A cakery with a sour taste

About 2 weeks ago I started contacting Charlottesville cakeries with the hope of scheduling a tasting this coming weekend. My fiance starts his Spring Break this weekend, so the timing was right and I'll be completely absorbed by work next month as it's the month right before my work event (and May just seemed like it was getting much too close to the wedding...*stifling mild scream of anxiety*). I contacted Cakes Unlimited LLC, True Confections by Carlotta, and Albemarle Baking Co. as they were the vendors recommended by Keswick. The first two were wonderful in responding, being open, welcoming, and helpful. We are so excited to meet with them next week. However my experience with Albemarle Baking Co. was very disappointing. ABC said that they had an opening at 8AM or 8:30AM. I asked if they had an opening later in the day as we were driving from 2 hours away and my mother was driving from 3.5 hours away. (And a cake tasting at the crack of dawn just did not sound appetizing at all.) Her response:

Since we start early in the morning, 8:30AM is my last appointment. If you are serious about meeting that day, I can come back to the bakery later that day to meet you around 2PM. Will that work for you?

I was very surprised by her response but gave her the benefit of the doubt, maybe she was having a bad morning, even though it seemed very inappropriate to me. My response:
Good afternoon X,

I am definitely seriously considering Albemarle Baking Company for our wedding cake, that is, if you are not yet booked for August 2, 2009.

I have confirmed with my mother and fiance and you are still available, 2 pm would be a great time to meet. I'm afraid that 8:30 AM would be too early for us to taste the cake and I wouldn't want the early time to affect how we receive it. However, if you much prefer to meet with us on another day, I can let you know when we will be returning to Charlottesville. It will most likely not be until mid-May as I also work events and the last 3 weekends in April are booked for me. . .

I can send you an email later this week with more specifics as to what we are looking for in the cake. Right now, we prefer the square tiers over round and some exotic flavors, like mango, passion fruit, and coffee (but not in the same layer!). . .

ABC responded that they could meet at 2PM but there would be no cake to taste at the bakery. (What kind of bakery doesn't have cake on hand?) BUT, if I wanted to order a cake to sample, it would cost $20-$30. I understand that it's quite expensive to put together a tasting. However, the tone of her response and the overall manner in which she treated me left me with a very sour taste in my mouth. In the end, a hair and makeup artist I'd contacted said she was available to meet at 1:00PM, so we ended up taking her appointment. I let ABC know that our plans had changed, but if we were still looking for cake bakers in mid-May, perhaps I would contact her when our schedules better align.

Hopefully things will work out this weekend . . . but now I have minor cake another minor crisis to tend to. . .

Save the Dates!

They've landed! I've been waiting to write this post so that no one would get a sneak peak at the Save the Dates until our future guests had received them. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to do something like a map or picture that was representative of us but make a picture of us be the focal point of the Save the Date. I'm totally fine if I receive something like that from someone else, but my fiance and I weren't keen on the idea of our faces looking out from a refrigerator at our future guests reminding them about our wedding - just not our style. Also, we wanted something simpler so we didn't have to worry about envelopes and licking and gluing and all that mess.

I, too, love Laura Hooper's work, but alas she was not in the budget. So, I turned to the best alternative, my wonderful sister and Maid of Honor. It was actually really fun to work on them with my sister and now we have a very special keepsake for our wedding with my sister's signature on it, literally. All the way across the ocean in London, she work on different sketches and the font and would send me pictures of what she'd dreamed up. It was always so exciting for me to receive her emails with pictures of her ideas.

Here she is making her drafts and practice sketches over the winter holidays.Also, I wanted them to be hand-addressed, so I undertook the task of addressing them myself. I totally loved it, too, but I love writing stuff out. So found a font that I liked and practiced it several times before trying it out on our postcards. It killed me to cut stuff out, but it was necessary (below is our Photographer's Save the Date).Below, our personalized stamps with a photo from our engagement session, courtesy of our awesome photographer, Robert Holley of Robert Holley Photography. This still keeps with our refusal to look out from the fridge at our future wedding guests, but still allowed us to use a picture because we love them so much.
The Save the Dates en masse:And the front of the Save the Dates:
Oh how I love paper.

Conference for the Engaged

What a weekend! Yesterday from 8am-4pm Sig. Keswick and I were in Vienna for the Arlington Diocese's Conference for the Engaged. As part of our Pre-Cana preparation, we are supposed to attend a conference such as this or meet one-on-one with a married couple for several times in addition to meeting with our priest. We chose this option as it was easiest to schedule between my work and his school projects, etc. Honestly, it was a very positive experience! We were curious and a little anxious on the drive in the wee hours of the morning but we enjoyed it (or at least most of it). It helped us learn more and understand the Catholic church's perspective on the sanctity of marriage and really reminded me how spiritually significant and important of an undertaking we will be making in less than six months - and I liked that. Sometimes you get caught up having the perfect wedding (however you define it) and it was a nice reminder how the marriage will last long after the cake, the flowers, the favors, even the photographs and memories.

