wedding wednesday's: cake tasting

Last Wednesday was a busy day for me... 

1. It was my LAST day of work. Not only for the summer, but for the remainder of the year and until next May [for the majority]. My co-workers surprised me with a few going away gifts! They are all SOO incredibly sweet and I am going to miss them terribly. Mrs. C got her daughter to hand-make me some beautiful earrings! [2 pair!!] I wore one pair this past Friday. And Miss L. bought me an adorable Mickey Mouse scrub top to wear for this semester in my PEDS clinical rotations for nursing school! How sweet?! Here are a few of my co-workers, including the two mentioned above.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. 
   
   
   It was my baby brother's 18^th birthday! We celebrated that evening at my Grandma's [better known as “Mema”] by grilling ranch burgers & having a bunch of family and Cody's friends over for dinner. He's not a big cake fanatic, so we devoured a Dairy Queen icecream cake instead :) YUM!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

3. 
   
   
   I had my very first cake tasting appointment with Kerry O'Connor Cake's in Savannah at 11:30 [on my lunch break!]. I brought in a few ideas I had printed out previously in hopes that we could figure something out that would go along with our theme, but also that was in our budget range. Soo, as I enter, the entrace door had a “The Knot Recommended” sticker on it! Cha-ching! So far, so good. She hands me a form to fill out first off with our wedding date/time, wedding coordinator's info, place of ceremony/reception, etc. We began discussing various ideas as far as the individual theme we were going with, our colors, how many guests, and so forth. We came up with a cake that will definitely fit the theme we are going with, but it's $100 over budget. Regardless of the flavors/fillings we decide to go with, there will be no further addition/reduction(s) in cost. Major plus. However, I am going with a fairly basic cake design as it is. Nothing fancy whatsoever since we have chosen to go with a country/rustic theme. We cut down on the slices per guest due to the fact that we will also have a groom's cake that will feed the remainder of the guests. 
   But, here's the problem: I just don't know exactly where I will be able to cut the cost of the cake and still make it presentable, yet beneath our budgeted price. Any suggestions? Should I spend the extra $100, get it exactly as I had envisioned, yet save the $100 elsewhere?

Since I went alone to the cake tasting, I brought home the leftover pieces for the family to sample taste. Before gathering for Cody's birthday celebration, my Dad had the idea of blind folding whoever wanted to taste test, then make them choose the number(s) that they liked best [after tasting of course, but still while blindfolded and without knowing which flavor was what!]. It was fun! And believe it or not, the majority chose pretty much the same flavors! I hope to make a final decision here in the next month or so in order to go ahead and sign a final cake contract and have it well under way! One more thing I can check off the to-do list.

Here are the pictures from the “at home-version” cake tasting, enjoy!