We recently made a unique and beautiful wedding cake for Whitney and Scott. Their reception was so incredibly gorgeous. The colors, the atmosphere of elegance and romance just enveloped you. Artist Heidi Schwartz was commissioned to paint Whitney and Scott’s wedding and reception. She positions her easel to allow for a broad overview of the venue. She visits the other areas that are important to the event, such as the ceremony site and the cocktail area. Once the reception begins, so does Heidi. Her interpretive style leaves no doubt that she grasps the meaning and theme of the event. The finished painting is a beautiful representation of the most memorable day yet in the new life of this bride and groom. Heidi’s business is called Paint Your Event.

As I love to tell Whitney, I knew her BEFORE she was a twinkle! Her mother and I have been friends for over 40 years!  I was honored to be asked to make Whitney’s and Scott’s cake.  As you might imagine, their cake tasting was fun. Whitney’s parents came as did her maid of honor. We loved their analytic style: nibbling and savoring much like a wine tasting .They discussed each individual flavor and combined various fillings and cakes to produce different flavor profiles.

Whitney and Scott wowed us with their choices!   Whitney’s favorite candy is Rolos and Scott loves pumpkin pie.  They chose two flavors:pumpkin spice with caramel and ganache filling and fresh strawberry cake  (Mo, Whitney’s  grandmother, would bake it for her birthday) with raspberry and ganache filling.  We loved that they selected flavors for their enjoyment.  They made it their own starting with the cake!

Designing the cake was such a wonderful experience for me.  The only request was that since Scott is 6’4… the cake needed to be tall for the photographs to have balance.  Thus the 7’ tall finished height.  The design was left to me with the request to be unique to Whitney.  I used elements from Whitney’s dress- the lace, the  pearls, the draping and  her new monogram WNS.  I  then added Swarovski crystals  for sparkle and lit the cake from within to add shine. The resulting cake was in her words “over the top” and so so beautiful.  Thank you Whitney, so were you!

The reception was elegant and  the food was excellent. The bride and groom definitely were the stars. However, the MOB and FOB took front stage with their rendition of the twist scene from Pulp Fiction.  As they say..the crowd went wild!

We had a marvelous tasting with both Lauren’s and Erik’s parents and Lauren’s special Aunt and Uncle. Wonderful conversations and many answered questions later, Lauren and Erik selected our yellow cake and signature white chocolate buttercream for the bride’s cake. The design featured handmade edible pearls and tiers of gorgeous hydrangeas in the most beautiful colors I have ever seen. The coordinating floral arrangements on each table were dramatic and beautiful.  We couldn’t help but notice University of Tennessee shakers in each guests’s chair.( yes, we are UT graduates too. )   Part of Erik’s Norwegian heritage is a Kransekake.  It is 18 layers of an almond confection that is offered at special celebrations- particularly weddings.  I accepted the challenge and was humbled to hear that the family members from Norway approved!  For the individual cakes that Lauren and Erik wanted in order to celebrate their Greek affiliations while at college, Lauren chose a butterscotch cake with her Delta Delta Delta logo and Erik chose his cake with the Sigma Nu logo. For Erik’s cake we had a special form made and decorated it to match the look of Lauren’s cake. The cake form lifted up to reveal three pecan pies.  Yes!  Erik got to have his favorite pies and decorum got to have “her” matching look!