Our wedding cake was rented! And made of styrofoam! It was for the cake-cutting ceremony/photo op. This is maybe a regional thing but around here the cake that you served your guests were small portions of a fruit cake that, typically, you and your bridesmaids wrapped with foil (colour-coordinated to match your wedding, of course), a little doily, and a tag that you ordered at the time you picked out your invitations.

1983, Saskatchewan.

I posted our cake in the other thread. I am only married 10 years. We were both late-bloomers/first timers. Wedding planning was enjoyable. We had about 85 guests. Our wedding was at a historic mansion. The cake was part of the dessert buffet but I do not seem to have any photos of it. We had cut-out cookies and other desserts. We did not have the top saved since we were in my hometown. The extra cake and desserts were put out for guests at the end of the night. The cake was really good, and had buttercream frosting, almond flavored cake with raspberry filling. Posting the photo from the other thread and then more detail. The frosting flowers were champagne-colored.

Here is a recent article about our wedding venue:

100 Things Series to Do in Buffalo: Stay at the Mansion on Delaware

We got married in a small town and the cake was made by a woman who lived in the country on a farm. It was absolutely beautiful white with lemon filling to keep it moist and very detailed decoration. Frosting flowers on top, no bride and groom. It was August and humid so a few of the loopy details hanging on it drooped and dropped but still beautiful.

The top of the cake was in my parents freezer on our first anniversary so we didn't eat it then. We didn't actually get the top in our possession for a while. We decided it probably wasn't very good any more. So we just kept it in our freezer. We still have it - 39 years later. We take a look at it every few years. It's faded but otherwise still looks pretty good.

I never touch it as I think it would go poof into a pile of dust.

So after my sister got married at our childhood home in ct, she moved to fl. Almost a year later, my parents were selling their home and I was helping to clean out the freeer just before the closing. I knew she wouldn't fly home just for the cake topper, so I made a rational decision and chucked it. My ex TOLD my sister what I did and I quickly lied (I'm going to he!!) and said I was joking of course.. (A necessary side note: I worked at a bakery all through high school and they made my sisters cake). So I brought a picture of her now defunct cake to the bakery and they recreated it. I left it unwrapped in my freezer for 3 weeks and then rewrapped it in time for her one year anniversary (yup, she wanted her cake). She said it was "surprisingly good. ". Ten years later, I came clean.

I have two sisters who both used Precious Moment toppers. I don't recall it being an issue. My wedding cake topper is set out every year next to my unity candle, and wedding album. I could find a picture of it--but after 29 years I could not tell you what it was made of. I know we kept the top tier for ourselves but I don't think we waited a year to eat it. My niece married two years ago. She had an array of two layer cakes all different flavors. I thought that was a grand idea. My daughter has asked if she can have pie instead of cake. That will be interesting!!

Arcy, mine is actually a music box, so not meant to be a topper.

My dear Mother saved the top of our cake and then drove across the state of PA to deliver it to us on our first anniversary. It was surprisingly not all dried out although the icing was crumbling and tasted like paper.

I saved my DS's top for the first year in my big freezer and we completely forgot about it. When I reminded him he decided to pick it up put it in his freezer and surprise his wife on her birthday. Unfortunately two days before the birthday his refrigerator died - along with the cake. So he went back to the baker and had an entire new cake made and shared it with all of us.

I learned one tip from his baker that I think it a great idea. DS and DDIL had extra sheet cakes made and cut and wrapped so that people could take an extra piece home with them.

eld6161, we also had a music box version of the topper that MIL bought us. I didn't really want to use it and I told her it was too heavy. So, the one you see on the cake showed up without the music box. Now that I had TWO of these, I felt I needed to use one. I still do have the music box one, and I'm not sure what happened to the one that was on the cake.

We didn't have an anniversary cake because we were OOT. However, the bakery said they will provide a free small anniversary cake to any customer who requests one, which I thought was a good business practice. We never did get one, though.

My mother remarried when I was a small child. It was done on a shoestring budget, as the groom was poor and on his way to law school and my mother was still young and poor. She did the cake herself (carrot) in three different sized crock pots so they would stack by size. It was held on a farm in rural Alaska. All of the kids played in the old barn.

WHen my father remarried, I was not there. But a large seventh day Adventist crowd attended from my stepmo.'s family. I guess they dont drink alcohol. My father spiked the punch. The old women kept going back for more.

arcy, my brother and his wife were married in a somewhat casual ceremony, rustic lodge, big urns of native plants and wildflowers.

