Wedding Cake Question (long time lurker, first time poster) - Page 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by AZCouture 

Ok well, the HUGE difference in price is because you're paying that person for their time and talent. I assume you know that though. Just wasn't sure though....

Oh, I know and I know that it would look AMAZING for them to do it...as they have so much talent and can probably make a wedding cake in their sleep by now.    But to me, some of the pricing was a bit too high.  For example, to have each layer in fondant was ~$250.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kikiandkyle 

It's your wedding, so long as YOU remember it as being the happiest day of YOUR life that's all that matters, and keeping it within your budget is part of that. I had the wedding my family wanted, and then spent 6 years paying for it, although I did get a decent husband out of it!

hahaha, well at least you got a decent hubby out of it

Agreed, and I think that we're both going to enjoy the fact that we can actually socialize with everyone at the wedding and be stress free. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by costumeczar 

You don't happen to live in Richmond Va, do you? There's a bakery here that tells people that the bottom tier has to be pound cake or the cake will collapse, and they make you sign a waiver if you want anything else on the bottom tier. It's 100% false.

Anyway, I like the idea of doing sheet cakes and having the fake cake to display. I did a dessert buffet for my own wedding so I was able to freeze a lot of things, but to put a full wedding cake together right before your wedding is going to be a time-suck for you. Athough it's a good way to get rid of relatives who are visiting the night before, you can just tell them that you need to finish the cake!

No, I don't...but now I know it's not that uncommon of a spec from bakers :)

Well the wedding is at 5pm and I can be at the reception restaurant (that is less than a mile from our ceremony site) at 2:30pm, which I plan to do.  Than I have my mom, sister and a couple friends to help me, so I think we're good :)   I'm using the "KISS" principle, so there won't be too much decorating that I have to do on site (mainly it can all be done before that time).

Agreed about the relative aspect :)  I think my future husband's family was planning on staying with us before the wedding...but now they are staying with his sister to allow me "room" SWEET!!! :D

I cannot tell you guys how many times I had a question about my cake and came here and got fantastic answers.  I only had to post this one question, though...all other questions I had were already answered on this site.  I don't know WHAT I would have done without this fantastic website!  So thank you to the great contributors you have NO idea how much help you guys were!!!

Our wedding was yesterday and I baked the cakes ahead of time (I cut a corner and used boxed cakes instead of making them from scatch...something I NEVER do) and took two days off of work to decorate the cake.  Each tier was four layers, alternating french vanilla and devil's food.  Then covered in butter cream and then finally marshmallow fondant (which I think tastes pretty good).

The car ride over was nerve racking, but the cakes made it with only one slight issue: one tier slid against the box and caused a slight crease in the fondant...most of it I corrected with my fondant smoother and simply made that the back.

The biggest pain was the bottom tier, my 16"x4" cake dummy.  I didn't have the counter space to roll out fondant large enough AND our table has creases in it every four inches or so, so I was afraid to use that surface.  I ended up with some of the back not being covered with fondant at all....so I had to cruelly attach some spare fondant to the back (I felt like I was working on a Frankenstein monster)...luckily that was the back that no one saw anyways. :)

The quilting was pretty easy, after I got my quilting tools.  I couldn't quite pull off the quilting pattern on the bottom tier as it was a dummy, so it just looked more like a pattern. 

Here is my cake.  I know it isn't perfect, but I was proud of myself because it looked nice and everyone knows that I loved to bake and how important it was that our cake was made by me :)  The is the first (and probably last :)) huge cake I've done..

I also made mini wedding cakes (via a great pan) as take home favors :)  I used poured fondant for those.

The whole day was perfect, we only had 26 guests, the weather was absolutely perfect and everyone had a great time.  The food and reception site was amazing, which is funny because this place wasn't our first choice.  Our original reception site closed down three weeks before our wedding, so this was actually the replacement and it was MUCH MUCH better...so everything happens for a reason. 

I would say, if anyone else sees this that is thinking of doing their own cake, make sure you have PLENTY enough time and ensure you keep telling yourself it doesn't have to be perfect AND people are going to eat it anyways :)