STL Cake Bakers

We tasted cake from three St. Louis bakers and here are my reviews:

Wedding Wonderland:
Located in a large warehouse in Florissant, these people specialize in cake instead of being a full-service bakery with pastries and what-not. Really awesome white cake! with a slight "almond" flavor. Goes great with any fruit filling and with the cream cheese filling. The cherry chip cake with cherry filling was also very tasty, and unique. Wasn't a huge fan of the other flavors (red velvet cake just tasted like regular chocolate cake, and banana cake tasted like some terrible holiday fruitcake gift)
Pros: The cake flavors were above average and the price per slice is decent (starting at $1.65) The warehouse has some model cakes you can choose from to recreate for your wedding.
Cons: The customer service was so-so: they do not let you take tastings to-go, even if you pay for the cake, and they do not take appointments, only walk-ins, so you do not get personal attention at the tasting because they are busy with other customers. They have no price lists to take home for review, but upon questioning we found out that the starting price they advertise does not include the hefty decorating fees and extra charges for fillings, which when added in make the price per slice closer to average (around $3.00) Also, although the cake is tasty, the frosting is not- you'll notice it is called "traditional wedding cake icing", meaning it is not buttercream.

Cravings:
This is an adorable little bakery in Webster Groves. They bake everything from wedding cakes to pies and tortes. The owner met with us and, unlike other bakeries, brought us a tasting of every single cake flavor and frosting flavor- wow! Most places allow you to choose 3. The white cake was so-so, but all chocolate varieties were absolutely delicious. And, the white-chocolate mousse filling is heavenly! I actually wish I could purchase just a giant tub of the frosting to use on things I bake at home!
Pros: very yummy cake flavors and fillings- many that think "outside the box" such as cranberry-chocolate cake, citrus zest cake, hazelnut buttercream, and white chocolate mousse. Very nice and personal customer service- the owner himself sat with us throughout the tastings and made recommendations for flavor combinations. The bakery has won several culinary awards and it had postive, welcoming, neighborhood-bakery feel to it.
Cons: the cake price is slighter higher than some of the others we tried (3.50/slice as a base, $4.00/slice with the white chocolate mousse filling), but otherwise no negative remarks

The Cakery:
A bakery located in dogtown, the owner is the same person that brought us The Cupcakery in the CWE. The french vanilla cake is fabulous- again, a white cake with an "almond" flavor- and the REAL buttercream frosting is sweet and delicious. The strawberry cake and strawberry filling is also very good- the filling is thick like strawberry jam- yummm! My only dislike was the vanilla mint buttercream- it was a little heavy on the mint part, making it too similar to toothpaste. Everything else was very tasty.
Pros: Great cake flavors and fillings and REAL buttercream. Excellent customer service- we had a private appointment to do our tasting and met the owner herself, who was very helpful in explaining our decorating options, tier size options, and price lists. The cake is $3.00 per slice, including all flavors and almost any decorative option- very reasonable. Their decorative skills are extensive and they had an album with photos of previous wedding cakes they had prepared to help customers come up with ideas.We got a pamphlet with all of the info to take home, and they were kind enough to accomadate us when we came back for a second tasting- I had wanted to take home a slice to share with my mom in the final decision-making process, and I offered to pay for it- they didn't even charge me and prepared multiple slices in a to-go box with cute little sample cups of fillings! How sweet!
Cons: none that I could find!

We ended up choosing...
The Cakery! We choose them because we decided we wanted to go the traditional route, with a white cake, and their white cake was our favorite. That being said, if we had gone with chocolate cake, I would have wanted to choose Cravings, but Jake isn't a big chocolate fan, and white cake is more traditional anyway, and the Cakery's is not your average white cake- the subtle almond flavor combined with the sweet vanilla buttercream is incredible! They also had excellent customer service and a decent price point. Can't wait for everyone at the wedding to taste it!

