Pink and Chocolate Day

Five years ago today, David and I sliced into this masterpiece of scrumptiousness. It was the cake of my dreams (I had clipped the picture of it from Martha Stewart and saved it for years before and was so happy to find a good friend who would make it for me), on the most perfect wedding day ever. It still makes me happy to think of it.

When I got married, I had made sure I wasn't getting married just to get married, and that I understood being married wasn't the same as having a white dress and a cake. When I was sure of both those things, the next thing I wanted was to plan my wedding day so that it was the most perfectly enjoyable day of my whole life. Not the fanciest, not the most extravagant, not the most jam-packed, but the most pleasant and lovely. I don't think many brides have that, actually. But I sure did. And the pink and chocolate layers pretty much sum it up.

Pink is how I like to feel. I have never really allowed myself to be the princess type, kinda get annoyed at frivolousness, and generally shun girliness like handbags and 2-hour beauty routines, but I really, really love pink, and I chose it for a wedding color even before the Color Marketing Group said that it is in vogue (that's actually what they do, you know), or before it (and chocolate) was on every clothes rack in town. In fact, we had a hard time finding pale pink bridesmaids dresses that year, if you can imagine. But pink to me is being a woman in the finest sense. It's present, but not overbearing (unless you go fuschia, of course); it's feminine, but not froofy (unless you go ruffles); it's classy but casual; it's crisp and fresh and sweet and good. Everything a bride should feel. And, more importantly, everything David made me feel about myself, probably for the first time in my life.

Chocolate is how I want our marriage to be. Deep - in conversation, love, commitment. Rich - in memories, hope, sharing. Delicious - in friendship, fun, togetherness. It's the new black today, but for me it's also stress-relief, celebration, and hormone replacement. And as far as wedding cakes go, it's so much better than white fluffy shortening mixed with sugar, and it made me supremely happy that day.

But the best part of slicing into that cake on May 16, 2001, was knowing that I was married to someone who really knew me and liked me anyway, who had loved me already through thick and thin, who didn't mind if I did unorthodox things like have a brown wedding cake (can you believe people actually called it brown?!), and who can still make me feel all pink inside. As happy as that cake still makes me just thinking about it, he is the reason I still feel, five years later, like I did in this picture.

Happy Pink and Chocolate Day!