So, you want to see some behind the scenes
from the wedding?
Of course you do. Alrighty then. {Hey, I see 1,000 of you slinking quietly out the back door, that is OK. You can come back when this is over. I don’t blame you}. I was so overwhelmed by how to show you all the happenings and photos that I was almost paralyzed. What to show? Where and how to show it? Will you all be bored out of your minds? Will there be people un-subscribing right and left? Should I start a wedding blog (nah, I’m not worthy)?
But then I just decided to stop worrying and BREAK IT DOWN. And really, what better SWEET ESCAPE than to show you the CUPCAKES? And because we had a couple of sweet things about this wedding, how about two sweet escape posts in one weekend? Sure. Part Two will be Sweet Escape: The Candy Bar. Stay tuned.
When my daughter and I started wedding planning, we thought cupcakes would be the appropriate dessert choice for a youthful, fun beach town wedding. We weren’t super original with that idea, or the “candy bar” idea, but I can say they were both BIG HITS nonetheless. Thank you to all the wedding bloggers who shared ideas, we stole tons of them. Here are a few I enjoy, not only for wedding planning but for inspiration in other areas as well: Southern Weddings Magazine, A Classic Bride, Style Me Pretty.
So, in our quest for the perfect cupcakes, we visited the local cupcake bakeries and sampled all the options. {Shut up, I know I gained a few pounds in sampling}.
But at over $3.00 a piece for the standard cupcakes, we started to wonder “how much trouble could it possibly be to make our own cupcakes?” (note: only in my family would we contemplate such things).
Yeah. No trouble at all. Maybe no trouble for an ordinary day at home. But on an over 100 degree day, baking 200 cupcakes was a bit hot. But even more than the baking, the transporting of the cupcakes was the biggest issue.
We had to bake most of them at home in Portland, drive them to Gearhart to frost them and then transport them a little further down the coast to our beach house where the reception would be held. The logistics of a “destination wedding” made things interesting. Not to mention we had never used a pastry tool before.
Yes, she knows Red Bull is not healthy — she regrets this picture lol.
The upside of baking our own was:
1) the reasonable cost and
2) we could personalize them to the wedding colors and
3) my daughters & I now have great memories of frosting in our hair and flour on our faces.
And honestly, our cupcakes were tastier than any we had sampled. We ended up with three varieties.
The chocolate brownie cupcakes, topped with chocolate curls and mint green bark were SO TASTY. THE CHOCOLATE MINTY GOODNESS was to die for. We decided to make things easier and use a Ghiradelli brownie mix. Yeah, we used a brownie mix. Shoot me.
Have I disgraced the meaning of all things sacred & acceptable for weddings by not having a fancy schmancy bakery make these from scratch? Sigh. Probably. But I’m a Blissfully Domestic Diva and that means I can do whatever I want, including using boxed mixes even for a wedding. So there. I don’t get all bent out of shape over those sorts of things. Am I crazy?
In addition to the brownie ones, there were white ones made from scratch with the pink frosting and white pearl candy top, as well as the white ones with the white frosting and the pink pearl candy top. The cupcake recipe was a white bakery cake recipe found online. My daughter had to learn how to use the frosting tube in order to make them. They may not have been perfect, but they sure turned out cute enough all together on trays at the wedding.
We made batches of the brownie cupcakes and frosted the white cupcakes at our friends’ beach house in Gearhart. She was generous to allow us use of her home for some of the wedding party’s accommodations. And we took full advantage of the kitchen the day before the wedding. Just in case you are wondering, here is what this house looks like from the outside.
While us girls were in the middle of making frosting and baking at the house, we heard a knock on the door. Hello, it was a real estate appraiser. Fancy that! He wanted to take PICTURES OF THE KITCHEN. It was so embarrassing, we really had a big mess, flour and junk everywhere — I am sure my friend is going to shoot me when she sees the appraiser’s pictures. Oops! Sorry. Probably cost her a few thousands dollars off the appraisal.
