Buttercream FIASCO

Ok, so I've been conversing with fellow cake decorators on forums and such, trying to find the perfect buttercream frosting for a wedding cake I'm doing this weekend. I was hesitant to tell the girl I would do a buttercream cake (since most of my experience is working with fondant), but I was up for the challenge. I started my experimenting by fixing a cake for Carla, who wanted a dummy cake to take to bridal shows and for display in her shop and whatnot. The first 2 batches would NOT smooth out at all. It was a kind of cool texture, but it wasn't what Madison (the girl I'm doing the wedding cake for) wanted, she wants SMOOTH... like silk... like fondant... except not fondant, ha. So then I just decided to cover the "trial" cake with fondant because I knew Carla was waiting for the cake. So I get it all done, lookin'good (after covering the top about 4 times)... I drive down to Rigby, open the back of the pilot, and what do you know... the top edge TORE from the bumpy ride. I wanted to cry. Because I was feeling rather emotional, I didn't even go into the store to tell Carla what had happened because I was afraid of bursting water works. So I went and bought a big ol' tub of Wilton buttercream. Not the tastiest, but no one was going to be eating it, so it was ok. After re-doing the cake about 3 times to get it just right, I was forced to settle for decent, not perfect. I went back down to Rigby, thinking the shop closed at 4... and then finding out it closed at 3:30. RAAAAAARRRR!!!! I was one maaaad mama. So with all this experience, I have asked, begged, pleaded with instructors on a really NICE, smooth buttercream. A dear lady from New Orleans showed me her blog and youtube video and I was so excited to try it out. I ordered her special flavoring and started mixing away. When I was done though, the stuff was soooooooooo grainy, it was like white sand. I figured my shortening was wrong, but I didn't have time to order the right stuff. So Adam went to a cake store in IF and asked the owner what I should do. She pointed me to a different type of shortening I could find in town, so I went to work again. Again, grainy. I'm pretty sure I was in tears at this point. Fortunately, my dear, sweet husband went to work trying to find a new recipe for me to use that didn't call for crazy baker's ingredients. We found one that looked decent, so I started following the recipe. AGAIN, it turned out WAY grainy. I was so mad, I just went to bed and figured I was cursed. The next day, I really watched her video online and followed it as EXACTLY as I possibly could. FINALLY, I got a decent frosting. I'm not saying it's perfect, hers turned out better than mine... I still have some air bubbles and slight graininess (if that's a word), but it still crusts (forms a crust and looses it's stickiness after a few minutes so you can smooth it out) and the slight graininess actually adds a bit of a shimmer to the frosting. Anyway, keep your fingers crossed for me that everything else goes smoothly this week. I'm definitely taking a break from buttercream after this!!