Wedding cakes have been around since the Roman era, and though many traditions over what to do with the wedding cake – such as breaking it over your (bride’s) head, keeping a piece to eat for your first year anniversary, or making you and your new husband kiss over the cake – have thankfully passed, almost every wedding will still have a cake. It has become the quintessential symbol of marriage.
Back then it was a simple, single-tiered, often white (to symbolize purity) cake. Over the years, the tiers have added (and added), the current contender for the record being a 17 foot, 7-tiered, 15,032 pound cake made by Mohegan Sun. As cool as this may seem, it’s certainly going to be out of place in a place like Toronto. So how should you choose among the many wedding cakes in Toronto?
What Cake Would You Choose?
It seems like a simple enough question, isn’t it? After all, a cake is a cake is a cake. Besides, how many wedding cakes in Toronto can there be? There are literally THOUSANDS of wedding cakes in all shapes, sizes, flavors, and forms, from traditional to extra kinky (yes, kinky) for you to choose and be confused from. When your baker starts babbling on about how this is better than that, wouldn’t it be nice to know what he’s talking about?
What You Should Know
Here are a few definitions that may help you sort things out when choosing wedding cakes in Toronto. Tier means layer. The number of tiers dictates how tall the cake is going to be. The most popular number is three – extravagant enough, but not too much. When you are asking for a quotation, be sure to ask if ALL the layers in that quotation are edible and not styrofoam.
The most common types of cake base from fluffy to dense are sponge, chiffon, and pound (including the fruitcake-type). For the icing, commonly used are butter cream, made of fat or butter and sugar, while foam icing is made of egg white and sugar or marshmallows and fudge icing are chocolate-based icings. All types are placed onto the base with a spatula or an icing funnel. Flat, royal, or fondant icings are basically sugar and water, rolled out into sheets and topped on the cake. However, royal icing has egg whites for thicker consistency, and fondant icing has glucose syrup and cream of tartar to give it that elegant porcelain finish.
Fondant icing is also featured on the most expensive wedding cakes in Toronto. The color to match your wedding motif may be added through the trimmings: flowers (fresh or candy), ribbons, fruit, candies, almost anything that is small enough to place on a cake can be. The last and final touch would be the cake topper. That’s the small figurine of the bride and the groom at the top of the tiers.
And Off You Go You are now armed with the basics, and can now keep up with the shop talk. Good bakers of wedding cakes in Toronto will also offer taste samples of the different cakes. So you can be assured that when you cut into that cake and give your new life partner that first piece, it will almost be as sweet and good as your love.
One of the most important areas in which couples planning their weddings usually need advice is with respect to the day’s schedule, especially as it relates to the Wedding Photography. After all, most of them have never been married before.  Your wedding day is akin to one day on a movie shoot – and as complex. So, a properly planned day means less stress, as well as the ability and flexibility to deal with the unexpected. As the Wedding Photographer, regardless of what is happening, I will always shoot whatever is available (working under pressure and unideal circumstances is the job of any useful Wedding Photographer). But, as with other things, good Wedding Pictures benefit from a relaxed bride who does not feel rushed. As I say, “Happy Bride, Happy Dayâ€.
Even under the best of circumstances it is a challenging day for the bride and groom: (a) They have probably not had a very good night’s sleep, heading into probably the most eventful day of their lives (which runs 14-20 hours); (b) They are making the biggest commitment of their lives (which hopefully entails no doubt whatsoever :-) ); (c) They are juggling the egos, insecurities and relationships within and between their families; (d) They are praying for the weather to hold up; (e) Hopefully they have delegated the myriad tasks throughout the day to reliable and capable people, otherwise they find themselves constantly having to be involved in areas they shouldn’t have to worry about; (f) I could keep going here, but you get the idea…
The point is, you can and should have fun on your wedding day. Good planning will go a long way to making that possible. Time allocation is critical to two parts of the day: (1) Bride’s Hair and Make-up (with the bridesmaids often in tow). It is well worth making the appointment earlier because I can’t tell you how often the bride is rushing to put on the dress in time to get some pictures taken and then to head off for the ceremony. Hair and Make-up can easily take longer than expected – regardless of what they tell you. Besides, you’re probably going to be up early in the morning anyway, so you might as well get down to business. If you are ready ahead of time you can relax. You don’t want to be rushed and stressed out when the day has barely begun. (2) Pictures (Family, Wedding Party, Couple).
How much time should be allotted for between the end of the ceremony to the time the wedded couple must appear at the reception? Depends. Here are some questions that must be answered before you can come up with a number:
How much mingling time is there going to be right after the ceremony?
Is there going to be a receiving line right after the ceremony? If so, how many guests? If you have 200 people it will take at least 45 minutes.
Where are the pictures going to be taken, at the ceremony location or at a park? If the latter, how far away is the park?
For Family Pictures are all the family members going to be driving to the park? That can take time and some people end up taking forever to get there. Additionally, the size of the families (or more accurately, those who are going to be in the pictures) affects how much time is required.
Is there a Videographer? If so, additional time will be required.
Depending on the time when the post-ceremony pictures begin, how much quality light is going to be available once we get to photographing the newly married couple (can anyone say, ‘most important pictures’). If it’s a bright day, there is more leeway with light, but you can’t count on that. Also, what looks like ‘enough’ light to you, may not be great from the photographer’s perspective.
Here is a typical Wedding Day scenario: Ceremony starts at 3pm. Finishes at 3:45. 15 minutes of mingling. Family Pix taken at the ceremony site – average sized family – 30 minutes. Couple and Wedding Party drive to the park. Including travel time and walking into the park, pictures commence 30 minutes later. Wedding Party Pix – 30 minutes. Couple Pix – 45 minutes. Drive to Reception Hall – 20 minutes. Arrive at Hall at between 6:30 to 6:45. Total time from end of the ceremony to arriving at the reception – about 3 hours.
