Why are there so many stories about wedding cakes?  Is it just because they are so fragile?  Anyhow, I had another fun one this past summer.

The cake should always look this perfect. Photo by Magical Moments Photography.

It was an outdoor wedding reception and the weather wasn’t supposed to be too hot, so I wasn’t worried about the cake.  Normally, I would have asked the baker if she was freezing the cake, but it was a friend of the family and I wasn’t directly in touch with her.  Well, the cake arrived unfrozen, and the day was warmer than predicted.

The other thing you need to know is that I had never met the bride.  The bride and groom live out of town and had returned to the bride’s home town to get married.  Somehow, we never met up.  Whenever they were in town, I was unavailable.  Or they forgot to tell me they were coming.

I was only at the reception, not the ceremony.  So, I’m watching the cake wilt as the ceremony is going on and as the guests start to arrive.  Finally, the bride and groom appeared.  The cake cutting was scheduled for after dinner, several hours later.  I walked up to the bride and said, “Hi, I’m Lisa.  I’m very pleased to finally meet you.  We need to do the cake cutting right after the bridal party introductions, not after dinner.  Is that all right?”

Fortunately, these clients were flexible and agreeable.  We made the change right there.  The cake was cut before it melted or imploded.  The guests never knew the difference.  And a potential disaster was averted.

The moral of the story?  Freeze your wedding cake on a hot day.  Or be prepared to make other plans.  Either way, your cake story will have a happy ending.

Just Married! Photo by Magical Moments Photography.

A client asked me today about the rules for name changes after marriage.  I couldn’t recall the law in Illinois right away, so I went and looked it up.  The law was changed in Illinois sometime in the last several years to allow either party in a new marriage to change their last name to that of their spouse.  Until the law was changed, only women could change their name upon marriage without going through the courts.  Now, the law is more egalitarian.

The client who asked wanted to know whether he and his fiancee could combine their names to make a new name.  It looks to me as if the law doesn’t account for that possibility, but I would guess that there would be nothing to stop them.

If you’re going to change your name, remember to do all the paperwork.  Alert your employer, the DMV, your banks, the post office, your insurance companies, the utilities, the Social Security Administration, credit card companies, your mortgage holder, and anyone else who needs to know.  You’ll need extra certified copies of your marriage license (not photocopies) for some or all of these.  There is a good summary of the steps necessary on Ehow.com.

Buy a dress that fits you well. Photo by Magical Moments Photography.

I just heard a horror story about a wedding dress from the mother of a bride.

Her daughter found a beautiful dress she loved at a bridal shop.  But the people at the shop had her buy a dress several sizes too large for her.  It was so much too large that they had to clamp it onto her so it wouldn’t fall off.  But they insisted she buy a size 12, instead of her usual size 6, “just in case.”

The dress itself cost around $1,500.  The required alterations cost another $1,000.

I can see a few problems with this scenario.  First, why buy a dress that clearly doesn’t fit?  Second, it’s cruel to play into a bride’s fears about her weight and size.  And third, that’s a lot of extra money to pay for buying a dress the wrong size.

So, beware of the traps in buying a wedding dress.  Don’t feel pressured to buy something just because you’re talking to an “expert.”  Trust your gut.  And buy off the rack, if you can.  There’s nothing magical about bridal dress alterations.  They can be more complicated than your average dress, but a good seamstress with experience should be able to take care of you.