Are the tiers worth the tears? 

                                              Image Credit: tomhallphotography

Now- a-days, it has become a new trend to have dessert bar where there are several dessert options for your guests to choose from. Going this route gives more variety and will serve as a money saver, whereas traditional wedding cakes can get quite pricey!  

From personal experience, I can say that choosing a dessert bar was definitely cheaper than a traditional wedding cake. When I first started planning my wedding, I was asking people about wedding advice and tips that they could give me. One of them was, "Do not spend all your money on a big fancy cake". "Why" I asked? She simply said "It will go to waste".

Guests are constantly being fed during cocktail hour, appetizers, salad, the main course, in addition to all the calorie filled alcohol beverages. When it finally turns into dessert time guests are full. They've been sitting for a long period of time and want to socialize and dance! This is when the cake usually gets left behind. Another result with serving cake is that guests don't typically eat the entire piece. Lastly, they may not like the flavor chosen!

Providing a dessert bar for your guests allows them to have variety, easy to carry, and doesn't leave a mess! For my wedding, I chose to have mini cupcakes, brownies, cheesecake bites, and two large pies in several different flavors. What was the final cost you ask? $330 which includes delivery! A traditional wedding cake can cost hundreds if not more in some cases.

Lionsdeal talks about the latest new trends on dessert bars and nontraditional dessert ideas for weddings. Furthermore, here is a list of options they mentioned that go beyond a traditional wedding cake.

• Customized Ice Cream Stations
• Pie Buffets
• Mini Pie-Pops
• Exotic Fruit Trees
• Donut Towers
• Waffle and Cookie Bars

For some brides, it is a must to have the gigantic, classy, decorative wedding cake and that's ok too! In fact, if you choose to go this way, I have a tip for you as well! Instead of having every single tier made out of cake, create a "dummy cake" that shows the illusion that it is still a large cake. In the meantime, order sheet cake that can be kept in the kitchen, cut, and served to the guests. They will never tell the difference, but your wallet sure will!

                                                        Image Credit: The Knot

If you're close by to the Michiana or Southwest Michigan are, I highly suggest setting up a consultation with C'est La Vie Cakes! I ordered through them for my wedding and am still over the moon with the results! Not a crumb was left behind! The owner, Courtney has been listed on theknot as #1 in the area. She is more than willing to help her clients make their dreams come true and at a reasonable price! Not only does she have strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate desserts, but also pistachio, german chocolate, and champagne to name a few.

Essensedesigns is a blog dedicated for modern brides that helps aims to provide tips and tricks when it comes to planning the big day. She provides 12 different dessert bar options guaranteed to have your guests leaving with a smile. Listed below are a few examples listed on her blog.

• Milk and Cookie Dessert Bar
• Chocolate and Strawberries
• Must have Mousse 
• Ice Cream Sundae 
• Mini Fruit Pie

Worried that a dessert bar may not be enough to fulfill your quest's sweet tooth? Always prepare to order a little more than you need. This way, it is less likely that you'll be running out of dessert. If there ends up being extra, you can always supply goodie bags for your guests to take with them. Taking this route allows you to kill two birds with one stone; provide dessert and a gift for yours guests. It is usually a tradition to have a take home gift for yours guests. Moreover, you can save more time and money by ordering from one vender and calling it a day.


For more ideas on dessert bars, I recommend looking on Pinterest. You'll be surprised with the million different options there are about planning the perfect little treats. So put on your thinking caps and get creative!

Is it WORTH it?

Photo Credit : fee.org

While first becoming a fiancé, you feel love, happiness, butterflies, and endless amounts of happy tears. Once the wedding planning starts happening, there maybe some traffic jams when adding everything and anything that you want to be apart of your big day. For example, money!

Weddings can be more expensive than you ever thought possible. When I started planning my big day, I knew that I wanted to be simple, rustic, yet elegant. When I started searching "wedding" themed anything, the price skyrocketed! However, if I typed, "invites" instead of "wedding invites", the price was cheaper. Another example would be, if I typed "small basket" instead of "flower girl basket", I was left with very similar results with an immense price difference; even if buying a pack of fake flowers to glue onto the plain basket to give it more class, it was still the cheaper decision. 

Although I felt way over my head with the expenses of putting together a wedding, I slowly found tricks that made my dreams more tangible.  

Planning a wedding now a days, venues charge far more than they used to. From what my Grandma told me, when she was getting married, she was able to have a gigantic Polish wedding for roughly $1,000! Today, that is almost nearly impossible.

Do not fear, newlyweds! There are various ways to budget a wedding without leaving a hole in your wallet. You just need to think outside of the box, be creative, and let your mind run wild.

As a newlywed, I decided to create this blog to share all the various tips and tricks that can be used when planning your big day. When I first started planning, a baby probably knew more than I did. Once the process began, I learned all the different ways an individual could go about planning their wedding. Whether you're on a budget, can't decide between a cake or dessert bar, in addition to the several options of colors, name tags, hashtags, flowers, hair and makeup. My goal is to pass down what I've learned, to help future brides get the best bang for their buck.

One personal tip to get started: Invites!
My fiancé and I didn't send invites until about 3 months before the wedding. Lessoned learned. In order to have the best outcome with your guests, the best idea would be to send  wedding invites at least 6 months prior. This leaves plenty of time for people out of town to plan for arrangements and to make sure the date isn't already booked on their calendar! One thing I learned, using "The Knot" website was very helpful in keeping invite responses nicely put together. By creating a profile, you simple add all of your guests and add the link to your site onto the invitations. Instead of spending extra money for a return envelope, your guests can simply accept or decline on the website! 

This blog will contain further information like the tip above, in hopes to help those pre-wedding jitters and to help create the perfect wedding guide for future brides.