Sweet Memories Wedding Cake

Cake: Sweet Memories Bakery, Apex, NC. The cake was extremely tasty and Sweet Memories did a good job of working with the flowers that we brought them to decorate it.

(We had two bakers go out of business on us before, and we probably tasted 10 bakers in the Triangle area, so we were extremely happy that things worked out with Sweet Memories).

Many people mentioned to us that the taste of the wedding cake seems to be last priority at many weddings these days, but that the cake from Sweet Memories was as delicious as it was beautiful! They use real butter in their buttercream, not shortening (yuck) like a lot of bakers do around here. All real, fresh, ingredients and the cake was genuinely moist and not dry. We had a different flavor for each layer and they were all wonderful.

I first discussed this under the heading: “Brides Do Not Control the Heavens.”

Whenever a bride calls to hire us for an outdoor wedding,
one of my first questions is:
“What Is Your Rain Plan??”
So this is a common bride’s response:
“IT’S NOT GOING TO RAIN!”
OK, I say that’s not a rain plan.

Yes, it seems wasteful to have full tent cover if you’re having an outdoor wedding, which are otherwise very economical. Yes, tents are expensive. Yes, gorgeous tiny historic inns and houses are wonderful places to have outdoor weddings IF IT DOESN’T RAIN. But outdoor weddings can also be ruined…

… by intense heat – I played at one where the bride FAINTED AND FELL DOWN IN THE SAND and a friend’s contradance band played one in a tobacco barn in August where it was so hot – and odorous from the tobacco fumes – that several people got queasy and had to leave…

… by cold – imagine ladies shivering in their lovely wedding dresses and having to borrow the gents’ jackets INCLUDING the bride in her strapless wedding gown! …

… by wind – some friends were playing jazz outdoors when high winds knocked over a tent pole that was moored in a heavy piece of concrete and sent it smashing down on the pianist’s piano, narrowly missing his head…

I haven’t yet played a wedding ruined by unexpected snow or hail (I live in Chapel Hill North Carolina, after all!) but it’s not inconceivable.

Here’s my diary post from an outdoor wedding.

The weather was cold, grey, drizzly. Even in a long sleeve shirt and sweater I was cold – imagine how shivery were the bride, wearing one of those strapless wedding dresses so popular this season, and her bridesmaids, wearing thin flouncy maroon chiffon dresses with spaghetti straps (out from under several of which could be seen large, garish tattoos featuring, on one bridesmaid, bold multicolored patches floweringly blazoned CARPE on one shoulder-blade and DIEM on the other).

So everybody was late, late, late getting on site – probably hoping the weather was going to turn. So Jim and I were sitting in a light drizzle, the legs of our chairs sinking a little into the mud, playing for the few hardy souls willing to sit on damp and clammy chairs.

The huddled assemblage’s few desultory conversations were punctuated by anxious looks up into the sky.

We’ve been hired for a wedding at Duke Gardens in Durham NC. The Sarah P. Duke gardens do a rollicking business in weddings – they have a nice building (which my daughter will be married in this June) and they also have many BEAUTIFUL spots in the garden, a pergola for instance, which overlooks a lovely pool, where they book weddings in and out in 2-3 hour slots all day long. The problem is, the pergola and the other outdoor spots do not have any cover in case of rain.

Here are some comments people left on that blog post. The last one has a really good solution to this problem!:

You brought a date to the wedding.
Add $75.00
You were invited to bring a date but couldn’t find one.
Add $25.00
You were not invited to bring a date.
Subtract $25.00
You were not invited to bring a date but brought one anyway.
Add $5.00

Wedding fan for souvenir

We visited some small non-airconditioned churches (in fact some did not have indoor plumbing, they had instead a “Men’s Trail” and a “Lady’s Trail”). Many of the parishioners were vigorously operating personal fans with Jesus on them. (Some had ads for funeral homes on them, savvy advertising considering the average age of those in attendance.)

I’d never seen such a thing but I certainly wished *I* had one too…

So I was pretty thrilled when we showed up to play at a wedding way out in the country, in a tent out under the blistering June sun, and were handed these! Of course, you can’t hold a fan and play the fiddle at the same time, but I liked this wedding souvenir so much I’ve kept it for nine years.

Paddle fan, reverse side

There are many sources on line, here are some examples (I haven’t dealt with them, so not recommendations):
Inkhead.com
U.S. Imprints.com
Hand Fan Factory
Hand Fans Direct

Some will do a minimum as low as 130. Some will do full-color as part of the base price, but at some places you pay extra set-up etc. for each separate color (these places are obviously using real printing presses rather than ink-jet printers). Watch out for the weight of the stock – I would say 16 point is a minimum and more is better.

The fan I pictured here is laminated. I’m not sure who does that. Anyway, I’ve seen these fans at a few more weddings and think they’re a great idea.

It's the thought that counts: bridal shower coffee mug favors

It occurs to me that a fun parlor game for your bridal shower would be the “Yankee Auction.” As this was explained to me (by a dear friend from Maine), it works like this:

• There are a bunch of fabulous gifts like these and the ones in the previous post, all laid out to be admired and compared.

• Everybody picks a number out of a hat.
• The person who draws number one picks their favorite present.
• Number two now has two choices: she can choose among the presents remaining on the table – OR, she can TAKE AWAY Number one’s present!
• Number three can do the same thing. And you can go around and around until…

Actually, I forget how it ends. Anybody?

Bridal party favors: coffee mugs from the Goodwill