Unconventional wedding cakes

This has got to be the coolest wedding cake I've ever seen:



Now the Super Mario theme song is in my head!

Apples, anyone?

Ever thought of using fruit as part of your centerpieces? Here's a pretty interesting arrangement.

Wedding Help from YouTube

YouTube has some great bridal/wedding videos, including this one from Brides Magazine UK:



Description: Jens Jacobsen at Moyses Flowers in London tells us why it's important to listen to both the bride and the groom when creating the perfect bridal bouquet, and which flowers are a must every season.

Canines in weddings

Nickey would have looked adorable in a tuxedo. Alas, his snorting and panting would have sent off echoes in the church and distracted everyone. Plus, he likely would have peed on the pews!

First Dances - with a little personality!

First dances don't have to be lovey-dovey. Here is a little collection of some of my favorite wedding 'first dance' performances :-) Which is your favorite?

Pop lock and drop in Oakland:


I like big butts:


California Love... I love how unenthusiastic the audience is:


Jack Johnson, Michael Jackson:


Dirty Dancing in the UK (this was pretty famous, made some TV shows):


And finally, this isn't really a first dance but I LOVE this video. The DJ played Thriller at our reception, but no one really knew the choreography well. I tried to do a couple moves and everyone on the floor tried to follow along, but it was nothing like this video!



Inspired by the videos but thinking, "How in the heck could I choreograph something like this?" Ask a dancer friend to help you out, or better yet -- re-use choreography. You have many options out there... movies, music videos, YouTube videos. The world is your oyster. And if your fiance is on board with the idea, you've already 50% there!

Personal Touches: Tablecards

As mentioned in my introductory post, I feel strongly that the more personal touches you add to the wedding, the more memorable it will be. Tablecards are an easy way to incorporate a personal touch into the day because the possibilities are endless. Some ideas for tablecard themes:

• Reflect a shared hobby. Both basketball fans? Name each table after teams or players. Love dogs? Choose your favorite dog breeds. Hardcore gamers? Name each table after a favorite game.


• Share where you've been. Vacations are always a great source of tablenames - be it landmarks, neighborhoods, cities, countries, favorite restaurants, etc. We went this route, naming each of our tables after favorite spots on our trip to Europe last year (where we got engaged).


• People. I went to one wedding where each table was named after someone in the wedding party. One side of the tablecard featured the name (e.g. "Tony's Table") and the other side had a mini-profile about the person. It was really cute and a nice nod to each bridesmaid and groomsman.

Once you come up with your theme and names for each table, the next step is to figure out how the tablecards will look. You can choose to make all your tablecards, print them up, or get them made. I personally think making them is a lot of fun; it's like arts and crafts all over again. If you're concerned about your artistic abilities. enlist some friends to help you out (or even just have someone design the template). Michael's, Joann Arts & Crafts, and Office Depot should have all the art supplies you will need.

Our tablecards resembled postcards. It was a lot of work, but I had so much fun making each one:
 

Seen any particularly unique examples of tablecard names? Send them my way!

Have your cake and eat it too

Most brides place more importance on some aspects of a wedding than others. Granted, most brides might say they care about everything :) However, you'll find that brides will definitely prioritize some things over others based on the amount of money involved or simply the amount of time & energy they spend on it. For me, cake was definitely high on the priority list in terms of wanting it to be perfect.

I absolutely heart dessert - cake, pies, tiramisu, ice cream, pearl milk tea, you name it. So of course I wanted a cake that people would actually remember and perhaps even rave about. Based on my experience, here are a few things to keep in mind when shopping for a cake vendor:

1. Cake budget: This is probably the first thing you should decide on, as it will determine everything else. How much are you willing to spend on your cake? In general, cakes can start anywhere from as cheap as $1/serving to as high as $10+/serving. Extras like fondant, flowers, or anything that requires extra structural support will increase the price. On average, I'd estimate most brides spend $3-4/serving. If you're lucky, you'll find a good vendor who charges by tier or even a reception place/caterer who includes wedding cake in their services.


2. What's included?: What will your cake vendor do for you? What extra fees do they tack on to the cake price? (Delivery, tax, mandatory rentals, flower decorations, etc) I once met with a bakery that had a mandatory rental fee of $10 per cake column, which I thought was stupid. Some places may charge delivery fees ranging from $50-100, depending on how far your venue is. All in all, make sure you're aware of exactly what your cake vendor
is charging you for. Dreaming of a fancy fondant design for your cake? Most cake vendors will charge extra because it requires more labor.

