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Next up, our cake cutting (for the last installment of our wedding, click here)!

{all images via personal collection}

I absolutely adored our wedding cake.  I wanted something simple and classic.  I had the bakery do a simple rustic technique on the cake and while I added the flower as a nice accent.  The combination of vintage, classic, simple and rustic really worked well together.

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We are going to have 17 dozen Sprinkles Cupcakes. 4 black and white, 4 vanilla, 4 peanut butter chocolate, 3 red velvet, and 2 coconut, for a total of 204 cupcakes. I cannot wait! Now the problem is finding a way to display them.

I just bought two red cake stands from Target for $20 each (because of Valentine’s Day, our colors are everywhere!) and am continuing the research. I’m on a cake stand roll, so I thought I would share some of my finds for anyone looking for cake stand inspiration.

{Whitney Smith makes all of these cake stands in her ceramics studio in Oakland, CA. Check out all of her pieces, she is one talented artist! Bird cupcake stand, Whitney Smith, $38}

{Oooh la la! These beauties from Clara French Ceramique are gorgeous. Rental prices range from $45-$95, and prices start at $160 to purchase.}

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When we first considered desserts, we envisioned a rustic assortment of cakes and pies. And then I tasted a cupcake from Providence Divine Cakes and Pastries in York, PA. “Divine” is the perfect adjective to describe the moist, flavorful cake and the swirl of sweet buttercream on top. Naturally, our plans changed.

There’s a reason why cupcake towers are a wedding trend. They enable the bride and groom to select a variety of flavor combinations, there’s no additional cost to “cut the cake,” and the display is just so darn cute.

We served the following:

• Chocolate cake with buttercream frosting
• Chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting
• Vanilla cake with buttercream frosting
• Vanilla cake with coconut frosting
• Red velvet with buttercream frosting

(Yes, I’m craving one right now.)

The cupcakes tumbled down the three-tier display (provided by the bakery) and onto the round table alongside our Gocco’d napkins.

For our 6-inch round cake topper, we chose a white cake brushed with Chambord and layered with raspberry Champbord preserves and mousse. Yum!

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The reception is by far the biggest component of most weddings as there are so many details that go into setting one apart from the next. And we could make no exception for ours. DIY was the name of the game for us, because well, I love detail! And because of the wedding blog world, I had a never-ending, sometimes extremely overwhelming source for inspiration and ideas. And I loved that this community could inspire such wonderful elements for my wedding. From the lace votives, to a “sweet love” candy bar to a wedding tree, these little details were what made our wedding so special.

Our candy bar was a combination of our favorite candies. And we displayed everything in a variety of glass penny jars, trifle bowls, and jugs some of which I found online through a restaurant supply company. I was a little skeptical at how much candy we had bought, but it was a huge hit! You never really realize how much grown-ups love their candy until you put a huge FREE spread in front of them!

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Cheese tables are the new candy buffets.  Love.

{Photography by Karen Mordechai, styling by Sunday Suppers}

How precious are these miniature pies baked right into jars?  They would be a wonderful wedding favor – or the perfect dessert for a picnic reception!

{Tutorial and recipe found at Our Best Bites; discovered via Simply Creative Insanity}

PS – Remember the pie pops?  Perhaps I am a bit obsessed with pie?

I’m over the moon for this gorgeous and inventive bookcase dessert display.  I admit I may have been influenced by the likely presence of lemon-flavored treats.

{Styling by Aristocratic Design Co, photo by Julia Newman, fabulous wedding of P.S. I love this… – go look, it’s all this lovely!}

While Nick and I were taking photos, our guests headed to the reception tent for the cocktail hour. They were supposed to gather around the rectangular pool — amidst round high top tables and mason jars of candles tied with red and orange ribbon — but the wet weather prevented that from happening. However, I heard they still had a pretty excellent time.

The space was decorated with red and orange Chinese lanterns, strings of white lights, baskets of greens, and fichus trees (all expertly arranged by our day of coordinator, Betsy, I must add).

Susan Savia provided the entertainment, and drinks were served alongside a European cheese spread with fresh bread, fruits, dips, and mustards (provided by The Festive Board of York).