And also, since strawberry cake was Jake's favorite, I'm thinking about doing a strawberry groom's cake! I would do a St. Louis theme, since this city is where we met and fell in love, and create a design like a map with the city layout and some icons/landmarks that were important to us (ie where we first met, first date, our first house, where we were engaged, etc) Any thoughts?

Engagement Photos!

Jake and I had our photos done on Sep 26th, at Lafayette Square, Lafayette Park, and Sasha's on Shaw (a wine bar) Alecia mailed us the disc this week, and I am so happy with the results! Here are a few favorites:

Bridesmaid Dresses

I have been envisioning sophisticated, soft yellow dresses, as shown in the examples/inspirations below:

I love the way the bright yellow flowers pop off the soft yellow dresses:

So, together with my bridesmaids, we agreed upon a designer, Mackenzie Micheals, which carries all of its satin dresses in a color called "maize". So the girls will each select a knee-length dress in "maize" satin, and they can each choose a dress style that best fits their body type. Here are some of the dress options:

The second and fifth dress are shown in "maize"; the others are available in maize as well, just not pictured on the website. So now I'm just waiting to see which dresses each bridesmaid chooses!

Saying "YES" to the dress!!!

Update:
So, I got the Mikaella 1209 gown, tried it on, and it is THE dress! :) I absolutely love it and I am so happy that I took a risk! My tailor says alterations will cost around $150, so my total cost is around half of what it would have been ordered locally. So happy!

Saying "maybe" to the dress

After about 6 weeks of searching for the perfect dress (which happens to fall in the price range of under $1500... Ideally under $1000...) I have come to the conclusion that the St. Louis bridal salon's selections are limited. Realistically I shouldn't have expected any stores to carry a designer's full line. Also, I probably shouldn't have looked at desinger's websites and picked out potential dresses before I found out which ones were actually carried in the area.

More specifically, I really shouldn't have fallen in love with the Mikaella 1209 dress, only to find out that: 1.Only two stores in the St. Louis area carry Mikaella, 2.There are no samples of the 1209 dress at either of these stores, and 3. This particular dress is from last season's line, so it may be difficult to find it anywhere.

So, having found all this out 2 weeks ago, I began researching alternatives, and found one option that is potentially awesome, or potentially awful: I found the 1209 dress, size 10, silk-satin, natural, at a Westwood MA bridal boutique, being sold online as a prior sample gown. The dress is priced at $800; regularly retailing around $1400-$1800. Wow!

Of course this is a bit scary given that this would mean buying my wedding dress online, without even trying it on first... Ill-advised, I know.

So, I investigated further- first I called the customer service line- I wanted to make sure this was a real Mikaella gown, sold from a real authorized retailer. I talked to the boutique's owner and she assured me that this was the case. She emailed me several additional close-up pics of the actual gown- showing the zipper, seams, etc. The gown is in excellent shape, and the only signs of wear-and-tear from being a sample are some small pulls near the zipper. Since this dress is a size 10, and I fall in between sizes 6 and 8, these flaws should be able to be elimated when I get my alterations done anyway. So the finished product will be flawless. Finally, she assured me that if the dress wasn't in a condition I considered acceptable, couldn't be properly altered, or any other reason- even if this just wasn't the dress for me- I could return it for a 100 percent refund! No restocking fees or anything sneaky. My only cost, then, should I decide to return it is the $15 it would cost me to ship it back.

So... This being my dream dress... And probably my only way to afford it... With no other viable options in sight... Is it worth the risk?

What would you do?

Well...
I did it!!! I ordered it Saturday morning and it will be here today! I'm really excited to see it, hopeful it looks and fits great in person, and that I can stop saying "maybe" and finally say "yes" to a wedding dress! Wish me luck!

Why I wanted a spring wedding...

Spring flowers!