3. Flavors: Of course an important choice to make! You'll need to decide everything about how your cake tastes, including...
   
   
   
   • Texture of the cake (chiffon, sponge, etc)
   
   
   • Flavor of the cake
   
   
   • Filling between layers (yes, layers within a slice of cake - not tiers)
   
   
   • Extra filling (extra fruit, chocolate chips even)
   
   
   • Icing for the cake exterior. I'll go into this more a couple bullets down.
   
   If you're torn between 2 different flavors, most places are flexible and will let you designate each tier of your cake a different flavor. In our case, we had the bottom and top tiers feature strawberry filling, while the middle tier was pineapple filling.


4. Presentation: This bullet could also be called "structure of the cake". Think about how many tiers you want your cake to be, how you want the tiers to look (do you want the columns exposed in between tiers, have the cakes stacked atop each other, or a cascading waterfall look), if you want the cake to be round or square, or something totally unconventional. There are lots of great examples of cakes on The Knot.


5. Icing: Icing, flowers, colors, ribbons. This part is like choosing what your cake's going to wear. If you're looking to save money, go with standard whipped or cream frosting as opposed to fondant (which enables you to do fancier designs and make the cake look ultra-smooth). Think about colors, flavors, and texture. For example, do you want the cake to have some texture or decorations or do you want it to look smooth? In my case (as you can see on the lefthand blog logo), I had a different design for each tier - the top tier had single dots, the second tier had swirls, and the 3rd tier had triple dots. At the bottom of each cake tier, the vendor used "pearls" of icing as a finishing accent. You can get creative and ask your vendor to add icing decorations that (for example) mimic the beading of your dress.


6. Flowers & other cake accessories: Some cake vendors will include floral cake decorations in their services and either provide flowers of your choice or request you to purchase the flowers for them. In general, you should have the cake flowers match your flower scheme for the wedding. Other popular accessories for cakes include a ribbon wrapped around the bottom of each cake tier, sugar flowers, figurines for the top tier, or even Star Wars Storm Trooper action figures positioned on each tier (see the first cake picture in this post ;-)


7. How it looks on the cake table: You don't want an absolutely gorgeous wedding cake ruined by ugly presentation on the cake table! Talk with your reception venue coordinator and your cake vendor about how the cake will be presented. Cakes always look great when slightly elevated, so that's something you can talk w/ your vendors about. Also, you may wish to scatter flower petals or have floral arrangements on the cake table. And of course, don't forget the cake knife & server set and toasting flutes, should you choose to have these.

Phew! That's a lot to think about just for choosing a cake. However, if your cake is on your priority list, then it's worth spending the time to design the cake of your dreams and making sure you're comfortable with the vendor you choose. In my opinion, anything that has to do with food is usually fun to work with. :-)

Welcome to The Bridal Diaries!

So, what are The Bridal Diaries?

I was recently married and didn't realize how much of a wealth of information I had gathered from planning my own wedding until I started advising one of my best friends on her upcoming wedding. Despite the stress, I found wedding planning to be a lot of fun. Even today, I still enjoy flipping through bridal magazines and checking out trends. So in a nutshell, this is my little corner of the web to post my own musings and bloggings from my own experience planning our wedding.

I dove into wedding planning a bit wary of the wedding industry. For example:

• I DO NOT think a wedding cake has to cost an arm and a leg to still be gorgeous and delicious.


• I DO think you can find absolutely exquisite wedding dresses for well under a grand.


• I DO think you can plan a wedding entirely by yourself with the help of Google Docs and Spreadsheets, Google Calendar, a wealth of wedding websites that offer fabulous tips and ideas, and finally - your own passion and desire to make your special day memorable. You don't have to be a professional wedding planner to come up with truly creative ideas for your wedding.


• I DO NOT think that you should feel obligated to plan things a certain way due to pressure from other people or from the wedding industry. Don't want flower girls? Don't have them! Prefer a buffet dinner rather than plated courses? Do it! Would rather have a little more color in your dress than going all white? Baby, color yourself pretty.


• I DO think that "at the end of the day" (just had to insert a lame work phrase in here), the most important thing is that a wedding is all about celebrating your love for each other. The more you can make the event unique to your relationship and full of personal touches, the better. That's what people will remember, not how extravagant it was.

With that, thanks for reading and I hope you find this useful!