Just wanted to share this with you...I had a very simple site done for the time being...I needed to put my cakes out there and it was about time...
You will need a flash reader on your computer...and it may take a bit to download if you have dialup...But once you have the cookies, everytime you visit, if you do come back, it'll be faster...
I'm working on having more pictures compressed to speed it up 
Thanks for looking...
www.cakeobsessions.com
For me, I like it, because it doesn't scroll on forever and ever, it doesn't even need scrolling at the resolution I'm using.
I would suggest if you could get away from using flash as the base, to do so. Your design could be done without it, and it would load even faster, but that's up to you. As it is, it loads fairly fast for me.
Also, on the subject of optimizing your pics, here's a graphics rule to follow, (if you want). For text graphics, using a .gif is fine It's smoother looking and faster loading. But for pics, Use either .jpg at at least 75% or .png. They won't have the artifacts that .gifs show in pics.
Just my suggestion(s).
Well first off, your cakes are absolutely amazing! And your site is beautiful. I love the colors and especially loved reading the about us section.
the only thing that I had a hard time with was the speed of the site. I have a cable connection, which is pretty high speed and I still had to wait a long time for the pages to download. The typical user may not want to wait that long and may abort looking at your site.
I just LOVE it! You put my favourite cake of yours right there on the Home Page in all its glory. SO pretty! It made me excited to see more...and you didn't disappoint!
I really like the feature of the cake images "scattering away" to the left corner when you click on an image. That's really neat. It reminds me of leaves blowing in the wind...almost romantic! 
As I have previously mentioned your cakes are stunning and wonderful to look at.
Your site is equally as pretty.
My feedback would be regarding how slow it is.. I have high speed broadband and it still took a while to load.. I know that if a site takes too long people are often suspicious of the site and exit out and do not wait.. and it would be a shame for them to miss such beautiful cakes and service you provide.
What if people don't have the FLASH READER and don't want it does that mean they can't see the site??? Could you not accomplish a similar result without it??
Anyway its gorgeous to look at!!!
Your cakes are amazing! I love the chocolate brown color with the pink. The flash is a bit much for me, though.
Sorry everyone but I don't agree 
.......KEEP THE FLASH!!!
Interactive/movement keeps them interested. It's not a flat photo album of cakes...it's....alive!! Movement = interest.
Not your problem people don't have Flash loaded. It only takes a few minutes to download it and it's FREE people. C'mon...it's 2006 for crying out loud!
Your website is modern and fabulous. The largest wedding market is females 25-32 years old, they'll love it!
***edited to include Emoticon of me rolling my eyes at this disagreement!!!
Sorry everyone but I don't agree
.......KEEP THE FLASH!!!Interactive/movement keeps them interested. It's not a flat photo album of cakes...it's....alive!! Movement = interest.
Not your problem people don't have Flash loaded. It only takes a few minutes to download it and it's FREE people. C'mon...it's 2006 for crying out loud!
Your website is modern and fabulous. The largest wedding market is females 25-32 years old, they'll love it!
***edited to include Emoticon of me rolling my eyes at this disagreement!!!
No its not her problem.... but its a shame to miss out on having your work seen or ordered just because someone does not have the latest thing on their computer.... Yes its free but if you have someone new to the computer world they may not want to load something they don't understand... Your also making assumptions about who would be looking at the site and targeting one audience does not make a lot business sense..
True.... but you want EVERYONE to be able to see it, not just some.
and everyone can once they get with the drill and get flash loaded.
anymore, there are so many sites where you have a flash intro, that is for all practical purposes are necessity to have on your machine.
the world of the web keeps evolving at a fast rate...yesterday's (almost litterally) frill is today's common place and tomorrow's can't live without.
Flash is pretty much at that can't live without stage.
Further, as anotnia74 pointed out, the target market will be very web savy and will expect up to the minute web styling. Marketing 101 tells you to always consider your target market, get inside their heads and deliver it in a way they will respond.
And not to knock those in my age class...(old as dirt! or so it seems sometimes)...which would be the mom's of the brides...even there you will find that if they're on the web, they've probably got flash too.
Even the issue of dial-up is becoming more a non-issue thanks to broadband and DSL. Even when I lived in a rural upstate NY area...I had my broadband (from a certain cartoon bird...beep beep!)
I too say to those who don't have flash...oh give it up and join the modern web age!
I have flash and high speed internet and still thought the site loaded too slow.
I think the site is beautifully done and the product is out of this world, however, if I had stumbled upon it while surfing the net I would not have waited for it to load and would therefore not have seen a thing.
Your cakes are absolutley GORGEOUS! I liked the site. The pictures took a while to load but it was worth it. I think you should keep the Flash. Without it, it would load faster but then it would be boring and I don't like boring...your site is fun, and the cakes, B-E-A-utiful!
slow downloads are generaly a function of slow server someplace, usually not your computer or flash.
some domain hosting services even put "speed" limits if you will to control the amount of bandwidth being used at anyone time.