Here are my ideas for the wedding flowers:

Bridal Bouquet:
all white flowers including peonies, tulips, hydrangea, paper-whites and stephanotis with pearl centers, hand tied in a clean round shape, handle wrapped in white/ivory silk/satin, with pearl pins

Bridesmaid's Bouquets:
all bright yellow flowers (to pop off of the pale yellow dresses) including tulips, daffodils, and craspedias, hand tied in a clean round shape with no greenery (keeping it modern-looking), handle wrapped in grey silk/satin, with silver or white pins

Groom's Boutonnierre:

white stephanotis on soft grey lambs ear leaf, over black tux

Groomsmen's Boutonnierres:

yellow craspedia on soft grey lamb's ear leaf, over charcoal grey tuxes

Mother's corsages:

forgo the traditional rubber-band-esque corsage for a 3-strand pearl bracelet, with a cluster of white orchids with yellow centers woven onto the bracelet

Father's Boutonnierres:
cluster of yellow orchids on lambs ear leaf

Reader's Bouquets:

Small clutch of yellow tulips

Usher's Boutonnierre:

Same as groomsmen

Flower girl's petals:
IF we have a flower girl (still undecided), she will carry a spring mix of yellow and white floral varieties

The aisle decorations:

To avoid taking away from the beauty of the church, our only ceremony decorations will be an aisle runner (white) and some pew markers: every other pew will have a cluster of yellow football mums and a white sash. (Or maybe white hydrangea instead?) We can afford to do every other pew, as the aisle is fairly short, with only 7-8 rows of pews on each side. We will forgo altar arrangements.

Reception Centerpieces:

The dining tables will hold short arrangements of bright yellow football mums, tulips, daffodils and craspedias.
The cocktail tables will hold short simple 1-stem white hydrangea centerpieces. (May possibly have some of these in bathroom, other tables etc)

Escort Card Table Idea:
Had the idea of creating (yes, this may be a DIY project) a large rectangular wooden box and filling it with fresh or silk white hydrangeas, and using this base as a location for the escort card arrangement. Would it look cool? Yes. Is it practical/realistic that I could DIY it? Ummm...

Reviews of St. Louis Florists

Over the past 3 weeks I have interviewed 3 prospective florists, and I would like to share my thoughts on each

The first was Les Bouquets. This florist came highly recommended by several other vendors. The owner's name is Melinda. She seems very nice, but during our interview it didn't seem like she was really listening to my ideas. (ie- no roses please, I think they're cliche and over-used; also wanted to use mainly seasonal/spring flowers to keep costs low and keep greenery to a minimum to keep the look modern and clean) it did seem like she eventually got the ideas, after much coaxing. Two weeks later, I still had not received the proposal, so I emailed her, and she finally returned a proposal 2 days later. This proposal confirmed my suspision that either she wasn't listening or our styles did not mesh- over half of the items discussed were incorrect representations of what I had described, roses were in everything, and the propsal came in waaaaay over budget- estimated at $2200- yikes! (Our requested budget range was $1200-1600)So, needless to say, she is out of the running. (Though, to her defense I have read many other satisfied reviews and she might do a better job with someone who has a different style and budget in mind)

The second florist is RW Designs. I heard about this one from multiple sources- it was rated best florist in St. Louis by St. Louis Bride Magazine and it was also the company that did the arrangements I had admired from a "real wedding" on theknot.com. The RW stands for Rich West- he was very friendly and open to ideas, and also had great alternate suggestions for ideas that were too expensive. He had the awesome idea of using craspedia to create a more modern and masculine boutonnierre for our groomsmen, and also suggested adding football mums to some arrangements to add some sturdiness/ structure. His proposal was created during our meeting and emailed to me the same day. It had specific desciptions of each item that were exactly what we discussed and itemized pricing, which is helpful in determining how much it would cost to add or cut certain items. The estimate came in just over $1600, so right around budget.

The third florist was Artistry. This florist's office is located in the St. Louis flower market. The rep was helpful and polite, no complaints, and the estimate came in right around $1600, but I think I just liked RW designs better. Also, the Artistry estimate did not include any descriptions of each item or an itemized price list- just one total estimated price. One thing I did like about Artistry is that they allow you to preview your flowers the day before the wedding, and determine if you would like any changes before the big day. (Cool if you are a perfectionist!)

So, at this point I am leaning towards RW Designs! Hope to decide by next week.