This is Delicious Cake

Wedding cakes these days range from classic and beautiful, crazy and fun, and everywhere in between.  Personally, I like both ends of the scale, but for my wedding, I'm aiming more for a beautiful cake.  I love the drama of a tiered cake, but not the cost.  Even supermarket cakes can cost a lot, and those taste vaguely like overly sweet cardboard.

So easy, anybody could do it.

I love baking.  I'd like to think I'm pretty good at making cakes, cookies, and other sweets that are delicious.  I've even worked in a bakery (albeit a supermarket bakery).  However, my work at that supermarket taught me just enough to know that I can't decorate cakes worth anything.  I'm sure I could get better with practice, but I'm going to take a simpler, more foolproof method.

More Drink Ideas!

Did I say Monday?  I meant Wednesday.  Conventions are exhausting!  But it's alright, because I'm back again with another fantastic drink idea (or two) for the wedding.  Both of these come in a variety of flavors, are fun, and feel really special while being more budget friendly than alcohol is!

Both my fiance and I LOVE Italian sodas, so we know it would be a lot of fun to have at the wedding.  We just buy several bottles of syrup and lots of seltzer water.  And you get to watch as people have fun making their own sodas, mixing up all night and enjoying their interactive drinks.  Plus, it gives us something bubbly to toast with, which is always nice.  It could get a little pricey, depending on how many different syrups we get, but I think if we stick to about 5-6 options, we should be alright.

Epiphany

An epiphany, for anybody who might not know, is a sudden realization or comprehension of something.  I just had one a few minutes ago, regarding my catering.  I mentioned last week that Joshua and I have a friend who owns a Japanese restaurant, and how he has already made a generous offer to provide sushi for our guests.  But I realized today that I was thinking about spending about $5-$10 per person on catering, and that the food at Sakura falls within that price range.

I won't be asking them to cut us a deal, or anything like that.  But we love this restaurant, we love their food, and we love these people.  There is absolutely no reason we SHOULDN'T ask Jun and Janice if they could cater.  We have to make it clear that we want to pay them for their services, of course, but I can't think of anybody I would RATHER pay for food.

Wash It Down

While eating all that delicious food, you need a great way to wash it all down, right?  The typical wedding reaches for alcohol at this point.  However, between religious family members who don't drink, family and friends who seldom drink and could do without, and a few folks who are probably better off NOT drinking, I'd rather omit the spirits from our reception.  And besides, if I wind up having my wedding at a state park, I cannot legally serve alcohol without paying some pretty hefty fees.

But just because I don't have alcohol doesn't mean my guests can't be happily quenched.  I'll probably have a nice variety of non alcoholic beverages, including a signature punch, much like the signature drink other weddings also have.  I'll have to play around, but when I come up with a recipe, I'll be sure to share.  But it's worth noting that I love the look of orange slices floating in a punch bowl, so I'll probably use that.

Om Nom Nom Nom

Well, I have to admit, one of the most important things to me for my wedding is the food.  But the problem is that I don't have the money to splurge on a good caterer.  Heck, a good caterer could cost my entire budget twice over.  So while I'd love for this to be my 'splurge' item, instead, it's 'that thing I might pay to have done professionally.'

High end catering is completely out of the question, no matter how I look at it.  Heck, even lower end catering often charges $20 a person, which for 50 folks, is $1000.  And with the other things I have to pay for, that's just too much, unfortunately.  Besides, a lot of that catering is either down home Southern classics, or barbecue.  Not that there's anything wrong with a good barbecue, but I personally prefer something a little bit more special.