The story of our cake topper

We never had specific ideas about what we wanted for our cake topper-- I'd been keeping an eye out for a vintage bride and groom, and saw some adorable ones that were just way out of our price range. I even found a little bride and groom on a tandem bicycle, which I loved-- but not enough to justify the price tag.

We had left this detail unfinished and figured we'd come up with something-- if not, no biggie. Early this summer, Pat's cousin Steve, his wife Meg (yep, our invitation designer), and Steve's mom Norma stopped in to visit Pat's grandmother, Voa and check out her newly remodeled kitchen. When we saw them later that week, they mentioned that she had the cake topper from her wedding on display in her newly remodeled kitchen, and that she was talking about it and telling them stories of her wedding (if you know Voa, you know that of course she was telling stories!). The minute we heard that it was still around, Patrick and I both had the same thought: how great would it be if we were able to use his grandmother's cake topper?

When we went to visit Voa later in the summer, she gave us the tour of the latest additions to her kitchen, and sure enough pointed out the cake topper on display in one of her cabinets. We told her that actually, we had heard about the cake topper, and we were wondering what she thought about us using it on our wedding cake. She may have started crying right there. She couldn't believe we'd want to use it-- the flowers were coming apart she said, and it was only plastic. Were we sure about this?

We explained that those things weren't a big deal-- it was special because it was used on the day she married Patrick's grandfather. She was definitely crying then (of course, she cries just about every time our wedding is mentioned-- she is such a cutie). We were so excited that she was going to let us use it-- it means so much to have a cake topper that stood atop Voo and Voa's cake, over 50 years ago.

Voa is the only grandmother we have with us now, and she means the world to us. She has always been supportive and loving and sweet-- I am honored that the same plastic bride that represented Voa will represent me (even if it does look a little more like her than it does me!).

Here it is, Voa's cake topper, our cake topper: