Wednesday Wedding Day: The cake conundrum, and other details

Woohoo! It's ten days until the wedding and surprisingly almost everything is done. Looking at last week's list,

Print thankyou notes (Dan is still working on this, he's using a letter press and it takes a long time!)
Finish and print program - done! Dan's cutting them today (we're just doing half sheets)
Finish playlist for eating and dancing - We have an eating playlist and a dancing playlist, and we still need to do some ordering of the lists
Rent music equipment - No longer needed, thanks to Dan's awesome groomsman
Payment to caterer and photographer - paid the caterer today and the photog gets paid at the wedding
Final numbers to caterer - done! and the last person RSVP'd (FINALLY) so we will have 73 adults and 3 babies
Print escort cards, put stickers on them - doing this tomorrow at work
Finish ceremony - Done! All that's left is in the hands of our rockstar officiant
Packing list is pretty comprehensive - I'm starting the packing tonight so it doesn't all have to be done tomorrow.

So, now what I'm thinking about is what's happening in California. We'll get out there pretty late on Saturday I think, starting our drive on Friday afternoon, staying somewhere in BFE western Wyoming once we are too tired to keep driving, and getting up early to finish the drive on Saturday. Sunday we'll run some Bay Area errands. Monday I have a dress fitting, we'll get our marriage license and order the keg of Fat Tire from BevMo (bought the CA wine in CO, buying the CO beer in CA. Krazy). Tuesday I've got a hair trial in the morning and we're doing one last site visit with the caterer at noon, after which I don't know what we'll do - maybe get the cake figured out. Wednesday is still open (but at some point we have to make a big Costco run for afterparty food and breakfast-the-day-of food), Thursday we get the flowers we need, pick up the linens and go party our buns off in the city, and Friday we've just got a few little things like making all the bouquets, boutonniers, and corsages (me), setting up at the club, the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Then, on Saturday, we get married! Woohoo!

The big unknown remains the cake. Neither of us wanted to shell out umpteen dollars for a "wedding" cake (and I voted for tiramisu, myself, but was outvoted by someone who actually WANTS cake), so we have a couple of options. Option one: Get one 8-inch round cake for cutting from a bakery that we tasted at Christmas time (it was sooo yummy) and get a full sheet cake (will be plenty of cake for everyone) of the same kind. This option means there will be a lot of cake, but it will not all be displayed or at least not all pretty and fancy-like. It will be a LOT of cake - we'll likely have a good bit left over. We could also get a 1/4 sheet and 1/2 sheet of two different flavors. These cost about the same as getting one full sheet cake (economy of scale and all that). Option two: Get the round from the bakery, then buy additional round cakes of various flavors at at a grocery store or, as our caterer recommended, round cakes made by a bakery in SF sold at Costco. I like this idea - they can be set up all pretty on cake stands and that way people get a choice of cake flavor, but we don't know how much they cost and have never tasted them, so we'll have to try one out when we get to California. Option three is like option two, but we get fewer cake rounds and get some pies too.

So what should we do? Should we go with what we know and get the sheet cake plus one for cutting? Should we get the one for cutting and trust that people will be happier with a variety of cake flavors to choose from rather than thinking we're cheating them out of the same cake we're cutting? Should we include pie in the equasion, or will that mean we have to get ice cream, too? If you were a guest (and some of you will be there), would you rather eat the same cake the b&g cut in sheet cake form, or would you rather have a choice of cake (and/or pie)? We don't have much left in the budget, so unfortunately buying all rounds of what we plan to cut is out of the question - they're $35 each! I hope the rounds from Costco are less than that!

The other unknown is what flowers we'll end up with. We have two yards of flowers being offered to us, one of which may be tapped out by then (my mom planted a whole bunch of tulip and iris bulbs far later than she normally does hoping that it would delay the blooms, but apparently they've foiled her plans and have already begun their spring showoffs). The other yard has lots of calla lilies and some roses, I think. Plus there's the wholesale flower place, and I think all together we can end up with some cool stuff. But I'll have to make six boutonniers, five or six corsages, and five bouquets, plus have flowers for the tables. That's a lot of work! I am hoping people will offer to help (I don't want to ask or require anyone to do so, since I don't want to make my guests do anything) but I may end up biting the bullet and asking for help. That's a lot of flower wrangling!

Also, we're having an afterparty. Should I wear my wedding dress to eat gardenburgers and potato salad, or should I change into something else?

Ah, all these little last-minute insignificant details. But please, do weigh in on the cake question!