Wedding Cupcake Tower

I did it, I did it, I did it! Now get ready for one long post :)

It happened again. I had cupcake nightmares last night. You know the ones where evil cupcakes chase you through the night while their perfectly piped buttercream flies off into the air sending you into a panic? You don't get these? Hm. I do. I did. Last night I was a wreck. Between two trips last night, and two trips this morning to the grocery store, (plus 2 yesterday morning and one made by my loving Dad), I am grocery stored out! I was stressed. I was flustered. I was all over the place!

Now let me say that I had fun today. The stress was TOTALLY worth it. I had an adrenaline rush just getting this thing set up and doing this wedding was such a blast for me. I recruited my brother Josh to join me for some help (there was LOTS to set up and carry around) plus he made for a pretty good photographer. Here I am placing each of the cupcakes into their purple wrappers. A tricky task considering if the frosting touches the wrapper you are done for; they get greasy fast!

The lovely bride left fresh flowers on the table for me to use around the base of the tower and she couldn't have picked more perfect blooms. The pink roses were beautiful and matched the fondant flowers perfectly. When I placed them underneath the base of the tower I fell in love with the look. So bright yet undeniably sophisticated. What do you think?

This is my favorite shot of the day and ironically is a shot of my favorite flavor the bride and her sister picked; a moist vanilla cupcake filled with lemon creme and then topped with vanilla bean buttercream. When we came up with this combo, I thought it would be way gross. But I was wrong and the customers were right :) It was heavenly. This frosting is to die for. Check out the vanilla seeds in there. Love it!

The pink flowers went on top of the Red Heads, traditional Red Velvet and Cream Cheese.

And the purple flowers went on top of the Mint Meltaways; double chocolate cake and chocolate ganache covered in mint-infused buttercream. I also made these little signs for the table which were to help guests determine which cupcake was which flavor. The purple matched the wedding colors and I thought the black matched the stand nicely. Not sure if they kept them on the table or if the bride liked them but a little DIY never hurts :) Come to think of it, this whole order was a lot of DIY...

The wedding was held at a hotel in Niagara Falls, and when I walked in everything felt so familar; I used to compete gymnastics at this hotel when I was younger! Except I never knew about the room that the bride and groom picked for their wedding. It was upstairs tucked away on the 10th floor and it's so intimate and cozy. The white, purple and pink decor they picked was so simple and beautiful. I wish I could have stayed to see it all come together (aka the bride in her dress, the bridesmaids dresses, etc etc :) What a view huh? That's the American side of Niagara and the Falls are so exciting to watch. It must have been gorgeous at night all lit up.

One of my favorite things about the bride was how no-fuss, cool and down-to-earth she was and it showed with how spectacular and amazing everything came together. At the door to the reception room was the welcome table with the seating chart and what have you, and they had these gorgeous tall branches draped in a few jewels. Under that was a big bowl of the white cards with wire tie and purple flowers and this was to serve as their "wedding guest book." Each guest is to write a little note on the white cards and then hang it on the tree. How unique, personal and adorable. I bet that those branches looked amazing by the end of the night dazzled in personal notes from loved ones. I left a little note myself...

The top of the cake (the one part I am not so proud of; I am a terrible 'icer' and since I am not a fan of pound cake it was tough for me to say this cake tasted good) was a three layer pound cake with raspberry filling and vanilla buttercream. The groom's fave cake is pound cake so we couldn't forget about him! I think the whole thing came together nicely. Crazy-iced pound cake and all!

Melesha, may you and your new husband (and the little one!) have a life of happiness and love and I hope your big day was everything you wanted and dreamt it to be. I loved tasting cupcakes with you and your sister and hope we will cross paths again soon. Sharene, you were a fabulous Maid of Honor and thanks for the sweet call tonight. You two better have danced your butts off tonight :)

To Josh, my 16-year-old brother; thanks for all of your help today and for your input and compliments and constant reassurance that the tower would not fall over :) The Fun House wasn't so fun, the Water Park was a rip off, our waitress thought we were dating AND our dinner was kind of crappy but knowing that something as simple as cupcakes could bring us closer together is pretty cool. I love you!

Happy Baking, and until next time, Rhiannon