With so much to do to plan a wedding, one thing that sometimes gets overlooked is what kind of cake topper you want. Today there are so many choices compared to years ago. There are also various styles to toppers such as traditional, contemporary, fun, romantic or religious.

Make the cake topper unique and special to you as a couple and more personal than the traditional bride and groom standing next to each other with hooked arms.  One trend is to put a monogram of your new last name or initials on the top.  These can be plastic with glitter, glass, crystal or other materials.   Adding a few small flowers will make the cake topper really beautiful, colorful and really stand out.  Depending on your cake, if you are working with sugar flowers on the cake you may want to ask the baker if they will make your monogram of fondant or chocolate. 

A different idea is to use a cake topper that reflects your personality or the personally of the couple. There are lots of fun and whimsical wedding toppers such as, the bride pulling on the groom, the groom holding the bride up to kiss her or the bride on a lower layer with the groom on the top layer helping the bride up to the top layer. These days you can express your view and who you are by the cake topper you select. For example, one bride and her groom had a topper with them both holding shot guns, to make the joke of the wedding be a shot gun wedding or even some with the couple in a car or on a motorcycle.  There are even some companies that will use pictures of the bride and groom to make the faces as close to the couple as possible. 

As for the toppers, there are many ways to go and many ways to express the type of wedding you would like to portray. It’s your special day and you can be as creative and as imaginative as you like.

Wedding cake toppers can be purchased from specialty retailers online, such as www.Beau-coup-.com, www.Weddingcollectables.com, Advantage Bridal, or Cake Toppers.com. Local wedding supply and party supply stores may also have cake toppers, although the selection may not be as vast as on the Internet. The bakery making your wedding cake may also be able to supply wedding cake toppers for you.

When looking for the perfect favors for wedding guests, it’s important to pick something that reflects the bride and groom’s personalities and remains sinuous with the overall theme of the wedding. Anyone can put M&M’s into a goody bag and call it a favor, but why not spice it up a bit?

My Wedding Favors (www.myweddingfavors.com) offers extremely unique wedding favors at reasonable prices. For example, their “Love Birds in a Window Salt & Pepper Shakers” are adorable, simple and different.  For a fun-loving couple, the “Perfectly Suited Personalized Playing Cards in a Travel Case” are a great way to thank your guests while giving them something they can actually use!  My Wedding Favors has everything from “Luxurious Silk Fans” to “Ocean Breeze Scented Seashell Soaps” to “Lucky Elephant Tea Light Holders”. This website is a great source for purchasing favors or to get some good ideas!

 Favor Warehouse (www.favorwarehouse.com) is another fabulous favors website. Favor Warehouse makes choosing the perfect favor even easier by categorizing them by seasons. Fall favors include:  “Fall for Love Personalized Cappuccino + Optional Heart Whisk”, “Fall for Love Acrylic Luggage Tags” and “Fall for Love Personalized Notebooks”.  For winter, Favor Warehouse boasts “Snowflake Design Bookmark Favors” as well as “Winter Wonderland Collection Wine Stoppers”.

At American Bridal (www.americanbridal.com), you can find everything from cool “Luminous Mini-Lantern Favors” to elegant “Photo Glass Coaster Favors”. If you’re looking for something really different, check out “The ‘Gratest’ Love of All Stainless Steel Cheese Grater Favors in Showcase Gift Boxes”, the “Meant to ‘Bee’ Ceramic Honey Pots with Wooden Dippers” or the “We Clicked Mouse Pads”.

Be sure to pick the favors that suit you and your partner’s personal styles the best, and your guests will be sure to love them!

What began as a Southern tradition is spreading across the U.S. rather rapidly thanks to Food Network’s Ace of Cakes and TLC’s Cake Boss. More and more brides and grooms are adapting this tradition and putting their unique personalities into the mix. The groom’s cake actually started as a fruitcake and was decorated with marzipan and placed besides the bride’s cake. This small square or rectangular cake was not normally eaten at the reception, but rather packaged up and taken home as a treat from the bride and groom. An old-wives tale is also wrapped up in this tradition: If a single woman slept with the small piece of cake under their pillow, they would apparently dream of their future husband. Who know if that superstition is true!