We offered two signature drinks: Arnold Palmers from the groom and Peach Sangria from the bride. The Arnold Palmer is a blend of iced tea, lemonade, and vodka. And we mixed the Sangria the morning before the wedding. (Get the recipe.)

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This entry is subtitled: Why I’m Freaking Out About Our Food at the Reception

Sorry it’s somewhat long and picture-less, but I think it’s a good story :)

Let me set the scene: It was the end of June this past summer and Mr. and I had just bought our first house. We decided that it would be fun and a good idea to have an open house for the 4th of July for our families. That way, no one could say, “You haven’t even invited us over to your new house yet!” or no one would just stop by unannounced (a HUGE fear of mine with his family), OR no one would just come over and snoop and peek in the windows (which they ended up doing anyway) because they were all invited to stop by and check it out. Nothing fancy, maybe we’d make some lemonade and have some chips and pretzels, but because we would have only been in the house a week and wouldn’t even have anything to sit on (seriously, we were sleeping on the floor) it wouldn’t be a full out party.

Well. I’ll bet you can figure out that’s not how it went down. This whole thing evolved into a huge barbecue for his family. Now, granted, my family is much much smaller than his, just my mom, aunt, uncle, and cousin who live close by (everyone else is at least 7 hours away), so it’s understandable that none of my family came (except for my mom after all of his family had cleared out…and a jumbo sized bottle of gin to help us recover from the afternoon). His parents did generously offer to bring all the food, but when I heard how much they were bringing I got a little nervous. 40 hamburgers and 40 hot dogs? THIS is when I realized that our little “open house” was much much more than that. At least with all the money we were spending on the house, we wouldn’t be out even more money to host the party. For which I was VERY grateful.

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Dessert. I LOVE dessert. I grew up in a sweets loving family, and to this day my sisters and Mom will scout out the best baked goods, ice cream, and candy. If it has sugar, we love it. Growing up, my Mom would bake chocolate chunk cookies, banana bread, peanut butter sandwich cookies, brownies, cheesecake, raspberry crumble bars…and for my going away party when I moved with the boy to San Diego, she baked my favorite: banana cream pie.

This might be why I am having such a hard time finding a bakery to supply goods for a dessert table. Something always managed to be wrong, because of course, no one can live up to my Mother’s baking. The service was bad, the cupcakes tasted like muffins, the tasting was $100, the cake melted after 20 minutes, the baker(s) never replied after two email convos (this is a tangent, but I’ve had maybe 10 vendors just never reply to me after the first initial chit-chat. Sure, our wedding isn’t going to be millions of dollars in some Italian villa, and I am not some fantabulous movie star willing to plunk down $10 for each chocolate chip cookie, but please, reply to my email! It’s courtesy! It also solidifies that I will never recommend you to anyone getting married in the future!)

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(photo by my sister, ashley merrill, while frosting cakes in a kitchen that reminded her of the shining)

Things didn’t go according to plan with our wedding. I feel/felt like it was a huge fail on my part, not dealing with stress well and not delegating or getting things done ahead of time. I’m a huge procrastinator and I also was so stressed about the other people involved in the wedding that I didn’t get focused. I’ve gotten over it for the most part, but I’m sure at least someone could learn from my mistakes.

(photos by Kristen M Stewart Photography unless otherwise noted.)

I wanted a cake buffet instead of just having one big cake, and I liked the idea of having homemade cakes instead of bakery cakes, because then they would mean something personal to us. The main problem with that is that it required work from people other than me. I wish I’d made them all myself two days before, taken them to our venue for them to have in their cooler, and been done with it. My sister makes an amazing cheesecake though and my mom and sister were willing to make cakes, freeze them, transport them from NC to AL, and frost them here.

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I love the idea of multiple wedding cakes… add multiple vintage cake toppers and you have one amazing setup!

{via Project Wedding}

How lovely would it be to incorporate your families history by gathering everyone’s cake toppers and displaying it proudly on the beautiful cakes.

We haven’t decided if we will be having a wedding cake yet but I do know we will be displaying the cake topper that my mom, aunt and grandmother all used on their wedding cake.  It is incredibly beautiful!

Anyone else incorporating a vintage flair and a bit of family history?