7 New Trends for Wedding Cakes
Much more than a sweet finale to the reception meal, wedding cakes are a major style statement. And trends in wedding cakes, like all other wedding details, evolve with the times. The wedding cake presents a perfect opportunity for creative brides to play with shape, color and embellishments. For those of you who need a little inspiration, consult this list of top trends for wedding cakes in 2009.
Back to Buttercream
Buttercream was once the traditional frosting for wedding cakes, but sleek cakes came into favor, and rolled fondant became the frosting of choice. Not any more – thanks to advanced tools and techniques that allow buttercream to look as smooth as fondant, cakes iced in buttercream are again the norm. We love this trend, since buttercream frosting tastes better, has natural ingredients, and costs less than fondant. Now you can literally have your stylishly sleek cake – and eat it too.
Chocolate Face
Brides have bucked the traditional white wedding cake for the last few years, but today´s brides are no longer hiding decadent chocolate behind a shield of white frosting for appearances sake. Dark chocolate is now front and center on the face of the cake, as chocolate or mocha cakes are appropriately decked in chocolate mousse or whipped chocolate frosting. The result is a full blown chocolate dessert that tastes as good as it looks.
Blue Rules
Shades of blue dominate the 2009 wedding décor palette, and your wedding cake is a perfect canvas to incorporate this hot shade. Consider a cake saturated in turquoise, periwinkle, or even navy, and embellish it with complimenting colors like silver, white, grey, lavender, or yellow.
Square Mini Cakes
Cupcake towers in lieu of wedding cakes have been around for awhile, but brides are making cupcakes interesting again by playing with shape and size. Brides are stacking square shaped mini-cakes (slightly larger than cupcakes) adorned with flowers or dressed as presents for a completely different take on the cupcake frenzy.
Think Pink
Pink – the perpetual hot color for weddings – had begun to fall out of favor as brides experimented with more non-traditional hues like browns, grays, orange, and even black. But pink is back in a big way, and brides are incorporating the hue into their wedding cakes. Pink instantly freshens-up classic white: Tone down an all pink cake with white floral or lace details, or dress up a white cake with pink embellishments.
Scripted Text
Wedding cakes adorned with calligraphy-style motifs and writing is one of the year´s hottest trends. Create an antiqued look with black writing on a white or ivory cake, and get creative with the text. Some options? Write a favorite poem or verse, your wedding vows, or words representative of your wedding theme – such as names of flowers for a garden wedding or types of shells at a beach wedding.
Groom´s Cakes
The old Southern tradition of the groom´s cake is shedding its regional trappings and growing in popularity throughout the nation. And no, it doesn´t have to be the iconic red velvet armadillo from “Steel Magnolias.” Today´s grooms cakes, now just as elaborate as the wedding cake itself, often reflect the groom´s interest in a dramatic and whimsical expression; a deer grooms cake for an avid hunter, shaped like a race car for an diehard Nascar fan, or decked with his favorite sports team logo.
Get even more wedding cakes ideas and trends in this complete wedding cakes guide.
Wedding Rings
Underestimating the worth and importance of wedding rings can be the worst mistake any groom can make. It is important to realize how essential wedding rings are, and how crucial the selection of these rings can be for the ceremony as a whole. Just as everyone needs to find the right partner to spend the rest of one’s life with, one also needs to locate and purchase just the right kind of wedding rings to be exchanged during the wedding ceremony.
It may sound like an exaggeration, but the duty of having to choose wedding rings can really be as critical a responsibility as actually having to select one’s spouse from among the crowd. After all, one does not get just a spouse when one gets married. The wedding rings are two other objects that come to share the lives of every married couple. Considering the above fact, it becomes clear why every person should be critical while selecting wedding rings for himself and his wife.
Not only are wedding rings symbols of the nuptial bond, they also serve as reminders to couples of the perennial nature of a marriage relationship. Unlike other relationships, this is a sacred tie that is meant to withstand the test of time and adversaries. Unlike ordinary relationships, a relationship commemorated by wedding bands is bound by destiny and cannot easily be broken. It is a relationship that holds the promise of a lifetime. The wedding rings set married couples apart as two souls that have become intertwined for all eternity.
In some cultures, it is believed that two souls cannot be separated even by death. Even though this goes against the wedding vows that say: “Till death do us part”, cultures believing in rebirth hold that every wedded pair is destined to be married in every life. Wedding rings, therefore, also have the potential to become symbols of togetherness till eternity. Before selecting wedding rings, grooms should always consider that this is not just an ordinary tie, but a tie that has been predestined by fate.
