by Ashley
Hi Friends!!
Today is my friend’s wedding day I’ve been talking about for the past several months!
Exciting stuff!
I don’t have a lot of time but I wanted to pop in and say – Good news!!! I was so worried about our “night out” yesterday night (thinking it would probably be $$$, see the post I wrote about here) but I ended up spending ZERO dollars! Woohoo!!!
How, you might ask?
Well she baked her own wedding cake and the plan was to do that during the day yesterday. What we THOUGHT would be a 3 hour process ended up taking NINE HOURS!!! (Now I know why wedding cakes are so dang expensive!) She made a four-layer, three-teir cake (that’s 3 tiers of four layers each) and the baking, alone, took 7 hours before even factoring in the frosting and decorating.
Aaaaaanyway, long story short, we were at the house working on the cake until 10pm and never went out. We ended up grazing on food at her house (I’d offered to pay for a pizza, but she wasn’t in the mood), s0 the night was 100% free!
There will still be a couple smaller expenses today (I’m picking up pre-ceremony mimosa supplies for the girls), but this will still turn out to be SUBSTANTIALLY less than I’d originally anticipated.
HUGE breath of relief!
Today is the wedding and reception and tomorrow is a second smaller “family” reception (which I’m also attending), so this weekend is pretty packed. I’ll be back on Monday and should hopefully have my budget updated to show you how October turned out and what the plan is for November.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Hi, I’m Ashley! Arizonan on paper, Texan at heart. Lover of running, blogging, and all things cheeeeese. Freshly 40, married mother of two, working in academia. Trying to finally (finally!) pay off that ridiculous 6-digit student loan debt!
I baked my own wedding cake, too. I really don’t recommend doing this, ha, ha.
Like your friend, everything took longer than we planned, so going to the Rehearsal and the Rehearsal Dinner felt like a big chore and my friends and I had to rush out of the Rehearsal Dinner to hurry home to finish the cake. My cake was also several tiers and boy, what a job it was. No problem at all had I NOT been the bride, but boy, a good night’s sleep vs. staying up until nearly 2 AM would have been so much better.
So happy to hear that the night was free. And actually, it sounds like more fun than bar hopping.
I totally agree! Thought it was a perfect pre-wedding evening! I’m glad we started early enough in the day that we weren’t up until 2am because THAT would’ve been a whole different story, but it was good, fun, friend-bonding.
Wow, I once talked a friend out of making her own cake. It’s so much hassle!
Anyway, we want pics!
I didn’t get any yesterday but I’ll be sure to get some today ; )
holy cow, that is so much work! As you say, no wonder wedding cakes are so costly!
wow. that sounds intense. is (wedding) cake one of those things that doesnt keep well if done in advance?
I’d be too scared to try that out.
She said she found a bunch of websites that sell it (just needs to be assembled), but it was all frozen and my friend really wanted fresh cake. Does it make a difference with taste??? No idea. But the bride is actually a pretty incredible baker and decided to go the DIY route.
So glad to hear that things turned out so well. Have a wonderful time today!