Cutting of the cake and photo questions

[anchor31]

First, I''ve been wondering exactly when does the cutting of the cake occur during the reception. When we visited venues on Saturday, one manager recommended we had the cutting of the cake as a conclusion of the party instead of the dessert. Another manager we met said that we should have the cake as the dessert if we don''t want to spend money on a cake that might not be eaten if guests are gone by the end of the evening.

If we have the cake served as dessert, our package would cost 62$/guest, whereas it would cost 67$/guest if we have another dessert after the dinner and the cake served later. For 60 guests, which is our present approximation (although I''d prefer 50!), it represents a difference of about 350$ with the taxes. Keep in mind that we''re on a tight budget.

My FI likes the idea of closing the soirée with the cake. My mother agrees with th second manager and thinks it''s a bit of a waste. I''m undecided. I like the idea of doing something to "cloture" the evenig, but I''m not sure it''s worth spending 350$+ more and risking to waste an expensive and perfectly good cake if half the guests are gone by then.

What did you do/will you be doing, and why? Do you have any advice or suggestions?

Second, I wonder what engagement pictures and bridal portraits are for. I''d never heard of those before PS, so I''m curious.

Thanks a lot!

 

[TravelingGal]

I''m with your mom. My guests are getting cake for dessert. Koreans (older generation) are notorous for eating and running so I will be serving it after dinner and toasts. I don''t plan on having an official end to the afternoon at our wedding.

As for engagement and bridal photos...some use an engagement photo blown up at their reception. I think mostly it''s a keepsake...something you can show your kids. We''re not even bothering to do them...I really don''t care to be a model for a day.

 

[ChargerGrrl]

I have the same questions as you do about the cake cutting, and posted about this last week.

However, costs really don''t factor into this as our venue doesn''t have anything to do with the cake/dessert. A separate vendor is providing our cake.

I don''t know if we should do it right after dinner, or in the middle of the dancing (I really don''t want to do it at the end of the evening).

I''m leaning towards doing it after dinner, but having my father/daughter dance in between to give guests a chance to "digest". That''s FI''s preference, as he thinks it''s going to be hard to get people off the dance floor and do it halfway during "dancing time". The majority of our guests are friends (here''s to a small family guest list!), and are known for getting down on the dance floor!

I too had never heard of a bridal shoot until PS. I''m kinda guessing that it''s a regional thing?

As far as an engagement session goes, we just had an impromptu one. We had a dinner party with a group of friends this past Saturday. Anyway, they presented us with one of those framed mat things to use as our guest book at the wedding. It has a space for a 5x7 pic, and they made us pose on the hosts'' balcony right there and then! Good thing that we had the backdrop of the pacific ocean, and the beautiful Manhattan beach sunset behind us.

 

[robbie3982]

Hi Anchor,

I would definitely use the cake as the dessert. Who needs two desserts??? To close the party why don''t you toss the bouquet and the garter? I think that would be a fun way to close it.

Engagement photos are typically used in the newspaper announcement and I think sometimes parents send out announcements with the picture in it as well (not entirely sure about that part though). I really don''t understand what bridal portraits are for. FI and I only got engagement pictures because we didn''t have to pay an additional sitting fee since we were getting pictures with his family at the beach anyway.

 

[jcrow]

engagement pics are for the engagement announcement in the paper. the bridal portraits are for the wedding announcement in the paper. also, many people have a large bridal pic displayed on an easle at the wedding reception.

i''ve always heard the cake cutting was the last thing of the night before the bride and groom''s exit.

 

[mercoledi]

At the last wedding I went to, the couple were introduced and had their first dance, then the best man and matron of honor did the toasts, followed quickly by the cake cutting, then the happy couple sat down to eat. I don't think that's the traditional order, but it gave them time to have a little dinner and wander through the guest tables. The cake was served as dessert about an hour later.

edited to add: There were about 350 people at the wedding, so it may have taken that long to cut up the cake! I think msflutter's photographer point is a good one too.

 

[flutterby]

at my wedding we were announced, cut straight to first dance, moms prayers, dinner, toasts dispersed through courses, cake cutting then father daughter dance, cake was served when we were done dancing and our bananas foster station was open. We then were free to dance all night! It worked out well for us. I wouldnt have wanted to wait till the end, as some people leave. I like having it done and pictures taken before the end of the night. I suppose with me, my photographer was only with me for 5 hours, so he would have been gone if we waited to the end (and i wouldnt have looked as pretty!)

