This beautiful pic (and the others) was taken by my friend and photographer, Stephen Pflug.I had to make 200+ cupcakes and one cake for the top. I will say that I definitely learned some valuable lessons about baking for a big event. I pretty much planned out every detail of the week leading up to the wedding, and I think it really saved me a lot of time and sanity by week's end. Chad's mom also took the boys all day Thursday which allowed me to bake and decorate all 200+ cupcakes between the hours of 9 and 5! It was weird because, although I was working super hard and baking all day, I didn't have my 3 boys...so the day was strangely stress free and even somewhat relaxing? I guess that gives you an idea of what it's like to take care of 3 boys all the time! Probably the most stressful part of the whole thing was decorating that cake for the top! I've never done that before...and I was a shaky, sweaty ball of nerves the whole time I was doing it. Did you know you can sweat inside your ears? Cause you can.
On Friday afternoon (the day of the wedding), my mom went with me to help me set up and make everything look pretty. I had it in my mind that I would feel a huge relief as soon as those cupcakes (and the cake!) were set up and I walked out the door. However, when I got there, the coordinator informed me that we would be putting them on a table with wheels....so that they could wheel them out to the tent when it was time to cut the cake...wheel them over thick carpet and through 2 doorways...which, in the cupcake world, I can only describe as "rough terrain." My heart was in my stomach. I tried to inform her that I wasn't at all sure how stable the set up was (after all...I had planned on it being set up and then just sitting there) and that this tower of cupcakes wasn't built for off-roading. She laughed it off and informed me that she hadn't lost a wedding cake yet and that it would be fine. Suffice it to say, I did not leave that place with the internal relief for which I was hoping. I fretted all night until I finally received a text from a friend letting me know that everything went well and nothing fell apart. Thank you Lord.
I also learned a lot about the actual cost of the cupcakes I've been making. These things are a little more expensive than I had roughly estimated in my head. Thanks to an amazingly intelligent cupcake cost calculator spreadsheet Chad made for me (have I mentioned before that he is amazingly intelligent?) I have a better idea of how much to charge. I'll reiterate that I am still not doing this as a business (Question in your mind: "What ARE you doing then, Mary?" Answer in my mind: "I have no idea."). Basically, I make cupcakes for people sometimes, when I'm available and they really, really want them. I'm no pro. I'm definitely not a professional decorator. I do love to mess around with baking principles and interesting flavors and ingredients to create delicious desserts. I like to take baking problems and correct them (ex. cake that's too dry/too dense/not flavorful enough...etc.) I know it seems like I have a cupcake business since I have been baking cupcakes for people just about every weekend for the past month...and I have no answer for that. I'll just leave it at that.
