Have Your Cake and Eat it Too!

Cake is a huge deal for some brides and there is more and more pressure to have a fantastically original cake which doesn't always come cheap. Here are some creative ways of getting what you want without feeling bad eating the darn thing at the end of the day once you see the bill. You can also take some of these ideas and turn them into fun shower or big birthday party desserts.

1. Sheet Cake: Bakery designed cakes are very expensive ranging from $3-8 per slice, (Duff Goldman I love you and your work but frankly I can't afford a cup cake at Charm City Cakes) many couples are opting for a small bakery cake to put a topper on and cut ceremonially and then having sheet cake from the local grocery store cut in the back and served to guests. Most guests don't know the difference or if they know they really don't care as long as they get a piece.


2. Cup Cakes: These mini confections are becoming more and more popular in the wedding scene. If you are going DIY it is a LOT easier for a friend or family member to bake up cup cakes than it is to pull together a three tiered cake (Don't try to DIY your own cake- you will have plenty to do the days before your wedding besides becoming the next Top Chef). An added benefit to cup cakes is you don't have to cut them. Many venues will charge you a cake cutting fee which can run you about $1 per guest. That can add up as your guest count rises. If you still want a cake to cut add a small one to the top of your cup cake tower.

3. Centerpieces: Try killing two birds with one cake. Brides spend so much money on a beautiful cake to have it shoved in the corner of a banquette hall. They also spend a lot of money on centerpieces that are not functional after the five hour reception. Why not combine the two and have small cakes or small cup cake trees on the center of each table? Smaller cakes are cheaper as they aren't as much work to make or transport from a bakery. You can also mix up the flavors. Encourage your guests to mingle by naming each table after the cake's flavor instead of numbering the tables having a different flavor cake at each table on a simple cake stand. Check out cake stands at Home Goods for $10-15  and ask your local bakery about 8-10 in cakes normally around $12. Taking care of centerpieces and cake for under $30 per table with a creative twist is priceless!

4. Get Creative: Cake is traditional but these days you can eat whatever you want as a wedding dessert. Go with your favorite confection, serve what you had on your first date for dessert, a traditional dessert in honor of your heritage, have a buffet of small pastries/sweet treats, have a candy bar, or a sundae bar.

My favorite cake is ice cream cake so I had the bakery make a fake cake only putting cake in the top tier for cutting. The bottom two tiers were styrofoam covered in frosting (Check in out at the top of this post- Can you believe it isn't real?). The cake is the expensive part if you cut out half the work and trouble for the baker you can get a stellar deal that looks great.  We then picked up Carvel ice cream cake from Price Rite and had the caterer served it up. People were thrilled and loved the ice cream cake on an August night. I ended up spending half my cake budget and got exactly what I wanted!

5. Don't Go Overboard: Some venues will try and talk you into serving dessert AND wedding cake. Frankly this is overkill. If things are going well your guest should be workin' it on the dance floor not finding room for two desserts. Cut costs by only serving wedding cake, no one will slander you on Facebook the next day for not also having bananas foster or creme brulee.

Top Ten Favorite Bargain Stores

In no particular order:

1. Ocean State Job Lot
2. Final Markdown
3. Costco
4. Dollar Tree (Way better than Dollar General)
5. Home Goods/TJ Maxx (Both are owned by the same company so you can find similar products)
6. Christmas Tree Shop
7. Price Rite
8. Michael's Arts & Crafts (with their 40% off coupon)
9. ACMoore
10. WalMart

Above is a simple summer centerpiece I made on the cheap to adorn the cocktail tables at my wedding. I found the jugs at Christmas Tree Shop on clearance for $9 each, and filled them with lemons and limes from Price Rite for aprox $3. All together this centerpiece cost about $12 which is a huge discount compared to traditional centerpieces starting around $60. To change it up a little you could fill the jugs with a signature drink. Slice the lemons and limes and place them in a fun pattern up against the inside of the jug. Just hold the fruit in place with some ice before filling it up with your drink of choice. I also added a little ambiance by placing a few candles in mason jars to each side of this fun centerpiece.

Not Everyone Shops at Kleinfelds

"Say Yes to the Dress" is a favorite TV show of mine to watch but it's not a reality for me or most people I know. Although I love the dresses and some of the show drama I can't stand that the sales people make clients feel bad or ashamed when they have a small budget of $3,000.  News flash $3,000 is a LOT of money!!! and no one should make you feel like you can't get a dress you absolutely love unless you sell your first born child for it.

I love David's Bridal for wedding dresses, they have a huge selection and reasonable prices. David's is always running a sale on top of the great prices. The one issue I have with David's is they can at times have pushy sales women. They might find you a dress within your budget but then try to pile on the extras which are normally not so inexpensive. You may want to spend $500 on a dress but then add the bra ($75),  slip ($60), veil ($150), blusher ($20), and headpiece ($99) and your budget is out the window at an extra $404. My advice is to know your budget and don't get sucked into the little extras even if they can give you 15% off or 20% because of some special promo. 

