Wow! The cake looks super cute and the description of the layers makes me want a slice of each. A cute idea all around. And, yes, I think you could start a viable business. I bet couples would be flocking to your new venue.

Wow, great photos! What a lovely memory the bride and groom and their guests will have!

I love a good WASC cake and that raspberry filling is right up my alley! Mmmmmm, chocolate cake with white chocolate mousse is to die for too, and bringing it all home with dark chocolate cake with p-nut butter filling is a hit right outta that park!!

What a great job on the birch tree look! You have some major talent there, missy!

Definitely looks like a nice party, but it takes "horse people" to appreciate a working barn, aroma-wise. :) Beautiful cake! Felicitations to the bride and groom.

So nice of you to make their wedding happen. Great job and yes, sounds like a cottage...I mean barn industry.

Hey, maybe I could start a new business, farm weddings!

Apparently there's a market. Was reading about it on another forum.

Love your cake!

Vodka bottle shaped like a gun? Why???

Thanks, Sooz, fondant is actually kind of fun, like play-doh. And, I get to practice and see what I'd do differently the next time. (Use cake pans that are more different in size, those were too close together and didn't give me a nice "ledge" for the tiger lilies, which matched the bride's bouquet. I missed the wedding which is unfortunately, because I've never seen Heather (the bride) in anything except blue jeans and boots. But Elery had that hip replacement last week and no way could he navigate the farm/barn/gravel driveway/etc. with his walker, so we begged off.

Cindy, I really don't get the vodka thing, the "kids" were laughing and talking about "shooters", so maybe it's a liquor industry pun? I was focused on Sunkist orange and vodka, LOL, the kid version of a screwdriver?

plllog, the barn doesn't really have a smell, I keep it open and the animals go in and out as they wish, I don't have dairy cattle, I raise beef, and the horses are free to roam the 40 acres of pasture with the cattle. The pigs, now, that's a different story, LOL, and the chicken coop is right next to the barn. Fortunately there was a high temperature of 60F today, and so little to no smell, other than the pig roasting. I'm still wondering how the guys got dressed in a horse trailer, though....

Ah yes, that pig. It's actually "mystery meat", which is most commonly a pig stuffed with venison. The fat from the pig keeps the venison moist, and everything just gets served together and people take what they like.

Cathy, they're nice kids and work hard. I wanted them to have a nice party, at least.

So farm weddings are now "cool"? Wow. I hate to say it, but I'd far rather deal with animals all day than crazy stressed out brides and their hapless grooms. This young couple is extremely casual and will take what comes, but if I started charging people for the barn I know the demands would start.

That's why I only bake for friends and family, I won't sell cakes. If a ruffle is 1/8 inch off, I don't have some ticked off person explaining how they spent xxxxx for a cake and it had better be perfect.

Annie

Did Mr. Haney show up to officiate?? :) My best friends got married in a barn in 1989. I guess they were ahead of the curve. I was looking at wedding venues up your way the other day and I saw an add featuring a barn, just that, an empty barn, saying it was available for weddings. Nice work if you can get it!

LOL! Annie, it's my citified nose. :) I like the smell of hay, but the haybarn on the ranch at high Summer was too much for me. I actually prefer the smell of horse stalls, but that's not a wedding-ish smell either. Glad to know the horses were out enjoying the cool weather. :)

Nope, they had a pastor, driving a big white Ford truck, Laurie.

Here's a nice picture of the groom...

and one of the bride...

Annie

Looks like a great party!....Beach weddings with all the party barefoot and in casual beachy clothes are all the rage.....I guess farms and barns are next!
I have stumbled upon several "different" wedding ceremonies....one in the courtyard of the Taos Inn in new Mexico....where they knocked on doors to find witnesses and the groom and "pastor" wore new Levis. another on the top of a mountain in Vail, the groom was the tennis pro at a resort there, and when the couple kissed all the guests threw tennis balls instead of rice.
As long as the marriage "takes", who cares what the wedding is like, as long as they are happy!

That camo vest and tie, be still my heart. Handsome couple and looks like tons of fun. Does remind me of my friend's wedding. Theirs took pretty good, 27 years and counting.

So much nicer than a formal wedding IMHO. Lovely!

Annie, as always, you're the best. What a good friend you are to do that for the young people. This wedding looks like it could just as easily have been in Texas.

We're going to my nephew's wedding this November in California. It's at his bride's parent's ranch, which also happens to be a wedding venue. I guess it has become a thing for ranches and farms to host weddings.

