The OurWeddingDay Blog

Celebrity weddings and glamorous bridal magazines are a lot of fun, but nothing’s more helpful than learning how real brides plan their big day.

Meet OWD's Real Brides: real OurWeddingDay.com Brides-to-be sharing their experiences.  It’s not about the “right” way to plan; it’s about each bride planning the wedding that’s right for her.

Brooke from Corolla, North Carolina writes:

Seven months out and I am still surprised to run down my checklist and see that we have most of our wedding-related bases covered. For someone who prefers junk drawers to filing cabinets, this is a pretty big accomplishment. We have beautiful ceremony and reception venues, a delicious menu, a DJ known for getting the party started, and photographers who understand what we want (more candid, less posed and plenty of beach shots).

Most of the big decisions were surprisingly easy for us. In the weeks after our engagement, when discussions about our wedding were vague and completely uninformed ("It can't be that expensive to have be to have 200 guests"), I nearly drove myself insane with the thought of all of the overwhelming options. How will two people who REALLY love food ever choose a caterer? Do we want a DJ or a band? Formal church event or casual beach ceremony? I was literally losing sleep thinking about all of the future decisions we would have to make for our wedding.

When we finally started the planning process, my fiance and I were able to visualize the kind of day we wanted, which made all of those tough decisions I was stressing about pretty simple. We picked a few key elements that reflected our relationship and our personalities and just went from there. We knew we wanted it to be casual but elegant, intimate, romantic, and most importantly, fun. We pared down the guest list to 75 people, found a small historic chapel in the Outer Banks for the ceremony, and rented a giant beach house for our reception. Most of our wedding party will stay with us at the house the week before the wedding, and the rest of our friends and family will be nearby. I haven't second-guessed any of my decisions and I'm so excited that our wedding is all coming together so smoothly.

Yep, we've got everything covered. Everything, that is, except for the cake.

For some reason, my fiance and I are having an absurdly hard time choosing a wedding cake. In my opinion, the way the cake tastes should matter much more than the way it looks, and I am not opposed to something less traditional like cupcakes or a pie bar. He is leaning towards a more formal, three-tiered, white wedding cake that will cost more than we can afford to spend (and will more than likely not be eaten). I sort of think he only wants it because that's how he's always thought wedding cakes should look, but the rules are a bit different now. Not many aspects of our wedding are terribly traditional, other than the church and the white dress, so I don't see why our cake should be. The sad fact is, neither of us have strong enough opinions on the subject to argue about it, which also eans that we are completely ineffective when it comes to making this decision. I always thought this would be one of the easier things to check off the list, but I just can't seem to get excited about it. Hopefully that will change soon, or our guests will be wondering where their dessert is.

Has anyone else run into a similar problem? Maybe it's not the cake, but is there a certain element of your wedding that you can't decide on?

We just posted a new guide to finding your wedding cake baker in Philadelphia!

Start your Philadelphia cake baker search about 6 months’ prior to your wedding date. Most caterers offer cake as part of the package, and couples go this route for simplicity and efficiency, and to keep costs down. If you’re looking for something more complicated or stylized, hire a baker...  Check out the full article here!

And check out all of our Local Wedding Guides: New York, Miami, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Houston, Indianapolis, the San Francisco Bay Area and the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

We just posted a new article about how to find your wedding cake baker in Chicago! It's the latest addition to our  Chicago Wedding Guide.

Chicago may be known as the Windy City to outsiders, but for anyone who’s eaten there, it’s a decadent delight.  “Chi town offers an incredible array of delicious treats that will make the palate water upon sight,” says L.A. Chef David Brian Sanders, who relishes hitting dessert spots whenever he travels to the Midwestern city. Needless to say, finding the perfect wedding cake baker for your Chicago affair should be a breeze.

Check out the full article here.

And check out our other regularly-updated local wedding guides as well: New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, the San Francisco Bay Area, Miami, the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex and Houston.

We just posted a new article about how to find your wedding cake baker in Los Angeles! It's the latest addition to our Los Angeles Wedding Guide.

If California is one fabulous cake, then Los Angeles is the decadent icing on top. Cool, hip, a feast for the senses, L.A. lays it on thick. Like everything else in this town, they also do it with style. Los Angeles wedding cakes can be cutting-knife rich or New Age organic, depending on your style. “Refined sugars have been replaced by natural ingredients,” says LA Chef David Brian Sanders. “Cake Bakers are using ingredients like apple sauce and yogurt and making cakes as aesthetically pleasing to look at as they are delicious to eat.”

Check out the full article here.

And check out our other regularly-updated local wedding guides as well: New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Las Vegas, the San Francisco Bay Area, Miami, the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex and Houston.

We just posted a new article about scheduling wedding cake tastings with your potential bakers.

Cake-tastings are an imperative, and extremely enjoyable, part of the cake/baker-finding process. The service, which all reliable bakers provide, should take place 4 - 6 months prior to your ceremony, and after you’ve picked the site. Generally, you and your groom, as well as all parents, are invited to the tasting. You don’t need to have an empty stomach, as you won’t be bombarded with sweets.

Check it out!

We just posted a new guide to wedding cake bakers in the San Francisco Bay Area. It's the latest addition to our S.F. Bay Are Wedding Guide.

San Francisco is full of sweets, with pastry shops galore and dessert-laden coffee shops. Finding a baker for your Bay Area wedding should not only be fun, it should be a piece of cake. Since food trends start on the West Coast and head East, no matter what confection you choose, you’ll be ahead of the game.

Check it out!

And don't forget about the other local wedding guides at OurWeddingDay.com: New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami and the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

We just posted a great guide to finding your wedding cake baker in New York City!

How sweet New York is, what with the sweet smell of Broadway, the sweet smell of success, and, most important on your wedding day, the sweets! Finding the right cake-baker in the Big Apple should be as exciting as the city itself, and just as crowded with choices. “New York is one of the culinary capitals of the world,” says chef David Brian Sanders, “so bakers are aplenty.”

Check it out! It's the latest addition to our New York Wedding Guide.

And check out our other regularly-updated local wedding guides as well: Miami, Philadelphia, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles the San Francisco Bay Area and the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

We've told you about Cake Wrecks before, but a sight this addictive deserves another mention.

Check out this amazing wedding cheese cake (not cheesecake, mind you, but a cake... made of cheese).  Wow.  And apparently it's a trend!  We're happy to have missed that one...

Now, we love cheese.  We really do!  We love burgers too, but that doesn't mean we want a cake made out of them!  We just don't get this.  Do you?

Check out more Cake Wrecks!

We're a little obsessed with Cake Wrecks, a hilarious blog dedicated to "when professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong."

It's focus isn't really on wedding cakes (hopefully not many wedding cakes go "horribly, hilariously wrong"!), but when the odd wedding cake does show up we have to catch our breath.

Maybe Keith's bride has a truly amazing sense of humor.  We certainly hope she does!  She'll need it for that cake!