Budget Review: Food, Cake & Favors

Catering

Down South Delights

Contact: Rita Rowland

{photo courtesy of DSD - thank you, Rita!}

What We Got

Six hors 'd oeuvres on beautiful serving dishes; choice of two beverages; all cutlery, plates & napkins; back of house staff & complimentary cake cutting

$2100

Deposit

{required to book your date & applied to your balance}

$100

Total Cost: $2100*
 *This total does not include gratuity
______________________________

 Alcohol

There wasn't any! We had a dry reception. It was a personal choice based on the budget, proclivities of our family & friends and the shortness of the reception itself.

 Total Cost: $0.00
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Cake

Hermitage Bakery

{another photo courtesy of DSD}

What We Got
3 tier wedding cake with cream cheese butter cream icing
{two traditional white tiers and one chocolate; 
included ribbon decoration}

$167 (plus tax)

Delivery
{Our wedding was on a Sunday, thus additional charge on delivery}

$50

Cake Accessories
Cake stand, monogram cake topper and cake bling
{purchased or made by yours truly}

$48

Total Cost: $289.51
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Candy Buffet Favors

 {shot before the jars were filled, but it's all I got at the moment - thanks MIL!}

Candy

We purchased way more candy that was used. Thank goodness our coordinator didn't open all of it - smart lady! I returned half of what I purchased to Sam's Club.

(1) 56 oz bags of classic M&MS
(1) 56 oz bags of classic Hershey's Kisses
(1) 44 oz bags of Reese's Pieces
(1) 54 oz bags of original flavor Skittles
(1) 6 lb bags of gummy bears
(1) 290 ct tub of soft peppermints

Accessories & Favor Bags
100 favor bags with hand-stamped "thank you" tags and tiny spoons

 {I did not include the apothecary jars purchased. They've become household decor or sold.}

Total Cost: $70.62 
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Total Food, Cake & Favor Costs: $2850.13

DIY: Rhinestone Embellished Monogram Cake Topper

I'm so excited to post my first DIY project for our wedding (the photo book so doesn't count). After deciding to use a monogram on our invitations, I wanted to incorporate an initial on to our cake. It's a plain ivory round cake with a champagne colored satin ribbon around the bottoms of the tiers. We'll stick this little guy on top, surround him with flowers and ta-da! This project was super duper easy.

Before I get started, I'd like to introduce you to our cake plateau. I wasn't thrilled with the limited selection of cake stands at the local rental companies. Hobby Lobby happened to have what I was looking. It's much nicer looking that what I was considering renting and at the price I would have paid to do so.  ( I'll be selling this after our wedding in October, so if you're interested, shoot me an email!)

 Okay, here we go!

Supplies: 


• 4" inch mirror cake topper
• Various sizes of Swarovski crystals
• Toothpicks
• Tweezers
• Tracing paper and pencil (optional)
• GEM-TAC

Total Project Cost: $24.65

Step 1: Trace your initial onto the paper. You can use this to lay out the look of your crystals before get started (first image below). I found that just laying them on the mirrored B and then snapping a pictured worked better for me (second image below). I simply referenced the pictures later. 

Step 2: Pick a starting point and start gluing rhinestones down carefully with a toothpick. You'll need the tweezers to pick them up and a toothpick to add the glue to the bottoms. A little glue goes a long way. I also used a second toothpick to push them down onto the mirror.

Step 3: This one is important. I only glued down a few rhinestones at a time, then I left them. They dried, I picked the extra glue away and glued down some more. I left those. I repeated this process over the period of a week until I was satisfied with the result. I actually did pick a few off and move them around and this method allowed for that. If you glue them all at once, you'll have a more difficult time moving rhinestones if you see that it's necessary. Granted, you don't have to pick the glue off like I did because it dries clear, but I'm totally anal.

That's pretty much it, folks. It's kinda hard to show how shimmery it is in the photos. If you're on super tight budget, you might consider cutting your initial out of card board in the color of your rhinestones and then using a paper glue to adhere them. Just remember to create a pick so that you can stick it in the cake.

Because I chose to selectively scatter the crystals, I bought fewer rhinestones and saved some cash. Before I got started, I decided to anchor my "design" with larger rhinestones I bought at Joann's for a buck. I used five of them. I surrounded each with the three expensive sizes of swarvoski crystals.

I ordered our "B" from The Knot's wedding shop. It was on sale and I found a $5 coupon on Retail Me Not, making the topper a whopping $0.99. However, the shipping was outrageous. I also tried several different types of glue and in the end, Gem-Tac is your best bet. It dries clear and you can "pick" away the remainder. I picked it up with a Joann's coupon for half what I paid for the glue on Artbeads.com.

I purchased the Swarovski crystals on Artbeads.com. They have good prices and free shipping. I even have some (appx 15) left over that I'm thinking of gluing to my veil. I purchased the XILION Rose style in Crystal: (30) - SS12s, (60) - SS16s and (25) - SS20s. Unless you are infinitely patient, I don't suggest the SS12s. They were so small and a pain in the ass to keep on the tweezers. The other two sizes are great and if you're looking for a third size, go up one from SS20. Obviously, you will need lots more if you're planning to fully embellish your initial, but considering that these things sell for $50 to $150, I'm quite happy with it. 

