me. I can't get enough of the pictures of the entire wedding party and guests LOL, not sure why it has such a fascination to me. I also remember being entranced with Diana at her wedding and afterwards when her babies were born, I just never got tired of seeing them. I also fondly remember following Tricia Nixon Cox and Julie Eisenhower when they were married, and I even took a day off from work to watch Tara and Phillip get married on All My Children (that was pre-vcr recording days)! I'm sure when I put my mind to it I'll remember some more weddings that fascinated me. Oh right, Jenna Bush Hager just popped into my head. And Katie Couric's second wedding looked lovely! I guess I could keep going!