Something you don't want to miss: Brides Give Back

As a reader of this blog, there's a pretty good chance that you are getting married in the near future, and if you are... I have an event for you! It's called Brides Give Back and it is being planned by our friends over at The Wedding Hub.

Here's what they did... they grabbed a bunch amazing vendors and brought them to one of the best reception sites around, for good measure even mixed in a little food and drink. There will be beauticians doing mini makeovers and even a photo booth for you to play with.   That's not even the best part.   Not only will you be able to meet some of the best vendors in the state, but you may actually win their services at a huge discount for your wedding through the silent auction! (As you've probably guessed, we donated a wedding cake).  

As if that weren't enough motivation to attend, all of the proceeds will directly benefit Faith House, an amazing valley domestic violence shelter that helps over 300 women and children each year.

Here are the details:

Date: February 19, 2009 

Time: Doors open at 6:00PM 

Location: Villa Siena in Gilbert, AZ

Cost: $15.00

For more info or to get your tickets, vist http://www.bridesgiveback.com/

We hope to see you there!

It's that time again!

It's bridal show weekend again and due to our crazy schedule we regret that we are unable to attend, but you really must stop by and meet some of the wonderful facilities that we partner with:

Regency Garden
Villa Siena
Stonebridge Manor
The Castle at Ashley Manor
The Boojum Tree Hidden Gardens

And don't forget the food:

Heidi's Events and Catering

You will see hundreds of companies during your visit to the show (it's overwhelming, I know) and when you get home, many of them will start to blend together in your head... so how do you choose? I will offer a few pieces of advice:


1. Check reviews on everyone at WeddingWire.com. Companies that have been in their respective business for a while will usually have reviews from past brides. Review sites can be an excellent resource! Be aware, these types of sites can be manipulated, so look for reviews from brides that have reviewed a number of other vendors as well as the vendor you are looking at. If a vendor has a handful of reviews that were all posted within a couple of days of each other and their brides haven't reviewed any other vendors... be wary.

2. If the company is a caterer or a cake company, also visit Maricopa County Food Establishments site and type in their name. If they are legal and licensed, they will appear and you can find out a little bit about them. If they don't appear, be careful. It is illegal in this state to operate a foodservice business out of an unlicensed kitchen and each company requires their own permit. Due to liability issues, some reception sites will turn away a delivery of a cake or catering food delivered by a company that has no permit. That could be really bad news on your wedding day.

3. If you already have a vendor or 2 selected that you feel really comfortable with, ask them. You can ask about companies they would recommend or ask about specific companies that you saw at the show. The AZ wedding vendor community knows each other pretty well and people that are really good at what they do tend to work with others that are good at what they do.

4. You've heard this before, but I will say it again. You're probably a nice person (I said probably) so if a vendor that you don't particulary care for hands you a brochure, you probably aren't going to set it ablaze and toss it back in their face while chanting "burn baby burn".
In all likelihood you will politely put it into the big plastic bag you have been carrying all day... along with the brochures of the vendors you loved! This is what helps cause "vendor confusion", so I suggest you do something different to the brochure of the vendors that you really liked. Fold a corner, mark on it with a pen, leave a lipstick mark on it, whatever will help signify to you "these guys rock".


The Phoenix Metro area is blessed with some of the most amazing wedding vendors in the country, all here to help make your day perfect, and the Bridal Fashion Debut puts a lot of them in the same place at the same time so while you want to take advantage of it... don't stress if you can't talk to everyone (trust me... you can't).

For more tips on getting the most out of the bridal show click here

Have fun and happy planning!

Happy 20th Anniversary to the Tempe Convention & Visitors Bureau!

Recently we had a really big... no, make that giant cake that was ordered by the Tempe Convention & Visitors Bureau and Southwest Airlines to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Tempe CVB. The event was held at the gorgeous Tempe Center for the Arts.  For the cake, they wanted BIG, they wanted Southwest Airlines involved and the rest was up to us.

So we went big, really really big!

The buildings you see around the bottom are the Tempe CVB Building, Tempe City Hall, The old Flour Mill, and The Tempe Center for the Arts.  The floating flower by the building in the front is the Tempe CVB logo. 

They threw an incredible party with hundreds in attendance and we even got to meet the CVB mascot, Tempe Teddy (don't stand behind him and kick him in the butt, he does not like that.) ;)

Cheers to 20 years Tempe CVB!!  