8 Months and Counting *OR* Why Do I Feel Like I'm Forgetting Something?

 {Toppers With Glitz}

I think we've reached it: the proverbial "boring" time during the wedding planning process where all the big stuff is done, it's too soon to move on to the next stuff and I feel like I have all the time in the world for DIY projects ... except the unfinished details are bugging the crap out of me.

Eight more months. Eight seems like a long time, but the fact that we've been engaged since last April puts it in perspective. We've accomplished so much in 10 months that I am really beginning to feel like I've forgotten something. Here's what's been happening lately ...

Bridesmaid's dresses, tux shopping, wedding band shopping and gift registry are all being pushed until May-ish. There is simply too much going on with my family and with Big Spoon's job to justify adding to people's stress when these things will get done eventually.

I've more or less finished designing our invitations. I even purchased the envelopes today at Paper Plus in Downtown Nashville. Am I crazy to want to print, trim, embellish and mount these little guys already? I still have all this other paper stuff to design to and I swear to you, I lay awake at night and critique my designs. Over and over and over. I'm constantly talking myself into "it doesn't matter, it's an invitation." ::Sigh::

It occurred to me over the weekend that the lovely little $2 cake topper my mom bought for right after we were engaged (when I was going balls-out "vintage". Yeah right) is white. Our cake is ivory. Oops. So, naturally, I decided to do the thing I've secretly wanted to do the whole time: monogram cake topper! Cliché? Maybe. But I've decided that a) I don't care what people think b) this isn't a beauty pageant or popularity contest, it's our wedding and c) We'll put some flowers around it. It will be fab.

It gets better. Although I loathe the Knot.com, on a night of steroid-induced insomnia, I was browsing the "wedding coupon" section of retailmenot.com (with monogram on the brain) and discovered that they were having a sale. Their plain jane mirrored monogram cake toppers were $5.99 and I also found this handy $5 off coupon, so I bought it. Unfortunately, the shipping was ridiculous, but in total, I paid $10 something for it. I'm going to embellish it myself.

All these little details and "to-do" things are swirling around in my brain and making me nuts. I keep writing lists over and over of the DIY projects I want to do and I'm afraid I won't get them done if I don't do them now, in order of importance, wearing a tutu and simultaneously folding laundry, ahhhhhhhh!

Have I officially moved to Crazyville?


*Oh yeah. I just remembered the thing I was forgetting ... we don't have an officiant! I'll post about that later because it's a long story.

Hermitage Bakery

Big Spoon and I had a cake tasting at Hermitage Bakery today during which we reserved our date and discussed our wedding cake.

I drive by the bakery every morning on my way to work and it was a matter of calling and asking for a price late last year. After we decided to go this route, I realized that part of my problem with the exorbitant prices some vendors charge for wedding cakes is due to the fact that I just want a plain cake. No fondant (um, ew!), no fancy-smancy decorations - plain ivory cake.

The "look" for our wedding cake is based on this picture. It will be a three-tier, ivory cream cheese frosted cake with a cream/gold ribbon. The top and bottom tiers will be traditional white wedding cake, the middle tier will be chocolate.

They are very easy to work with and have reasonable delivery rates, although we have opted to pick ours up the day of rehearsal because we have run of the reception hall and kitchen. That saved us $50! Also, we lucked out by scheduling our consultation today because, although they have not changed their prices in 14 years, they are in fact about to change their prices.


Needless to say, it's exciting to have another check on the planning list and enjoy the delicious cake samples we brought back with us.

The Great Cake Debate

My last post about cake involved a faux cake DIY project. In thinking about all of the DIY projects that I have planned for the next 12 months, some of them had to go away - this one in particular.

My ideas about wedding cake and its importance to our wedding vision has been a hot topic of conversation since our engagement trip. Big Spoon and I both agree that it is not a high priority: its just cake. People eat it (and usually not all of it). How disappointing to purchase a $400 cake and half of it go to waste! However, I've had some reservations (and fear of regret) about not having a "real" wedding cake.

I decided to call around for prices on my lunch break Friday afternoon and found a bakery close by that seems promising. During our weekly "wedding talk" on Saturday, I discussed with Big Spoon that in the way of stress and time, it makes sense for us to consider adjusting this category. We discussed logistics of each plan and prices. I proposed that although the former plan is budget savvy, it's not stress-savvy.

After talking, we decided to visit the bakery and ask a few questions. We both left feeling confident that this decision is close to being final. And if felt great! There has been something nagging me about it forever - and suddenly, that feeling was gone. I felt like another piece of our planning puzzle fell in to place.

Learning As I Go

I've been checking on prices of styrofoam at local craft storesfor the faux cake DIY ... and I have to tell ya, I'm probably better off going to a bakery and ordering a cake with delivery. To make the faux cake stack properly, I'm going to need several pieces in two sizes ... and even with a store coupon, the task seems daunting (and expensive).