Not only were we working on wedding cupcakes, but we were assembling breakfast for the next morning, and lunch for right before the wedding. Good thing there was a great big farm table for all of the food and care packages. I forgot to take a photo of the girls’ care packages. Super cute spring green Chinese take out boxes.
Once we got those pupcakes (as my niece called them) all pretty and frosted we suddenly realized we had to transport 200 of them perfectly INTACT (i.e. not STACKED) for another 1/2 hour ride to our beach house. Along with my girls’ 300 suitcases, a wedding dress, a karaoke machine and various other miscellaneous necessities crammed in my mini-van. It was a crazy day, but we managed to pull it off.
Was it worth it? I will have those memories forever. Yeah, it was worth it.
Check out THE WEDDING CANDY! The candy display was one of my favorite things we did to decorate!
Are you new here and want to read who this wedding was for? Welcome! Click here!
Want to see what our beach house (which we used for the reception) looked like just weeks before the wedding? Click here!
Oh this was a great post! I loved seeing all the pictures. It also brought back a great “Pupcake” memory of my own said by my now 19 year old daughter when she was little.
I look forward to *more* wedding photos of a lovely and intimate and love-filled event.
)
When my sister was getting married, I had the brillant idea of hand-addressing 300 invitations using calligraphy. They were beautiful but I do remember uncontrollable (slightly hysterical) laughing at 3 in the morning as we were doing them.
I have a nephew, when he was younger, who called them pupcakes too. I still smile at the memories.
“how much trouble could it possibly be to make our own cupcakes?” (note: only in my family would we contemplate such things).
NOT SO! My sister is getting married in Ohio in June of this year. I offered to make her cupcakes as my gift to her. Mind you, I live in CA. I’ve got to plan when to get to her place, go buy all the ingredients and supplies and make these cupcakes in a tiny kitchen with an oven I’m not used to. I’m nervous but excited. Your blog has been an inspiration. I know we are going to have lots of fun memories after this wedding. (BTW, my mom and I did most of the cooking for my wedding. I fondly remember a ham slipping off the plate and splatting on the floor. No, we did not serve it. My mom made my wedding cheesecakes.) Thanks for sharing your story.
Those are fantastic. Awesome for doing it all at home!
I’ve been planning to make my own cupcakes for my wedding this October and I’m so glad to finally see someone else that’s done it! My biggest worry has been transporting them, but I’ve looked and asked around, and I think I’m going to be using one of those bins for storing clothes under a bed, and I’ll be careful not to frost too close to the edges. And maybe a no-slide mat to keep them from slipping around. But that’s undecided.
I’ll be making mine from scratch.. vegan vanilla. I’m not vegan, but I just really like the recipe. Someone suggested making the cupcakes ahead of time, freezing them, then thawing and frosting. But I don’t have a chest freezer so I don’t know where I’d freeze over 70 cupcakes. So I’m just planning to take the day before the wedding off, and getting started EARLY.. I figure it shouldn’t take TOO long to make 6 dozen. Hopefully.. haha.
Thanks for making me feel a little less crazy for doing it myself!
I’m about to pull this off for my own wedding, glad to know it can be done!
Melissa, you did a beautiful job!! Well done.
I love the whole idea of a “simple” wedding for so many reasons – the lower cost, the memories made, the ability to customize things, etc.
Twitter: berrymorin
says:
All I can say is Wow! For our wedding we order a cake. For our renewal ceremony we had dinner at Landry’s Seafood House. And our cake was purchased.
I didn’t have family, friends or relatives to help me in either case. But I truly enjoyed reading how much you and your daughters had.
Ronas inspiring blog post..Wordless Wednesday – May 20, 2009
Goodness how brave! I don’t think I could have coped with the stress of producing all those myself!
Can you post the recipe for the brownie cupcakes you used? They sound delicious!