I have got to vent... These outside country weddings are killing me. I don't think after today I have any nerves left. I just delivered a 4 tier cake to a cow field. The farm is only 2 miles from my shop. I thought...nice. Ha ha! When I got to the farm the driveway steep down hill. the cake rocked so bad. I stopped halfway. to breath. Then I was told by a small child they changed the location to a barn out in the field out back. Yes A field out back. OMG!! it was up hill steep up a tractor path. The best part is. A guest for the reception asked if I needed help because I was stopped about 1/4 of the way to the field. I said yea can you drive my van while i hold the cake. He drove. I sat in the back
strattled the cake and bear hugged it to the top of the hill. I though I was going to pass out.
Needless to say its in a barn (hot) And its 96 degrees out. I don't think I have ever been so exsausted from a delivery. Whew!
I got the cake set. I don't know how long it will stand it was leaning as I left.
Note to self no more Outside Country Weddings.

Again, Pinterest rears its ugly head. These brides are spending unbelievable amounts of money to make it look like they have no money and had to patch their wedding together from things found in grandma's attic. I know this to be true because my daughter is having the same rustic-burlap-mason-jar wedding next month. How precious can we get, I ask you?!

Well, slap my head and call me silly, but I thought that cake was DANGED cute!

Changing to the back field up a steep path like that would make a bishop mad enough to kick in stained-glass windows. I'll bet you were fit to be tied! Here is is hotter'n a goat's butt in a pepper patch and they decide to go all rustic on ya.

OMG, LOL, I`m sorry i `m not laughing at you, But that`s so funny, I was just picturing you strattled with the cake, Glad you got in there,and that the guy was there to help you.Who would want to get married in a hot barn anyway!

I had a delivery once like that. I had to drive through a field to get to where the cake was going and I hit a hidden rock which put a hole in my gas tank.(Small hole) Needless to say I don't deliver there anymore.

Check this out...There's some salty language, just to warn those of you who are easily offended! http://www.theonion.com/video/horrible-couple-really-wants-wedding-to-reflect-th,28925/

edited to add: Kimmiesue, this is NOT directed at your daughter, hahaha! Just the pinterest brides in general. who are all so "originial."

Costumeczar that video is great. Thanks for the link. I needed a good laugh.

The country/vintage weddings are cracking me up. Funnily enough, I had a pretty country marriage almost 6 years ago myself (ya know, before Pinterest). All I had ever wanted was a cheap, outdoors wedding/barn party. We got married in a field on my dad's property right next to the log home he was building. We got a dance floor, had a huge cookout, a bonfire, and my decorations were primarily pumpkins. No one cared about our paper plates, beer, or plastic wine glasses. It was honestly the most fun wedding I have ever been to (a little biased I know, but other people said the same thing)! Oh, and pretty much everyone wore jeans except the wedding party, and half of them changed into jeans after the ceremony. And the cake, because we all have to know about the cake, a square 3 tiered (chocolate, strawberry, WASC) covered in white buttercream with chocolate brown cow spots everywhere. How's that for class and style, Pinterest?

just a thought,contracts should have some kind of clause referring to extreme venue terrain . Seems you should be warned a head of time . Extra charges should apply if you have to hire an extra helper.
Also that you are not responsible if cake is left exposed to high heat and humidity for say over 30 minutes .

LOL, because of where I live I have a whole section for them to describe the venue, if it's on a hill/down in a valley, steep roads, windy roads, if I have to carry up stairs, if there is an elevator, and if there is service vehicle parking etc.

Some of these venues are down right scary to get to - the cake I just delivered Friday was at a yacht club - you'd think it would be easy-peasy except it seems every street and road is currently being dug up and being re-done - the one and only road to get out to the club (out on the water in the SF Bay) was complete trenched-up dirt with splashing waves on BOTH sides of the driveway. And one lane was blocked off by heavy equipment. I though I was not only going to crash the car into the bay, but the cake was going to fall over. I drove about 2 mph the whole way. Made it! No issues. Oh except the 1 flight of stairs down then 3 flights of stairs up I had to carry the damn thing...

Glad you made it OK too

Oh yeah, tell me about it. It's not so much barns and fields over here, but old , oh so romantic castles which are perched up on hills with steep-one-way-needle-curved-cobblestone streets leading to them. I love it when my car is practically vertical and you have to hold on to the steering wheel for pure live, sweating even more than the cake in the back.
Very popular are also old vinyards somewhere in the deeeep countryside (just had that yesterday) with just dirtroads leading up and down hills.
Why can't people get married in nice hotels in the city??

