May 27, 2010  •  In Personal, Wedding

Cake Envy

When J and I were planning our wedding, we were pleasantly surprised to find that our venue would provide a cake at no extra cost.

SCORE! We thought. One less thing to plan, one less vendor to deal with, and one less thing to worry about.

We chose our cake from an album of “typical” wedding cakes, chose the flavor and filling, and that was that.


photo by Danny Weiss

At the time, we thought that spending the extra money for a spectacular wedding cake was a waste of money. Cakes are to be eaten, not admired. We were sure that no one would even notice if we were to spend an extra $1,000 on a cake.

And you know what? I’m sure that 99% of our guests did NOT notice. Most of them did not get within 5 ft of the cake, and even if someone noticed the slightly uneven frosting, they certainly did not say anything.

However, I cannot help but experience a little cake envy whenever I see a sensational wedding cake. And with the growing popularity of over-the-top, unique, and/or whimsical wedding cakes (and with Carlo’s Bakery from the TLC show Cake Boss just down the street), it’s hard to avoid such images.

What kind of cake did/will you have at your wedding? Were you happy with it?

If I had the extra money, I probably would’ve invested in a nice groom’s cake for J — something geeky like video games, or somehow related to his favorite sports team. I’m sure he would’ve loved even a gruesome cake like this, designed after the game Left 4 Dead:


via Nerd Approved

At the end of the day, I force myself to remember that a cake does not make or break a wedding. And that if we had gotten a magnificent cake, we would have been reluctant to cut into such a work of art — even if it meant cutting into zombie parts.

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8 Responses to “Cake Envy”

  1. I’m a baker’s daughter so I don’t really get that whole cake envy or desire to even have cakes on my birthday let alone future wedding. I am tickled by the fact of having cupcakes though. But I think that my wedding would likely be so small that we wouldn’t have a cake at all. I’m generally an anti-traditional bride kinda girl. ^___^;

    ps – you were a very pretty bride. 🙂

  2. Jina of JAC says:

    DAMN IT JENNY!! My cake comes free with our venue and now I’m second guessing our decision … sigh
    and I’m with Asian Pear. You were a beautiful bride!! A super TINY bride. Look at that teeny waist!!!

    actually, I really don’t care about the cake … I’m just proud that we were able to get a free anything for our wedding~ lol

  3. Jen says:

    We had very cool wedding and groom’s cakes. They were quite expensive, but they were the hit of the wedding. It was more important to me to have really cool, yummy cakes than to have other things, like a super duper expensive dress. Wedding planning is all about tradeoffs, so I say go with what is really important to you.

    http://wintermute.smugmug.com/Weddings/Our-Wedding/11635696_Vzy5i#820477034_UheEC

    http://wintermute.smugmug.com/Weddings/Our-Wedding/11635696_Vzy5i#820476930_NnaZA

  4. Geek in Heels says:

    @Jina — I credit my waist to the bustier (soo expensive but it was worth it!) and my dress’ corset back. I think together, they took about 3 inches off my waist!

    @Jen — Your cakes are beautiful! Especially love the Mario cake. (I made your links clickable, hope you don’t mind)

  5. violarulz says:

    we’re making a weird decision: to not have cake. Instead, we’re going to have an ice cream sundae bar for the same price ($8/person) with 5 flavors and 10 toppings. In addition to scooping ice cream for people, I’m hoping we can have a guy who’s job is to put the whipped cream on top of your sundae, and maybe place the cherry on top. Who wouldn’t rather have ice cream than cake?

  6. Jen says:

    @Jenny – thanks! If I had to do it all over again, I might have had one big mario wedding cake that was super detailed. The groom’s cake was something I decided on later to surprise my husband.

  7. We had a tiny little baby cake because it was free (& 1/4 the size of yours!). Yours is really pretty!! I have to say that I honestly didn’t care about the cake 🙂 It was tasty & I was happy about that!

  8. Anonymous - just in case! says:

    Ack don’t… This is the bane of my existence at the moment! My very snobby sister-in-law owns one of those insane $1,000 a cake bakeries, and has offered to make our cake. Generous? Maybe, if every one of my suggestions/requests weren’t bashed down, and I weren’t being treated like I was out for the biggest freebie of my life when I was just told that I would be having a cake. *Sigh* And I don’t even like cake – I really wanted one of those cakes that is really just wheels of cheese!

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