Cake Help!!!

Well that's what I am all about a MIXTURE...

what gets me is one person assuming they should have control over everything... that's all...it's one thing if the other half does not care... another when they do and are over ruled because their wishes/traditions are seen as inferior... 

I hated having all of this extra food brought in for later on, but when I questioned it, my hubby said it was tradition and was pretty firm on it, so I said fine. 

I must say, I did plan most of it and he acquiesed to most things I wanted, which was very nice of him. But there were a lot of English traditions I liked - fruitcake being one!  The guests really liked the mix too.

I hated having all of this extra food brought in for later on, but when I questioned it, my hubby said it was tradition and was pretty firm on it, so I said fine. 

I must say, I did plan most of it and he acquiesed to most things I wanted, which was very nice of him. But there were a lot of English traditions I liked - fruitcake being one!  The guests really liked the mix too.

We found the same and it worked out great...

as part of the arrival and part of the pre dinner drinks we also added a tapas course to go along with the Buck Fizz and people really enjoyed it.  I wanted to have a blend of the Spanish, US and English traditions in our Blessing service.  We wound up not having all those traditional dances and only upon insistence did we dance together and it was to American Pie of all the sad songs to dance too!  I could have clocked the DJ... Still it was memorable! And he did bring in a huge USA flag and Union Jack...

I think the food later on is a good idea, just because weddings tend to last longer here than in some US cases.  (I think Catholic Weddings being a US exception).  I remember going to some Baptist weddings and thinking... what this is it?   

We had two best men and my two bridesmaids did not wear the same thing!  NO! 

We did all of those dances and I think the guests had no idea what was going on 

We followed the traditional toasts they do here - the order, etc.  Also, the best man read all of the cards we got, which I guess is tradition - it was boring, but if it is what they wanted, it was really no skin off me!

I think you're right about the food, but it pretty much all went to waste at ours.  Oh well!  At least I compromised!!

I loved being able to have the wedding in a gorgeous old church that I wouldn't have been able to find in the NY area.  And we had a horse and carriage through the town, which is a cute little market town.

can you tell I loved our wedding?    Now, onto baby stores as our first one is due in August!

You know my DH didn't have any clue about British wedding traditions & left the whole thing up to me!  I was going to arrange for some extra food to be brought in later on (I'm not sure why 'cause I didn't know this was a tradition--but I do like food!), like at least a cheese - biscuits & fruit thing, but DH talked me out of it.  Our wedding was at 5-5:30-ish (ok I was late ) and then dinner served at 7, no dance, but it was a long dinner and everyone lingered & drank until 10-midnight or so.  TBH, once we'd had (some pre-wedding...lol) drinks, Bucks fizz, hot & cold canapes, a 3-course dinner with lots of wine, wedding cake, and coffee/tea with chocolates, etc -- everyone was so entirely stuffed (I felt like I was going to hurl! but in the best possible way ), I don't think anyone would have touched a cheese course later on.

what gets me is one person assuming they should have control over everything... that's all...it's one thing if the other half does not care... another when they do and are over ruled because their wishes/traditions are seen as inferior... 

I don't think my bf will really care much about the food, decorations, etc. when the time comes for our wedding... except that he would love to have KFC. I actually think that would be kind of cool and funky -- to have a combo of my frou-frou food and his KFC!

(but I'm not budging on the pork pie!)

If I have an actual wedding or wedding celebration that includes more than DF and myself, I want cupcakes.  I don't care what type, but I just want them.  I think that piled up on different levels, they'll look so cute!

My DH was actually very flexible for the Blessing...but to be honest he planned a lot of it before moving to the US as we knew things would be harder to organize from there.  We did manage to find the reception venue on the very last day of my visit in the UK by fluke when we saw an advert on the ferry.  Turned out that place was owned by another and when we drove around the bend and saw the English coast with this lovely hotel I just died.  I was so eleated when the place was actually in our budget!