However, I have located "cake-dummies" online that are much more affordable. This must be what the cake bakeries use to create their mock-ups. Since I have a recipe for royal icing, I should be good to go. Those Michaels and Joanns coupons will come in handy for for other things, I'm sure.

DIY Wedding Cake

Big Spoon and I agree that cake isn't necessarily our thing. However non-traditional our wedding might be in some respects, I still love the idea of cutting a lovely wedding cake. After some thought, we decided that it wasn't a priority to spend $200 + dollars on a wedding cake, but still want to have the traditional cake-cutting ceremony.

My grandmother has agreed to bake us her delicious from-scratch coconut cake for the purpose of cutting. This means a great deal more to me than going through a bakery. It means a great deal to me to stay within our budget as well as have many DIY projects.

This week, I remembered a blog post I had seen a few months ago about "faux" wedding cakes. When I saw it, I thought "how silly." We have made the decision to cut Granny's cake and serve matching (not sub-par) sheet cake for a fraction of the cost of a towering, traditional wedding cake. However, I keep second-guessing myself.

"Faux" wedding cake might be the answer I've been looking for. I can create this "dummy" months in advance, if I so choose. I can customize it to fit and coordinate with the "real" tier we will be cutting. I can't think of a better compromise both aesthetically and financially.

Cake Topper

We have $40 budgeted for a cake topper (whether purchased or handmade). Luckily, my mom found this beautiful Martha Stewart cake topper at Big Lots for $2.00! ::happy dance::

We are going to dress-up the birds a bit (tuxedo bow and veil ... maybe?) and it will look awesome on top of my granny's coconut cake that she is making as our wedding cake! Yipee!

Super Easy Grooms Cake

The "groom's cake", which is typically chocolate or "themed" is a Southern tradition. Since we are not doing a big, traditional wedding cake, I thought it might be nice to have a chocolate option anyway.

These cakes are from {Publix's Decadent Desserts} section. Why pay $100 for a "grooms cake" when a specialty desert from this great grocer is $18.99-$20.99?

I think these look great!

DIY, Oh My!

My mama always said "if you want something done right, do it yourself." I'd like to modify it for the purposes of my wedding: "if you want something done right, affordably and have the time, then do it yourself."

These are the DIY projects I anticipate completing for our wedding:

• all planning (hoping to recruit a day-of-coordinator)

• invitations, save-the-dates, lined envelopes, programs, table numbers, place cards

• wedding favors

• my veil

• boutonnieres

• bouquets and centerpieces

• petal toss cones

• farewell bells

• cake topper (possibly)

• a cake stand

• keepsake handkerchiefs (if there is time left)

Top Row (Left to Right): monogrammed handkerchief via {the lace shop}/ wedding bells via {one wed}/ birdcage veil via {Bird Cage Veils}/ cake stands via {Macy's}/ceremony signs via {funkifolkart on Etsy}/wedding boutonniere via {myrakim on Etsy}/petal cones via {Wedding Bee}/wedding cake topper via {laurenalane}

Let Them Eat ... Candy!

I suppose this post is out of order and I should still be writing about our engagement trip and the like, but this story is just too good to not write about now. It is the first of many things I hope will "fall into place" as we plan our wedding day together.

While sitting in a Baskin Robbins in New York City (our first night there), sharing a dessert, the topic of wedding cakes came up. Says I, "Big Spoon, do we even like cake that much?" Says he, "well, not really." The idea of cake tastings and cake haggling doesn't really thrill either of us. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty positive there isn't a bakery out there that can make a cake as good as my Granny.

We like candy. A lot. We don't have to have cake, but we like the cake cutting tradition. However, we don't like wedding cake prices (yes, I know they are labor-intensive works of art. I still don't like the prices).

The compromise: the increasingly popular candy bar. I'm hoping to borrow glass and crystal jars, buy a few or (register for them) and buy "little spoons" to dip out the candy! I am also going to talk to my Granny about making one of her delicious from-scratch cakes a few days before the wedding. We'll chill them and still have a cake cutting.

We both agree that this is something that speaks to both of our personalities and asking for family participation makes the cake cutting tradition that much sweeter.

I found some good Candy Buffet advice via {this blog}. Which tells me I won't like candy prices either. Well, I'd rather spend $500 on candy than cake, but that's just me.

Thrifty Find: Cake Stand

I found a cake stand! My $2.99 Goodwill purchase is a "vintage" wooden stand for a 9"-10" cake. I plan to refinish it and paint it either black or white. (Pictures to follow!)

My cake vision consists of four separate, round, white cake tiers, simply - if at all - decorated. I like the idea of fresh flowers on top of each. Since the tiers will remain separate, I need four cake stands for display purposes.

Wedding cakes can be true works of art - both beautiful and delicious. However, I wouldn't hang a wedding cake on my wall. You eat it. Luckily, Big Spoon and I agree that a good wedding cake doesn't necessarily have to be outrageously expensive.

Have suggestions for Nashville-are bakeries? I'd love feedback :)