Instead of a formal cake, they had a cheese cake bar with 8 types cheesecake...it was very well received!

arcy, my cousin got married last year and they didn't have a cake... they had a wide variety of homemade pies, all stacked in an old-fashioned pie cupboard next to a table so that everyone could choose and cut the pies themselves. They were a huge hit. I'm not sure, but I think the bridal couple may have made all of the pies themselves.

A friend of mine did the pie thing. Her mom was a Sunday school teacher and the ladies at the church made the pies. Tons of different flavors. They were amazingly good.

We recently attended a family wedding that made me feel very old and stodgy. My niece made the cake and she told me the groom wanted a stripper pole as the cake topper. She consulted the bride and she asked for something more elegant (her exact words). So she chose a couple of trolls on top of the cake.

Hearing about the cake ahead of time should have prepared me for the bride walking down the aisle to a rap song....and the cardboard box filled with bottles of beer that substituted for the punch bowl.

It is fabulous to have options isn't it!!

We had a really small ceremony in Las Vegas. Only my Mom, DD & SIL and a couple of friends were there. We hadn't even planned on having a cake but I have a friend who decorates cakes professionally, and she surprised us with one. It was beautiful and I still have the decorations she put on it.

It was the middle of August and something like 115 degrees outside which was not fun but we'll be celebrating 18 years this summer!

Regarding pie instead of a wedding cake, my one sis, D, did that for her (second) marriage. She arranged for a bakery that specializes in incredibly delicious pies (Ackatz?) to make and deliver many pies, along with a number of beautiful silver fillagree cake stands in different heights to display them on, for the wedding reception. I was in charge of setting up their display. I used fresh flowers around them that coordinated with my sister's bouquet and candles inside glass candleholders and it turned out really lovely. The pies were a huge hit with everyone.

We had Danish kransekage for out wedding cake. Kransekage is a Danish Marzipan ring cake. The cake is covered with flags of the different places the families are from. Also there are individually wrapped pieces of cake for taking home and putting under your pillow to help your dreams come true.

DD had kransekage too and she also had cupcakes and a cake with a topper to slice into. It went very well. Except that they never delivered the cupcakes until we phoned and reminded them. At which time they rushed the wrong cupcakes to us. NM they were delicious anyway. :). DD got free cupcakes for her first anniversary for the mess-up. Those were delicious too.

OMG, Lynn, Achatz is the bomb!!! My sisters had their pie when they were visiting and said hands down it's the best they've ever had.

They are really expanding too...popping up stores all over the place. Yummmmm!

Yeon, that is such a nice tradition.

I agree, Lukki. We have their pies every time we get back to Michigan for a visit with my family. Discovered them at least 6 years ago. Love them!

I'm single, but when my brother got married for the first time, we had the ceremony in my parents' back yard, which abutted a lake. Approx 45 attendees. My mother and father cooked everything themselves except the cake, which we catered. It was my job to bring it to the wedding/reception (also in their back yard). I was also the designated photographer and go-fer for the occasion. Anyhow, I picked up the cake, two tiers. I didn't count on all the curvy roads to get there, and the cake slid around un-nervingly. I ended up driving at about 5 miles per hour once I noticed this was happening.

We had to re-do the icing on the sides, but otherwise it looked fine.

There was no move to preserve the top. We cut and ate it. In fact, having read Dicken's Great Expectations, I'd be totally freaked out about preserving cake portions. (If you don't know that novel, Miss Haversham was a spinster who got stood up at her own wedding, and who left the wedding cake on the dining table for years and years after the non-event, and the thing was totally repulsive at the initiation of the novel itself...)

When i got married the first time we had the ceremony in a tiny little church and the reception at my parents home. It was a shoe string wedding also. My former SIL made the cake for us and we used as a topper a candy flower bouquet that someone had made for my mother's bridal shower 22 years earlier. It was perfect as my color theme was lavender and light blue and this sugar candy bouquet had faded to those color. I still have that bouquet today, now it's over 57 years old!

My second (and final!) wedding we didn't have a cake.

My younger DD's wedding was a fairy forest theme and a friend made her cake. It was gorgeous (and very tasty!) She'd used edible gold spray paint and edible butterflies. DD1 had a dessert bar not a cake.