When you go to your dress appointment come prepared with a good strapless bra (TJ Maxx or Marshalls) and don't buy into the excitement of what your whole wedding day look will look like and NEED all the extras. The sales women told me that it would be hard to shop for my veil online because the color would not match my dress - guess what? I found the veil I LOVED at half the cost of the one I liked at David's Bridal at,

http://www.smartbrideonline.com/

and they had a huge selection of colors to match any dress. (PS veils are shear and if they are just slightly off from your dress color no one will notice as the light goes through it) This site also has inexpensive extras like headpieces.  Smart Bride Online is also a favorite site because of customer service, they personally contacted me when they had a backorder to make sure I have enough time to get me veil before my wedding date or they would refund my money. Inexpensive and good service - love it!

If you are a size 4/6 or 10/12 you might be in luck at sample sales. Once or twice a year bridal salons will run a sample sale to clear their inventory to make room for new dresses. If you fit the sizes of their samples (small salons carry fewer sizes) you can get a deep discount on a very expensive dress.

If you are on a super tight budget try checking out David's outlet dresses most are $99 or less, or www.oncewed.com a web page that sells used or non returnable dresses that brides want to sell cheap. I recommend going to a bridal boutique to try on styles before deciding on a online buy. You want to make sure the style will look good on you not just the model in the picture because returns are not an option when getting such a deep discount.

Once you have your dress you will need alterations. Make sure you shop around, a bridal salon can rip you off as they know you don't know any better. Normally if you ask around you will find friends and family know a great seamstress who has much more reasonable prices. 

Happy dress hunting and remember your perfect dress doesn't need to cost a fortune. 

Bridal Color Theory

Do you know a person (or maybe yourself) that redoes a whole room and is so terrified of making a commitment that she ends up with a bland room full of tans, tan whites, and washed out colors like buttercream?  Don't let this happen to your wedding. One of the easiest ways of adding personality and individuality to your wedding or any event for that matter is to pick a solid color scheme.

When it comes to wedding colors brides get sucked into one of three different avenues.

1. Cliche color schemes (Pink and brown, tiffany blue and chocolate brown): because you don't know any better and it looks cute in all that wedding crap that floods into your life once the word gets out you are engaged.

2. Whites and creams: Unless you are decorating a hospital this is not a color scheme that says much about your personality. In all honesty if you want your big day to be "special" or "unique" avoid draping a room in white because chances are your guests have seen a banquet room full of white before and will again. So why not change it up and make it memorable with some color?

3. Indecisive: Some brides get so excited about color and go overboard, you would think they reached blindly into a box of crayons and just pulled out colors at random. I actually saw a women on a wedding show the other day who picked rainbows and butterflies has her wedding theme. (I threw up a little in my mouth when I heard this.)

Here is a little color theory to help you make some classy color choices that fits your personality and style while allowing you to make your big day different from your six other friends who are getting married this year.

Now many of you may be thrilled you just received a free education in color theory but you may be asking how will this save me money? Once you have a color scheme in mind we can get to work adding these colors to specific areas of your wedding day to create a big impact without spending a lot.

1. Linens: If possible pick linens that reflect your color scheme. You are already paying for the linens why not set the mood in your reception area with something that fills the room and is a necessity. If your venue doesn't include colored linens you normally can upgrade (the cost varies), add a color overlay (which is a simple piece of shire cloth that decoratively lays over a table cloth) which are available online for competitive prices, or add a colored runner. These might be added costs but honestly they are much cheaper than throwing money at huge flower centerpieces.

2. Ribbon, tulle, and candles: By using these simple craft items you can incorporate color simply and inexpensively all over your big day like, favors, place cards, pillars, arches, pews, menus, etc. I recommend keeping an eye out for sales and craft store coupons since waiting until the day you need it means you will pay a lot more. I also love to shop sales after a holiday; you may have to surf through some leftover holiday cheese but you will come out with some gems.  For example if you want gold or silver as one of your colors shop after Christmas sales. Ribbon and candles might be mixed in with green and red holiday swag but no one will know in June you bought your beautiful gold pillar candles half price after Christmas at the Dollar Tree.

3. Flowers: I know some brides have their hearts set on a certain flowers but if you are not that girl I suggest knowing your colors and asking your florist what seasonal and local flowers work with your color scheme. By going seasonal and giving your florist some freedom they can get you the best deal.


Finally, If any of you were wondering what colors I picked for my own wedding I actually got a little playful and picked analogous colors and accented them with its complement. I had all different purples from a red wine to plum and accented it with yellow. I chose this color scheme because I love sunflowers and really wanted them to stand out and be the superstar of my big show.

I hope this inspires you to go out and start picking colors without getting sucked to the typical bridal color traps. Enjoy and happy color picking!

Vistaprint: A Professional Printing Money Saver

I am currently working on pulling together baby shower invites for my sister in law's shower. I thought I would print them at Staples but they quoted me $68 including envelopes. I was blown away by the cost as I only needed 45 invites. I told Staples "thanks but not thanks" and ran home to my old standby Vistaprint.

Vistaprint is a wonderful online printing site that is always running a deal on everything. The more you use the site the better the deal become. You have to know that Vistaprint will try to sell you lots of extras once you start to place your order, but if you can resist the impulse buys and make your way to check-out you can save a bundle. (I actually made my wedding invites via Vistaprint super cheap and they were beautiful.)

Moral of the story, I printed the baby shower invites, bought envelopes, and received a new return address stamp for $32 including shipping.