Wedding cakes and desserts

lolita11 said:...someone was mentioning a bakery called CAKE or something similar near MIT...

Right, I mentioned piece of cake on Main Street a few days ago.
The desserts are amazing—homemade style, baked by women and sold right there. It feels like you've just stepped into someone's kitchen. $28/lb, but they really are perfect!!
We have a wedding at 7 PM, and the baker said we can still change our minds about the flavors or amounts until Saturday. That means she’s baking them Saturday morning, or maybe Friday afternoon at the earliest. She has her own refrigerated delivery van, so I'm not worried about freshness or anything spoiling. She suggested counting on about 0.5 lbs per person, though we aren't leaving the sweets out on the tables; people will just grab some with coffee after dinner. As for the cake, it arrives at midnight. She explained that for about 70 guests, three tiers should be plenty. The bottom tier gets about 50 slices, which means everyone gets roughly two pieces!!
That's more than enough, right?? The cake is $233.

brighthawk23 said:Are you thinking about bringing stuff from home for the wedding reception, or what?
I’m planning on putting treats out on the tables, but I’ll need another 15 kg or so for the favor boxes (roughly—thinking 300g per box, so maybe 50 boxes total...)

My mom mentioned she might whip something up herself, so hopefully that helps the budget.

But look, the main thing is: do the cookies on the tables have to be the exact same ones in the favor boxes? Or can they be different? Like, should we add even more of those homemade ones to the table spread?

the wedding reception😍

Honestly, why would they even need to be the same?😕

THANKS stela 👍
I’ve been in a total fog all day—just completely out of it—so I definitely need some moral support right about now, especially after my mom spent all yesterday lecturing me about those cookies.
Seriously, she totally caught me off guard. Like, completely blindsided me.

I was honestly ready to just grab the whole batch and toss them straight into the trash!!!
But... ah, whatever, fine

😁

We picked up 50 kg of pastries for 130 guests. Each little box gets about 10 ounces, though we doubled the portion for the wedding party boxes. Between that and the cake, the total bill was quite substantial.
Emma-domestic bakery in Naperville
The woman is excellent; her pastries are top-tier—we tasted them ourselves.

While placing pastries on the table is perfectly acceptable, I have no desire to be surrounded by an excess of sweets. It has become increasingly apparent to me that people are gravitating toward fruit rather than sugary desserts. In truth, those pastries often go untouched, left to sit on the platters, and I certainly have no intention of serving everyone indiscriminately. I intend to limit them strictly to my immediate family.
Consequently, I believe the superior approach is to arrange a fruit buffet and perhaps include only a minimal selection of pastries on the tables.

Does anyone know where I can pick up some cookie boxes? And more importantly—what kind of price range am we looking at here?
Do they come in different colors? Also—is there an option to have our names and the date customized on them?

So glad Noah Green5 brought up Emma-domestic cookies. Honestly, I think I’m gonna put an order in myself... tried them before and they’re actually legit, not just some sugar bomb.

By the way, you know anything about their cakes? I’ve been thinking about ordering one, but I haven't really seen what they're like yet...

Taylor Wells68 said:where can I buy cookie boxes? what are the prices?
Are there colored options? Can I include our names and the date?

We picked ours up at the "Everything and anything" store in Naperville since they had the best prices (small $1.00, large $1.25). We didn't obsess over the aesthetics. We planned on adding the date and names ourselves via custom labels we'll print later.
You can find boxes at Metro, too.

Just one silly question—where exactly is Naperville located? Also, will the boxes be colored, and what’s the plan for the labels? I know I’m probably being a total pain with all these questions... but honestly, those boxes have been stuck in my head lately.

As far as I know, Naperville is right where that big furniture store is located... that's the easiest way to put it...

Honestly, just leave the boxes alone... guests won't mind one bit if you just hand them their cookies in a little baggie...

hollowwalker562 said:I'm glad Noah Green5 brought up Emma-domestic cookies. I think I'll put an order in there too. Tried them once; they're decent, not overly sugary.

Do you know anything about their cakes? I’d consider ordering one, but I haven't seen what they look like.

I've ordered a cake from them before. We attended a party where they provided the catering, and the cakes were phenomenal. I simply showed them a photo of the specific design I wanted when I placed the order. Honestly, I don't worry about whether I'll be satisfied; I have complete trust in them.

A couple of months ago, I was at a friend's wedding and they had this absolutely stunning cake... visually speaking, it was really something special. But honestly, once I actually got a slice and saw just how thin the sponge was...

Taylor Wells68 said:just a silly question—where is Naperville? and are the boxes colored? how will you handle the labels? I know I'm asking too many questions... but those boxes are driving me crazy..

Even you. People focus on the cookies, not the packaging. The boxes are white with tiny silver hearts—though there might be other colors, I didn't bother looking. I'll just grab some small oval stickers from a local craft store, like the ones used for glassware, and print names and dates on them. It’s done. I wasn't about to pay $5$2.00 per box through those fancy catering agencies.

Noah Green5 said:Honestly, it’s the cookies that actually matter—not the fancy little boxes. I usually just go for those plain white ones decorated with tiny little silver hearts (though I know they have them with different colored hearts too, but I didn't bother checking because, frankly, I wasn't interested). My plan is to head to a shop like Barnes & Noble and pick up some of those small, oval crystal decals, then simply print out the names and dates onto them—simple as that. To be perfectly honest, paying $5$2.00 per box felt like a total rip-off given what those high-end catering agencies charge.

That idea about using the crystal decals is absolutely BRILLIANT! I might just have to steal that idea for myself!!

Honestly, ladies, I don't know how you all manage to pile so much extra stress onto yourselves... I’m not attending a wedding just to judge the dessert spread, the catering, or the drinks. I go to celebrate the couple and spend quality time with people I care about. Whether there are fancy pastries or not is honestly the last thing on my mind. It’ll be the same way at my own wedding—I probably won't even bother with a formal cake service.

Taylor Wells68 said:Those crystal decals are a BRILLIANT idea! I should definitely try that too!!

The concept holds water. We handled most things ourselves—invitations, party favors, you name it—just to shave a bit off the budget. Usually, you just get those standard bakery labels on cookie boxes, so we figured, why not design our own?

Noah Green5 said:The concept is solid—we actually DIY'ed almost everything ourselves, from the invitations to the party favors, just to keep the budget under control. Normally, you just grab those standard bakery stickers for the dessert boxes, so it suddenly clicked: why shouldn't we design our own custom label instead?

Honestly, that is a fantastic idea! 👍 My only hesitation is that I’d want them to be a bit larger—I don't want them looking tiny and cheap like those little things you get from a local bakery... can you actually find sticker paper for that at a regular office supply store like Staples?

I suppose it should be available. We haven't actually gone to check yet, but if they don't have them, I'll just pick up some different sized ones. You can find those at any Staples or Office Depot, though I assume any local stationery shop would carry them too.

Hey Noah Green5... can you tell me where that Emma-Malešnica is? I think I lost the post somewhere... do you have a contact number?

silverbadger3 said:hey Noah Green5.....tell me where is Emma?...I lost the post somewhere... do you have a contact number?

In Smalltown, USA, there's a woman named Snow - 555-012-3456

Give her a call and ask. Nothing to lose.