Let Them Eat Cake? More Complicated Than It Sounds

I want to preface this post by indicating that we have done our best to plan a local, Baltimore wedding.  Nearly all of our vendors have been sourced from in and around Baltimore -- as is our church as well as reception hall.

As I continue on my journey toward marriage, there are still a few loose ends to tie up.  The date is set for spring 2012, and the time seems to pass more quickly every day.  My fiance and I were engaged on December 11, 2010 (12/11/10 -- easy to remember!).  Both of us are “planners” and immediately began to compile extensive documentation, filing systems, spreadsheets, photographs, websites, magazine articles, all depicting what we wanted our perfect day to look like.

Your first thought is likely, “What guy takes such an active role?”  Or, perhaps, “I wish my husband/fiance would have helped out more!”  Or, maybe, “Guy, you need to chill a bit.”  Whatever your thoughts, I began modeling different scenarios regarding what we could afford and if we wanted the wedding to be where we live or where he parents live (which is most proper?).  Needless to say, I got into it.

We have been lucky up until this point, but things have started to get bumpy.  Our wedding cake vendor went out of business.  I will not name names here, but we did not find out through a timely notification.  Instead, we had recommended the baker to a friend, and she told us she could not book a tasting as the shop would be closing.  We called, and received an answering machine.  After several messages, came several emails.  With no response, we called our photographer who was very helpful in putting us in touch with the owner.

In the meantime, we are re-starting our search for the perfect wedding cake.  Our previous search had been pretty short, and we were confident we had secured the “cake of our dreams.”  From a guy’s perspective, I thought this would be the greatest part of the wedding planning -- I mean, who doesn’t want to eat cake?!  On several occasions we have visited multiple cake vendors in a day, to the point where we want to cry out, “No more!”

I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around all of the decisions we need to make (again): square or round; how many layers; type of frosting; type of cake; how many flavors; flower on top; decorations on the cake; additional sheet cakes; cost; etc.  Then, went it comes to a vendor: do you want a full-service bakery (what we did before) or a full-time cake-only baker.  And an additional wrinkle: my finance purchased a cake stand (she is a collector) on which to display our cake.  The stand is very ornate and, as a result, can only accommodate a very small cake, necessitating our needing to purchase a sheet cake in addition to our wedding cake, should we decide to utilize it.

It has gotten very mind boggling, but we have likely decided to proceed with a full-time cake-only baker (still not 100% sold).  Further, we really enjoy raspberry and chocolate fillings, a plain vanilla cake, and American butter cream frosting.  We’ve decided that we’re likely to forgo using the cake stand in a effort to get a more full-size cake.  Finally, we also are having vines wrapped around the cake and a flower placed on top by the florist.  

I think we have checked the box on this one, but we still have a lot to do in the next four months!