Joel and Ally's wedding- Part 3- The Final Chapter

I feel so lucky to be able to share such a beautiful wedding with you all.

Alison and Joel had so much style to thier wedding. Intricately planned from out west- where they live and work- organising most things over the net and during the short times they had here in Brisbane.

For those of you that have read the two previous parts to this trilogy here is the final chapter:

After Alison and Joel's ceremony we had a chance for a little relax before the reception that evening.

The reception began with drinks at the Bar and some yummy canapes.  

The room was beautifully lit with soft lighting and candles- fresh flowers were everywhere.

A solo guitarist played in the background - it was the perfect ambiance.

The place cards/menus mimicked the invitations and tied the whole theme in together.

Joel and Alison's bomboniere was little lolly jars- filled with rock candy which had "Joel and Ally" written on the inside- too cute! 

 

The food was plentiful- 5 courses- plus cake! Oh yes there was cake too............did I mention I make cakes ;-P

Making a cake for a family member carries so many emotions. While I love and respect the purpose of each and every wedding cake I make- when you are personally invested in the event it is just that little bit more special.

As you would have noticed from the past chapters- Alison and Joel are quite humble people- they are in no way pretentious- nor do they ever "expect" anything. They are truly grateful for anything they receive. I was so excited and honoured to be able to create their wedding cake. Being able to design a cake with no budget to adhere to- no sizing restrictions- just an open slather to create something really beautiful for them both!

Big was always on the cards- I LOVE big cakes- cakes that make a statement- cakes that make your guests go OOHHHH AHHHHHHHH!  Cakes that require a two person lift heheh!

As soon as I saw Alison and Joel's invitations I had ideas spinning around in my head. Not wanting to be the pushy SIL who was deciding on a design for them- I asked Alison and Joel to show me what cakes they liked- so I could create an adaptation for their wedding cake.

Alison and Joel loved the Wedgwood Desire cake from my site- and were content with the cake as it was- but really- a two tier cake- I could do far better than that for them!

With a pale "ice" lilac invitation- with a lace and pearl detail- it was almost destined to be replicated onto their cake.

Alison had asked for the cake itself to be purple- "OK" I said- knowing full well in my head that the cake would be as pale as possible- to keep it elegant and subtle. In the weeks leading up to the wedding I received a call from Alison asking "do you think the purple colour is going to be OK??" to which I had to confess- although I agreed face to face a "purple" cake- it was never going to be purple- per se- but a very pale ice lilac colour........all was good :)

So I decided to Double the Wedgwood desire size- creating a 4 tier version ( with 6 cakes inside). This cake was so big- I couldn't lift it on my own. I couldn't even move it to take a good picture of it at home.

After carefully taping it into its box- we delivered it to the venue on the morning of the wedding. I don't think the venue were expecting such a large cake- especially given that it wasn't the dessert- just take home and with tea and coffee.

So back to the design.

The cake was a double height base- with a scalloped "lace" pattern through the middle. String pearls and ribbon through the centre of that. Then the third tier was plain iced with strung pea sized pearls- the second tier- another double height tier- decorated the same as the base- and then the top tier plain with pearls. The entire cake was lustered in a pearl effect and four large open rose blossoms across the design.

The sugar roses made petal by petal- really gave an elegant feel to the cake.

I really enjoy getting to see the bride and grooms reactions when they first see the cake. Holding my breath as I wait to see if it is everything they had hoped for. It is not often these days that I get to see this- so I was really excited to see Ally and Joel's faces when they looked at the cake for the first time.

When we were designing the cake I had drawn the cake up and coloured it in- and to my own surprise it did really look like the drawing! Fantastic!

To give you an idea of the true size of this cake- the invitation at the base was 15cm Square- the cake itself stood around 60cm high and weighed- allot! Steve wanted me to put a can of coke beside it to explain it real size... boys!

The other cakes I made that same week seemed to look quite tiny in comparison.

There was over 7kg icing used to cover the cake- the third tier was a 3kg fruit cake. No less than 8kg chocolate was used- as well and all the butter eggs flour etc...... so yes it was a monster indeed. Alison and Joel also had some guesst with dietary requirements. I also made a Spiced Chocolate cake- which was gluten/dairy/egg and nut free cake- which I pre boxed and labeled for each special guest. I was stunned at how good this "free" cake was! Amazing really. It also (inside the cake itself) had no refined sugar- just maple syrup instead. It was moist and rich ( loaded with dutch cocoa) layered with an orange frosting- if you didn't know it was "missing" ingredients- you would never have known. 

When Alison and Joel stood up to do the cutting of the cake- the size was just a perfect "Wedding cake" size.

The cake didn't tower over them- nor did they tower over it.

So after a very big meal- and dessert- The cake was served with Tea and coffee- and it was also boxed for the guests to take home. Each guest receiving a finger slice of each of the four flavours inside.  

 

Alison and Joel had chosen- White Raspberry- Almond Mocha Mud- Caramel mud- and my favourite- Rich fruit cake! YUM! They kept the top tier for themselves. 

I wished I had have had a video camera- to show all of my clients who say "no one eats cake" all of the guests who were going back for seconds and thirds - to the coffee station to get more. This cake would have served over 240 guests as dessert from the entire cake- and with less than 100 guests at the reception- there was barely 1/4 of the bottom tier left to take home.

So after a reception filled with love and good wishes- it was all over. Such a great Wedding- every part of it- tied together beautifully with Alison's beautiful attention to details and elegant styling efforts.

Alison and Joel chose some wonderful vendors who made the day flow seamlessly.

I also want to say a massive thank you to Alison and Joel for letting me help - where I could- with their special day. It was my pleasure and my honour to be apart of your wedding and wish you both all of the joy and happiness you deserve.

Well that is a wrap.......... 

Thanks for reading 

SJ