DD2's cake

Neetsi, what a nice idea to incorporate the bouquet from your mother's bridal shower as your topper.

Lovely butterfly cake!

We were just starting out and did not have much money. I made my wedding dress, and DH and I made our invitations. We invited our parents, sisters, and grandparents to our October wedding at a local arboretum. We went to a nice restaurant and then went back to our apartment where we opened gifts and had a candy apple bar set up.

We met on my DH grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary and we're married 4 years later to the day. DD was born on my grandparent's 55th wedding anniversary.

I don't have an interesting cake story but as I was scrolling through I remembered a small wedding mishap. Our buffet table was supposed to have an ice sculpture but at the last minute it broke. So the swan became a bird body with no neck or head. My good friend whispered to me "Nice ice chicken".

Iowa, it is interesting how dates get repeated. My oldest DD's due date was the MIL's birthday. My youngest was born two days after my fathers birthday. I have two sisters and we were married 7 years apart. A few of our children have a 7 year difference in ages.

D-gw, so sorry about your ice mishap.

I'm not a fan of white cake with white icing. I found a baker who made me a 3 tier cheesecake, frosted it (lightly) with a cream cheese icing, and decorated it with fresh flowers. There was nothing left..... :-)

I think the dates are interesting too. I'm also the same height as DH'S grandma and the same height as my grandma is now. I hope I will still be able to drive when I'm older. ;0

D_gw, I can imagine how pretty the ice sculpture must have been. I hope you had a good laugh about it aftwards.

My older sis was married the same day as one of the games of thr Royals World Series two years ago. Right after the ceremony her newly mintend husband set his laptop and a huge screen so people could watch it between dancing. I have to admit I watched quite a bit of it. Good game and the best season ever.

Off-topic. Sorry!

Iowacommute, was that the Giants-Royals World Series? Dh and ds went to two games at AT&T park. There was a very tall Royals fan in front of ds. When everyone stood for the last inning of the game, he looked behind him and realized ds couldn't see over him. So he picked ds up, put ds standing on his seat and said loudly, "no one will complain about you standing there so you can see." And no one did. Dh said the guy was so very nice!

Crl, it was! It's funny because I'm KC born and raised. I left the city for two years to try the farm and the Royals win the series. Growing up with a pretty consistently lousy team, but I am so happy for them now. Crime was at an all time low during the games with the police tweeting 'please do not commit crimes tonight because we would like to listen to the games too.'

I've never been into sports, but I teared up when they won.

A cousin's wedding.

Arcy, a friend of ours had a home wedding and people made cakes like that. They were all delicious and sampling all of them was so much fun. We felt like we had free rein in a fancy bakery.

Arcy, that looks amazing. And, I like how each is labeled, so no guessing what is inside each cake.

What is the topper on the tiered cake in the back?

I got married in 1981. Weddings weren't as fancy or expensive back then for most people. We lived in a planned community then and we had the reception at one of the community centers which was actually quite nice.....a rustic looking building with a large deck overlooking a big pond. I remember just going with vendors who were recommended, no tastings, no shopping all around or hours of research like today. Someone recommended a DJ......I went with them. Same with the photographer. The priest suggested using the supermarket for the church flowers to save $ so we did. This was a bit of a mistake. Another girl was getting married before me so we met at the grocery store to pick out arrangements that would work with with both our color schemes...mine was peach..can't remember hers. We agreed on multicolored arrangements but I think she called and changed it to only her colors. When we got to the church the flowers were blue and yellow. Too late to do anything about it, but I remember being pretty ticked off about it. The caterer we used had catered a work party and I thought the food was good so we went with them. Like LynnNM we had an afternoon appetizer wedding. Years later one cousin jokingly said he couldn't believe he wasn't served a full meal while another cousin said she thought having only appetizers was very chic....lol.

Someone knew a lady who did cakes on the side. I remember looking through a photo album of cakes she had done and I guess I picked this design. I was crazy for amaretto liqueur back then so either the cake or frosting had amaretto in it...can't remember. This picture is very faded but the cake was more orange than the soft peach I had envisioned...again too late to do anything about it. We did save the top layer for our first anniversary....didn't taste very good and we threw it out. I still have the topper buried somewhere in the basement.

Yes, Joanie, weddings were much simpler then! I got married in 1983. All the magazines insisted you needed to start planning at least six months out, so I did. I was pretty much sick of the whole thing long before the wedding day arrived!

