Wedding Cakes

Gone are the days when a wedding cake was always white with very little decoration and a plastic bride and groom on top. Today, you can just about decorate your cake any way you want. Weddings are becoming more and more personalized, so why not do it with your cake, too?

You can personalize your wedding cake by taking a particular element of the wedding décor and design the cake around that theme. Bakers can decorate cakes with the look of embroidery, lace, appliqué or elegant drapes or swags. Think Martha Stewart style. :-)

Many brides will use the lace or detailing from their wedding gown as a design for their wedding cake. Bring in a picture of your gown and talk to your baker to incorporate the lace or pearl beading detail into the cake. Keep in mind, however, the more detail you have, the more expensive the cake.

Here are some other ideas:

• Have a wedding cake with an unusual shape, such as, a wedding cake that resembles a stack of presents. This is a fun cake, and generally has two or more square layers, is heavily decorated and tied with a bow.

• Get sentimental! Copy or use the cake top your grandparents or parents used at their wedding.

• Have your monogram intertwined in icing on your cake as decoration.

• A never-fail simple, yet elegant decoration is using fresh flowers. Some favorites include roses, carnations and pansies. These flowers can be made into cascade designs or other styles. For a simply stunning look, have one single, perfect bloom on your cake, such as a lily or orchid. Using fresh flowers to decorate your cake looks great and does not need to cost a fortune.

So go ahead - have your cake and eat it, too.

The photos above are from Martha Stewart Weddings, fall issue.

WEDDING GIFTS

Have you received a damaged wedding gift and don’t know what to do or how to handle it? Well, here are some tips for you as well as information about exchanging gifts.

Damaged gifts - If the store name is indicated on the box or some other way, notify the store where it came from and ask them what their policy is for handling damaged merchandise. If you know that the gift was insured, you should notify the sender of its condition. If you do not know the store from where the gift was purchased nor whether it was insured or not, it should be assumed that the sender sent the gift in perfect condition and probably got damaged through the shipping process. Unless the sender asks about it, unfortunately, you will have to assume the loss yourself.

Exchanging gifts - If you would like to exchange a gift because it was a duplicate or want to exchange it for something more useful, then by all means, do so. However, a gift from a close friend or relative should never be exchanged without informing them first and asking permission to do so. It is also in poor taste if you exchange a gift for a cash refund.

Photo Image Cookies

How cool are these? What a great idea as a favor for your wedding guests. You could have your engagement photo on the cookies or have a variety of photos of you, your groom and both of you together.

Mrs. Beasley’s photo image cookies will take any photo, image or logo and scan it onto an edible high-quality iced Shortbread cookie. The cookies are printed with an edible food coloring sugar paper that is glazed onto a vanilla iced cookie.

You can get the cookies in one of three different shapes: rectangle, circle or heart. The image lasts approximately four to five weeks before fading and are edible up to three months. The price is only $3.50 per dozen and includes 4-color processing and individual packaging. You can add some embellishments for a little extra cost.

If you are planning an anniversary party for your parents, you can have their wedding photo scanned on these cookies. The ideas are limitless. Man, I’m getting hungry for some cookies. I'm off to the kitchen.

Great Tips for Your Rehearsal Dinner

My clients often ask me, "Who do I have to invite to the rehearsal dinner?" Since this question, as well as others, come up pretty regularly, I thought I would write my tips on the blog on how to have a great rehearsal dinner and who should get invited.

Traditionally, the Groom’s family is responsible for planning and paying for the rehearsal dinner. Sometimes, they have no idea what should happen at the rehearsal dinner. The following ideas should keep your rehearsal dinner lively, interesting and running smoothly.

The rehearsal dinner should be fun and upbeat. It can be casual and festive. Keep the décor understated, as you do not want to upstage the wedding day.

You want to create an ambiance that is favorable to lots of toasts and well wishing. The groom’s father may want to start things off with a toast to the bride and her family. Then the Best Man can toast the bride and groom. Next, the groom may want to offer a toast to his bride and her family. These toasts do not necessarily have to be serious. They can include a funny story or anecdote. Most important, try to make it an early night so everyone will get enough rest for the wedding day. You may want to use this time to thank your parents and future parents-in-law and propose a toast to say "thank you" for all their love, support and help for a wonderful wedding!

You can also use the rehearsal dinner as a place to give your attendants, parents, etc. their thank-you gifts, if you did not have a separate groom’s dinner or bridesmaid’s luncheon.

As you plan the menu, avoid serving any of the main dishes that will be served at the wedding. The rehearsal dinner is also a nice time to have a Groom’s Cake. You could honor your man by surprising him with his favorite cake designed to match his personality, hobby or favorite sport. You could also choose to show a video montage with baby pictures, pictures of each of you at different ages, and ya'll enjoying the beach, zoo, park, or whatever you enjoy doing together.

