No matter how you slice it,

Peacock Wedding Cakeyou’re sure to find the perfect cake with these four tips.

  1. When looking for a cake designer, start early.
    Begin your wedding cake designer search about three to six months before the wedding—even sooner if you want an in-demand pro. Some bakers’ schedule their wedding cake commitments about a year in advance.
  2. Narrow your wedding cake search.
    Many wedding cake designers showcase their creations on a web site, check it out to see if they design the kind of cake you want.  Set up an appointment for a cake consultation and tasting.  “Do not compromise taste for the look or price of the cake .”  Wedding cake prices are based on the size of the cake, the amount of labor needed to create it and the cost of its ingredients. More experienced and reputable wedding bakers are usually pricier. You want your wedding cake to look the very best, but it is important that you to stay within budget.  There is a cake designer out there who can do just that for you and makes an awesome tasting cake too, “me”.
  3. Keep talking with your wedding cake designer.
    Provide the baker with as much information about your wedding as you can: the location, the level of formality, your wedding dress, the colors, the wedding flowers, etc..  The whole idea is to customize the look of the cake.
  4. Get your wedding cake price in writing.
    To ensure you get the exact wedding cake you want, check that all the details, including the date, place and time of the wedding, plus the style and flavors of the cake, are in your contract with the designer. Your baker should update the contract anytime you change your mind, and as you choose further details. Whether it’s with a written description or a sketch, it should be clear to you exactly how your cake will look on the wedding day.

The groom wears a boutonniere, because

The wedding tradition of the groom wearing a boutonniere originates in medieval times when a knight wore his lady’s colors (through flowers) as a statement of his love. Flowers and bouquets have long been used in weddings. In addition to adorning the bride with flowers to promote good luck and good health flower meanings allow the bride to express her feelings for the groom. Orange blossoms signify purity, daisies loyalty, violets modesty and red roses signify true love

The groom wears a boutonniere, because

why grooms wear boutonnieresThe wedding tradition of the groom wearing a boutonniere originates in medieval times when a knight wore his lady’s colors (through flowers) as a statement of his love. Flowers and bouquets have long been used in weddings. In addition to adorning the bride with flowers to promote good luck and good health flower meanings allow the bride to express her feelings for the groom. Orange blossoms signify purity, daisies loyalty, violets modesty and red roses signify true love

Peeking Flowers

crocusI was looking out my window this afternoon and saw my crocus  blooming.  It was not letting anything get in it way, not weather, not snow, not even the leaves I didn’t rake last fall.

It reminded me that if I want to get somewhere, I need to keep pushing on, not letting anything get in my way.

When we are planning a wedding or any event for that matter, we need to not sweat the small stuff.

Happy Birthday Kris

Kris's Birthday CakeIt’s the world that is wrong not me.  I was delivering Kris’s Birthday cake and even after living on here for over 20 years, I forgot that in the spring these roads are full of pot holes and I didn’t leave enough time.  The pot holes, I can deal with, it’s the wash boards that drive me nuts.

Kris is a flower garden person, they wanted something with flowers and spring like and they wanted something different.  This one is different, it even has some real gold on the fence and flowers.

When you want some that is different for a birthday, shower, wedding, or any other occasion, give me a call.

Money Saving Wedding Floral Tip

Wedding pomanders

Wedding Floral Pomanders

The pricey floral pomanders worked hard for their money:  They hung from the altar during the ceremony, then were moved to the reception tables to be used as centerpieces.

All-white wedding, can my bridesmaid wear white?

There is not set rules on what color the bridesmaids wear. If you want them to wear white, go for it.  I personally think that it would look beautiful, especially if the groomsmen wore black and the girls wore maybe a black sash. How about the groomsmen wearing white with a black/soft color vest and the bridesmaids white with black/soft color sash? 

With the Bride and Groom wearing all white, it would look so amazing.  You may also want the flowers to be white bouquets with the same soft tones as the vests and sashes.

Your Wedding Budget

Talk to all contributing parties, as the cost of weddings increase, so does the number of people paying for them (good news for the bride’s parents, who no longer need to take out a second mortgage to fund their daughter’s nuptials). You’ll need to sit down with everyone who is going to contribute to the wedding-day piggy bank and discuss how to logically divide the tab and arrive at a total number.

Now that you’ve arrived at a reasonable total budget, you’ll need to determine where that money is going to go. Come up with a list of items and services you’ll need, and how much you’ll allocate to each.  Then you can customize each amount based on your style and priorities. For instance, if a fabulous wedding cake is particularly important to you, you may splurge in that area, and make up for it by cutting back on your floral arrangements.

Just remember that if you have divided up the costs by item that what you decide on the budget for say the cake or the flowers is affordable for the person who is in charge for paying for it.

Brides — please, don’t try to…

Fall Wedding Cakesave money on the wedding cake. Economize on the decorations, the flowers, the food — but not the cake. Think about it: what differentiates a wedding reception from any other event? What do guests rush over to admire as soon as they get to the reception hall? What sends little girls dreaming and intrigues little boys because of the intricacy? You guessed it, the cake. So please, don’t skimp on it.

Your friend may be a good baker and have decorated kids’ cakes, but you have to remember that even the best and most well intentioned baker on the planet isn’t born knowing how to do a wedding cake. It’s not just a question of piling cakes on top of each other; it’s an architectural job of considerable skill, not to mention making it look fabulous and taste wonderful. I have seen cakes propped up by books, cakes with someone obliged to stand there and support them so they wouldn’t collapse… And then there’s the issue of calculating portions, which is a science all its own. You really have to know what you’re doing, which explains why they cost what they cost.

These poor brides had tried so hard to have everything perfect, and these cakes, which should have been a showpiece admired by all, were a fiasco. What a memory!

Please, even if you don’t get the cake from me, get it from a reputable baker who has years of experience making wedding cakes.

Are the flowers I want on my cake toxic?

Lily of the ValleyThere is absolutely no disputing the beauty Mother-Nature provides in fresh flowers, however, there are safety concerns to take into account when using fresh flowers with food.  Unfortunately, many popular wedding flowers are indeed considered toxic.  While the two most poisonous yet commonly used fresh flowers are Ivy and Delphiniums.

As an alternative, you may wish to decorate your cake table with fresh flowers and use sugar or silk flowers on the cake to avoid any problems or concerns. 

I have a list of toxic flowers.  This list is not considered to be an absolute listing, just a compilation of research of common wedding flowers.  If in doubt don’t use or ask your florist.

If you wish a copy of the list I have, you may call or e-mail me. I will send it to you.