my wedding cake, 10 years later

This is a story that I am thrilled to share, with the images of my very own wedding cake, ten years later. It was the first time my husband and I cut a wedding cake! We didn’t have one for our wedding, so I made one for our 10th anniversary.

I want to thank my friend Jen for capturing these special moments for us. It’s hard to believe that a whole year has already gone by since these were taken! This was a team effort. I set and styled the cake and floral details and Jen did all the rest. It was really important to me that we document our family on this special anniversary, with our abundance: our beautiful children, a few more laugh-lines and more love than we ever could have imagined.

Finally cutting our cake together was so fun and special.

It’s funny that my husband and I decided that we didn’t want a cake on our wedding day. Since dessert was included on our dinner menu, a cake wasn’t on our list of must-haves. We were so in-love and had a long enough engagement. We just wanted to be a married as soon as possible, with a small and important ceremony, and special details (that I completely micromanaged) and a spectacular honeymoon. Paying for everything on our own was definitely a factor. I figured we could have a cake to cut on a special anniversary.

I’m a super-sentimental person, so I was determined to make every detail have some special significance. I have no idea what we would have chosen if we did have a cake on our actual wedding day, but 10 years later, I knew exactly what to do.

I set the cake on the end table that my husband brought back, from his NYC apartment, when he decided to move back home, to San Diego. That decision would lead him to be permanently back to his daughter, instead of flying back home every couple of weeks. It would also lead the two of us to meet.

We would use the cake cutting knives that my mom and dad used on their wedding day.

Every piped detail had a prayer within it, for us and our family. I really took my time and enjoyed every moment to decorate.

I made a herringbone impression to the fondant, representing the “something old” that I wore on our wedding day. It was a gold herringbone bracelet that my grandmother saved for me to have. During the war in Italy, our family buried some of of their valuables/jewelry. If they didn’t, they would have been taken by soldiers. Each granddaughter received a piece from her treasure, for their wedding day.

I wanted three layers of different cake for our cake-cutting portion. I liked the idea of representing past, present and future. They were all fruit flavors: passion fruit, lemon and lime.

Several years ago, being an expert baker wasn’t even on my radar. I was busy with a career as an executive in the corporate world and I wasn’t able to spend much time in the kitchen. I never dreamed that on our 10th wedding anniversary, I would be the one to make us our first wedding cake to cut, with our beautiful children by our side. (That was the best part, since I wasn’t sure that becoming a mother was in the cards for me, let alone having my own business as a dessert caterer. God has good plans and the most wonderful gifts.)

Here are the photos that I took, just before our shoot with Jen:

My dear friend, Karen, helped me to arrange the floral, to look close to the arrangements used on our wedding day. I love her and all of her work! I added some touches and placed a fresh arrangement on our cake.

If I were to offer any advice for engaged couples planning their reception, I say don’t skip on details for the celebration of your lifetime. When we made our sacred vows, we understood that we were set for our lives. Although our day was perfect, and I wouldn’t have changed it, looking back, it would have been nice to have a small wedding cake, and I would have hired a videographer and a second photographer.