Sally

I want to see youtube videos!

Better yet, invite me the next time. :-)

This is a real and meaningful wedding. I have been to too many fake, pretentious and expensive weddings.

dcarch

You gave them a nice start and sounds like they got just what they asked for -- you are such a sweetie to help them out! I was talking today about community and how we all used to have friends that supported us, neighbors and family. Sounds like you still believe and live that.

My age will be telling, but I remember going to many an older cousin's wedding where the dance was held in the hay barn. It was fun sitting on the bales in the loft watching the elders dance below us. Wedding in the church, meal on long tables set out on the lawn and the dance in the barn. Thanks for the memories, Annie.

I do like un-pretentious weddings. Such pressure on family. Your cake is gorgeous and i'm sure appreciated. No need for fancy expensive.

We went to city hall 26 yrs ago and had a big party a few months later.

We hosted a wedding on our farm a dozen years ago and have been asked to do it for others but not a chance in heck/no way...they were/are good friends and it was so much work...but i would not do that for anyone else. (fun for good close friends).

Love a wedding without such high expectations for perfection. Go with it and have fun as it should be. The whole point is to celebrate the beginning of a new family.

I like all weddings, formal, informal, and even the crazy expensive ones :) After all, it's not like I'm paying for it.

But, I particularly love weddings where I don't have to do anything, except play guest. I was lucky my clients were, for the most part, sane and reasonable people. However, I do not miss any of it. The wedding cake business is extremely stressful - but only from its conception to its destination :)

Anyway, the cake is wonderful; especially the 'heart carved into the tree.' The couple will always appreciate the effort you put into their wedding.

Sol

A fun wedding with family and friends and a beautiful cake....what more could you want? Great job on the cake, Annie!

Just perfect. Congratulations to the bride and groom. May they have many years of happiness. Your young assistant did a fantastic job with the decorations too.

Annie, you are such a great person. You are always there when someone needs you and you do beautiful things with cakes. I just love this one. Yes, you could do cakes for a side business, but you do so much already. The young couple had their wish come true and will have such wonderful memories. When Darrell finally out and out proposed, a different story, I knew we had to have our wedding at my mom and dad's house. My dad had never seen any of his children get married. My first marriage took place in Tokyo, but the others were local. I decided if we couldn't get Mohammed to the mountain, we'd get the mountain to him. We were married in their living room in front of their white fireplace by candlelight. Mom and I used to do wedding cakes, so she made ours, the punch, etc. I made my sister's and my peasant style gowns from material I had had kept when I closed my fabric shop in Virginia. At the last minute I got my sister and I each a rose with baby's breathe. All under $100. It's lasted almost 43 years so I guess it was a good one. I hope this young couple is as fortunate. Oh, and when we made wedding cakes, one couple didn't tell us the wedding was actually taking place in her parents' back yard. Hot June day. We tried to tell her the four tier cake would melt, but she didn't care. Sometimes they aren't so picky.

Annie you're so great! What a wonderful thing to do. So proud of you. Bet your eyebrows got quite a workout talking to her/them about it. LOL. Glad for them to have a friend like you.

Thanks, but all I really did was bake the cake and let them clean out my pole barn. I got the lawn mowed, the weeds whipped, the pole barn hosed down, the barn door put back on the track and a nest of hornets eradicated and neither Elery nor I had to do any of it. So, it was all win-win for me, I just had to let a bunch of kids follow me around for a day and decorate a cake, plus Elery and I snacked on the cake scraps!

The porta potty is still there, though, I'm not sure when that's going away, LOL.

Annie

The cake is so beautiful! I had a similar cake at my wedding last month here in South Florida and it was baked by mother as I was adamant that she would bake my wedding cake rather than buying it from outside.

Thank you, Laura. I've made the wedding cakes for both of my daughters. One had fondant because she wanted her cake to "look perfect". The other had buttercream because she didn't care if it was perfect, she wanted it to "taste good". Both had homemade from scratch cake, so it was only the fondant that was disgusting, although the kids seem to love the stuff.

And as for that wedding, I still haven't found all my fencing supplies and I had to buy new grooming brushes for the horses because I never did locate those either. That's what happens when someone else cleans out your pole barn!

I have had two people who wanted to hire me to make similar cakes, but I have no intention of being at the mercy of a bridezilla who doesn't want to pay me because the ruffle on her cake is 1/16 of an inch lower on one side or something. Ugh. I bake for friends, for family and for the fun of it, I do it in my own time, my own way, and at no charge.

Annie