However, it seems easy to provide all sorts of advice to the groom prior to the purchase of the wedding rings. However, when the time does arrive to actually buy them, every person seems to be at a loss. After all, even if one keeps aside the myths, legends and beliefs, how does one actually select two rings out of a plethora of dazzling beauties? Wedding rings being pieces of jewellery, it is quite frequently encountered that the groom has absolutely no idea about buying them as commodities from a store.
Fortunately, renowned and established retailers have simplified the job of buying wedding rings by employing highly competent storekeepers having the right kind of aesthetic perceptions to provide adequate guidance to customers. Their tips can be quite useful for prospective grooms stuck in the labyrinthine confusion of choosing wedding rings. However, grooms should also exercise their own independent perceptions in choosing the wedding rings.
Elements of a Contemporary Wedding Invitation
It is important to remember that the wedding invitation is essentially the key to your event as it is the first interaction your guests have with your wedding. In fact, the wedding invitation is a representation of the bride, groom, and should convey your personality. The modern wedding invitation is not only an extension of the happy couple, but also provides invaluable bit of information for the wedding guests.
Most of the basic elements of a modern wedding invitation are exactly the same as those of a classic wedding invitation. The invitation must include who is getting married, the date, the time of the wedding, the place, and who is hosting the event. In many cases, the modern wedding invitation, unlike the classic version, should state whether formal or casual attire is required.
Aside from the well-known informative elements of the wedding invitation, the modern elements all have to do with the format, materials, wording, and overall aesthetic of the invitation. First and foremost, the paper chosen is one of the most important elements of a modern wedding invitation. Beautiful papers, often hand-pressed, are ideal for modern wedding invitations. Such high quality papers add a touch of refined class to your invitation. While some papers are extremely expensive, they are well worth the extra cost.
Modern wedding invitations allow couples to plan their wedding in an up-to-date fashion. There are many styles to the modern wedding invitation, and one of the fastest growing trends is the handmade appearance that so many these days seem to have. Gone are the days of finely printed, embossed, and engraved wedding invitations and here are the days of one-of-a-kind hand-stitched, sewn, and hand-tied ribbons. The embellishments of the modern wedding invitation are exactly what make it so modern.
Handmade wedding invitations can end up costing you a lot more than traditional or classical invites, but to many couples, the touch of whimsy and uniqueness are well worth the extra money. However, it is possible to make handmade wedding invitations for a completely modern look but at a fraction of the cost with a little time, effort, and creativity. Today, many couples have access to good quality printers which makes it easier to design wedding invitations that speak truly to the nature of the couple.
In addition to certain embellishments added to modern wedding invitations, today many couples are using unusual shaped invitations rather than the traditional rectangular or square invitations we have seen of generations past. Oversized, tri-fold, and circular invitations are part of a growing trend of unusual shapes. Such shapes catch the eye of the invited guest and make a unique and interesting statement.
The shape is not the only way wedding invitations are becoming more modern. Classic wedding invitations are white or ivory, usually with black print. There may be hints of gold or silver for a touch of color. Today, many modern invitations are colorful and bright, which could not be more fashion forward. Many brides choose colored card stock, hand-pressed paper (with flowers), and vellum to add an extra layer of fun and excitement to their wedding (in many cases, the color scheme of the wedding invitations correlate to the color scheme of the wedding itself).
Modern wedding invitations provide an interesting design style. The modern style usually has two colors; one as a solid background color and a secondary color for the design. The writing may consist of a standard black or the same as the secondary color. While traditional wedding invitations provide all the basic information as we mentioned above, modern invitations include a little something extra. Most modern wedding invitations have an inner envelope that holds a selection of information cards outlining different topics. For example, there would be one card for each of the following topics – the wedding registry, hotel information, directions, things to do in the area, wedding website information, and the list can go on and on.
As society and culture changes, so does the wedding invitation, as weddings are integral parts of both facets of the world. For example, today many people find themselves “going green”which is another way of saying that they are becoming more and more environmentally conscious. Modern wedding invitations may reflect this aspect of the couple’s life by implementing recycled papers or even sending out electronic invitations through email.
More and more weddings today are destination weddings; this means not only the couple, but also the guests travel to a specific destination for the ceremony and reception. Usually, these weddings take place somewhere tropical, but there are destination weddings all over the world. Many modern invitations take on the destination theme, where the invitations themselves reflect the location. For example, a beach wedding may have sea foam green paper with shell embellishments.