Another "I'd Like To Include My Dog" Cake

It's an interesting phenomenon, what I like to call the "I'd like to include my dog" cake. We've written on the topic before on the blog, in a post aptly called "The I'd Like to Include My Dog Cakes". As we're seeing in a recent and also upcoming orders for next year, the request to include one's pet dog is alive and well here at cakelava HQ. Most recently, earlier this week, when our client Patrick and his fiancee wanted to feature their adorable Boston Terrier and Chihuahua on their wedding cake. At the time of the request, their cake for their intimate wedding had already been designed with the top tier all bamboo and handcrafted tropical flowers in sunset colors and a pair of custom slippers (flip flops to mainland folks) toppers. We weren't sure at the time what Rick would choose for the bottom tier, but then the request to include their two dogs came in and we knew the right design for the bottom was to keep it plain
so as not to clutter the cake. Our Seattle-based couple went with our Hawaii Five-0 flavor to serve as dessert to their guests. Rick and I were glad to have met our couple at their reception because we had been communicating with them long distance and they were so appreciative of the cake when they saw it. Getting to witness someone's reaction is such a rewarding part of our business! We wish them many happy years together and a safe flight back to Seattle.

Aloha, til next time!

Pretty Little Details - When Vendors Work Their Magic

Back in August when cake life was particularly hectic with all the summer weddings, we made this 6-tier fondant unusually shaped ivory, purple and gold wedding cake for one of our couples. This extravagant wedding was a last minute RUSH event which all the hired vendors had less than 3 weeks to pull it all together. This was no small feat. Thank goodness for the coordinator/event designer extraordinaire, Mona Hirata and her team with Weddings by Grace & Mona who worked long hours with the couple and all the vendors to create a spectacular event!

Special thanks to Yvonne Floral Design for the images!


Flowers galore! Yvonne designed these absolutely gorgeous tall centerpieces dripping with crystals for added bling.


Yvonne and Alex of Yvonne Floral Design worked their magic on the room with custom linens, purple/pink lighting and beautiful draping throughout the room. What a fantastic team they are!


The centerpiece on the parents' table. The custom name cards, table cards, and other paperie were made by the super talented Stacey of Emi Ink. Her work is exquisite!


The "N & D" monogram projected onto the dance floor was another special addition to the wedding created by Yvonne Floral Design. For this event, the cake was placed on the dance floor for everyone to enjoy! Other vendors working their magic, included The JW Marriott Ihilani where the wedding took place, Angel De Armas on Cinematography, and Blue Cheese Hawaii provided the couple's photobooth. Who says you can't have a little fun in a room full of elegance. The vendors who contributed to this wedding are people we work with regularly and we're thankful to be surrounded with such talent here in Hawaii.

Tomorrow we will have much to be thankful for as we observe Thanksgiving. We're thankful for our families and friends, good health, our relationship, and the support of our community. We're thankful for the creative process and that we can do something we love and be surrounded and inspired by talented people every week. Rick and I are thankful to all of you for supporting our blog and the comments you've left and letters you have sent us. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!


Aloha!

Under the Sea

We regularly receive requests for the "Under the Sea" theme cake. One such request came from our clients Rae and Keith, both scuba instructors, who wanted to honor their professions at their October wedding by having a beautiful underwater scene on their wedding cake. Their wedding took place at the beach, naturally, and they wanted to have their cake near the beach rather than at the reception which would later take place at a nearby hotel. Rick hand sculpted all the marine life shown on the cake and also made two custom scuba tank cake toppers with Rae and Keith's names shown nestled amidst the colorful marine scene. To keep the cake as vibrant and colorful on the inside as it was on the outside, the couple chose our ever-popular signature Rainbowlicious flavor to serve their guests. Thank you to Rae and Keith for including us in their special day!

Next Featured Wedding Sneak Peek - Irene and Joseph

All photos courtesy of Rachel Robertson Photography

We had been eyeing our couple Irene and Joseph's wedding to feature on cakelava.com shortly after we saw their inspiration board of images and the cake was designed. Irene and Joseph were married on September 28, 2008. After talking to Irene about their color palette of fuschia, tangerine and yellow and hearing their location and vendor details, we just knew it was a Featured Wedding contender. Then Irene told us that Rachel Robertson was her photographer, and it was practically a done deal! Rachel's images are spectacular, vibrant and a perfect match to capture such vivid colors.

A wedding as lovely as Irene and Joseph's doesn't just happen, it is created, piece by piece, by a wedding coordinator/event designer, who in this case was the super sweet Aubrey Akana-Figueira of Savoir Faire. Irene was one of those wonderful brides who truly enjoyed the planning of her wedding and was excited about all the little details, which is always a pleasure for us to witness. She's also the type of bride to wear light pink on her wedding day -- Love It! -- and she looked gorgeous! Her excitement about the details definitely extended to their wedding cake, which was very important to the couple. They wanted a cake that was artful and would cause jaws to drop, and not perfectly symmetrical. She provided us her invitation which had a funky stylized flower design which we would add to the cake, as well as graduating the colors from darker to lighter. Irene and Joseph chose our Banana Nutella and Chocolate Dream flavors for their cake. Unfortunately, we weren't able to meet the California couple prior to the wedding because we were out of town on a TV shoot, but luckily got the opportunity to meet at the wedding!

