My wedding cake

Though I'm getting better with my baking, I did not bake this cake. My gorgeous wedding cake was made by Scrumptions in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. The cake is designed after one I saw in Grace Ormonde Wedding Style (incidentally published in my hometown) in their Fall/Winter 2006 magazine. I loved the way the cake looked and knew it would be perfect for my wedding. Once I saw it, I had to have that cake and I didn't care what it would cost!

The cake in the magazine was actually covered in black rolled fondant with pink icing detail. I knew I wanted mine to be chocolate ganache finish instead--tastes much better than rolled fondant, and it matched my color scheme. I called a few bakeries in RI to see who would do the poured ganache. The bakery my sister used for her cake, Fatulli's, couldn't do it, and neither could my caterer. I had seen many advertisements for Scrumptions and figured they would be able to do it. I called and they could!

D and I met with Anna at Scrumptions in December 2006. My goal was to see what they had to offer, and the price, and then go try some cakes at other places too (because who doesn't love tasting cake). Well, after sitting down with Anna and seeing and tasting what they had to offer, I knew I didn't need to try another bakery!

We showed Anna the picture from the magazine and asked her what she thought about doing it in ganache. She loved the idea. Once we had settled that she could do it, we were on to the tasting. For the tasting, she brought us a plate with 6 or 7 different kinds of cake (I remember there was vanilla, lemon, carrot, spice, chocolate, and almond), plus 6 or 7 different icings and fillings (vanilla buttercream, chocolate buttercream, cream cheese, German chocolate, lemon curd, chocolate ganache, and raspberry). D and I had a blast putting all of the different flavors together. I knew I wanted the chocolate ganache finish, so we had to narrow down our choices to fit with that. That meant vanilla, almond, or chocolate cake. And for the filling I was leaning heavily toward raspberry, which D liked too. D suggested lemon cake with raspberry filling and chocolate ganache, but Anna and I talked him out of that. We settled on vanilla cake with raspberry filling, chocolate buttercream icing, and poured chocolate ganache finish! Here's what the inside of the cake looked like after we cut our first piece!

Then we worked with Anna to figure out the size. At that point we were working with a guest list of 164, so we thought 150 servings would be the max we would need (though our budget was based on 125 guests). We could have the caterer cut and serve the top at the reception since Scrumptions bakes you a new top for your 1st anniversary (included in the price of the wedding cake). We settled on a 6" tier, and 8" tier, and a 10" tier with an extra 10" tier to be cut (but not displayed as part of the cake). I was expecting for the price to break our budget, but it wasn't that high. Yes, it was a lot for a cake, but I knew I wanted that cake so I was willing to compromise other areas to fit it in the budget.

The cake turned out beautifully and I received lots of compliments on it based on the way it look. Then people tasted it and the compliments really took off! There were no extra pieces of cake lying on tables at the end of the reception--every slice was eaten! It was so rich and delicious! And, because we only ended up with 125 guests, the caterers didn't need to cut the top of the cake afterall. We were able to enjoy some of that the day after the wedding and more when we returned from our honeymoon.

The only thing I wasn't 100% happy with about my cake was the flowers on top. Don't get me wrong, they're beautiful and my florist did a terrific job, but what I really wanted was a single peony or tuberose so it wouldn't overwhelm the design of the cake.

So, if you're looking for a bakery in Rhode Island for a wedding cake (or other special occasion cake), I very highly recommend Scrumptions. Incidentally, if you're looking for a special occasion cake in the Boston area, I recommend Party Favors in Brookline--their buttercream icing is to die for (and they decorate beautifully). Rosie's Bakery is also very good.

Photographs in this post are by Krzystyna Harber Photography. She's fabulous!

A Happy Ending!

This is the continuation of the "wedding gown saga" I wrote about last week. So there I was, 100 days before the big event, with no gown! And, to top it off, my mom was in San Diego so she couldn't help me with shopping, and my sister has 2 little boys so she couldn't really help either. The internet saved the day...with all of my wedding-related internet searches, I remembered that there were a couple of stores in the area that sell designer wedding gowns off the rack.

First I called a store named Designer Bridal Outlet in Wellesley. The woman I spoke to, Joanie, was very sympathetic and made me an appointment for the next day. When I walked into the store I felt comfortable with Joanie right away. She's about the same age as my mom and was dressed in an outfit that was very much like one my mom would wear. Because I'm not a size 8, Joanie started pulling out any gowns that were in (approximately) my size. She pulled out some gowns that were not at all the style I was going for, but she urged me to try them on. It's a good thing, because the gown I decided on was one that I wouldn't have considered, mostly because it was strapless.