Keep the dinner low-key – this will help conserve energy for the next day. You also don’t want to upstage the bride by having something more extravagant than what is planned for the wedding reception.

You may want to consider assigning seats. This way you can balance the energy of the room, encourage guests to meet new family and friends and avoid any embarrassing situations that could arise when family members who don’t get along well are seated near each other.

As referred to above, family members from both sides may not have met before the rehearsal dinner so it’s a good idea to introduce everyone at the dinner, if they were not at the rehearsal. You can do this formally by "going around the table" or informally by "mixing and mingling." A nice idea would be for the bride and groom to make the introductions and say something personal about each person.

Even though it is not a requirement, it may be a good idea and a nice gesture to send out invitations to the rehearsal dinner. The invitation should include where and when the rehearsal will take place as well as where and when the rehearsal dinner will take place. Type of dress and directions to the dinner should also be included. If you do decide to send invitations, they should be less formal than your wedding invitations.

Finally, who should be invited? The “must haves” to invite are those individuals who are part of the wedding ceremony. Spouses and/or fiancées of all adult attendants should be invited. The ring bearer and flower girl should be invited along with their parents. Parents and grandparents of the bride and groom should be invited as well as the Officiant and his spouse. If your budget and site space allows, it is a nice gesture to invite special friends who have traveled to the wedding from out of town. You may want to ask local guests to provide transportation for the out-of-towners.

Happy rehearsing and enjoying a great dinner afterwards.

How do I change my name…

…let me count the ways. One! That’s right. You only need one way to change your name after you are married. There’s a great name change service called missnowmrs.com. They will help you through all the paperwork, forms, etc. that you need in order to change your name. For a small fee, they will provide all the forms you need to simplify the process of changing your name as well as filling out the forms for you, if requested. Go to their Web site at www.missnowmrs.com and check them out. You will see how simple it really is.

A New Trend

In September, a friend of mine sent me an article published in the New York Times entitled, “Will You Marry Me? Say Cheese!” by Kathryn Shattuck. What does that mean, you may ask? Well, with the advancement of technology and such Web sites as MySpace and Facebook where people post pictures of themselves all the time, why shouldn’t you document the most important event of your life and share it with others? Yes, I mean having pictures taken of your actual marriage proposal.

Anna Post, author of “Emily Post’s Wedding Parties,” says, “The trend is on the rise to have all the moments documented in your life.” She further states that she finds the idea of photographically preserving a marriage proposal “wonderfully romantic.”

My husband “sort of” did this, albeit not with photography, but he did record the proposal on cassette tape, unbeknownst to me at the time. It was a great way to preserve and document his marriage proposal. He had pre-recorded music that we listened to as we walked around on Federal Hill in Baltimore, MD. When he knew the last song was playing, we sat down on a bench overlooking the Inner Harbor. When the song finished, he distracted me somehow and quietly turned on the record button on the tape player and proceeded with his proposal. Afterwards, on the car trip home, he suggested playing the cassette to “hear the songs again.” When the last song finished and I started hearing his voice of what he had just finished saying, I was so surprised, shocked and ecstatic that he had thought of recording it so we could always listen to it. It was a great way to document the proposal and have it forever. We did take pictures prior to the proposal, but he never thought of having a photographer hiding behind a bush to take pictures. However, that seems to be the current trend.

With the onslaught of photojournalism type of wedding photography today, it just seems natural to also take pictures of the actual proposal that begins to tell the story.

With that being said, however, the groom better know his bride really well and know whether she would go for this kind of thing for such a private, intimate moment. She may not be the type who wants that special moment photographed and witnessed by someone hiding in the bushes. In the New York Times article, one bride said, “I thought it was a little stalkerish to know that this person was following you to get these great pictures,” said Briana King, of the secret photo session in December 2004 that Christopher Joralemon, now her husband, arranged with Gruber Photographers. A crew armed with telephoto lenses and dressed like tourists trailed the couple, who were on a stroll through Central Park — ostensibly to attend a holiday brunch — where they’d met at a dog run seven months earlier. “But the end product was good,” Ms. King said. “It was a little weird but definitely worth it.”

Having a photographer following you around like paparazzi might be a little scary or unsettling, but the pictures will be worth a “thousand words” and something you will never be able to recreate.

Don't Forget...

...to turn your clocks back one hour this weekend - officially at 2am on Sunday, November 4. You really want to make sure you have done this prior to going to bed after your wedding Saturday night. You don't want to arrive too early for your flight and you'll probably need and want that extra hour of sleep after dancing all night.