Wedding Cupcakes and...Pi?

Nope.  Not a typo.  Pi.  I'm at the stage of wedding planning where we're SO close to the big day that I'm basically becoming delirious.  Remember my plan to use a cupcake tree to display our wedding cupcakes?  I ordered one from Save on Crafts for only $26.  It was relatively inexpensive because it's basically just pieces of cardboard.  Unfortunately, that means the edges looked like this:

I decided to purchase some ribbon to line the outside of each tier.  When I got to the store, I found some lovely green grosgrain ribbon, sold in spools of 18 feet.

I realized that I didn't have the measurements of each tier's circumference.  How was I supposed to know how much ribbon to buy?  Then, I remembered something: a formula from my past.

I could calculate the circumference of each tier, and then I'd know how much ribbon to buy to wrap around the edges!  Brilliant!  The only problem was that I didn't have the radius measurements either, just the diameters.  Oh wait, two radii equals the diameter!

I whipped out my phone and plugged in 3.14 x each diameter into the calculator.  The grand total of all five tiers' circumferences was approximately 20 feet.  I bought two spools of ribbon, headed home and warmed up my trusty glue gun.  I glued the ribbon around the edges of each tier, which resulted in the following:

{all personal photos}

Ah!  Much better!  The best part of this story is that this project took place on March 14th...Pi Day!  So, I used pi to calculate something in real life.  It just goes to show you...kids, listen to your algebra teachers.  You never know when life will hand you a word problem!

Any other Mu Alpha Theta alum or Mathletes out there?  Care to share your nerdiest wedding planning moment?

Candy & Cupcakes

First, let me begin with an update on our cake situation.  Y'all are AMAZING and I LOVED reading through all of your ideas and advice!  We decided on the family-style option.  We're going to have our servers bring platters to each table of eight.  Each platter will include two cupcakes of each of the three flavors, as well as two slices of groom's cake.  This way, there is one serving per guest (that is, I'm not buying 300 pieces of cake for 150 people!) but people still have options.

Until the cupcakes and groom's cake are served, they will be situated on a little table in the ballroom.  I plan to arrange the cupcakes on a tree like this:

Source

The top tier of the tree will actually be a small cake (in one of our cupcake flavors) that we'll cut.  Instead of cake toppers, we'll be topping each cupcake with one small pinwheel.

 Created by Twirlie Whirlies

By the way, I am so glad I bought those pinwheels instead of trying to make them!  The thought of making 150 of them...eeek!  We assigned a different color combination to each flavor of cupcake, so we thought it would be a good idea to include a little key or legend for our guests.  We also wanted to include our Knightro-shaped groom's cake in the legend.  I threw this thing together on Pages, printed it on card stock, and placed it inside one of two 8x10 frames that I found at an antique store.

Lion Corgi approves!

We also ordered larger matching pinwheels to decorate our candy buffet, which we plan to fill with green and pool blue candy.

I made a little banner for the candy buffet out of baker's twine and card stock that reads "Love is Sweet."  Maybe we'll drape that between two larger pinwheels?

I filled the other frame with this sign that I made:

Lion Corgi is now taking a boredom nap.

Keeping consistent with our balloon motif, I made these little stickers to seal the bags our guests will fill with candy:

I feel like the pinwheels and signage carrying from the cake table to the candy buffet will help pull the theme together.  What did you do to make your reception theme come together?

It's Complicated

We booked our venue over a year ago.  We knew early on that it was exactly what we wanted, and we eagerly signed up to have both our ceremony and our reception there.  The venue was then crossed off the to-do list and promptly placed on the back burner.  Our Day-Of Coordinator over there checked in with us from time to time, but other than that, it was out of sight and out of mind.  Now that our wedding is about two months away, I decided to schedule a meeting with our DOC to start ironing out the details.  What time does this vendor arrive?  What does the pattern of traffic flow look like from ceremony to cocktail hour?  Where is my candy buffet going to be?

What followed were a series of epiphanies.  Not the good kind, either.  The kind where innocence is lost and you're left thinking, "Crap!  What do I do now?"  I believe there's a Disney princess out there somewhere whose face can convey this emotion...

Source

I'm glad I have an experienced venue and an awesome DOC to help me figure things out.  Nonetheless, my meeting resulted in adding some new items to my to-do list, some new problems that I now needed to solve:

1.  Our tables seat 8, and I initially thought they seated 10.
My bad.  I shouldn't have assumed, and I don't really know why I did in the first place.  So, now we need an additional 5 tables to accommodate our guests, which means 5 additional centerpieces.  Groan.  It's only money, and we over-budgeted for the sole purpose of covering our booties in the event of mistakes like this.  Problem solved.

