Cake Cake Cake Cake.

Anyone who has known me for more than half an hour, or has simply googled my name, knows that I love cake. I really really do. Psychologically, there’s probably some sort of association with the idea of celebrating, parties, and gathering friends together, because you don’t ever really eat cake by yourself. Okay, I’m not saying it hasn’t ever happened, but in general: Cake = good times with good friends.

And what better time is there to celebrate than a wedding? That is precisely why Jason and I wanted our wedding reception to basically be Cake Overload + Dance Party.

Even though it doesn't look like I'm enjoying the cake, I'm partying on the inside.

Jason and I had gone to a wedding several years ago, and they served the same chocolate-buttercream cake on every table, which was an AWESOME idea because:
a) You got an awesome centerpiece right there.
b) You ensure that everyone gets their cake in a timely manner.
c) You can accommodate people who have dietary restrictions (I’m allergic to certain kinds of berries, and I have a lot of friends who are Gluten Free, so I know how important this is)
d) If you go for just your basic, bakery standard decorations, even from an upscale bakery your total cake costs are going to be wayyy down.

Jay and I loved this idea, but we took it one step further. Since there are so many types of incredible cake in the world, why just have one at the wedding? We decided every table at our wedding should be named after each of the different cake flavors.

I designed and made signs for each cake flavor/table name.

A family member suggested Sweetie Pies, an awesome bakery in Napa to us. We went and sampled some cake (you can buy mini-versions of all of their most popular cake flavors, they are adorable), and I think I had some sort of spiritual awakening after I had their cake. Not even over-selling it, it was incredible.

Sweetie Pies’ decorations were really festive, fun and tasteful, so we decided rather than having all the cakes look uniform, we would use the bakery-standard finishes. After all, they really know what they’re doing.

We ordered 12 cakes (we had 10 tables, plus 2 extra cakes for the head table), and at around $40 per 8-inch round cake, we ended up spending less than $500 for our entire cake budget. Most wedding cakes easily cost around $1000, so we felt pretty good about our awesome cake idea. Plus, do you have any idea how much cake twelve 8-inch round cakes is? IT IS A LOT. That was awesome though, because we wanted people to go from table to table and socialize, and try different cakes in case they didn’t like the flavor they were seated at.

The result? People got REALLY into it! People were treating their tables like they were sports teams, or dare I say, Twilight-esque allegiances. Go Team Carrot Cake! No way man, I’m Team Lemon Cake all the way!

We had a good amount of cake to take home, which was also a bonus. The really cool thing though is we can go back next year and buy a mini-cake for our Anniversary. I know, the tradition is you save the top of your cake in your freezer for a year, but you have not seen the inside of my freezer. The poor cake would not survive. Also, I don’t personally think eating frozen year-old cake is super romantic. I think it’s a little icky.

HOORAY FOR CAKE!