Very probably her site works just fine, but the server just isn't pumping it out fast enough.
there have been similar issues on many sites.
it could also be what I call the "checkout line" issue....
so many people trying to view (checkout) the site at the same time...it gets swamped and everyone has to wait...and wait....and wait.
considering it was posted here...i'm betting everyone of us checking it out, many at the same time. (fyi...just went there and it is running faster than it was earlier which leads me to suspect this is the problem)
Love your site Godiva, it went rigth to my favorites!!!! congratulations!!! you did you own page or someone did it for you? I just love it....
Godiva,
Looks like your webserver or your connection to it is slowwwwwww
Its been 5 mins and your site still hasnt completed loading yet. If your website is on a shared server with another website that is hogging website requests I would look into changing that!
anyway, apart from that looks great
Doug and Antonia, dky is in Australia which have download cap limits cause ISP have to pay the US government fees to download from your country. Sometimes its a pain in the rear end to wait for a flash site to pop up while it is racking up your download limit. Personally, I can live without flash and I want to see the photos not the bells and whistles
Quoting"""""No its not her problem.... but its a shame to miss out on having your work seen or ordered just because someone does not have the latest thing on their computer.... Yes its free but if you have someone new to the computer world they may not want to load something they don't understand... Your also making assumptions about who would be looking at the site and targeting one audience does not make a lot business sense..[/quote]""""
Okay, but Flash is about 8 years old now. We're already on to Version 9 in the computer world.
Actually, targeting your BIGGEST audience does make a lot of sense. That's pure marketing at its best. Everything on tv and magazines targets an age/ethnicity/income bracket...and websites are no different.
Australia which have download cap limits cause ISP have to pay the US government fees to download from your country.
OUCH!!!! really? how unfair....ya learn something new (and not always good news) every day.
you'd think by now no fees other than to ISP for use of net (after all -- the net wouldn't be the net without all those servers in all kinds of countries keeping it going)
Wow..thanks to all for your replies...
There were two things I wanted to avoid, and that was super long pages where you had to scroll down an eternity, and page that took forever to load...
I'm pretty happy with it except that I feel it could be slightly faster...I have cable also and have no problems, just a few seconds delay. As I mentioned, my husband is working to get the pictures compressed and he's sure that this will greatly improve the present situation...
As for the flash, as Antonia and Doug say, it's 2006 and everyone has it...It adds pizzaz and life to the site, which in design has been kept really simple. It's also different and modern or up to date, so I'm sure it'll reach my main target group...brides
Thanks to all for your input. 
I have flash and high speed internet and still thought the site loaded too slow.
I think the site is beautifully done and the product is out of this world, however, if I had stumbled upon it while surfing the net I would not have waited for it to load and would therefore not have seen a thing.
I must say I agree. I have both and it took so long to download anything that i closed it. I was going to use flash for my own website, but being in the IT industry those in the know told me that using flash is a big no no.
Godiva your cakes are so beautiful, it'd be a shame to lose customers b/c your website is too slow.
The thing is that even if we all think ppl need to get with it, and get flash etc etc, sometimes ppl have limited time, and if a website takes a bit of time to download, they will close it and just move on to the next one.
That is a fact of life.
Nati
Just needed to add one more thing, when im doing searches if a website requires me to download something in order to view it 95% of the time I will close it down and move on to one that doesnt require downloads. I know lots of people that feel the same way.
WOW!! Love your site AND your cakes!!! Looks great. It only took a few seconds for the site to load for me. Very well designed!!!
Oh my! Your site is just fantastic! All your cakes are inspirational, I check your photos all the time to see what you've been up to, but the photography and the background is just glorious. You must be very happy with it. It's really professional and very chic!
wow... I didn't expect to tread on so many toes..... the fact that I thought the site was beautiful seems to have got lost.
I want to add that I stuck around and looked at the whole site and am glad I did but there are many that wouldn't.... thats all I was getting at.
As far as being slow here cause we are in Australia... I have never heard of such a thing.... I find speed can be fast or slow wherever the site may be coming from... depends on the site itself not the distance and location.
Everyone is different... and thats the beauty of cake central..
There are a few books that talk about the best things to do for a website and things to avoid.. slowness and scrolling are huge thats why I mentioned it.... I did not mean any disrespect to the site..... its wonderful as are the cakes.....
I think your website is well designed and presented. It looks very professional, yet welcoming at the same time.
I really like the colours used.
I like the links page.
I love the font used in your business logo and I also like the text font.
I also like the "i" icon that provides more info about the cake.
I enjoyed reading about the flavours you offer. They all sound drool worthy.
I too, had some trouble loading the images even though I have high speed internet.
You've made some stunning creations. Your cakes are lovely and you should be really proud.
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