Seriously Saturdays: Freaking out about the cake!

I am really on top of things when it comes to my wedding planning.  For the most part, I either have a perfect example of what I want for something or I have a great idea and vision with a good way to communicate my thoughts to my vendors. 

I knew that I am not a huge fan of your typical traditional white tiered wedding cake.  I mean, they're real pretty and all but my thought is, you've seen one wedding cake, you've seen them all.  UGH!  I seriously did not want your typical wedding cake at my event. 

For a friends very low key super tight budget wedding, she had planned on just buying a sheet cake from Costco.  But I suggested we buy several cheesecakes instead and cover them with freshly cut fruit of varying kinds...strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, etc.  The caterer tiered them at varying levels on a niceley covered table and she had a unique and presentable wedding cake option.  Me and my future sis-in-laws cut up the fruit and placed them on the cakes and Mr Fix It even served the cake to the guests at the wedding. 

  

Source:  Personal photos

So when I decided to show Mr. Fix It some samples of some 'whimsical' cakes I was hoping we could try to replicate at our wedding, I was super excited when he jumped on board and fell in love with a few of them! 

Source:  Rancho Las Lomas web site

Source:  Sorry, didn't save it from years ago :(

But these were still not quite what we felt was the 'over the top' feeling we wanted to shock our guests with.  Now mind you, we still wanted something classy looking.  It couldn't be a cake wreck (as much as I love that site, I don't want to become a future sad image over there).

We were over the moon when our caterer informed us that our cake was included in the package price he quoted us.  Seriously!  Who gets a cake included in an already phenomenal catering deal?  Mind you, I was a bit concerned when I found out that the 'baker' they use is a girl who works out of her home and makes cakes as a side job for our caterer and a few other companies.  I started to see my dreams of an amazing cake dissapear.  But then I found these images that she had created for some of the caterer's other weddings:

Source:  La Finestra Catering

At least, I felt like she was somewhat capable now.  So one day, while browsing through some web sites, I came across two unbelievable cakes that were seriously exactly what I was looking for.  And when I showed them to the fiance, he flipped out!  Here's what we sent our caterer asking him to see what additional charges the baker would charge us to make a cake like this with a 'good' tasting marshmallow fondant:

 Our absolute favorite!

 

A much simpler looking possibility but still very cool:

                      

Never gonna happen unless we're millionaires:

I mean, yes, these are some serious cakes, but they aren't horribly impossible.  It's just a matter of figuring out how to shape them correctly and then concocting a stand that can support them...which my Mr. Fix It even offered to do for the caterer!

So when he came back telling me that it would be an additional $1,000 for us to have that first cake for our 200 guests, I almost fell off my chair!  I could seriously make that cake myself if I took a few weeks to practice.  Seriously!?!  Is he kidding me?

Now we're spending a pretty penny on our wedding but we never planned to spend more than maybe $300.00 for the upgrades to our cake since it is included in our catering package.

Now, we are totally rethinking our entire idea for the cake.  This is the one part of my wedding that I am absolutely not excited about and getting more and more frustrated with as it seems to be turning into a huge nightmare and let down over and over again.  Stay tuned next week for the follow up to our cake nightmare.