We also sat a table with 3 other couples and they were really great to get to know. One couple even goes to the same church as us AND the bride's Filipino, so I felt an automatic connection from her from the beginning - especially since I feel like I know nothing about Filipino weddings but am dying to learn more but don't know where to look. The other two couples were also really nice and all 3 brides and I exchanged contact info so we can hopefully get together to talk about our experiences, good and bad. Especially with all my far flung bridesmaids, I really hope it will help me stay motivated and excited to be able to share the excitement and frustrations with someone else that's going through the same thing and that can empathize. (Although one of my girlfriends from school just got engaged this weekend and I am more than elated for her and her fiance *eeek* so crazy to say that! And I can't wait to share all my knowledge with her so that she doesn't experience the same confusion or stress that I did, or at least help her avoid doing so.)

Even if you're not Catholic or religious, I strongly encourage everyone to undergo some kind of marital preparation. There are so many *important* things to know/learn/ remember after the honeymoon phase that will help a marriage last, like communication and sacrifice, that we often forget in this fast-paced life.

Bridesmaids Dresses: Part 5 of 5

Yay!! After several months of searching, we have our bridesmaids dresses - and they're ordered and paid for. I went to the Amsale Bridesmaids Dress Buying Party at Hitched a week ago eeeearly (5 PM) - yes, I actually left work 30 minutes early just to make sure I got there on time. Kati and I went straight to the chiffon dresses (new for Spring 2009). We / she tried on all the beauties I first spied online and we fell in love with them all over again. They were so flattering, forgiving, and I loooooove the dresses in Cerise.

And now, for our lovelies:
Amsale 456c (shown in Cerise, crinkled chiffon)Amsale 454c
Amsale 455c

Amsale 450cAmsale 451c
I decided to pick out 5 dresses so the girls could choose the dress that's most flattering on their figure and they felt most comfortable getting and they will all be wearing the same color in Cerise, which is my favorite color of all time. Seriously.

It was kind of a tedious process to order them as I was seeing them for the first time during the trunk show and then had to decide that night if we were going to get them to take advantage of the 15% discount. So we tried on dresses, I looked for wifi at 2 different internet cafes to email the girls the pictures, couldn't find one, and just called all 7 of them. They were all on board if I thought they were a good choice, and Kati and I definitely loved them. Some were concerned if they would have to wear a strapless bra under all of them, I assured them that was not the case with Amsale 454 (the halter top with ruffles) - it's definitely thick enough at the top at the neck to wear with a converted strapless/halter bra. Some were a little concerned about the color, too, but Kati and I have very different coloring (she's more fair and porcelain colored and I'm more olive toned) and we both thought they still looked good on both of us. I didn't necessarily have to convince the girls, but I definitely wanted them to feel comfortable in trusting me. My sister, the Maid of Honor, will likely go with a longer, tea length option rather than the cocktail dress to look a little different from the rest.

I do hope they turn out well. I just love them so much and really have high hopes that the girls will like them too and that they'll look as stunning as I think they will.

Free Shutterfly Photobook

Hi all. I've been trying to think of a good keepsake to take the place of the traditional guest book: Signed wedding barrel stave to use as a lazy susan, signed matted picture, and of course a photo book. Sig. Keswick isn't a big fan of the signed matted picture, so my choices were narrowed slightly last night. And then, this morning, lo and behold, in my Inbox was an email from Shutterfly: Free 8x8 Photobook until March 10! Just visit their website and get started :) I've already begun mine.

Photo: Courtesy of Shutterfly

Music Sheet Envelopes - loooove

Browsing this morning and discovered the wonderful work of Tracy K, aka Adnagam on Etsy. According to her shop announcement, "I'm like the In-n-Out of paper. They only sell burgers and I only sell envelopes (and sometimes notecards.) I feel like the art of handwriting notes is escaping us, so send a friendly note and make someone's day! "

I saw these beautiful sheet music envelopes and had to share. They're so bright and fun yet simple and elegant. They'd be great if you're musicians or just love the look of something vintage. She's also on Twitter! Happy <3's Day!

Save the Date Handkerchiefs

Mike and I are busy finishing our Save the Dates to mail out on Monday. But, since we're on the subject of Save the Dates, I thought I'd post a couple that I'm almost sad we didn't think of (almost because I still love mine and how well they tie in with our wedding).

These finds are thanks to Lucky Luxe Couture Correspondence via Elizabeth Anne Designs and Victoria with Roses.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!