 

This was just too awesome not to blog

It's been way too long. We've been ridiculously busy at the shop but that is no excuse for 3+ months of blog neglect. I had some plans for my next entry but after today, that is going to have to wait until I tell this story (albeit an incomplete one).

We deliver the majority of our wedding cakes, but we usually have at least one each week that gets picked up for one reason or another. Today we had one pick up... we'll call that couple Mike & Angie (because those are actually their names). :)

Mike & Angie were having an initmate wedding with about 50 guests and had selected a 2 tier stacked cake, the bottom was square and the top was hexagon and each had a different design.

So Mike shows up this morning all alone, telling me how nervous Angie is about the fact that he is delivering their wedding cake. I go to the back and produce the 14"X14"X14" box that holds their cake inside and I open it so that he can check it out. He gives the thumbs up and says she is going to love it... but then he asks the question "Can I have an extra box?". Initially,I think that the box is so that they can save any leftover cake, but in the next minute Mike unveils his hilarious and evil plan to me.

Here's the plan:

• Get an extra box (a big one, just like the cake was in)
• Buy 2 grocery store cakes and place them on top of each other inside the extra box
• Leave the real cake in his car and carry the "fake" cake into the reception site
• Fall down
• Open the box to reveal a ruined "wedding cake" to his soon to be bride
• Watch her get mad/sad/irate/etc
• Reveal the prank and get the real cake out of his car
• Beg for forgivness
• Find a ride home

As of right now, I don't know how the prank went over or if they even got married, but we at POC have mad respect for our boy Mike for even attempting this stunt. I hope it all worked out man!

If she did marry you... your first anniversary cake is on us!

Flipped!

It's always fun when a couple lets us do funky stuff to their cake, so as you can imagine... we had some fun this week!

This cake was delivered to Villa Siena on Saturday and even though we create wedding cakes for 80% of the weddings that take place there, we got some funky looks while setting this one up. :)

The bride loved it and the caterers were freaked at the prospect of having to disassemble and cut it... to me that makes for a pretty sweet delivery!

Look for us on WeTV's Wedding Central on August 10th, 2008!

We just got word that the Wedding Central episode that was partially filmed at our shop will be appearing on WeTV on August 10th, 2008 (check your local listings for times, but in AZ on DirecTV it's on at 8PM). I must warn you though… they interviewed me 3 times and 2 of them were prior to any caffeine consumption whatsoever. In other words, I may actually embarrass my mother.

Aside from my sleepy eyed rambling it should be a great episode. Carol (our bride) was really a joy to work with and even though reality TV means repeating things over and over (I think she had to “enter” our shop 3 times for the camera) she kept smiling the whole time…well at least the time spent with us.

Here are a couple of shots of the cake we created for Carol & Mark on their big day:

You can see a preview of Carol & Mark's wedding in the "Little People, Big Day" segment of the WeTV Wedding Central video below.





Congratulations Carol & Mark!!

More information about this epsiode, including airtimes can be found here: http://www.wetv.com/wedding-central/episodes/little-people-big-day

Unfortunately COX doesn't carry WeTV, so if you can't watch it... you can take my word for it... we rocked. ;)

The Impromptu Cake Throwdown at The Castle at Ashley Manor!!!!

What a cool week this has been so far!

So we get a call from The Castle at Ashley Manor on Monday (5/12) and they invite us to attend their first ever "public" open house on Wednesday (5/15). If you have ever seen The Castle you know how awesome the place is...obviously we accepted. But there was a catch... and an awesome one at that.

You see, they were looking for another cake vendor to add into their all inclusive packages but they weren't actually selecting us (here's where the awesome part comes in), they were inviting us and the other top cake companies in the valley (6 in all) to compete against each other for a shot at the title. Awesome right??? A freaking cake throwdown!!! It gets better... Instead of just selecting who they wanted as their cake vendor... they gave the power to the people! All of the attendees were given ballots and were able to cast votes using 5 different criteria (cake appearance, flavor, etc) to evaluate the cake companies. Basically, the couples looked, they tasted, they chatted, and they voted.

If I am being honest, I'm not even sure I would have voted for us if I had been an impartial attendee. There were so many great cake vendors with amazing displays and delicious cakes to taste, I imagine that the voting was extremely close.

In the end... I am happy to say that the majority of couples in attendance voted Piece Of Cake (hey, that's us!!) as the winner and we are extremely excited to begin our relationship with The Castle at Ashley Manor.

Whether we had won or not, I would have to give mad props to their staff for coming up with an amazing idea and really getting their brides involved in the process! We had a blast and it looked like all of the attendees did too!