Sunny77: I am the photographer your daughter hired for the wedding. Susan (QT Cakes) sent me this link, and I thought it would be prudent for me to comment here to help provide a little clarification from my perspective on what happened with your daughter's cake.
When we went to cut the cake for the formal 'cake-cutting' scene, we noticed that there were no cake-cutting materials. As the facility director wasn't around, we went ahead and made due with standard silverware. I can, after all, paste a cake knife into their hands for those photos, if the bride and groom so desire. Unfortunately, none of the three of us considered the ramification of there not being cake-cutting utensils out there when it came time to start divvying up the cake for the guests.
Since Susan and I happen to live across the street from each other, once I learned who made the cake, I called her and asked her if she'd like me to bring her the stands and other support equipment so that the bride and groom wouldn't have to drive 140 miles round-trip to do so. She thought this was a great idea, and so did the bride and groom, and with their permission I committed to returning those items to Susan on their behalf.
A little while later, the mother of the groom pulled me aside (this was between those last-minute family shoots we did outside at the reception place) to take a photo of someone cutting the cake. Her comment to me was rather terse, along the lines of "I want you to take a picture of this". This is when it became apparent to me that not having proper cake-cutting utensils was a very bad thing. I do not know if I took a photo of one of the originally-assigned cake-cutters or someone else. I am not aware who the official cake-cutters were, but I am aware that they didn't have the proper equipment to cut the cake until I intervened, as follows:
There was only one lady cutting the cake when the MoG brought me over, so I am unaware of anyone relieving anyone else of that duty. Whomever this person was, assuming she's this "Drunky Drunkerson" (whom at worst appeared to me to be "Tipsy McTipple" at the time, for what it's worth), she was basically aghast that the MoG wanted a photo of her, considering the mess she had made with having to use plasticware to cut the cake. (That having been said, I cannot attest to her lack of common sense in not soliciting the facility director or wait staff for cake-cutting equipment.) Anyway, after I took the photo, I stepped into the back, found the facility director, and had him bring out regular cake-cutting equipment, but the "damage" had already been done.
(I will share the photo of this person with you directly, Sunny77, at your request, so you can identify the person, and will be glad to do so ahead of my production schedule. However, I will be out of town for the state high school soccer tournament from the 10th through the 14th. I should reiterate again that the photo was taken of an individual cutting the cake PRIOR TO the time at which I engaged the facility director to provide proper utensils.)
Whomever she was, I asked the lady if she would be so kind as to put the support equipment (the stands and whatnot) into a box for me so that I could take them back with me to Susan when I returned home. I assume she was sober enough to do so, as all the pieces were ready for me in a box after I had completed my contracted services. But to be honest, I really have no idea who assembled those items for me, as I was shooting the formal dances and other things throughout the evening.
When I left the facility, the top two tiers of the cake were on the cake table, one atop the other, which means that whomever removed the top tier just set it down straight on the second tier. There was originally a support under the top tier. While the two tiers seemed okay at the time, I would imagine it didn't take much time for that second tier to collapse under the weight of the first one, and that's probably what caused them to become damaged. The entire cake table was an awful mess, but as my normal focus is capturing memories that people want, I didn't think to capture the mess for posterity. I apologize for that.
Naturally, I have several high-resolution photographs of the cake table and individual cakes from before the cake-cutting, so no worries that there are still good memories to be had from Susan's wonderful cakes.
~Dawnne Gee
owner, lead photographer
ShadowMoon Productions, LLC
www.shadowmoon.com
When we went to cut the cake for the formal 'cake-cutting' scene, we noticed that there were no cake-cutting materials. As the facility director wasn't around, we went ahead and made due with standard silverware. I can, after all, paste a cake knife into their hands for those photos, if the bride and groom so desire. Unfortunately, none of the three of us considered the ramification of there not being cake-cutting utensils out there when it came time to start divvying up the cake for the guests.
Since Susan and I happen to live across the street from each other, once I learned who made the cake, I called her and asked her if she'd like me to bring her the stands and other support equipment so that the bride and groom wouldn't have to drive 140 miles round-trip to do so. She thought this was a great idea, and so did the bride and groom, and with their permission I committed to returning those items to Susan on their behalf.
A little while later, the mother of the groom pulled me aside (this was between those last-minute family shoots we did outside at the reception place) to take a photo of someone cutting the cake. Her comment to me was rather terse, along the lines of "I want you to take a picture of this". This is when it became apparent to me that not having proper cake-cutting utensils was a very bad thing. I do not know if I took a photo of one of the originally-assigned cake-cutters or someone else. I am not aware who the official cake-cutters were, but I am aware that they didn't have the proper equipment to cut the cake until I intervened, as follows:
There was only one lady cutting the cake when the MoG brought me over, so I am unaware of anyone relieving anyone else of that duty. Whomever this person was, assuming she's this "Drunky Drunkerson" (whom at worst appeared to me to be "Tipsy McTipple" at the time, for what it's worth), she was basically aghast that the MoG wanted a photo of her, considering the mess she had made with having to use plasticware to cut the cake. (That having been said, I cannot attest to her lack of common sense in not soliciting the facility director or wait staff for cake-cutting equipment.) Anyway, after I took the photo, I stepped into the back, found the facility director, and had him bring out regular cake-cutting equipment, but the "damage" had already been done.
(I will share the photo of this person with you directly, Sunny77, at your request, so you can identify the person, and will be glad to do so ahead of my production schedule. However, I will be out of town for the state high school soccer tournament from the 10th through the 14th. I should reiterate again that the photo was taken of an individual cutting the cake PRIOR TO the time at which I engaged the facility director to provide proper utensils.)
Whomever she was, I asked the lady if she would be so kind as to put the support equipment (the stands and whatnot) into a box for me so that I could take them back with me to Susan when I returned home. I assume she was sober enough to do so, as all the pieces were ready for me in a box after I had completed my contracted services. But to be honest, I really have no idea who assembled those items for me, as I was shooting the formal dances and other things throughout the evening.
When I left the facility, the top two tiers of the cake were on the cake table, one atop the other, which means that whomever removed the top tier just set it down straight on the second tier. There was originally a support under the top tier. While the two tiers seemed okay at the time, I would imagine it didn't take much time for that second tier to collapse under the weight of the first one, and that's probably what caused them to become damaged. The entire cake table was an awful mess, but as my normal focus is capturing memories that people want, I didn't think to capture the mess for posterity. I apologize for that.
Naturally, I have several high-resolution photographs of the cake table and individual cakes from before the cake-cutting, so no worries that there are still good memories to be had from Susan's wonderful cakes.
~Dawnne Gee
owner, lead photographer
ShadowMoon Productions, LLC
www.shadowmoon.com
