Cakes & Catering

Now that the reception hall is booked, I can get back to the food decisions. The hotel says that if we use an outside catering service, the company has to be licensed and insured, and the hotel has to OK them.

A Sophisticated Affair, Inc. is a catering service located in Arlington, Texas. Their website says that they are both licensed and insured, and if they're willing to cater to the hotel, then this company would be my first choice. My favorite part about this company is that they have $1/person hors d'oeuvres:

- Surf and Turf Crostini - Slices of Beef topped w/ a cold crab salad on crostini
- Spicy Shrimp Cocktail Shooters
- Sausage and Cheddar Stuffed Mushrooms
- Asian Chicken on Lemongrass Skewer
- Quesadilla Bites
- Fried Potato Dumplings

There's a powerpoint with these and some more on their website. So if we use this company, I'll be estimating ~5 hors d'oeuvres per person = $5 per person x 50 people = $250 total. This doesn't include beverages, but I'm looking into having a bar (see below). So if we can pick five appetizers and make 50 of each of them at the very least, then we'll be a lot better off than if we use the hotel catering services, in my opinion.

Speaking of hotel services, the flat rental fee for the entire day is $500. The lady I spoke with said that if we choose to use some of their services like catering, then they can work with that number to compensate for however much we're spending in food. I bet there's a minimum that we have to pay, even if we buy $500 worth of food. It's probably something like $250, but that's just a guess. Here's the document they sent me. Their cheapest catering packages are their fruit & cheese displays, and those are each $10/person. Their appetizers start at $3.50 per piece, and despite whether you order hot or cold hors d'oeuvres, there is a 50 piece minimum. So if I do 2 pieces per person, I end up paying $350. However, if that comes out of the $500 flat rental fee, then maybe it's worth it. I'll have to check up with the lady I talked to on this.

As for having a bar (last couple pages in that document), I've got a few options. With each of these options, I think I'll stick with a Beer&Wine bar, which won't include any "spirits" or hard liquor, and therefore will be inherently cheaper. Here's the bar options:

1. Completely open bar, we pay for everything anyone drinks. As the hosts, I feel like this is kind of our duty if we're having a bar. The lady I spoke with said that since we're having the reception for 3 hours, we can set the bar to distribute drinks on our tab for 1 or 2 hours, and then the guests are responsible for anything they drink after that time frame. The cost is $17 per adult (not including children) for a 2 hour bar. There's also an option of $5 per drink, but that could get out of hand quickly.

2. Guests pay for their own drinks. This is the cheapest way to go, but it's not really the nicest thing to do to your guests. Same price applies per hour, but it's $6 instead of $5 per drink if they are paying themselves.

3. Buy a keg and bottles of wine. One "domestic pony keg" (7.75 gallons) is $185, and the document says it serves ~100 glasses. Wiki says it is equivalent to 82 12fl.oz cans of beer. So that's almost 2 beers for everyone, which means almost 3 beers for the guys (I doubt the ladies want beer). The woman I spoke to on the phone said that she would have to check to be sure that they can get a keg of Shiner (H.'s favorite) because it's a local beer, but she probably can get it. For the ladies, we have $28 per bottle of wine, and $30 per bottle of champagne (yikes!). I should ask her if we can bring our own wine.

And now the moment you've all been waiting for - it's time for caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake!! I'm super excited about this, but you guys should be even more excited, because you just won a trip for two to cake tastings at at least two cake bakeries! *Wheel of Fortune applause ensues* Oh but before I send you off, I should probably show you what I'd like.

I want a 3 tiered, round, white wedding cake. Simple, right? MWAHAHA. Ahem. I mean, it's all in the details, and it kind of depends on our florist (which I haven't found yet) and our baker (hopefully we'll get a good one). I've got a couple different ideas, and I'd like your opinions on which one works the best.

This is the best representation of what I want that I could find:

 It has three tiers, wonderful piping, and I'm even okay with the color (I figured that a white cake would look better with my white dress, instead of an ivory or a cream. But maybe cream and cake go better together?) I don't like that there are only flowers at the top, and I'm not liking or hating the border around each tier.

This second picture is what I want the flowers to be arranged, more or less (we'll have to figure out what flowers to use for the bouquets, and then the florist can put the flowers into the cake. Or we have fake flowers. Haven't really decided yet).

