Wedding Planning: Cake

The cost of wedding cakes in our area is pricey.  When I was wedding planning with Lindsay 6 years ago, the average price per slice from bakeries in our area was $5.50-$6.00.  We had around 225 coming to the wedding and that would have cost $1,350 for cake.  That wasn't in the budget for cake, so we had a local baker (who charged less per slice) make a cutting cake, and the rest of the cake we served were sheet cakes from Costco.

Rachel likes the look of naked cakes, and she and Weston have decided that we can make them ourselves.  We tried it out on Saturday and they are right!  It's easy and tasty.

Also, there is family attending who are gluten free and dairy free, so we tried making one of these cakes with a gluten free cake mix from Aldi and we always make our own frosting, and for this one we made a dairy free version.  It turned out really good.

Naked cakes come in many different forms and I found these on Pinterest this morning.

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We are leaning toward the first one.  Also we are going to do a cake for every table! So each table will have their own cake to cut!  Those with Gluten and Dairy issues will get a slice from the specially make cake!  

We will use the budgeted cake money on mixes and start baking the cakes.  We'll wrap them well and put them in the freezer.  Then the day before the wedding, we'll get them out and that evening after the rehearsal we have a team of assemblers!  They'll get wrapped well and be kept in a cool space until their needed the next day!

We have some family and friends from out of town who want to help so they are being recruited to help assemble cakes.  It'll be fun, and we'll learn a lot I'm sure.

We are under 100 days until the wedding now.  The days are going fast!

                                                   

Wedding Planning : Cake

Today we are going to taste cake!

When Lindsay was getting married, she contacted bakeries for pricing so we could have an idea of what we were looking at, cost wise.  Some used voicemail and we were surprised that a few never returned her call.  We assumed they didn't need our business, so we didn't bother to call again.

In our area in early 2014, wedding cakes were averaging $5.50 a slice, which of course means if you are having 200 guests you're going to be paying $1,100 for cake!

No, thank you!  

What we did was we found a wonderful baker who's rate was $3.50 a slice and then got a cake that could feed 100 people.  What about the other 125 guests we had at Lindsay and Joseph's wedding?  Did they go cakeless?

Nope.  We bought delicious sheet cakes from Costco in several flavors and served that.  We are budget conscience around here and taste conscience!  The Costco cakes are great, and in fact when Nate and Kay got married, we just did a Costco cake for them, as she is not a big cake person anyway. Here's a photo of it.
    
 

For Emma's wedding she wants a tiered cake so we're going back to the baker we found for Lindsay's wedding.  It will be small, she wants to be able to save her top layer for their first anniversary, and have some to cut for the wedding, but she doesn't want a big cake.  We are looking for small and special.

Then we'll get a sheet cake or two from Costco in her wedding colors and that will be plenty of cake.  

 Lindsay and Joseph's wedding cake!  The topper is so them!

Wedding: Preview

I told Lindsay that I would wait until she edited the wedding photos before showing you any 'official' photos.  These were all taken with cell phones by my friend Amy, except for the first photo.  Tim or I took it, I honestly don't remember!

 Kayleigh looked beautiful on her wedding day!  She always dreamed of wearing her favorite color, and she found a great dress that was just right.  I did the flowers for the wedding.   We had a bit of a crisis with her bouquet that I'll tell you about sometime.

 Tim and I are so proud of these two!  He is our son, and she is officially our daughter now.

 This little beauty had a big day!  See her cute red shoes peeking out?   Lindsay has some great photos of Kamryn, and I can't wait to show you.

We did desserts for the reception and so we bought a simple cake from Costco.  They loved it and you'll be happy to know they did NOT shove cake into each others' face.  

We are exhausted, but happy.  We got to spend time with family and dear friends.  Some came all the way from Missouri and also from Texas.  It's such a gift to us.

More to come....

More Wedding Photos

For those of you, like me, who love to look at wedding photos, here are a few more.

 I love my girl and I am so happy for her!

 Beautiful junior bridesmaids - sister of the bride on the left, sister of the groom on the right.

 Sister of the groom

 Sister of the bride

 Sister of the bride

 The Bride is coming!  One thing we love about Joseph is his love for our daughter which he never hides!

 The ring bearer is a brother of the groom, the flower girl a dear little friend of Lindsay's.

 Happy bride!  I wanted to show a good shot of Lindsay's face, but this one caught Tim looking down a bit.

Love this photo!

 Our pastor did the service, but Joseph and Lindsay both wanted the dads to share something.  Tim brought tears to my eyes when he spoke about me!  That caught me off guard.

Father of the groom

Joseph and Lindsay chose to do things that were meaningful to them and not just "have a unity candle because everyone does."  They had no unity candle but they wrote a wedding covenant for themselves and signed it during the ceremony.

You can see by their rings that they have already spoken their vows and exchanged rings.

Then the kiss…

And the recessional…

Right after the ceremony!

I'm trying not to share too many, as they have not seen them all yet!

 I do know that she loves this one!

 Our photo with extended family, we were missing some dear ones.

Joseph's immediate family - Mom, Dad and siblings!

 Wonderful food…

 A wonderful cake and fun topper!

After a little bit of English Country dancing they were off!

What a happy day!

Wedding Prep - Wedding Website

The invitations have gone out and the RSVP's are coming in.  We have 29 days until the wedding.

29 days.  

We are still smiling here.  

A cool thing about modern technology is the ability to have an online location to RSVP, rather than having a card to fill out and mail back.

I mentioned to them about doing a website that would have their story, a place for photos, a place to RSVP.  Joseph built this website from scratch, and I thought you might like to see it!

http://lindsayandjoseph.com

We also met with a local baker today.  We got to test out several flavors of cake.  We are doing a small three tiered cake, and then are getting several sheet cakes as well. Each tier is a different flavor, Lemon, Triple Berry and Chocolate, with the most scrumptious butter cream!  

This baker, Rachel Wolf, is very talented and has her own professional kitchen at her home.  I love helping someone with their own small business, Berries and Butter Cakes.  

So now, we are basically ready.  I would like to find some shoes, we need to exchange shoes for a bridesmaid…small things.  God is good.