2.  Table linens bring up the white vs. ivory debate that I so despise.
My dress is ivory.  Mr. Lion and the Lion Gmen are wearing gray tuxes with ivory shirts.  The Lioness Bmaids are wearing multicolored shoes with a white background, but they are wearing ivory fascinators (I figure they're far enough apart and there's a lot going on elsewhere in the ensemble, no one will notice).  When my DOC and I began to discuss table cloths and chair covers, we instantly decided on ivory.  Then, we had to decide on sashes for the chair covers.  I could choose between black, burgundy, olive, white, silver, or gold.  They all looked great with the white, but the gold was pretty much the only option for the ivory.

Gold kinda clashed with the rest of our color scheme, so that left me back at indecisive.  I really liked the silver, since we're using mint julep cups for our centerpieces.  Could I pull off the silver with the ivory?  Or should I just switch to white and forget the fact that it didn't match my dress?  For that matter, could I do white linens and white sashes?  What do you think?

3. My cake plan was turned upside down.
We had planned on having approximately 100 cupcakes, in three different flavors.  We were also planning on having a groom's cake, which would serve 50-75 people.  We planned to cut a small cake on top of a cupcake tree, which our baker had agreed to make for us.  Then, guests would be able approach the cake table and choose between our three cupcake flavors or a slice of groom's cake.  This concerned my DOC, as she believed that it would result in chaos and (dare I say) it might look tacky.  She thought it would be better if the cakes were served.

She also added that it would be better if all of the guests received one cupcake and all of the guests received one small slice of groom's cake.  I suppose that would appear more hospitable, but it seemed like a lot of food for our daytime wedding.  Additionally, that would cause us to buy twice as much cake as we had initially anticipated!  Could we get away with serving 100 of our guests cupcakes and the rest groom's cake?  Or would it be so bad if we stuck with the self-serve route?  Or should we just bite the bullet and buy cake for (gasp) 300 servings for a 150-person guest list?  What do you think?

Y'all, wedding planning is getting stressful as we're reaching the home stretch!  I just wanna go back into DIY mode and play with fun projects and not deal with logistics!  Thanks for reading such a whiny post, and thanks in advance for your advice.  I hope I didn't stress you out vicariously!  I'm going to go have a glass of wine now...

What kinds of roadblocks have you run into with your nitty gritty details?

Sweet Customer Service

One thing I've noticed about choosing vendors is that I'm very consistent with my priorities.  Obviously quality is important.  I'm also really big on value for our dollar, since these newly-employed Lions have lots of student loans to pay off.  But customer service trumps all.  I would give up the highest quality if it meant I could deal with a competent and empathic human being.  I would even sacrifice other parts of the budget to pay a little more for good service.

I can't help it...it's just the way I grew up.  You see, Papa Lioness works for a large hotel chain and "teaches customer service for a living."  Just imagine the horror on a 14-year-old Lioness' face as Papa Lioness scolded the Abercrombie employee, "When you say 'have a nice day,' you should at least TRY to sound like you mean it!"  It has been ingrained in my mind to avoid poor customer service as much as possible, no matter how enticing the quality or value may be.  In the long run, what's a little sacrifice for a little less stress?  So far, we've chosen all of our vendors based on this motto.  Everyone has been easy to communicate with and easy to get along with.  Our cake tasting was no different.

In true Southern tradition, we decided on a groom's cake.  Mr. Lion knew early on that he wanted some kind of chocolatey raspberry goodness in the shape of Knightro, UCF's mascot.  But what to do about the actual wedding cake?  As you may recall from our engagement party, I love cupcakes.  The more I thought about it, the more appropriate they seemed for our wedding.  The portions were perfect for daytime, and the cuteness factor helped them to fit in perfectly with our whimsical theme.

Before I could even start researching local bakers, Mr. Lion came home from work one day with half a dozen cupcakes.  Oh it's just this little bakery right next to his law firm and he just happened to walk by and it looked like the kind of thing I would like.  (Seriously, be more awesome.)  They were beautiful, and absolutely delicious.  I then sent Mr. Lion on his next mission: to make an appointment for a tasting.

We walked into the cupcakery on a Thursday afternoon.  We were greeted by Jack Johnson on the baker's iPod speakers, as well as a Cinderella snowglobe on the front counter.  Sure, it's nothing but coincidence, but I had a good feeling about this place.  Long tables stood to my left, each with a different tablecloth and vintage milkglass vases.  Colorful bunting lined the walls.  It looked like something out of...well...a wedding inspiration board!