Upon walking onto the grounds of the "World of Aloha" Estate at the Kahalu'u Fishpond, you are instantly transported to a breathtaking tropical paradise. This estate is not inexpensive to book, and quite difficult to find unless you are working with a coordinator in the know, but it is absolutely worth every penny! Rick and I were impressed with the beautiful colors and stylish set up of this event, and of course all the fantastic vendors!:

Venue: World of Aloha at Kahalu'u Fishpond
Coordinator and Event Designer: Aubrey of Savoir Faire
Photographer: Rachel Robertson Photography
Floral Designer: Michelle of Flowergirls
Caterer: Cater to Me
Rentals: Catering Connection
Officiant/Entertainment: Walt Keale
Custom Linens and lounge furniture: Les Saisons

Enough of the backstory, let's get to the images!











BIG THANKS to Rachel Robertson for the images!

Irene's Thank You note:

Hi Sasha & Rick,

I'm so happy I got a chance to meet you when I did because at that time I was just sneaking away from our guests to say hi to Aubrey and see how the reception area was decorated - perfect timing! How many times can I say thank you to you and Rick?? He did an awesome job and our guests LOVED LOVED LOVED the cake!

It was such a pleasure working with you and please feel free to use us as a reference anytime.

Thanks,

Irene

Irene and Joseph,

You two rock! We loved working with both of you and were glad to have met you on the wedding day. Wishing you both the best on your new life together!

-- Sasha & Rick

To see Irene and Joseph's Featured Wedding, visit cakelava.com in the next day or two.

A Flowering Beauty

Being the wife of a talented cake designer has many perks, one of which is getting to see Rick's finished creation before anyone else. It's a ritual we have. Every cake he finishes, I get called into the kitchen to see it and he gets to see my jaw drop or the huge smile on my face. As husband and wife, it's something sweet we get to share together, before the cake gets shared with our client and their guests. I consider it a privelege and feel lucky to have this time with Rick.

Last month, Rick made this cake for our client Anamarie and Ben's wedding. It was a design both of us were excited about and I couldn't resist coming into the kitchen on many occasions to see the work in progress. When the cake was finished and I went in to see it, we both stood there, starry-eyed over this cake. The shape, the precise piping, the colors, I loved it all! The flower print motif was created by our couple, who used the design on their invitations and it worked perfectly for the cake. We'd like to thank Anamarie and Ben for providing us such a beautiful artwork to work from and wish them the best in their new life together!

A Day for the Turtles

If you weren't on Oahu over the weekend, you sure didn't miss much. It was the first weekend in ages where it poured rain all day Saturday and Sunday. Usually, if it's raining in Kailua where cakelava is based, we drive elsewhere on the island and it's perfectly sunny. On Saturday we took an hour and fifteen minute drive in the rain out to the North Shore to deliver our clients Janet and Todd's turtle/ocean themed wedding cake. It was still raining when we got there and our couple had decided to move forward with their outdoor wedding at Turtle Bay Resort. I cannot think of a more appropriate venue for a wedding with a turtle motif, and the staff at Turtle Bay seemed to think so too. For Janet and Todd's wedding cake, we chose a cream fondant base color with fern green turtles and "Aegean" blue wave pattern. It turned out very cute, even if the weather was no day at the beach. They chose our Rainbowlicious and Hawaii Five-0 flavors, rather than the obvious match, Totally Turtle. This was a wedding in Hawaii afterall. When we arrived, the guests tables were being set up and we took the photos below, because it tied in so well with their turtle/beach theme.



On our drive back to our studio, I was thinking of Janet and Todd and hope they had a wonderful wedding despite the rain. We'd like to wish them the best on their new life together and a safe flight back to San Diego.

See Janet and Todd's wedding cake and many other recent new cakes on cakelava.com coming soon!

** Update on our December Featured Wedding couple. Couple #4 Leslie and Sam are your current favorites, but we are accepting votes through October 31st. Please vote by adding the number and name of the couple you would like to be Featured in the Comments section. If you are reading this via a subscriber such as Google reader, you'll need to visit the blog directly to vote. The nominees are:

#1: Renata and Rocky
#2: Jennifer and Andy
#3: Karla and Jason
#4: Leslie and Sam
#5: Reiko and Jason

To cast your vote, and "meet" our couples, visit this link:

http://www.cakelava.blogspot.com/2008/10/we-want-you-help-us-choose-our-december.html

Cheers!

cakelava in BRIDE'S

cake images by blufotografica

First off, I'd like to acknowledge that my interview with Joan Spitler of Cake Divas, has been postponed until tomorrow. It was a busy week for both Joan and I and we needed another day to get the interview ready. Please join us back here tomorrow and Friday for our 2-pt. interview.


Last night we picked up the new issue of BRIDE'S magazine, and noticed a very familiar cake in there -- Kelly's cake -- in their "A To Z Guide to Destination Weddings" section. We had heard sometime ago from photographer, Brad Uyehara of blufotografica, that our cake may run in the issue, as BRIDE'S was considering a number of his images to run in their feature, but as with any publication, you never really know until you see it in print.

The cake in the feature was made for our bride Kelly. She was flying in from Canada to get married in Hawaii and wanted a whimsical Hawaiian style design with an elegant feel, and wanted to incorporate their theme, which was also their wedding song, Jack Johnson's "Better Together". She wanted palm trees and whimsical tropical flowers, and surfboards, reminiscent of Hawaii and the beach. To customize her cake further to include the Jack Johnson song, Rick added the lyrics to "Better Together" on the cake board, which you can see in the photo above. Just another example of blufotografica's amazing work! The same image used in the BRIDE'S magazine feature is on cakelava.com. If you are planning a destination wedding, be sure to check out the feature and see more of blufotografica's work.

Aloha, til tomorrow!