Wedding Fayre Oct 2011

Chillington Hall

H2b and I went to a wedding fayre at Chillington Hall today.

Chillington Hall is a gorgeous venue anyway. The only reason we didn’t book was because we didn’t want a marquee, however now we’ve seen the marquee we were thinking it’s fairly spectacular!

There were all sparkly lights in the ceiling with amazing candle chandeliers hanging down. There’s a balcony terrace type area outside the marquee that just looks amazing.  

H2b and I were really thinking about our wedding choices but I think our wedding will be special because it’s for the two of us!

The Exhibitors

The Flower Shop

We went to the wedding fayre mainly to see the florist that I really liked, The Flower Shop. The flower displays were absolutely amazing, they had every different style from the tall, graceful and striking displays to the gorgeous short vases that I like. They had different styles of bouquet and boutonniere, and even an large urn with a fantastic display at the top.

Cake Pops

Cake Pops!

I have never heard of cake pops before but they look fantastic!

The best place to look at cake pops is BakerElla. She’s an amazing baker with a whole blog section on cake pops. She really is the expert, but I’m just going to have a brief look at wedding cake pops.

Benefits of Cake Pops

The main benefit of cake pops is cutting costs. Cake pops will obviously cost less than cupcakes or a traditional wedding cake.

Cupcakes

Wedding Cakes Cup Cakes

I don’t often post about food but a reader has asked for a blog post about cupcakes, so here it is!

Wedding cakes are costing anything from £150 – £450 and more! It all depends on the complexity of the design you want.

This post is full of photos of different wedding cakes for you to have a look to see a possible design you may like. If you see a design you like but in the wrong colours, still copy the picture and simply ask your cake maker to change the colours.

Wedding Cakes

The World of Wedding Cakes

The world of wedding cakes is a maze. Recently, there are so many options thanks to the development of more flexible icing. In the past, wedding cakes tended to follow a particular formula as royal icing was the only option available to modern brides. In the 1980’s, malleable soft icing was invented and so the creations became unique.

I haven’t blogged about wedding cakes before because I’m on a budget with my wedding, and certain elements of the wedding had to be limited. I chose the cake to save costs.  With so many guests we would have to have a large cake but I wanted it to be as simple as possible to save money.

My little brother has bought a cake topper for my fiancé and I, as our wedding present, and this was what I wanted to add to the cake to make it a little bit wow.

When Choosing Your Cake

• Before you do anything else, set up a budget for your cake. Once you know how much money you can afford to spend on your cake you will have a better idea of the type of cake you will be able to have. The average spend for a three tier cake at the moment is from between £300 - £450. If you have less decoration on the cake then it is a bit cheaper, around £150 - £200.
• Make a decision: do you want full size cakes or cupcakes? Or a mixture of both?
• Have a look in magazines and on the internet to find cakes that you like. The more complicated the cake, the more expensive it will be. Make a collection of different cakes that you like because your cake could be unique to you.
• Go to wedding fayres and taste the cake that’s there. It’s surprising how different the same flavour of cake can taste. It’s important to choose a cake that you feel tastes nice.
• Think about the flavours you want. Chocolate, vanilla, white chocolate, lemon, carrot. You could even have your wedding cake made out of cheese! Vanilla sponge is the cheapest flavour to have, the more flavours you have in your cake the more expensive it will be.

Think About Decoration

There are many ways to decorate your cake: flowers, icing, cake toppers, ribbon. When looking through the pictures either in magazines or through Google, choose your favourite decoration.

Which ever cake you choose, ensure that it’s going to be within your budget and it’s decorated to your taste. Try to choose colours that are in your wedding for your cake so that it all matches.

Good luck!