One table was set with mismatched china and silverware, as well as a fresh French press of coffee.

That same table had a beautiful cake stand topped with several flawless-looking cupcakes.  Hmmm perhaps this table was set for us?

Mr. Lion could hardly contain his excitement.

We sat down with a lovely consultant who shared a cup of coffee with us and told us about their baking process and what goes into all of these delicious flavors.  She told us about each type of cupcake, from the margarita cupcake filled with lime zest to the Coca Cola cupcake (be still, my Atlantan heart).  It was very laid back; it just felt like having a snack with a friend.  I really appreciated the fact that there was no pressure to sign anything or to pay anything.  And you know what?  Because of that, I couldn't reach for the contract fast enough!

A week or so later, Mr. Lion came home with (you guessed it) more cupcakes.  Apparently, they had some other flavors that day and they wanted us to be able to try a few more.  So they just dropped them off at his firm!  The whole thing just seemed so kind and neighborly.  Those little extras make all the difference.

our surprise to-go box

{all personal photos}

We haven't decided on exact flavors yet, but we're thinking of including three different light and fruity flavors, since Mr. Lion's cake will be so rich.  If I may offer some advice to brides out there with upcoming tastings, watch your sugar intake that day!  We seriously ate all of them.  I was immediately five years old, bouncing off of the walls for a few hours, and then I crashed.  Sugar hangovers are no fun!  And if I may offer some advice to anyone out there in the wedding biz, your brides notice details!  Remember that the little things can make all the difference.

How has customer service shaped your wedding vendor decisions?

Let Them Eat Cupcakes!

One of the other ways I tried to incorporate Mama Lioness' creativity was by having her host our engagement party.  I love seeing inspiration boards featuring engagement parties that could rival a wedding.  I didn't want all of that, though.  I wanted something low-key, inexpensive, and casual.  Also, I didn't want people to bring presents, as we hadn't had a chance to register yet.  We decided to have it at Mama Lioness' townhouse on December 26th, 2009.  We were in South Florida visiting three of our four divorced parents for the holidays, so it was a perfect opportunity to take advantage of already having many of our favorite people in the same place at the same time.  Five of my six bridesmaids are also from South Florida, so they were home visiting family as well.

Mama Lioness sent out evites (did I mention how casual I wanted this to be?) and started brainstorming with Sister Lioness.  They decided on afternoon cupcakes and champagne with DIY decor.  They got mini-cupcakes from Allegria at The Promenade in Coconut Creek.  (They sell froyo and cupcakes...who could ask for anything more?)  These are the flavors they decided on:

• Strawberry Meringue
• Mocha Espresso
• Tres Leches (it was very important to me that we include something more traditional to Mr. Lion's side of the family)
• Apple Streusel
• Key Lime
• Cookies and Cream
• Reeses Peanut Butter
• Red Velvet Cheesecake

Mama and Sister Lioness also made Black Bottom Cupcakes, a family favorite...so much so in fact, that I think people would have been disappointed if the Lionesses served cupcakes without a Black Bottom appearance!  Mama Lioness does not have cupcake trees, so she stacked glass cup and saucers together.  She bought a few heart-shaped cupcake liners and made a few Funfetti cupcakes to serve as toppers for her cupcake trees.  Then, she hand-made little bride and groom toppers to be toothpicked into the top cupcake.  Sister Lioness hand-made signs indicating the flavors (I wish I had her handwriting).  Here are the final results:

You can't see, but we had personalized confetti with our names!  A very nice touch from Mama Lioness, since she knows I'm into the details.  The lovely 8x10 frame and commemorative letterpress was a very nice gift from FMIL Lion!

Sister Lioness' amazing work

The only thing store-bought on here are the bottom two tiers of cupcakes.  Yay for DIY!

And here's a recap of how much fun we had!

When getting ready for an engagement party, it is necessary to wear an Ariel tiara and make a princess face.

Us with our Mamas...I am literally the whitest person here.

By the way, how fun our our buttons?!

 Mr. Lion and Lion Corgi...dancing!

 With Sister Lioness and Daddy Lioness

With 4 of my 6 bridesmaids...aren't they fabulous?

{all personal photos}

We had a ball.  The best part was having so many people that we care about in the same room at the same time.  If that's any indication of what the wedding itself will be like, I'm psyched!