I love the cascading flowers! Sugar flowers are probably more expensive than real or fake flowers, so no sugar flowers here. Another picture of cascading flowers is this one:

However, I don't like that this cake turned out to be a jungle. I'd rather have just one or two actual flowers instead of an entire garland up the cake. Also, see on this one how the round tiers kind of bow-out a little at the tops? I really really really don't like that. I prefer the flat-topped tiers a la picture #1.

So as far as the piping designs go, I'm mostly open. Here are a few inspirational cakes that I'd like to get your opinions on:

I love the little flowery details on this cake! This would be my alternative to big real flowers - if we could find small fake flowers that are proportionate to the cake, then that would be awesome. I'd still like the cake to be at least cream, not yellow, and white would be preferable.

I wish there was a zoomed-in picture of this cake, because I absolutely love the little lace detailed effect. So there doesn't necessarily have to be hand-piping on the cake. This lace effect would also be exquisite.

These scallops just make me say "Wow!" every time. I'm worried, though that they would take away from the flowers on the cake, just because these guys are so beautiful. Also, is this too much of a beach-themed wedding cake?

I love love love how dainty these flowers are. This is a great example of a two-tiered cake that really works. And the baker piped on the greenery in the background to really make the flowers pop. Once again, these are sugar flowers, but fake or real flowers that are nice and dainty would really work well with the cake. If you can see it, I like the tiny "trim" or whatever that is at the bottom of each tier that is just little "shells" of icing. Really fond of that.

Now for the flavor of the cake. H. and I have decided that we'd like a vanilla (or amaretto) cake, with coconut filling and strawberry filling (but coconut first if they only have one option available). If possible, I think it would be great if each tier had 3 layers of cakes, with 2 cake filling options, and then you can have both coconut and strawberry in each tier. But, I think what might be better is if each tier is made of two layers of cake, with one filling option, and then each tier is a different flavor. If that makes sense. That way, whether it is 2 or 3 tiers, the guests can choose strawberry or coconut (thinking of you, Susan!). But again, if the baker can't do 2 filling flavors, I just want coconut. Muchas gracias senoritas!

Yesterday, I bought the cake topper. :3

Aren't they cute?! I shipped them to you guys, and they should arrive in 15 days or less. My idea for them is that they will sit atop (or amidst) the flowers at the top of the cake, and then the flowers cascade down around them. I got the idea from this wedding cake:

So instead of the nest that they're sitting on, we can put the birds amidst the flowers. ^^  If you'd like to browse other wedding cakes for fun, The Knot has a huge selection on their cake website.

I almost forgot to tell you who I want as a baker! Takes the Cake is my first option, because of the wealth of fantastic work they have on their website. Also, that link takes you directly to their FAQ, which will probably answer most of your questions about cakes.

The price we're looking at here is $225. I got that number by multiplying the number of servings (# servings = # guests * 1.5) by the price per serving, $3.00. As I went around other cake websites, that's pretty much the cost any cake is going to get us. But I would ask the owner to be sure that what we're paying for is what we want.  This bakery seems to do a lot of more expensive cakes, so if they're trying to push you into something more expensive, don't let 'em.

Oh one more thing about Takes the Cake - when you sign up for a cake tasting with them, you pay $15 for her/him to make the mini cakes. Anything you don't eat there, you get to take home with you. If you end up purchasing a cake with them, then $15 is taken off the price of the cake. So the tasting is basically free. I don't know if the other places have free cake tastings.

Second option is The Cake Stand. They also do $3 per serving, and their work is comparable to the first place. Again, I'm not sure what kind of cakes they're used to doing, so I hope that they can work with us on the price.

The next option is The Cake Carousel - their cakes are nice, but their website does not list the price per serving for their cakes, which is usually a dead ringer for an expensive company.

Last option is DD's Cakes. The only reason that this lady is last is because I'm unsure of the quality of her work. She does have pictures on her website, but I just don't want to end up with the "bubble" round cake instead of the flat-top round cake. Her price for a 3-layered round cake (8", 10", 12") is $215, but I don't know if she charges for anything extra, since her price is a smidge low.

Let's review your mission:
I. Taste different cake fillings and flavors (vanilla vs. french vanilla vs. amaretto, etc)
II.Tell me which one tastes the best.
III. Enjoy!

I'm going to call all of these places now. I'm going to ask when they're open for tastings on Saturday, since somebody has to teach children every weekday. :P So! Lemme know which Saturdays you're free in the next 1-2 months. Thanks!

Aaaaaand I think my work here is done for the day. Enjoy your wedding frou-frou!