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.

Men's Attire

After winning some savings at a bridal show, Jake and I decided to choose Savvi Formalwear. Jake's tux is free (sweet!) and the groomsmen/ usher/ dads get discounts. Also, by using them, I can get a 20% discount on my gown or a 25% discount on the bridesmaid's gowns at The Ultimate Bride- one of the nicer bridal boutiques in the area, which happens to carry my favorite desinger, Mikaella....

But we were talking about the men.

Jake's choosen formalwear:

Jake's choosen groomsmen's formalwear:

They are the same tux style (Calvin Klein), with sleek-edged lapel, but Jake has choosen to wear the same tux in black, and the groomsmen in grey, to make a distinction. Jake's vest and tie will be a soft grey, and the groomsmen will wear a vest in tie in a grey tone matching their tuxes, as shown above. I think these grey tuxes will look great paired with the soft yellow bridemaid dresses!

Engagement Party and Selection of Wedding Attendants

Our enagagement party was a casual at-home gathering of each of our parents, our siblings, and the friends we choose to include in the wedding. We served cocktails and hors d'ourves, which I am very proud of! (I showed off my culinary skills with some of my best finger-foods: lemon-curry seared scallops, spicy vegetable rolls, bacon-wrapped beef cubes, artichoke and goat-cheese crostinis, hot wings, red velvet cake balls, and white-chocolate cheesecake squares!) I had already asked my friends to be bridesmaids, but Jake was shy about it and/or procrastinating, so he finally asked them at the party. (though I'm sure they had figured it out by then haha)

So here's our awesome lineup!:

Groom: Jake
Bride: Angie
Best Man #1: Ryan
Groomsman #2: Matt
Groomsman #3: Alex (Jake's younger brother, 21)
Maid of Honor #1: Laura
Maid of Honor #2: Stacy
Bridesmaid #3: Sami (Angie's younger sister, 14)
Reader #1: Sammantha (Jake's younger sister, 12)
Reader #2: Mackenzie (Jake's youunger sister, 17)
Usher #1: Mike (Angie's youunger brother, 15)

It was very important to us that we include all of our younger siblings in the wedding, but we didn't want a huge wedding party when the wedding was to only have around 100 guests. Also, we didn't want half of the wedding party to be under 21. So we thought, we would invite my female sibling and his male sibling to actually be in the wedding party, and invite the rest of the siblings to participate as readers and ushers. We absolutely wanted to make everyone feel included in our special day. :)

Another option, which we have not decided upon yet, is the flower girl/ ring bearer. Initially we did not want to have these roles, but then again I have seen some pretty cute kids in ads or wedding shows over the last 2 months, so now we are reconsidering. If we do, I'm thinking 2 flower girls and no ring bearer. My 2 older brothers each have adorable little girls- Sophie, 7, and Alyssa, 5- so if we do decide to have flower girls ( and if the church permits flower petals being thrown, some don't) then I think they're perfect for the role!

Photographer choosen!

We were lucky enough to have the first photographer we interviewed be the right one for us! I heard of her from my coworker, Trierre, and I'm very grateful for the recommendation! I will have to continue to spread Alecia's name around as more friends get engaged over the years. :) 

Alecia Hoyt Photography is a perfect match- Alecia is very talented (just view her portfolio: http://www.aleciahoytblog.com/) and her packages came pretty close to our price range. Our original budget was $1500, and the cost we came up with was $1800 to include 6.5 hours of coverage- enough time for some pre-ceremony photos, the ceremony, portraits, fun pics around town, and the first half of the reception. We were even able to negotiate an engagement photo session to be included with the package! Although it was a little bit over budget, I feel like photos are an ok place to splurge- after all, this is how we will remember the day for years to come. I will accommodate by reducing my transportation budget. It's worth it! Plus, now we get to take our engagement pictures in the fall! So... where should we have our photos taken?

Caterer choosen!

We reviewed websites for several caterers, including Catering St. Louis, Steven Becker Fine Dining, Patty Long, and Hollyberry, among others. We made several appointments but we were fortunate enough to have a positive experience with the first one, Patty Long, and we feel confident to book with them!

Jenny, their wedding coordinator, put us at ease with her welcoming attitude and reassurance that their company can coordinate as much of the reception as we like, including not only the food, serveware and labor, but also the rental of tables for gifts, cocktails, the bar, etc, and linens such as tablecloths, napkins, runners, etc. In fact, the estimate she gave us already included any tables or linens we needed!

