Early Fall Wedding

This spring we met a lovely couple who, after meeting 5 years ago at George Washington University, were ready to to tie the knot. We got to know them over the spring and summer and, on the first cool night of the fall season, we helped them celebrate their big day.

We recognize the importance of such a big day and the honor of being included in the celebration. In order to best reflect the couple through desserts, our style is to get to know the couple before offering suggestions for their tasting. In early April, we met with the bride & groom to have a chat, learn all of the fun things about their wedding, and ask a few (i.e.,  at least 120) questions. Our goal is to get to know the couple and have them paint us a picture of their day.

• The event: where will it be held, what time of day, how many guests and who: children? food allergies?
• The theme: color scheme, flowers, fabrics. Tell us everything.
• The food: what will be served, how much, how often, buffet or sit down dinner?

We save the best part—food—for last as it provides a smooth transition to our favorite subject, dessert. By this point, we’ve made it clear to the couple that big tiered cakes, artificially shaped cakes, and cakes coated in fondant are not an option. In order to get the imagination working, we like to detail the many options we offer to choose from: cakes to cut, cakes for everyone, cupcakes, pies, small, hand-held treats for dessert bars, cookies for the tables, even gift bags of cookies to go. Then we go through a long list of flavors and flavor combinations to get a feel for what each couple really likes:

• Chocolate: do you like chocolate cake? Frosting? Ganache? With mint? With peanut butter? With coffee? With citrus? What about spicy chocolate?
• Fruit: raspberry, strawberry, citrus, apple, pumpkin (seasonally)? Preserves? In frosting? As a garnish?
• What was your favorite childhood dessert? What is your go to flavor combination? What is the candy or confection you can’t live without?

After we’ve run the gamut of flavors and combinations, we often suggest a few preliminary ideas off our menu. But then we take some time to weigh all the factors (season, time of day, grownup-to-children ratio, favorite flavors) to come up with a suggestion for tasting. If they have challenged us with an as-yet-unbeknownst to us flavor combination, we take more time to think.

This particular couple was very fun to plan for. A fall wedding meant we could do fall flavor profiles like spice cakes, cinnamon, pumpkin and more. Our bride loves chai and thought spice cakes would pair nicely with the more traditional Indian fare being served for dinner. There was a love of Red Velvet, which even matched the color scheme. We offered tasting ideas via email and set a tasting that the groom’s mother, in from out of town, could attend.

We ultimately decided on 4 cupcake flavors for a cupcake tower display:

• Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
• Pumpkin with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
• Chai Latte Cupcake: a cardomom cake with chai buttercream frosting
• Snickerdoodle Cake: cinnamon cupcake with vanilla frosting

Upon the bride’s request, the couples cake for the cutting ceremony, also Snickerdoodle, was to be decorated with a henna-esque design to resemble the handpainted designs that would appear on the brides hands and arms on the day of the wedding. As this was the first time I hand-piped in such great detail, I promptly started studying.

The colors of the cupcakes matched the décor of the event. The flavors matched the couple’s tastes. The pairing of all of these things was perfect for this couple. On the day of the wedding, we used rectangular white plates on the table to display cupcakes by flavor with some cute-and-informative signs, so guests knew what they were biting into. We placed the couples cake on it’s own display to make it even more special, and easier to cut during the ceremony.

Oh, and how could we forget the 180+ hand-painted sugar cookies? Paired with a John Hancock triple chocolate chip cookie, they took an entire day to bake, decorate and package. The gift bags were hand tied with ribbon in the couple’s colors.

All in all the big day went off without a hitch. Delivery and set-up went smoothly with the help of the on-site wedding day coordinators. The display looked beautiful and we considered this another success!

If you or someone you know is getting married, having an engagement party or other fancy function, we’d love to be a part of the magic. Simply email or call us to set-up your first consultation!