In recent years, these cakes have transformed from the bland fruitcake to more popular flavors and have a true spotlight in the wedding! Many grooms are opting for chocolate cake for the groom’s cake since the bride’s cake is normally white cake with some sort of flavoring. This cake can be any flavor that the groom desires and we’ve seen it all! Chocolate, marble, carrot, red velvet and even an ice cream cake have made it into our venue. With so many creative bakers in San Antonio, the options are endless!

Now, you have two options when serving the groom’s cake. It can be served at the rehearsal dinner or at the reception. If serving it at the wedding, make sure to opt for a different flavor from the bride’s cake to give your guests options. Also, the groom’s cake does not need to feed all of your guests, but there aren’t normally leftovers!

As far as the design or theme of the cake, let your groom’s imagination run wild or surprise him with something you think he’ll like. Think about his occupation, hobbies, interests or favorite sports teams as a starting off point and then lean on your baker for ideas of what to do with this idea. We really have had some amazing and totally unique groom’s cakes here at Plaza Lecea, from a replica of a Costco store, to military branches, music instruments or a fav band to poker-themed ones and the ever popular sports team cake.  

We love candy bars, like LOVE candy bars…(who doesn’t btw) but in keeping with trends, we are finding that the modern bride is uber creative. Here are a few great ideas if you’d like to take your sweet treats to the next level:

1. Ice Cream Bar: Oh my my goodness! What better way to cool down then to treat your guests to a refreshing and decadent dessert? First and foremost, make sure you have your caterer put everything out once you are ready for it so that the ice cream doesn’t melt! Offering guests an option of putting the ice cream in a waffle cone or cup is a great option. You can choose your mix of toppings a la Cold Stone Creamery or Marble Slab…and make sure you don’t forget your fav ones! You can even offer a signature scoop and make it like the one you shared on your first date or just maybe your favorite combination. Don’t forget to provide spoons!

2. Cupcake Bar: Let your guest’s imagination run wild! Put out a few dozen cupcakes in the flavor of your choice (or more depending on your number of guests) with a couple different types of frosting (this is a great way to tie in your wedding colors!). Then put 5-7 different toppings in containers of your choice and label them for guests to choose. Don’t forget to provide spoons! Some awesome toppings would be sprinkles (another way to bring in your wedding colors), chocolate chips, crushed peanuts, m&ms, finely chopped candy bars, gum drops, liquorish or graham crackers. Really the options are endless and sweet!

3. Aguas Frescas Bar: This drink is a must-try if you live in South Texas! If you aren’t familiar with this yummy concoction, aguas frescas means cold, fresh waters. These drinks have water, fruits, cereals or seed mixed with sugar to make a blended beverage. Although they originated and are more common in Mexico, they are an awesome idea for your event! With flavors such as cantaloupe, guava, mango, melon, papaya, cucumber, lemon, lime, orange, pineapple, strawberry and the ever popular horchata (rice and vanilla—don’t judge just yet…it’s pretty awesome!).

4. Smoothie Bar:  If you are worried about that ice cream melting, think smoothies! Again, make sure you have a vendor for this one so Aunt Ruth doesn’t have to man the station all night long. We heart The Lemonade Co (http://www.thelemonadeco.com/catering.html) who can provide this service at an affordable rate! Tie in your favorite flavors or have all the standard ones available for your guests to cool down with.

There is no doubt that candy treats are a sure way to your guest’s heart, but these creative ideas may also be the new “it” thing to do. Always try to incorporate something that is special or near and dear to your hearts as a couple. So if you had a certain type of cupcake on your first date or when he proposed, try to integrate that into your reception for a way for your guests to get to know a little more about your “sweet love”!

Until next time, happy planning!