Our estimate came out to about $7,500, for around 100 guests, to include a 4 hour open bar, 2-3 butler passed hors d'ouevres, a seated dinner including salad and entree choice, and cutting and serving the wedding cake we provide. This combined with the $2,500 facility rental fee at the Rialto puts us right at our reception budget of $10,000. Some additional options we may include:

1. Giving the guests an entree choice (ie chicken or steak, etc) = apx extra $400
2. Providing a passed champage toast (instead of guests walking to bar) = apx extra $350
3. Providing passed wine service with dinner (rather than guests walking to bar) = apx extra $500
4. A fun idea of mine- Root beer floats passed as an end-of-the-night treat = apx extra $400
5. Adding additional hors d'ouevres = apx extra $200 per additional choice

My favorite of these options is the root beer floats! Also, giving guests an entree choice would be more formal. Any thoughts?

April 30th, 2011

We have set a date! We booked The Rialto for Saturday, April 30th 2011! For the ceremony venue, We have choosen Little Flower Catholic Church, and Fr. Herzog will be our officiant. A word to the wise- get started early if you plan to marry in the Catholic Church, because you will need to find copies of your birth certificates, take the FOCCUS assessment, take premarital counseling courses and a natural family planning course, and coordinate all ceremony activities with the church wedding planner. So, now that we have our venues, we need to find a caterer. Stay tuned for next post!

Reception Venue Choice: and the winner is...

The Rialto!

                        

Why we chose The Rialto:

This location, with it's combinated aspects of clean modern art-gallery and historic architectural ballroom, had the perfect feeling we were searching for on our wedding day. We are excited to be able to provide our guests with a dining/dancing room, cocktail room, and rooftop outdoor lounge. The large windows and harwood floors will provide a pretty backdrop for our first dance and the ceremonial toasts. We're so excited!

Why we didn't choose Moulin Events:

After returning to each location for secondary visits, we discovered that Moulin Events would not let us use their ballroom, despite our offer to meet their mandated minimum of 130 guests. They basically told us that there were other brides interested, that had not made offers yet, but were lucrative potential customers because they were planning parties of 300 or more. They offered an alternate site on the first floor that was was less enchanting, but we decided to take our business somewhere it was appreciated. (After all,it's not like a $10,000 reception budget is chump change...) The customer service representative was dismissive and rude, and if they want the minimum to be 300 perhaps they should mandate that instead of 130, to make expectations more clear.

This was almost relieving, as we were having a very difficult time deciding between the two, mostly because Moulin Events is in a sentimental location (due the the engagement) but The Rialto had an environment that felt much more appropriate for a wedding (and is also in a sentimental location, near where we first met)

I think ultimately this would have been our choice regardless of the poor customer service we received from Moulin Events- that only expedited the process.

So now, we just need to check around with some local Catholic Churches, and find one that is a pretty backdrop for the ceremony and has dates available in late April and early May. Then we can select a date and book it!

Location, Location, Location...

Since Jake and I decided that we want a spring wedding, we are hoping for late April or early May of 2011. This may be tricky because we are only about 11 months away, and as ridiculous as it seems, many places book 12-16 months ahead. We thought that was just something people said, but apparently it is true! Windows on Washington, as well as St. Ambrose Church ( 2 of the options we initially discussed) are already booked for the whole spring season! So it looks like we will need to move quickly. 2 prospective reception spots:

1. Moulin Events: This rustic french-themed venue is in Lafayette Square, and housed in the same building as Vin de Set- the dinner location from the night Jake proposed! So naturally this seems like an appropriate wedding location. However, we found several disappointing facts- First, the rooftop is not available for use, and we had hoped for some outdoor lounging space. Second, the venue is fairly expensive- starting at $77 per person plus aa additional room rental fee- but this does include many perks, such as a free champagne toast, table linens, and a personal concierge for the night- and the menu sounds delicious. Third, the ballroom, though huge and beautiful with its historic wood floors and brick walls, has a completely exposed ceiling of pipes and tubes. I understand that an exposed pipe or two is considered "modern" and "lofty" but eating dinner under an entire ceiling of old gray pipes doesn't exactly say wedding to me. I wonder why they never finished the ceiling? Or at least painted the pipes and ceiling a clean white so it looked less dirty and warehouse-like. Fourth, the location charges extra for many items- for example, to decorate the room with hanging paper lanterns, you must personally purchase the lanterns (average $1-$2 each) and then it costs and additional $4 per paper lantern in service charges? $4 each, just to hang them up, Seriously? Despite these concerns, we are still very interested in the location because it simplifies the process with an all-inclusive servicec (site, catering, linens and coordinator all from one vendor), and because the location has sentimental value.