 

[AmberWaves]

I really like mSFlutter''s version of the cake cutting. I also think that I may "borrow" this schedule for our wedding, too! Thanks, MsFlutter! You had great reasons why this makes sense. I know that we''ve actually left before the cake has been served, too, sometimes it''s just too long to stay for cake when it''s at the very end, ya know?

 

[nytemist]

What we plan on doing is- being announced, do our first dance as a couple, serve dinner which I''m sure someone will toast us during. When people are nearing the end of their meals, my friend(who is in the role of DJ announcer since we won''t have a DJ)will make the announcement to guests that dessert will now be served, we will cut the first piece together, it will get served to everyone afterwards then people will start dancing (I hope)

I''ve heard of engagement/bridal portraits before. Both of fiance''s sisters did them. Most wedding I''ve been to have done at least one or the other. We are going to go the place where he proposed and have his mom take a pic of us and that will be used as the pic in the matt for everyone to sign.

 

[Tybee]

Ours was weird... but I liked it.
We cut our cake as soon as we walked into the reception. We actually had to do it that way because we only hired our
photographer for a short time, AND it was so hot that we were afraid our cake might melt.
We did our pics and tasting, etc. Then they took the cake out to be cut and served for dessert.
YUM>

You really can do it any way you want to. I think it would be silly to have more than one dessert. As it was a lot of our cake was left over!

 

[gingerBcookie]

Or cake was our dessert. Almost all the weddings Iv''e been to had the same. Originally the scedule was to cut the cake, bouquet toss, and garer toss about 2 hours into the dancing, then eat cake/dance, then exit. Unfortunately, our cake had some LEAN-AGE issues

and we had to cut the cake right when we were announced for fear of TOPPLE-AGE of cake issues

. But it worked out fine. We cut early, the dissassembled the cake, then served at the point where we were originally going to cut it.

E-pics are usually used for annoucements )newspapers, save-the-dates, etc...) Some use it in their signature mat. Bridals are sometimes displayed at the wedding, and are also used for wedding annoucements in the papers.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Ours was cut after dinner before dancing and was served right away. I thought it was a good time to do it and get it out of the way. Plus our cake was SO good and I wanted everyone to enjoy it. We did not have official engagement or bridal portraits taken (which I think is really common in the south). His mom ended up doing a little photo shoot of us when I realized we were going to use a picture matte as out guest book and had no decent pics. I would only get e pics of you are going to do something along those lines or put a pic of you two on your STD. I think since you are on a tight budget I would forget about them (unless it is included in your photo package).

 

[MelissaSue]

we had our cake for dessert, so we cut it right after our first dance (Which was before dinner)..


Engagment photos are just for the two of you to have some formal pics of you as a couple that aren''t wedding photos.. and also gives the photographer a chance to get to know you..

Where I am from... we dont'' do bridal portraits like the gorgeous ones JCrow got done.. but it is an option to have a head shot type photo taken so that the day after the wedding a picture of you as a bride can be published in the paper.. I had those done.. but it was just black and white head shots.. nothing special.

 

[anchor31]

Thanks for all the replies. I''m definitely thinking about talking the FI into saving some money and having the cake served as dessert. The garter/bouquet toss to end the evening is something I might consider, and I like MsFlutter''s schedule. Having the first dance right away and the daughter/father dance while they are serving the cake are pretty good ideas. I''ll see what J thinks about all this.

 

[JCJD]

For our hors d''oeuvres and dessert reception, we did this:
Guests arrived and were instructed to begin eating by our reception hosts (a couple of aunts).
We arrived, were announced, and immediately did our first dance, father-daughter dance, and then guests began dancing. About 20-40 mins later (so we had time to eat!), we cut the cake and immediately went to the toasts while my grandma and the bakers cut the cake into servable pieces. Then 20 mins later, we threw the bouquet and garter.

We had a late evening reception and wanted to get the "highlights" out of the way early in case people needed to leave.


I also don''t understand why one would spend 300+ on a wedding cake and not cut it in time to serve as dessert. If you opted for a fake cake (frosting on styrofoam) for looks, and only served desserts, then I get it. I like the idea of using the garter/bouquet toss to end the party a lot better.


I HIGHLY recommend doing an engagement session with your wedding day photographer. It gives you a chance to get to know your photographer better and them a chance to get to know you. It also gives you more examples of their work. I would have found it really awkward to kiss on camera first thing on my wedding day had we not done the engagement session and gotten that step over with.