Monday, February 24, 2003 :::
Okay, so two good friends were getting married and the bride mentioned, a bit more than a month before the wedding, that they weren't having a wedding cake because neither of them particularly likes ordinary cake; they'd really prefer an ice cream cake, but nobody could do a wedding cake like that. So I got them an ice cream cake.
Now, it'd occurred to me that I might not be able to acquire the cake on the day of the wedding, but it being February in Chicago, I figured a car trunk would make a fine freezer. Ladies and gentlemen, I believe last Thursday and Friday were the warmest two days in Chicago since at least November, reaching fifty degrees. As I had to take delivery of the cake Friday evening, I was confronted with a problem.
I didn't figure the banquet hall would be thrilled about outside food coming in anyway, and had planned to present the cake to the couple at the hotel after the reception, and I figured I could ask the hotel whether they could keep it somewhere for me; I also found where I could acquire ice, though that itself would not be enough to keep the cake cold enough, and was at best an incomplete solution. My plan to present the cake at the hotel after the reception hit another snag before I could research what services they could provide me; I was informed Thursday, as I tried to tease a more precise schedule out of the groom, that a person I'd never heard of was holding a party after the reception.
If that looks more like a solution than a problem, you think more quickly than I do.
When I learned that this host was a coworker of the groom, and lived near the chapel where the wedding was to be held — and, more to the point, the rehearsal Friday night — I tried last name @ machine name, following the pattern of the groom's email address, and found several minutes later that, while that was not the prefered email address of the host of the party, it did get to her. She happened to be working from home Friday morning when I reached her, and cleaned out her freezer and gave me some measurements, in inches, of what she could accommodate. Baskin-Robbins was unable to provide the dimensions of the cake, but I measured a prepared one of the size I'd ordered with a CTA card, and returned the dimensions in lengths of a CTA card (i.e. a card for use on the bus and the famous "El" — not to be confused with "El Famous", but boy do I digress), with an approximate conversion ratio provided by an 8-1/2 by 11 piece of paper. That evening the cake was acquired and delivered to my co-conspirator as I made my way to the rehearsal. On arrival there I learned that the groom had been uncertain as to whether he and the bride would attend the event, introducing a new complication.
Up into the reception, it was unclear whether the bride could be counted on to assent to attending the party, and I began to reassess my previous bias in favor of secrecy to preserve the surprise, and candor to recruit co-conspirators to make sure the bride attended. I informed the bridesmaids, and continued to assess whether the groom himself would have to be brought in on it; I decided things were looking good, due largely to pressure applied by the host of the party, and eventually headed to the party fairly confident that the guests of honor would eventually show up.
They did show up a bit later, the cake was presented, I assured them that, while I had spelled their names for Baskin-Robbins, the innovative spelling of "Congratulations" was entirely the work of the cake manufacturers, and I explained to the groom why I had declined his offer, Friday afternoon, of a ride to the rehearsal, prefering to drive myself. The couple was pleased with the cake, and, as it happens, the party was fantastic.
::: posted by dWj at 6:07 PM