http://www.moulinevents.com/

2. The Rialto: This sophisticated venue is located near SLU (where we met) and the Fox Theater. It is located on the top floor of a modern arts building, in a ballroom-like environment. It includes 3 spaces: The ballroom, which is where we could place the seated dinner and the dance floor; the atrium, which is an adjacent cocktail lounge with (you guessed it) a large atrium skylight; and the outdoor terrace, which has lovely city skyline views. The perks to this is that it has a cleaner, more elegant feeling than Moulin, with hardwood floors, large windows, a finished ceiling, and interesting architectural details; it also provides multiples spaces which allows for a cocktail room, and an outdoor lounge area like we wanted. The unfortunante part is that the facility rental fee is fairly high ($2500) and the venue is not all-inclusive, so we would need to provide our own caterer, linens, etc. So, our ability to afford this location would be dependent upon the price range of our caterer.

http://www.rialtoballroom.com/

Color Scheme

In case you couldn't tell from my template, I am leaning towards a sophisticated pale yellow and charcoal grey color palette. (Yellow for bridesmaid's, white for me, grey for groomsmen, black for Jake) I thought maybe some very small pops of bright yellow too- primarily in the flowers. I don't want to add another accent color because I want to keep it simple and elegant; not too prom-like with pinks and purples and blues. The look we want to acheive is classic formal romantic sophistication- pearls, candlelight, tuxedos- meets our fun modern young style- yellow, grey, lots of white, simple clean lines, indie rock, cocktail hour, spring blooms in round arrangements. I'm hoping these color tones can evoke all of these things!

ENGAGED!

Last Saturday night, 5/22/10, Jake and I got engaged!
We are so excited and I want to share all of the wedding planning progress!

But first, here are some stories of us... :)

How we met:

Jake and I have been dating for 4 years and 3 months. We met in college, in our dorm building. My roomate and I were on our balcony with some friends, and we noticed that there were some cute guys 1 balcony down, 1 row over. They noticed us too, and soon started trying to get us to come meet them. When we flirtatiously refused, they resorted to some entertaining antics: they starting singing and serenading us! Finally we agreed to come to their apartment to meet them.

Over the next few months we all became close friends. I thought Jake was cute, but I just wanted to stay friends and I wasn't looking for anything romantic because I had a boyfriend. But, after that situation turned sour (I was cheated on, lied to, etc... the usual long-distance story, we broke up) Jake saw his opportunity. We flirted at parties and had sweet moments and long conversations together. A few months later we started dating and the rest is history!

Milestones over the last several years:

2/3/06- Jake and I started dating!

3/16/06- We told eachother "I love you" for the first time!

12/16/06- We adopted a dog together- Minnie!

4/22/08- We moved in together into our first apartment, on the hill!

5/19/08- We went on our first major vacation together, to Europe!

6/25/09- We bought our first house!

And now.... 5/22/10... we are engaged!!!

How we got engaged:

Jake told me to get dressed up for our date night, so I put on my black heels and my little black dress with a silver belt, and he met me in his navy and whie pinstriped shirt grey slacks and a navy tie. He took me to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Vin de Set, in Lafayette Square, a historic french neighborhood in St. Louis. The table was on the rooftop patio, and we were seated around 8 pm, just as it was getting dark outside. String lights lit up the patio and the St. Louis skyline was visible as a backdrop. We had a delicious dinner and a bottle of wine, relaxing and laughing together.

After dinner Jake suggested we continue the date with a stroll through Lafayette Park. This park has always been a meaningful location, as one of our first dates was a picnic there, and many of our favorite date restaurants and bars are in the neighborhood. The warm spring weather and moonlight provided a perfect secluded setting for the moment. As we crossed over the bridge overlooking the pond, Jake got down on one knee and asked me to marry him! Of course I said yes, and we hugged and kissed and cried and giggled to ourselves for the next hour or so.  Then we called our parents, who weren't suprised- Jake had talked to my parents and asked for their blessing earlier that week!

So that's the story of Jake and Angie! Keep posted for more!