Possible issues: (1) The Couple do no get to enjoy cocktails with their guests before dinner; (2) If there is a Receiving Line then the post-ceremony activities will be rushed and/or dinner will need to be pushed to 7:30; (3) If it’s a darkish day, there might not be very good light for the Couple Shots if they are done last (which is usually the case); (4) If the Family Photos are taken at the park there may be some delays if everyone doesn’t arrive at the park on time; (5) If there is a Wedding Videographer you can add 30-45 minutes to the schedule, which, like the Receiving Line, puts pressure on the schedule.
Conclusion: With dinner usually being served at 7pm, this schedule works fine, though there isn’t that much room for maneuvering. In this case, there would be more flexibility, and less stress, if the ceremony began at 2pm or 2:30pm. If there is a Videographer and a Receiving Line, then the Ceremony should not begin later than 2pm, preferably earlier.
If everything is happening in one location, you can cut about 45-60 minutes from the above scenario. In this case, you wouldn’t have to worry about lighting for photography (unless it’s raining of course), and the couple would be finished in time to either spend some cocktail time with guests and/or to have a rest before the Reception. In this scenario, keeping the Ceremony starting time at 3pm is a good idea because if you have it too early then your guests will be waiting around too long for the Reception to begin.
For the uninitiated, it’s easy just to accept what you’re told and given by the various vendors, but generally speaking they are only concerned with their own domains. So, for example, you may have your heart set on the church or venue where your ceremony will take place but if they tell you that the space is not available until 4pm, then, as you can tell from the above scenario, you will be limited with respect to the rest of your day. Does that mean you can’t use that venue? Not at all. It simply means adjustments may have to be made to plan (eg) Maybe the Couple do their photographs before the ceremony.
As a Wedding Photographer, my responsibility is to get the shots no matter what – and I do. But experience has revealed to me that when the logistics are solid then the day runs smoother, the bride and groom are happier – and the pictures are better.
Cold feet – these are two simple words that can mean plenty of things beyond their dictionary meanings. For a podiatrist, cold feet are cold sensations to the feet owing to poor circulation, nervous system disorders and low thyroid condition. For engaged couples, cold feet is trouble brewing on the horizon of marital bliss even before you can enter the wedded state. In short order, brides can say goodbye to their wedding dresses. Sad but true.Just imagine being the runaway bride leaving your groom at the altar, waiting for nothing while the guests are left to wonder and wander. On the other side of the wedding jitters fence, imagine being the jilted bride waiting for your groom to come to his own wedding. (“Where could he have gone to this time?” you ask. You should have known that when he missed his final rehearsal dinner by becoming dead drunk, he probably will not attend your wedding. But that is digressing)
If you have been on both sides of the fence or you know many people who have been there and done that, here are perfectly logical suggestions to dispose of those dresses, maybe even make a few bucks along the way.
Sell On Auction Sites
Just as there are many jilted and jilting brides, there are also enchanted brides. You can sell wedding dresses through online auction sites like eBay, UBid Online Auctions, Amazon and Yahoo! Auctions where you can be as honest as you want or you can be as sly as you need to be. If you cannot let the whole world know of your dirty deed, you can always go to the thrift stores and sell your wedding dress for a discount.
Of course, you cannot expect to sell your wedding dress for its original value! Still, it certainly beats having it inside your closet and reminding you of your brush with disaster and of your tragedy, whatever is the case.
Donate to Charities
You might not make a buck but you can change somebody else’s luck with your donation of wedding frock. (Not yours only, of course. You can include your friends’ bridesmaid and bridal ensembles, too. That is, if they want to.)
For example, you can give your wedding dress to the Brides Against Breast Cancer/Making Memories Foundation. You will be contributing to a worthy cause from an unworthy affair, which is a good way as any to dispose of your wedding dress.
Recycle It into Something Else
If you are into arts and crafts, then you can always recycle, re-sew and reincarnate wedding dresses. After all, each and every part of your bridal ensemble can be put to good use from the cloth to the embroidery. You can turn it into pillowcases, doll dresses, handkerchiefs, photo album cover, small handbags, tablecloths and napkins, and even a shawl. Indeed, why give away a perfectly good piece of expensive cloth when you can use it yourself sans the fanfare?
Now, supposing you go the route of Maggie Carpenter (the title character of the movie “Runaway Bride”), you know what to do with all your wedding dresses to make it worth your while. Of course, you can always stomp on them, tear them to shreds, burn them to hell and throw them down a cliff never to be seen again, but then what good would that be?
It’s really a great honor to get the opportunity to give a wedding speech at a wedding ceremony. You either have to deliver a wedding speech because you are the groom / bride or the father of the bride. And in some cases you are required to give wedding speeches as you are chosen as the best man or maid of honor by the groom and the bride respectively.In fact it’s a great honor to get the opportunity to deliver a wedding speech or propose a wedding toast at a wedding reception. And congratulations to you if you are reading this article to gather some ideas on how to write and deliver a good, decent wedding speech.Technically speaking, all wedding speeches are basically quite similar. Be it a best man speech or a maid of honor speech or a speech from the father of the bride- all begins with an introduction, then a few words about the bride / groom in the form of memories or anecdotes (they could be funny or emotional or both) and then ending with the speaker wishing (or toasting) the newly weds. So, that’s the basic structure. Now, you can always spice it up with your personal touch. And there are several online resources available to help you prepare your wedding speech.But whatever you do please don’t try to deliver an impromptu wedding speech if you aren’t very sure about what you are doing. Give some thought on your speech and take some time out of your busy schedule to prepare for your wedding speech so that you don’t have to worry about it the day before the wedding.
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