HerCanberra Wedding series: The Cake and looking pretty

Posted on 16 January, 2015

We’re nearing the end of our current Wedding Series which covers just about everything needed to create the perfect wedding from my personal journey from proposal to the big day.

The amount of planning required for a wedding will take up a lot of your time. And if you’re anything like me the details are where it all counts. Being an Interior Designer I felt the pressure of making our wedding something quite spectacular and I was all for that. Not too sure how excited my husband-to-be was about having to hand-make all of the decorations (he’s a keeper).

The Wedding Cake

Twenty quotes later and I was still unable to find my cake maker. Cakes are expensive and honestly I think they are completely unjustified for the $2,000 I was getting quoted for my tiny cake I wanted. After receiving so many high (and ridiculous) prices we decided that okay we need to revisit this.

Let’s have a “cutting cake” one that’s used for the official wedding cake cutting and for photos, and then the other cakes will be out the back and served up (they’ll never actually be seen in cake form).”

And then we found them.

On a night out at a Poachers Pantry Wedding Open night we found them—Sweet Bones Bakery.

These girls were amazing and able to create exactly what we wanted along with placing the gorgeous fresh flowers on top by Moxom + Whitney. Our cake was a chocolate mudcake and we were able to order individual cupcakes for those of our guests who were gluten free.

The total cost for the cake including flower topper was $150. This cake was used for our bridal table while our remaining guests devoured eight Costco chocolate mudcakes at $23 each plus they were huge and delicious!

So you see it is still possible to have your cake and eat it too!

The essentials

The place: Sweet Bones Bakery
Where: Shop 8/18 Lonsdale Street Braddon
Phone: 0413 067 890
Web: www.sweetbonescompany.com or find them on Facebook

The Makeup

There is only one person in this world who I completely trust with my makeup and that’s Sara Sherwood. Sara comes from a quality background of makeup experience, spending years in her homeland USA working with MAC and in Australia for Napoleon Perdis.

Sara has always done my makeup from bright and bold colour for my award ceremonies to 1920s makeup and now my gorgeous subtle wedding makeup.

Sara comes to you so you don’t have to worry about driving all over town. Her makeup collection is extensive so no matter what tone or type of skin she’ll have you covered.

Her charge is $80 per person and she catered for a total of nine of us on our wedding day along with the help of her fabulous offsider.

The essentials

Who: Sara Sherwood
Phone: 0412 237 877

The Hair

A week out from our wedding I was in a pickle. I’d had a hair trial with a Southside salon and it was NOT what I wanted and I don’t think I could have gotten my dream-do at that particular salon and so I wasn’t sure where to go from here. That evening I was dropping off some items to Amanda Whitley herself and she saw my ‘trial’ hairdo. Needless to say she then suggested Renee Pound owner of Meki hair and here was my saving grace.

Renee is an artist, I’ve never seen anything like it. My trial went beautifully and she was able to capture exactly what I wanted and made it work for my hair type.

On the day, Renee came out to my home and started her magic. Setting my hair, curling my hair, pinning my hair and sewing my hair in all for $100 ($80 for the trial).

I only wish I could wake up looking like this every morning. Renee most recently did my sister’s hair just before Christmas last year and so now we can both say she’s our hair stylist.

The essentials

The place: Meki Hair
Who: Renee Pound
Where: 55/1 Braybrooke Street Bruce
Phone: 02 6251 1011
Web: Find Renee and Meki Hair on Facebook

Maryanne says: 27 April, 2015 at 7:05 am

Firstly Sarah, there is no way someone quoted you $2000 for that cake, no cake decorator no matter how successful they are would. It is sad that you feel you need to misrepresent something just to get what you believe is a good story. Secondly the cake is nothing special and does not require any special talent or skill to make, any cake decorator, even a beginner, can make that cake. Finally you probably won’t allow this post on your blog but that is okay just remember not to misrepresent your story as people are not fools they can judge for themselves what is true and what is not!