B.loo -you can always do KFC as an starter! :-)

Onetiger -I have actually seen in one of those wedding magazines a three tier cupcake cake...with natural flowers inspersed with the cupcakes to create almost a cake like look.  It was lovely.

If I have an actual wedding or wedding celebration that includes more than DF and myself, I want cupcakes.  I don't care what type, but I just want them.  I think that piled up on different levels, they'll look so cute!

I love that, Liane! Somewhere over the past few weeks, I've seen a gorgeous stand (wedding-y, but not OTT) for cupcakes! I can't remember if it was in a shop or a magazine, but it was lovely!

B.loo -you can always do KFC as an starter! :-)

Oooh, or have it available at the reception for the food that you give to the people who weren't invited to dinner - by then everyone will be drunk and in need of fast food! I actually think that's an EXCELLENT idea. And it could be very kitsch depending on how it's set up! 

And it could be very kitsch depending on how it's set up! 

Yeah, I'll definitely be going for the kitsch factor!

I hadn't thought of doing different layers in the cake like that.  I've been debating what I should do for my cake here in the US.  I think DF would enjoy fruitcake b/c it is traditional, but I want some that are more traditional for me too.  I don't mind having fruitcake at all in the UK.  I love the thought that I could have different kinds of cake in each tier here! It would be a salute to both sides of tradition, and I believe his parents would appreciate that effort.   I think I just decided I will do that!  Yea--problem solved!!

We're doing some other things here to bring in the UK side of things.  He was going to bring a morning suit with him, for instance.  Last week I took a stab at it and asked a local tailor who told me he could bring in a morning suit for rental in his local store and would only charge us $90--a huge improvement to us renting the one from Moss Bros we were going to have to keep for the month he will be in the US!!  I found out that there are morning suits here in the states, but they are usually called cutaways or sometimes strollers.  The picture was online of it, and DF liked it although he said the cut was slightly more American.  Then we can get the Moss Bros suit he likes for one day instead of a month when we return to Cardiff.

I also was going to hold the US reception in a local Victorian place that I thought his family might enjoy more until he started talking about how it looked a bit "put on."  I started thinking about it and realized that when they are coming from a place that all the Victorian stuff is all around them and real, our attempts could look a bit gaudy.  Instead we found a location that is very uniquely American.  It's in a large log cabin building, but is tastefully decorated.  I think his family will enjoy it because it is unique and more "American."  It will make for a fun memory that none of the other kids' weddings had, but it will still be pretty.

It is so funny to me to see how some aspects of our planning are so dictated by culture and then others become fun as we move away and are unique.  I'm surprised by all the back and forth between "but this is how it is supposed to be" and "that would be fun, nobody has anything like that here!"

If I have an actual wedding or wedding celebration that includes more than DF and myself, I want cupcakes.  I don't care what type, but I just want them.  I think that piled up on different levels, they'll look so cute!

I've seen this as well in magazines and LOVED it!  Enjoy your planning however you do your wedding!

Cadenza, I love morning suits.  My husband and his groomsmen all wore them.  He had his father wear one too!  I thought that was a little strange, but it didn't really matter to me if that's what they wanted. 

my good friend did the cupcake route and OMG it was amazing!!!!! they were MEGA ones though!

Well since that cake lady was an hour and a half away, we decided to go with this one:

http://www.maisiefantaisie.co.uk/wedding-cakes.html

I didn't really want to go for her as she is a bit on the pricey side compared to the prices of the other places that are farther away. My partners dad and my mom had suggested checking out local bakeries, but I think me and my dom agree that we really wouldn't want a local baker to do it, compared to someone who specializes in wedding cake making. It could save us money, but he's ok with the decision. Her earliest available appointment was June 5th, and since dom has the whole week before that date, off, he won't be able to come with me :/ Which really sucks. So his dad is coming with me instead.

We're going to go for two tiers, one sponge, one fruit. And I havve a feeling that it'll be in that hard icing...... the picture that was posted in this thread of the cake, does anyone know what tye of icing that is? You know, the soft creamy type we use in America? I saw two of you talking about icings, but I got confused :p