Posts by redmason30

Hey,

So my husband’s dealing with an adductor tear and some partial tearing too, plus pretty bad bruising. He needs to see an orthopedic surgeon to figure out if he actually needs physical therapy or if he's looking at surgery. His GP gave him a 15-day medical leave, but they're basically telling him he has to go back to work after that since there isn't any specialist documentation yet—even though the pain isn't going away. The earliest appointment he could find at the orthopedic clinic on Main Street is 20 days out. Does anyone know if there's anywhere else we can get him in sooner? I heard the clinic over on Oak Avenue is booked up for 2-3 months, and the one on Maple Drive won't even take these kinds of cases.

Thanks.

Olivia Castillo562 said:I've accepted that I'll spend about $40/lb on desserts, so 🙄 I don't usually go out of my way either—except for McCafé 😁—but now I have to scout them out. I'll post my impressions 😁, though perhaps I'm just being overly critical. 🤣

A dessert table isn't for me; I attended a wedding where some of our guests were also present, and I wasn't impressed, nor was the rest of the crowd. I'm not craving a few small sweets right now. We finally managed to clear some time this weekend to go checking, so I might consider them if the options in Chicago turn out to be "meh."

edit: silentpanther32, that would be my favorite combination 😁

The Sweet Table idea was a total home run for us too. People absolutely loved it, and honestly, we were just relieved we didn't have to go overboard buying a mountain of cookies just to make every single table look full.

Jesse Perez4 said:

I don't even know where to start with this one. Honestly, it feels like we're just spinning our wheels at this point. I guess maybe some people actually think there's a logic to what's happening, but if you ask me, it’s just pure chaos. It's pretty much all just Darkness at this stage. Everything feels messy and disorganized, and frankly, I'm getting a little tired of trying to make sense of it. Maybe I'm being too harsh, but it feels like we're just waiting for something to break. Just my two cents, I suppose. Jesse Perez4 says: This is what we're looking for. 🙂 So, about that bakery, Darkness from Krizevac—a friend of mine from back home was telling me how much she hates their pastries. Apparently, they’re just way too heavy on the margarine. She’s one of those people who will only touch stuff made with real butter, you know? She mentioned they used to get similar treats from some other local shop around there, but a different one... I don't know. Anyway, there was a dessert table at the event, so I didn't even bother trying anything. I guess I’m just not that kind of person; I never really go for the dessert table thing.

I don't know exactly when my friend last hit up that bakery, but I went earlier this year and honestly? The pastries tasted legit homemade. They aren't full of that cheap margarine crap, which is huge for me because I can't stand anything that tastes like oily fake butter. I guess people are also seriously clearing out the shelves whenever Darkness hits.

Listen up, I think I found the fix for you guys🙂, there's this bakery called Darkness (http://pizzeriamrak.com/slasticarna.html, https://www.facebook.com/pizzeriaslasticarna.mrak) over in Križevci. Their website is kind of a mess, honestly, but man, the cakes and pastries are just incredible. They sell slices by the pound/$20, and we got a custom cake with buttercream that cost us just under $333 (we had three different ones, all amazing—super light, none of that gross margarine taste). For a cake like that, they usually ask for about $1000. Plus, they didn't even charge us for delivery, even though the wedding was way out in Sesvete, and they didn't charge for setting up the dessert table either, which normally would have cost me like $100. So yeah, keep them in mind if you need sweets in Krapina. Here’s a shot of our dessert spread and the cake...

Look, everyone’s gonna do what they think is right, but personally, I can't stand wasting food. I've seen it happen way too many times where people order a massive amount of dessert for a wedding, only to have half of it left over at the end. Then they try to pass it off to guests, but even after that, there's still a mountain of leftovers because they listened to parents instead of the caterers who told them they were ordering double what they actually needed. At our wedding, we did a dessert table and ended up with maybe a kilo and a half of sweets left. We paid about $333 for all the desserts, so that extra $600-$333 would've basically just been tossed in the trash. Total, we spent around $23333 on the whole wedding, and honestly? It was incredible. We just saved money where it actually mattered—like the sweets and the flowers—or we just DIY'd stuff like the invites and favors. But the food, the cake, and the band? Those were top-tier, which is really the only thing that matters in the end.

You could probably split them up, but honestly, most of them just end up tossed in the trash or, if you're lucky, served as a side dish at a local diner. At least, that's how it's always gone for me, which is why we didn't even bother grabbing too many cookies.🙂

Nathan Cox25 said:$30/lb isn't actually that bad if you want decent pastries. I remember when it was $27/lb back in the day—and honestly, finding anything halfway tasty was a struggle. At a wedding we went to recently, half the spread just ended up in the trash; total waste of money. But hey, when your mother-in-law insists you need 60 pounds of dessert on the table... 🙂
you just don't argue.

