Seriously Saturdays: The cake saga continues!

So in last week's post, I shared about how frustrated I was when our hopes for our dream cake came tumbling down around us.  The caterer was going to charge us an additional $1,000 for the cake we wanted...*and* we were concerned that his 'baker' would not be able to replicate it without it looking like a disaster.

While searching the net for replicas of the cake we wanted to recreate:

We came across these images which were obvious attempts at a knock off of the above cake, but not even close!

 

 

Source:  Picasa and Google Images

I mean, we really wanted that cake, but God forbid if what we ended up with looked like one of those...I would have been devastated at the least and totally embarassed!

So, instead, I browsed the net again and saw several blogs and sites with cupcake towers at weddings.  Um, hello?  I'll take this any day and twice on Sunday, please!  I fell in love with the idea.  A tower of wonderfully frosted little cakes in differing flavors but still unified in our colors with a small cake at the top of the tower for us to still cut into - perfect! 

 

Source:  Google Images unless otherwise noted on photo

And what's so cool about this idea?  The guests don't have to wait to be served.  As soon as we 'cut the cake' they can walk right up and just grab whatever they'd like.  And if they don't feel like cake at the reception - which a lot of people sometimes don't - then they can simply grab one and place it in a little takeout box to carry home with them for the next day.  Bonus!

I shared the idea with my mom and sis who absolutely loved it.  Mr Fix It - not so much.  Once again, the little bugger shot down my great idea saying it was 'ghetto' and cheap looking.  Even when I showed him pictures like this:

Source:  Jasmine Star Photography

Um, there is absolutely nothing cheap or ghetto looking about that!  Thankfully, we went to dinner with a good guy friend a few weeks ago and shared our cake dilemma with him.  When I mentioned the possibility of cupcakes, he said "Oh, that's a great idea."  Thanks, Danny!  Cuz now Mr Fix It has the approval of a cool younger dude and he came around saying "Ok, if they can't make our upside down cake for us, then we can do the cupcake tower."  Woo-hoo!

I e-mailed the caterer and showed him some of the above pics and asked what they'd charge to do 200 cupcakes and he said it'd only cost us an extra $200, then he even suggested they'd make it only $100 to help us out.  Great!  In our budget and I love the idea.  Until....

this is what he sent me as a sample that they just did for a wedding in Malibu last month:

Seriously?  THAT is your idea of a cupcake tower similar to all those gorgeous photos I just sent you?!  Are you kidding me?!  Look at it!  There are Oreo cookies stuck in the top of the cupcakes!  And silver tin foil cupcake holders are not cutting it at my wedding.  And hello, do you not know how to frost a stupid cupcake?  There is frosting all over the cupcake holders.  I zoomed in on the image on my computer and thought "I'd be so embarassed to send this out as a sample of our company's work!"  Good Lord!

I immediately showed it to Mr Fix It and told him "There is no way in hell I am having them make our cupcakes!  So either we're getting them somewhere else or we'll just have them make us a basic cake and try to find ways to spruce it up and make it more unique."  He agreed whole-heartedly and also pointed out that with our budget as high as it is, we really shouldn't worry about extra charges for a cake.  As much as it's a big deal, we need to keep the funds to a minimum where we can...and splurging on an extravagant cake is not an acceptable expense to us right now.  (sigh)

And thus, my cake saga continues with another let down.  This is the one thing in my entire wedding planning process that I am really not excited about and actually bummed about.  I am not looking forward to the cake at our wedding because I know it is not going to be what I envisioned.  Oh well.

So, next week I'll hopefully have some updated info on our plans to revamp the whole cake design yet again!  What are your plans for your cake ladies?  Keeping it traditional?  And what are some areas of your wedding that maybe you're not excited about because you feel like you had to compromise on your hopes and dreams?

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.

Let them NOT eat cake...not at my wedding or my birthday!

So Tuesday was my 37th birthday...or as I refer to it, my last birthday as a single lady :)  I went to work, got lots of birthday wishes on facebook, had dinner with my honey, daughter, mom and sister's family and then came home and sat at the computer with the future hubby.  We chatted about wedding stuff and he finally gave in to the idea of not having the money dance.  Then I got him to agree to register for our honeymoon so guests have a reason to give cash gifts and then I started showing him my latest ideas about the cake.

The cake is the one thing I have really been struggling with. I literally have over 70 images saved on my computer of cake samples.  There's something about each that I like, but there isn't one particular image I've found where I've said "that's the one!"  Not even with some slight modifications.  We did finally agree on one cake that we both love...AND the honey even agreed to have it made in our colors of aqua/turquoise and deep cranberry.  The problem is, our cake is included in our catering package and though the baker who makes the cake for the catering company is pretty good, she is also somewhat an amateur and this is a high end difficult cake.  We already know it will be an upgraded charge to us because it will need to be made with a fondant covering (which we aren't thrilled about but will place over a lot of buttercream frosting to be sure it still tastes good) and my honey may have to construct the 'stand' for it to rest on.  It is the first cake in this slideshow followed by some ideas of other cakes we love. 

Remember that our thought regarding the cake is NON-traditional, funky, fun, still beautiful and maybe even 'mad-hatter' style.

I love that first upside down cake!  It's amazing and so different...the guests will be totally surprised and it even somewhat ties in with the circles graphics from our invitations that will be carried through the stationery and such.

I also have lots of ideas for fun or beautiful decoration of the cake table...my tastes are all over on this one from simple to cover it all!  Of course the cake style will help determine this but here are some ideas:

And finally, I am not much of a cake person anyway.  I didn't even have one on my birthday.  I prefer brownies, ice cream and cupcakes, so I tried to convince the honey to do a cupcake tower.  But he wasn't having it.  The more I think about it, the more I love this idea.  You can let your guests serve themselves without having to wait for the cake to be cut and brought out to them.  You can even allow them to decorate their own cupcakes with different toppings.  They can easily choose a flavor and frosting type.  And today, they are very popular and still elegant and fun and gorgeous.  And, if a guest doesn't want cake at the reception, they can easily grab one to take home with them!  Everyone I share this idea with loves it, except for my Johnny :(

What do you think, ladies?  Which do you like?  What are your plans and hopes for your cake?

Photo credits: Unless indicated by web site on image, photos are from flickr.com, google images