Laura Haley-McNeil

9/2/18, Wedding Cakes

Hello, Everyone!

If you’re like me, you’re in the midst of a 3-day weekend. It’s so nice to have these mini-vacations every few months, though I don’t know that it’s much of a vacation because I use it to catch up on the projects I’ve been ignoring all summer—like extra cleaning around the house—but I find outdoor projects, too, and have been busy planting tulip and daffodil bulbs. I love the reminders they give us that spring is just around the corner, though sometimes they have to poke through a layer of snow to remind us.

We’re also getting near the end of the wedding season. We’ve had so much fun this summer sharing nuptial joy with our friends and family. There’s nothing more wonderful than watching a beautiful woman, and all brides are beautiful, beam as she strolls down the aisle to join hands with the handsome young man she’ll be with for the rest of her life.

After they exchange their vows, the fun begins. Though the bride is the star of the reception, the wedding cake can be a close second. I’m the only person I know who loves to eat wedding cake—I love to eat frosting and I love it when a cake is decorated with mounds of frosting—though it is hard to watch that knife slice through a mound of artfully decorated frosting of piping and flowers, but I’ll eat those, too.

A few years ago, I attended a wedding where the groom was determined not to have a traditional wedding cake. The cake was chocolate inside and out, though the flowers covering the cake were pink and yellow and red. At another wedding I attended, the bride’s mother was determined to save money and she made the cake herself. It took days. She baked all the layers in her home oven and froze them until the day of the wedding. That morning, she rose early and decorated the cake. She and her husband packed it in a box in the back of her car and she drove it to the reception where she assembled it. It was a magnificent cake created by a woman who’d never baked a wedding cake in her life! I’m not sure how much money she saved, but it gave her satisfaction.

In my book, Wherever Love Finds You, there are two weddings. The first wedding is a very sophisticated affair that takes place in the landscaped backyard at the groom’s home. The champagne flows freely and the music plays. The bride and groom are in their late forties, it’s the second wedding for both, and are happy to entertain their friends. The cake is equally sophisticated—all white with trails of roses and lilies and piping. For the second wedding, the bride and groom are in their twenties. Their cake is beautiful, too, but covered with colorful flowers.

If you’re like me and pay attention to these types of details, I’m sure you have some stories of your own. Please feel free to share. I love hearing about wedding details. They’re so much fun and every wedding, like every person, is unique.

I hope you’re enjoying your holiday weekend, if you’re in my part of the world, and even if you’re not, I hope your weekend is wonderful and that you have a blessed week!

Love,

Laura