Maryanne says: 27 April, 2015 at 7:21 am

One more thing, how much do you charge for your interior design services?I’m sure what ever it is you think there is value in putting your time, effort and creative skills into it and I’m also sure you would not put in hours of work for a mere $150

Sarah BIRDBLACK DESIGN says: 27 April, 2015 at 7:26 am

The cutting cake was $150 and perfectly priced for its size. It was a 1/4 of the size of the Costco cakes and was used to only feed the bridal party.
You can find all of my Interior Design packages here with prices visible for all to see http://www.birdblackdesign.com.au
Thanks for your comments 🙂

Sarah BIRDBLACK DESIGN says: 27 April, 2015 at 7:22 am

Dear Maryanne I did in fact receive a quote for $2000 for a three tiered cake to feed 180 people as a main dessert. I’m no a liar nor can I see any benefit in making up a price for a cake to make a good story. As you will have read due to the high quotes I was receiving both from cake makers located in Canberra and Wollongong I opted for a smaller ‘show’ cake and the remainder Costco cakes for our guests, both delicious and did the job.
Happy to forward you the quotes so that you can see for yourself.

Maryanne says: 27 April, 2015 at 7:35 pm

To quote your blog

“Twenty quotes later and I was still unable to find my cake maker. Cakes are expensive and honestly I think they are completely unjustified for the $2,000 I was getting quoted for my tiny cake I wanted. After receiving so many high (and ridiculous) prices we decided that okay we need to revisit this.”

That is misrepresentation you claim the $2000 quote was for the tiny cake you wanted, yet here you say you got quoted $2000 for a three tier to serve 180 dessert which is much larger than the tiny cake you represent here and no doubt was not decorated like your tiny cake.
I am a cake decorator and I find your blog very offensive, especially when you have mislead the public.
I am sure you would not take too kindly to someone posting something to the effect that interior designing is ridiculously priced and completely unjustified.

Amanda Whitley says: 28 April, 2015 at 7:09 am

Hi Maryanne

I’m certain that Sarah did not mean her words to be misleading. Perhaps that sentence could have been more clearly worded, but there was no malice intended.

Amanda

Maryanne says: 28 April, 2015 at 10:46 am

Hi Amanda,
I am sure there was no malice however misrepresentation on the internet is damaging, cake decorating is indeed an art form and a lot of hard work goes into making a cake which some people clearly can not understand and when someone misrepresents the industry it really is offensive, malice intended or not.

Sarah BIRDBLACK DESIGN says: 28 April, 2015 at 8:01 am

Dear Maryanne,

Indeed I still stick to my belief that 2k for a wedding cake is a LOT of money to spend on my guests eating dessert. Hence as I quote ‘we need to revisit this’. We decided to get a smaller cake which cost $150 not $2000.
It was two years ago now so I can’t recall the diameters of the original cake I wanted and the cutting cake we ended up with. But for me the original cake I wanted did not seem extravagant it was a simple 3 tiered cake with butter icing (chocolate mudcake inside). The cake I ended up with let’s call it a miniature version so we understand that the two cake options were in fact different sizes.
Yes it was a compromise dropping from a 3 tiered cake to a 2 tiered cake but it was only going to be used to feed our bridal party as mentioned before. No longer needing a cake to feed 180 guests of course the price was going to drop dramatically.
Perhaps I was over quoted, maybe that cake decorator had too much on and priced themselves out of the job?
At the end of the day spending 70k on a wedding the cake was not high on the list of priorities hence with no hesitations I shared with everyone they were eating Costco cakes which I might add are the most delicious cakes around.

Maryanne says: 28 April, 2015 at 10:55 am

So one cake decorator quoted you $2000 not Twenty as you say in your article??
Not really a true representation of facts very disappointing.

From above reply-“Perhaps I was over quoted, maybe that cake decorator had too much on and priced themselves out of the job?”

From your blog -“Twenty quotes later and I was still unable to find my cake maker. Cakes are expensive and honestly I think they are completely unjustified for the $2,000 I was getting quoted for my tiny cake I wanted. After receiving so many high (and ridiculous) prices we decided that okay we need to revisit this.”

Sarah BIRDBLACK DESIGN says: 28 April, 2015 at 12:28 pm

I can only base my article on what I experienced. If you don’t charge high fees then good for you I’m sure lots of people will be happy with that. The highest price I received was $2000 out of the 20 quotes I got from Canberra and Wollongong (I didn’t write the 20 quotes were all $2000 each I said they were all high priced- more than what I wanted to spend, otherwise I would have just written all 20 quotes came in at $2000). The remaining quotes were in a few hundred dollars below that price $1700 the lowest. No doubt it takes great skill to make a cake and that’s why I wasn’t going to make it myself. The cake decorator at Sweet Bones Bakery was absolutely amazing and made a fantastic cutting cake which I would recommend to any one, especially as they make gluten free alternatives. They go to show that you can have an amazingly delicious cake which also looks fantastic without having to spend big bucks.
All the best with you cake decorating business.

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