Wedding Cake down, Engagement Session ahead!

Warning: I have had 3 cups of coffee and it’s only 9:30am. Continue reading at your own risk. Thoughts may be scattered, may make no sense at all, or may be oddly coherent…possibly all three? Although if you’re right there with me in the mindset of the highly caffeinated, you might be reading this as fast as I am typing it. If the words stop abruptly, it’s possible my heart exploded as I don’t think I’ve ever had 3 cups of coffee in the same day, let alone within an hour and a half.

I think the first fun thing to report is a run-down of the cake-tasting yesterday at Celso’s Cakes in Norcross. I knew that an appointment in which I would be required to taste-test cakes would kick booty. There was no doubt in my MIND that this would do anything but completely rock. And, I knew that M.O.H. Nicole was on-board with donating her time and taste buds as Bryan doesn’t usually eat cake (and even if he did, it’d be fun to have Nicole along anyways!).

When Bryan announced he was coming along I thought, “Oh boy, so a person who is not even going to eat the cake is going to try these, not like them, and harass me about what tastes good more than likely in front of the pastry chef…this is gonna get interesting”. On top of it, in addition to Bryan being obsessed with monograms on the invitations, he is also obsessed with having 2 linked hearts on the cake either in the icing of the cake itself or as a cake topper (“Two hearts coming together as one…like us, baby” as he often tells me when I ask him WHY he likes this design).

A side note: I have nothing against this concept or design. If you have used this at your wedding or have seen it at a friend or loved one’s wedding, it’s a perfectly nice design! It’s just not me – the Tomboy Bride. That being said, my obsession: pine cones and pearls. I’m just a woman of many paradoxes.

Ok, back to the story: So I was, to put it nicely, slightly worried about Bryan coming (but still pleased that he wanted to come even though he doesn’t like cake – I know it indicates that he cares and wants to be involved in the wedding, so please don’t think I view it as a complete negative!)

What ended up happening?

This appointment went more smoothly and was more fun than I ever could’ve imagined. Celso’s Cakes is closed on Sunday to the public, but open by appointment only. So my initial fear of having thousands of people milling about the bakery during our tasting was put to rest right away. When we walked in, there were 2 place settings out for us (and without even a bit of hesitation, they set up a 3rd setting since there were 3 of us). Fresh coffee was being brewed and 6 slices of cake – each of a different flavor combination – was set out on a silver platter. We were talked through each of the cakes and – this is not a joke – even flavors that I didn’t think I would like (I’m not a big fruit-in-my-dessert kind of girl) were AMAZING. So the conversation went like this:

Cake #1 – Me: “Wow, that’s really good! I didn’t think I would like that, but it’s light and has really nice flavor” Bryan: “Not bad” Nicole: “Hey, I like that one!”

Cake #2 – Me: “Hot damn, that is INCREDIBLE” Bryan: “I want this cake” Nicole: “This is the best one so far” Yes, we had only had one other flavor but cake #2 was freaking delicious.

Cake #3 – Me: “I like this one…might be too close to call with #2 for me” Bryan: “I still like #2” Nicole: “I don’t know, I really like this one too”

Cake #4 – Me: “There is no way in hell I’m going to like th….my God, that’s good!” Bryan: “Wow, I can’t believe I like this, but this is awesome” Nicole: “I don’t know how you guys are going to decide this”

Cake #5 – Me: “YUMMMMMMM” Bryan: “Wow” Me: “How many of these can we pick???” Nicole: “This one’s rich but delicious”

Cake #6 – Me: “Ok, it’s between #2, #3, #4, and #5” Bryan: “#2” Nicole: “I like 3 and 6”

So in a nutshell – we liked ALL of their cakes. I never saw that coming. I thought it’d be “Eh, this one’s good, that one not so much, oh, this is great” Instead I reacted with, “Wow, all of these are unbelievable”

In the end, because a person that doesn’t even like cake (Bryan) was trying to inhale #2, that was the main selection. We also picked a second flavor to give our guests another option. Am I telling you the details of the flavors? Not a chance, it's a SURPRISE!!! But I will say, even if you never eat cake at a wedding, you need to eat our cake. You WANT to eat our cake – have a slice of each, or share, just make sure you sample both. Both flavors are that good.

Then we moved onto design. Here’s where I also thought it would get tricky. Bryan and his linked hearts.

Poor Chef Celso. We must’ve driven this man bonkers. But he let us take our time. Bryan and I had already done this at the Payne-Corley House. We had looked through the album of cake designs and had chosen one design and requested the linked hearts that Bryan is obsessed with to be put on the cake as well. In retrospect, I just didn’t want these hearts all over my – I mean, our - cake!

So I told Bryan prior to this appointment that I wanted to re-consider our design. After much deliberation, we basically “designed” (I use that term loosely because obviously we’re not cake designers) a cake that merged concepts of three of the cakes featured in this book. I ended up really happy with our decisions. The whole process took about an hour and we could not have ever hoped for better service or better cake!!!

We did take some pictures, although I will have to wait for Bryan to play with them before I upload them. I told the chef about my blog and mentioned the tons of free publicity, so here’s my plug. If you are getting married even remotely close to Atlanta, you should seriously hire Celso’s for your wedding cake. Everything was so relaxed and fun, what a great experience!

Ok, to go along with my caffeine buzz, I am also in the midst of preparing for tomorrow’s engagement photo session. This is literally like preparing for an exam. I have made lists of things we need to bring, lists of things I need to acquire before the day is over, lists of things I need to do the morning of…and now, lists of the lists! I am slightly nervous that I’m going to forget something or I’m going to make a bad decision regarding clothing, make-up, jewelry. Well there’s another list! I know this is not supposed to be stressful, and instead it’s supposed to be really fun, but I can’t help being nervous. I feel like I’ve been preparing in my mind for forever for this session!! (I think I was imagining engagement photos before we were even engaged!)
Anyways, it is a day of mapping out locations, collecting props, preparing wardrobe and just general primping (no one wants to look at my Italian-girl mustache in these pictures). So I do need to get moving. But I am really excited to see Caroline and Matt tomorrow and I can't wait to share our photos with everyone!