I tried on a number of gowns and narrowed it down to 2. Because my mom was in San Diego, Joanie went against the store policies and took a couple of digital photos of me in the gowns so my mom could help me decide. Here's one of the photos she took:
The gown fit like a glove and hugged all of the right curves of my body. I never thought I wanted a chapel train or a full length veil, but this gown definitely made me feel like a princess. This would be my only chance to wear layers of organza, so why not go for it! Plus, was completely unlike that other gown. My mom loved the pictures, so I called Joanie the next day and put down my deposit. Believe it or not, this gown was the same price as the other one, but far more stunning. Here's a close-up of the fabric from my actual wedding day:
And here's what my gown looked like bustled (a French bustle) with the veil bustled too. The bustling and alterations were done by Sienna at Bridal Fashion and Alterations (she's wonderful).

The photo above is by Krzystyna Harber Photography in Providence, RI--Krzystyna a terrific photographer and a joy to work with. D and I loved her from our very first meeting with her. This isn't one of the best of the photos she took, but it shows off the back of my gown (and hides D's face...he's shy about being on my blog).

Over the next few months I'll continue to post memories, reviews, and photos leading up to my wedding last May.

Buyer Beware

D called me yesterday afternoon after he'd had a call from Laura at Bassett. The fabric for our furniture was discontinued. I started having flashbacks to what happened with my wedding gown (which I'll blog about sometime, maybe at the end of this post) ... I had visions of having to go back and come up with a totally different look for the room. As it turns out, only the throw pillow fabric was discontinued. D and I decided to go pick out new fabric last night.

So, I met Laura at the store and she and I went through some different fabric choices--some of which we had considered on Saturday. I was deciding between fabric that was bold had a lot of colors in it (like the original), fabric that had a lot of colors in it but was more subtle, and fabric that had fewer colors but was bold. D helped us make the final decision which is below:

Not as many colors, but really warm and fairly bold. I can tie in more colors with an area rug if I want. And, they're only throw pillows...I can switch them out any time I want (like in summer when I want something more summery).

On to the wedding gown story, since I should blog it for posterity sometime, why not now. The story begins a little less than a year ago. My friend Wendy's baby shower was on a Saturday about 2 weeks after D and I got engaged (the anniversary of which is this weekend). My mom was coming up for the shower so we decided to look at wedding gowns near where Wendy lives. I looked online and came up with one in the area called Chryssies. Mom and I met there and were helped by a really nice lady named Nancy. The bridal shop itself and most of the people there were fairly cheesy, but Nancy was really helpful. After trying on a bunch of dresses, we had her write down the info for one I really liked. Now this is one of those bridal shops where they don't keep the tag in the dress so you have no idea who the designer/manufacturer is, but I went online and searched and searched and I decided that it was Blu by Madeline Gardner and that it was this gown:

I was all about business in the beginning of planning my wedding and I wanted to get all of the big decisions done early, so I went to look at gowns by myself the following weekend. I only liked one, but it was out of my price range. I called my mom and we talked about the gown at Chryssie's and I decided to go there that afternoon and buy it. I called my friend Darci and she met me at the shop. I tried on the gown again, loved it as much as I did the first time, and ordered it. I was told it would arrive in January. Here's a picture that Darci took of me wearing the gown that day and a close up of the fabric (yes, those are sequins and beads, I don't know what I was thinking):
Fast forward to January. The call comes and my gown is in! I make a date with my sister to meet at the store because she hasn't seen my gown (when we ordered the bridesmaid dresses I couldn't try on the sample because it had been sold). We meet at the store and they show me to a dressing room to try on my gown. Well...it wasn't my gown! It was a gown that was ivory with an organza and lace overlay, but it was strapless! I came out and said, "that's not my gown" and the woman in the store said, "let me get George, the owner, and we'll figure this out." George came out and said, "Are you sure this isn't your gown? It matches the number on the order form." I said "I know my gown and this is definitely not it." I was extremely calm. My sister thinks I was in shock because I didn't get angry at all. George tells me that he'll call the manufacturer on Tuesday and then call me back. He wasn't apologetic or anything. I figured the manufacturer just sent the wrong gown by mistake and everything would be fine.

Fast forward to Tuesday. No call from George, so I call the store in the afternoon and ask to talk to him. He's not available, so I end up talking to Nancy, the person who originally helped me. She told me that my gown had been discontinued and that the manufacturer had designed a new similar gown with the same style number and that's what they had shown me when I was in. She said they could do 1 of 4 things for me: I could buy the new gown, I could buy the sample of the original gown for 1/2 price and have them alter it to fit me, I could order any other gown in the store for 20% off, or I could get a refund of my deposit. I was very surprised they mentioned the sample since I had been told in December that it had been sold. I was definitely feeling some dishonesty and dirty bridal shop tactics at this point. I told nancy how upset I was about the whole situation and especially about the way I had been treated in the store when the gown was the wrong one. They should have apologized to me then. Nancy was really apologetic over the phone and I actually felt bad for her because it seemed like she had had this conversation with other brides that the store had pulled this crap on before. (Later I checked the Better Business Bureau website and lo and behold there were claims against Chryssie's regarding their sales practices).

So, there I was 100 days before my wedding without a gown. What's a girl to do? All I can say is thank God for the Internet!!! Stay tuned for the rest of the story (and yes, it has a happy ending) .