Akins-Colley, Primrose Cottage, 7/26/8

My blog would not be complete without talking about this cake .... it turned out to be one of my best achievements of the year so far. The reception was held at Primrose Cottage in Alpharetta ..... a historic home built in 1838 ... they've done a great job incorporating the old with the new .. leaving exposed old bricks as they added on the reception area. It is an all-inclusive facility ... you use their caterer / their florist / their cake person ..... therein lies the problem. They charge a huge per slice fee for their cakes ... and when my bride (Fran) showed their baker the cake she wanted .. they wouldn't do it in buttercream. So after meeting with me, and considering my per slice fee and adding Primrose Cottage's per slice fee to cut the cake, it was still less expensive for me to do the cake that no one else would do. It turned out to be my tallest cake this year. I needed to borrow a ladder to put it together. I'm very proud of how it came out. For all of you Auburn fans .. you'll like the groom cake ....

Wedding cake Photo courtesy of Fran's Uncle

Groom cake photo courtest of me

McBride-Foster, Vidalia Community Ctr, 7/26/8

This was our second delivery for the day .... we loaded the car and Clay and I headed to Vidalia, Georgia for the wedding of Lea Ann McBride and Wes Foster. This bride contacted me last year, but her mom decided that a "friend" would be doing the cake. Well, the friend had to have surgery and was unable to do create the cake ... so Lea called to see if I was still available. We left here at 1 and got to the Vidalia Community Center at 4:30. The topper was quite unique ... and made exclusively for them. She was an Eagle fan .. he graduated from Virginia Tech .. the topper was the mascots of each school. I'm sure the pro shot will turn out better than my photo ....

Photo courtesy of me .... awaiting pro shot.

So after setting up the cake (5:30p), we found the hotel (Hampton Inn) and walked into our room where I saw the most comfy looking king size bed .. I climbed up (Clay too) and promptly fell asleep ... I had pulled an all-nighter the night before getting prepared for my two 7/26 deliveries. We got up at 9:30p ...starved .... so off to dinner we go. On Sunday, we wanted to sightsee a bit, but nothing is open on Sunday. So, we headed to Hazelhurst (Clay's home town) and grabbed Clay's dad's Dining room table and chairs. It's going to be gorgeous when it's all cleaned up.

O'Keeffe-Reis, Biltmore Hotel, 7/19/8

Colleen O'Keeffe and Kyle Reis didn't want my signature flat finish .. but instead wanted what I refer to as an "old fashioned" frosting technique .. the kind my mom used to do on all of her cakes. .... they didn't want my signature vanilla buttercream, either ..... they wanted my chocolate buttercream (yum). The cake came out great.

Understandably, some brides don't like to "share" their day ... but this bride had a niece (flower girl) who's 6th birthday was the same day. I had read in the timeline that they were planning to cut a slice of cake (vanilla filled w/ baileys), stick a candle in it, and give it to this little girl. I quickly threw a little two-tiered cake in the oven, frosted it in white using the same texture as the wedding cake, put a candle on the top and had it ready to present to this sweet little girl.

Art Pinney (photographer) caught great images of both the wedding cake and the birthday cake. I can only imagine her entire wedding collection ... Enjoy.

Photos Courtesy of Art Pinney Photography (http://www.artpinney.com/)

McMahon-Klayman, Private Residence, 7/12/8

Sarah McMahon and Keenan Klayman had their reception at a private residence in Suwanee. The home reminded me of a cottage, complete with a beautiful garden .. in full bloom. A perfect setting for a wedding reception. Sarah chose my "stick" cake (also known as "The Mayan" ... named after Maya Egosi .. a former bride of mine who brought the "cake in a cage" design to me.) Her colors were shades of Purple and the cake reflects that ...

Photo courtesy of Brandi Shirley (http://www.brandelynlee.com/)

ATLANTA WEDDINGS - Fall 2008

Clay often scans the bridal magazines for me while on his lunch hour ... (now, how many husbands would do that .. he's so awesome) ... one day, he called to let me know that I (one of my cakes) was in another magazine. This time, it was Atlanta Weddings - Fall 2008.

The next day, I got an email from the bride who's wedding was spotlighted. Sure enough, on page 94 you'll see the cake that I created for Whitney Allsopp and Kevin Jackson. Their reception was held at Four Seasons Hotel in Atlanta.