When people started trying to lecture us about the dessert situation or whatever, I just asked them straight up: Are you footing the bill for this wedding? If you aren't paying, we do it our way. If you are paying, then fine, we'll do it your way. So, we did it our way, and I guess it worked out because otherwise, we would’ve ended up with a mountain of leftovers headed straight for the trash. This way, almost everything actually got eaten.

graniteridge6 said:Truly wonderful. 👍

thanks

So here’s a look at our little dessert spread, the cocktails, and the cake...

Jesse Carter said:For those who’ve gone with custom built-in desks—was it actually worth the cash, and what kind of price range are we looking at? 🙂

It’s definitely worth it, mostly because you don't end up with a mountain of leftover cake like you usually do at weddings. If you put treats on every single table, you have to order way more, so there's always a ton left over. We ended up paying $20 per pound, which was pretty cheap, but you really have to hunt for deals in Springfield. In New York City, they're charging $27 per pound or even more (at least from the places I checked).

Henry Wood88 said:I need some advice on dessert portions. Based on what you guys have seen, how many ounces of sweets should I budget per person for a buffet? I’ve been digging around online and found conflicting numbers—some say 10 ounces, others say 5. Given what I'm charging for this spread, I'm looking at about three bites per person... basically three pieces each. Is that way too stingy, or am I just overthinking it?

We had about 30 pounds of dessert for 114 guests at our wedding, and there was barely anything left over. Usually, there's enough left to hand out to people on their way out, but this time we barely had scraps. Honestly, once people started digging in, I thought we were gonna run out completely. I guess it really just depends on if the food is actually good, how big the individual portions are, and whatever else is going on with your catering setup.

So, here’s my take on where to get decent cakes and pastries.

Basically, since I was hunting for sweets that actually taste good without breaking the bank, I ended up finding this gem in Indianapolis at the Sweet Shop (http://pizzeriamrak.com/slasticarna.html). The pastries are amazing—even if their website looks like it’s from the Stone Age—they have that real homemade vibe. We paid about $20/lb, and for a wedding cake, we only shelled out around $333 (everywhere else wanted like $833 for the exact same thing with buttercream). I guess we were probably one of those rare wedding couples where guests basically inhaled all the dessert... 🙂 On top of that, nobody else would even help set up a dessert table unless I dropped $300 or more on them, but these guys did it for free and even delivered everything to the venue at no charge. Even the pickiest eaters I know were obsessed with the cake and the treats. So yeah, just wanted to give a shout-out to the Sweet Shop and Tomislav, who killed it with the desserts.

gentleskipper3 said:Look, since our dessert plans have gone completely off the rails, I need to do some damage control. The wedding is only a month away...

A few years back, I tried the treats from Emma and the Gingerbread man, and based on what I've heard, Hearty seems like a decent option too...

Ugh, now I actually have to get to work on this—fingers crossed it isn't too late...

I was planning on roughly 12 kg of sweets for 65 guests.
Does that sound about right?

we went with 16 kg for 150 people, and we’re doing a single dessert table instead of putting them on every individual table.

Paul King5 said:How far out should I book a baker for the wedding cake? Is it the same timeline as everything else...

Some people told me a month out, others said two months, but honestly? Just give them a call maybe six months ahead of time to see what they say. That’s basically what I did.

brightridge82 said:Hey, can anyone help me out here?
Where on earth did you order that cake from?

If you're asking me, I'll probably just grab mine from that pizzeria called Darkness over in Columbus (http://pizzeriamrak.com/slaticarna.html). Their website is kind of a mess, I guess, but their desserts are seriously amazing—like, none of that weird margarine aftertaste you get in cheap cakes. Plus, you can pretty much negotiate the price by the pound $20, so it seems worth it. We're heading there tomorrow to finalize all our wedding stuff.🙂

Taylor Jackson59 said:Honestly, the absolute worst part of any wedding is the dessert spread. Like, 90% of the guests won't even touch them.🙂 But you’re stuck ordering them because apparently, it's just "tradition" or whatever... I hate it.😁

If it were up to my husband, he’d scrap the whole dessert table entirely, but I can already see the judgmental looks from the older relatives on the guest list.🤣

So, realistically, what’s the bare minimum number of pastries you need per table to keep everyone happy?

I might have a fix for you; just set up a dessert station—like one dedicated table just for treats—that way people eat less of them. We’re hosting 150 people and we're planning on maybe 16 lbs of sweets max! If you put them on every single table, they told me you have to order way more. Last year my sister-in-law got married and she had over two-thirds of the desserts left over, and I think she was counting about 5 ounces per person. Hope that helps. Also, if you really don't want them, I heard skipping dessert is actually "in" now. A friend of mine went to a wedding where they didn't have any sweets at all!🙂