If you are planning on having a wedding cake with lots of tiers that looks gawjiss and divine and is just the most fabulous thing on earth, you may want to keep the following in mind.

Check with your venue whether they will charge you to cut it into pieces for you after you’ve done the cake cutting ceremony and had pictures taken! Some venues will charge you for this service.

This is one of the reasons cupcakes continue to grow in popularity.

If you are planning to have a wedding cake at your reception, one that you will cut in a traditional type of ceremony whilst having pictures taken, there are a couple of things you may want to keep in mind.

Etiquette dictates that the bride must pick the knife up off the table (it must never be handed to her) and the groom must then place his hand over hers on the knife to symbolise their shared life. They then feed a small piece of the cake to each other- the groom feeding the bride first- to symbolise their providing for each other in their new life.

After the photographs have been taken, the cake is often discreetly taken to the kitchen (or not) and cut up for the guests to enjoy. Beware- some venues will charge you for cutting up your cake as this is a time consuming procedure, so be sure to check with your service providers. If you want to keep the top tier to save it for your first anniversary or a honeymoon treat be sure that someone knows this and can take care of it for you. If you are having a cake with several tiers, there is a possibility that one of them may be a decorated polystyrene “dummy”, so check with the bakery to make sure you don’t cut into the wrong tier!

And of course, you don’t have to have a cake at all! You could have cupcakes or a macaroon tower or even a cheese board and you could still feed each other a piece of something to symbolise your providing for each other.

I’m sure you know by now that just about every aspect of a wedding is packed full of traditions and symbolism, many of which have long since been forgotten but have resulted in customs and actions we all know about- like cake cutting, first dances, garters and bouquets.

I would like to give you a little information here about cutting the cake, and what the traditions are behind it.

Cutting a wedding cake is supposed to be the first task the bride and groom perform together, but the knife is never to be handed to the bride- she is to pick it up herself. The groom then places his hand over hers to assist her in cutting the first slice. The couple then feed the first slice to each other- the groom feeding the bride and then the bride feeding some to the groom- demonstrating their promise to provide for each other.

Traditionally, the top layer of the cake is put aside and kept for the couple to eat on their first anniversary, although this is difficult to do if it’s not a fruit cake.

You can read all about

my wedding cupcakes

here!

This week I’m featuring Wade’s Cakes in Rondebosch.

Talk about artistry! I truly wish the gallery on this website was bigger… They have an excellent reputation and are well known in the wedding industry.