Out here, we have the horrid one-way driveways up windy hills then down again, out past the country, to the riverboats, on the river. Two years ago, it rained cats and dogs, and I had to slogde through a brand new moat to get to it. There was rushing water up around my calves. Another time, I had to balance a cake while I walked up some sort of shuddering, swinging gangplank to a riverboat that was bouncing up and down in the raging river. Then, I had the door, that opened outward, ( i was in tears, but it was a very small 2 tier, so i made it. ) that once I finally got through it, it slapped my butt so hard I pitched forward! It made it, but just barely, and had little bugs in it.

Anna, yes, the bugs. They start landing as soon as the first piece of sugar is exposed. And the things that blow into the buttercream from the wind???

i delivered a cake last month to a "barn wedding" on a wet, humid day. The cake was fondant covered. So i do not need to tell you what the fondant looked like. Sad and shiny. My only perk was that my cake stood straight and made me proud. Yes, Barn weddings please go away...

I just don't understand the concept of the outdoor reception to begin with. Have an outdoor patio that's attached to a nice indoor space, but don't make your guests sit in a field in formal clothing. The worst wedding I ever went to was in the summer in the middle of Lexington Common, no shade and full sun. Talk about a sweat-fest. it was miserable.

I remember one delivery I did was similar - but outside in the yard/field, not in the barn. I had to do some decorating once I set together the 2 parts; There were dogs running around and when I went to find a tip I had used earlier I found one of the dogs had taken it and chewed it all up

Yumm! I just want to go to a wedding in a cow pasture with cow patties and tsetse flies landing on the cake and potato salad. And a nice breeze kicking up from the opposite side of the field, blowing over the food.... And dogs running around, licking the serving spoons, and eating off your plate when you turn your back. And get my good shoes yanked off my feet by thick mud. And then have to drive my kids home in a shut up car, all filthy and sweaty, stinking it up. Ooo! Then, when we get home, we can take off our outer clothes in the foyer, and check each other for ticks! Fun times...

Yumm! I just want to go to a wedding in a cow pasture with cow patties and tsetse flies landing on the cake and potato salad. And a nice breeze kicking up from the opposite side of the field, blowing over the food.... And dogs running around, licking the serving spoons, and eating off your plate when you turn your back. And get my good shoes yanked off my feet by thick mud. And then have to drive my kids home in a shut up car, all filthy and sweaty, stinking it up. Ooo! Then, when we get home, we can take off our outer clothes in the foyer, and check each other for ticks! Fun times...

Anna you are soooooooo right & funny
But I guess when you are raised on a farm those things just nver occure to you.

I think the barn/rustic/burlap look is quite beautiful. That being said, brides need to know that you should have this kind of a wedding in a temperate climate month when the weather isn't blazing hot and the flies buzzing, and the wind blowing. June, late September...early October. Those can be lovely. There are some parts of the country where you can actually have food outdoors and not have to worry about flies! (I don't live in one of them.) I say if you want to have a rustic look then rent an indoor space (with climate control) and decorate accordingly. Do NOT put your food or cake outside. Drinks and cocktails maybe but NO FOOD outdoors!

When my daughter got married on the 1st of May three years ago, we picked a venue that was a lovely old mansion that had a gorgeous courtyard. Signature cocktails and lemonade were going to be served in the courtyard before the ceremony with the wedding being held in an adjacent seating area in front of a lovely iron archway. The reception would be moved indoors for food and dancing and the cake had it's own little room off the dance area. Nice, right?
Enter monsoon season-- continuous storms and flooded streets the week before up to the day of the wedding. Everything had to be moved indoors. Thank goodness we had an indoors to move to! You take such a chance with an outdoor function. But regardless, anyone who has a summer wedding outdoors is crazy IMO. As a cake decorator I would refuse a cake that had to be outside in the heat. And honestly, I don't think I'd want to eat one that had been.

I think I would tell them they would have to pick it up and deliver it themselves...out of your hands; not your problem!

Wow, sounds like a nightmare. Maybe they should have made it a potluck and everyone bring a dish to share plus cakes. It would have saved you some gray hairs and saved them money too . Or, have you bring a flat decorated cake - you could even have left it in the pan!