Cake Cutting Time

Aloha all,

Here's a quick tip on cake cutting!

After ordering your personalized wedding cake (a cake you could have paid over $1000 for or have gotten complementary from your venue) the only other thing most couples think about is putting the "cake cutting" sequence into their reception program.

Well, there's just a little more to it than that!

First, make sure the vendor making the cake has the same idea of what certain terms mean. For example, a 3 tier wedding cake means 3 stacked tiers of wedding cake to one vendor and 3 wedding cakes with those skinny pillars in between the 3 tiers... Big, big difference... Pictures say a thousand words so find one and send one to the vendor so there is no mistake!

Second, make sure you select a cake cutting song so when the MC says "...and now we would like to ask the couple to do their cake cutting..." it comes on softly. The song should start as soon as it's announced so you (the couple)are not walking in silence and the MC should still be talking a little bit while you're getting situated and have the MC invite the paparazzi in the crowd to gather round and take pictures (yet alert them not to get in the way of the paid professional photographer!!!) My favorite: "How Sweet it is to be Loved by You..." by James Taylor,

Third, make sure you have someone show you how to cut the cake. A banquet captain or a coordinator should be able to assist this special ritual. If you don't have anyone to "help", here's how you do it. Once you get up the cake, the groom grabs the knife with both hands and the bride overlaps the grooms hands with both her hands. Then WAIT... make sure the photographer and the videographer are ready and then cut the lowest tier by sticking the end of the knife as far in the middle of the cake as possible and just slowly push down the knife to finish the first cut. AND POSE for the camera before pulling the knife out. Then make another cut to eventually be able to cut a small piece of cake out. Once out, the bride picks up the cake and has the groom eat a big piece and then the groom feeds the bride a good piece too. No cake fights! Just a bit of cream on the GROOM'S nose is fine. But don't put extra cake on the bride as she has makeup and may not want to have a shiny nose after the cake cutting sessions. If you do it the traditional way, you would just use your hands to pick up and feed the cake. If cleaner more civil cake eating is more your style, just make sure the venue, coordinator, etc... has a clean plate and a fork laid out along with the cake knife (and sometimes server) by the cake prior to the beginning of the reception. Also, plan for a couple dry and even wet napkin so you can tidy up any mishaps and sticky hands.

Lastly, DON'T have the cake cutting at the end of your program because you need to give the banquet staff time to take the cake away to cut and plate the pieces to serve your guests. You don't want people to stand up and leave while the cake is on the way. If you don't plan on serving/eating the cake then no need to worry. I think cutting the cake before the slideshow is great as it takes about 10 minutes for the slideshow and once the lights come on, the cake is ready to be served with coffee and tea!

See how much planning needs to go into cake cutting. Turned out to be a long tip but I always like explaining the "why" behind things. I assist my clients with advice and want to continue with providing some tips on my site/blog so stay tuned for more. Next time though I have to figure a way to make it a quick tip!!!

Mahalo and stay tuned for more!

-terri

...ain't nobody perfect...

Aloha everyone,

I'm all excited that the holiday's are coming and the year is coming to an end. The "happy" season is amongst us starting with Halloween and ending with New Years. In our family, the majority of birthdays fall between the two so things are quite festive and busy. With the happy, fun, Holiday Season comes the most stressful time of the year for most people too! How sad that something so great coincides with something so sad.

I say be happy and stay happy and sing lots of Christmas Carols and think of yummy treats and the extra days off. What's overwhelming is thinking of the millions of things you "have to do". I try to do all the "must or else" tasks and get them over with as soon as I can and then the other things can be a wish list and some to be delegated or done in groups with frinds/family and if you get done with all of these, then it's just gravy.

The Holiday Season is a time of joy and sharing and caring so why do we all try to do it ALONE. I can't remember the last time my friends called me and said "I need you to help me...like right now" I've been guilty of that in the past too as I like to think I can do everything by myself and that I don't want to bother anyone. I have three kids and I'm not a perfect mom, small things go to the wayside and I forget things sometimes... but all in all, I'm a happy mom and the best mom in the world to them. I don't really worry about measuring up to what being PERFECT means. That's one less thing to STRESS about.

Weddings are the same way, PERFECTION is highly overrated. If perfect means having EVERYTHING no matter if you have to lie to your fiancee, parents, and yourself to get ALL the bells and whisles you didn't budget for and cannot afford, then it "ain't perfect", right? Just stressing about how you're going to break it to your partner and how you're going to pay for it is just the worst thing you can have looming over your head over such a joyous occassion!

If I had to define a PERFECT wedding I would say it entails these 5 things:

1. A Happy Couple- makes everyone happy
2. Good Eats and Drinks
3. Good Company
4. Smiles Galore
5. A Stress-Free Couple who hires a day-of on-site wedding coordinator

Having a wedding coordinator on-site will help take a load off your stress level as the coordinators have ways to put out the fires without anyone knowing about it. Even if you chose to plan your wedding without a planner always hire a day-of coordinator so you don't have to walk around with your binder full of contracts, checks for payments, marriage license, cell phone by your side on your wedding day. You should truly ENJOY the day, the moment, the occassion and your fiancee to make it an unfogettable event you can label "YOUR PERFECT Day".

~terri