Donna

Topper as requested:

Even in '88 things were simpler. $2000 was our budget--including my dress. We had the reception in the church hall, the ladies in the parish served food brought in by a caterer. I spent the day before decorating the place. We fed 200 people and had a great time. I still would not go back and change a thing.

This past Sunday's NY Times had an article about a couple who planned a wedding in 5 days. she got engaged with a ring from Walmart (of course it was replaced) and started immediately calling in favors from friends and relatives.

Of course not everyone could attend so last minute, but she rationalized that even a wedding one year out would have the same results.

I think the take away is that you really can simplify things if you want to. Things become bigger because we let them.

Yep we had ten people at our wedding. We had a female judge marry us and my favorite literature professor read parts of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.

DH and I also walked into the room together because I thought we're entering into this marriage together so we should enter the room together.

The whole event cost us $200, and my dad paid for dinner.

Along the practical lines, the first gift DH gave me was a big flashlight. I looked at it, and said "Am I missing something?" He told me it was for my car so if my old clunker broke down I would be able to see or flag someone down.

If I saw a table of pies, I would think, but not say out loud, "oh, pies." If I saw a table of cakes, I would say, out loud, "ooooo, cakes!"

I fully understand that if I'm not the bride it doesn't matter what I think or say about the dessert options. Every couple should have whatever option strikes their fancy.

I had a cake, no topper, fresh strawberries and some type of greenery cascading down the sides (to the best of my memory). I don't think we saved the top layer, but if we did I'm sure I didn't wait a year to take it out of the freezer to eat. I know I would have defrosted that once I was home from my honeymoon.

I agree Hhireno. Although I like pies, they just don't say wedding for me. I too would be more excited to see an array of cakes to choose from.

Arcy, we did the same. We were married in '87, and we spent about $2000. I think my dress was $200. My MIL paid for the altar flowers, because it was her church. The cake had fresh flowers, and I don't remember what we did with the top layer. My mom would have been the one to freeze it, maybe she did.

I watched a friend plan her wedding about 12 years ago (she's since divorced.) She was a little older, early 30's, and she saw all her friends get married. Everything that the other friends did, she had to do, plus a few new things. By the end, she was a wreck trying to tie up all the little, unnecessary details.

Arcy, my DH (to be) and I decorated the Fellowship Hall the day of the wedding. We never did tell his mom that we'd seen each other before the wedding! (Bad luck, you know!). DMIL made my dress and my DM made the bridesmaids' dresses.

PS - DH to be saw me in my dress before the wedding, too. We're coming up on 34 years in May, so I guess we didn't create too much bad luck!

Donna

Now it's a thing to do a First Look - the photographer captures the groom seeing the bride before the wedding. The photos I've seen are always taken outdoors.

That is an entirely different thread: How thing change.

We too did the "first look" picture. It was vogue to take the pictures before the ceremony, when the wedding party was still "Fresh" back in '88. It was also considered bad form to have an open bar--no one wanted to encourage over drinking...today I am told it is the height of tacky to have a cash bar... We decided to avoid the decision and did not have a dance...we served a champagne before we ate and called it good!!

We didn't have a ceremony. We had a cocktail party for 50 people at an old mansion on Jan 2nd. The weather was really bad and the bakery was on the other side of town. Luckily, my dad was able to make it to the bakery to pick up the cake and get it to the reception site.

Rory, this photo could have been taken today! Thanks for sharing.

I have wedding cake-related follow-up. As I was finding the photos of my cake, I scrolled through the reception photos and was thinking about all the people in the photos. I was thinking especially about a grad school friend whose parents were able to attend and the photo of her and her mom and how wonderful that they could all be there. My friend's husband is an Episcopal priest and he performed our ceremony.

My friend emailed this week to tell me that her mom lost her battle with breast cancer. It was so touching that I was just looking at that photo due to this thread. As I mentioned to my friend, it is bittersweet to see the photos of the people we've lost in the 10 years, but I am happy they were there with us that day.

That is sad, gsciencechick! I often have someone on my mind and find out later that something was going on with them, and I wonder if somehow God or the universe is sending signals to us all.

I have a picture in my office of my family at my Mom's 75th birthday party, which was in 2001. We lost my sister's husband in 2002 and my mom last year. My sister-in-law is holding her grandson (my great nephew) - he was about 3 at the time. He's in college now!

Donna

Beautiful cake, Rory!