So, weddings have gone away for a while, it doesn’t mean we can’t plan for another day.   I firmly believe that the ‘new normal’ in whatever form that takes, is up to us as wedding suppliers to create with our existing couples and with those newly engaged who are looking for a bit of direction. If you have the right creative people at your planning table, virtually or by phone, I truly think we can make a micro wedding a thing of splendour.

Cara Zagni Photography at Swanton Morley House & Gardens

Number Cuts:

We have gone through the dash of hundreds of guests to 30, the audacity – how awful was that the first time we heard it? Then we had 15, that felt like our civil liberties were being slashed to the core, but that wasn’t all – oh no – down to 6!!!  Six! Who has 6 people at their wedding?  Those who wed in September / October 2020 (naming the beast for posterity), that’s who!

Currently we are at 15 guests which feels almost luxurious!  Who’s read ‘A Squash & A Squeeze’… Does it ring any bells…?

whataboutweddings.com

Flowers:

First up – Let’s take flowers first of all, an impactful piece of the spliced day, all eyes on the bride and bouquet, buttonholes for the boys and decorative arrangements for the church, later to be used in the wedding breakfast décor. Should you be in the position to have a budget already to go there are already massive savings when it come to that precious budget. I use the word guardedly as it is precious, slimming down your invite list will give you back some numbers to play around with.

You now CAN have a sweep or swag of flowers that give impact, colour and fragrance, whereas before it might have been a less abundant affair.

Catering:

Paying for catering for less folks, also has a win. You can splash some of that budget on better wine, a superb starter or have something that you Chef can create that previous was ‘off the menu’ with the old budget.

Valentine Studio at Voewood

CAKE!

Who mentioned that? Me – I would adore my cake to be one of the guests to your newly pimped up ‘do’.

Co-ordinating with your florist I prime each bloom, ensuring it is hygienic and food safe (not necessarily edible unless that is what you have asked for). Each design is organic and happens on the day, I’m inspired by texture, form and colour. I love the final reveal of the florists selection and finding the perfect placement for each stem or frond.

Our cakes have their own portrait, perfect for quietly acknowledging a dietary preference such as gluten free, vegan, etc. These come gratis with my wedding cakes and are a perfect keepsake long after the crumbs are gone.

Tatum Reid Photography at Holkham Hall

We also layer blooms, petals and greenery underneath the cake stand to create an ‘ambience’ (I can’t say that without thinking of Micky Flannigan, look it up).  I like to think it creates a ‘space’ for the cake, hopefully a making a little buzz that folks want to come and get involved in.  Roll up, roll up, come and see the pretty cake!

Kelsie Lowe Photography at Voewood

Less, But More

Talking of less folks, that’s less stationery but more zhuzhed up, gold, imprinting, embossing, extra ribbon, the full suite of stationery that with the old budget had to be carefully thought out – ‘do we use our own RSVP?’ ‘Do we really need x, y and z?’ Now you can afford all of the things that make a stationery suite super amped up. Aren’t the ones who are invited lucky!? I love a posh wedding invite – and to be one of the chosen few. Not that this diminishes any of your kith or kin who couldn’t make the cut, it’s just the world we find ourselves living in.

Cara Zagni Photography at Swanton Morley House & Gardens

Cara Zagni Photography at Swanton Morley House & Gardens

There are sadder elements of this, please don’t think I’m all for dumping the rellies in order to get a banging wedding – it does mean that you have to revisit the wedding invite list and see who really counts, who you really need to be there. We have a thing in the house with the boys to help them understand what is important with want and need. (when choosing between food/snacks, how to spend etc) You do the things you need first, then allow for the want, it applies here too. You might want to have everyone and their kids but current times and restrictions mean it just isn’t possible. 

Hautbois Hall,
Rob Dodsworth Photography

To quote one happy bride to be recently “I’m secretly happy that we need to lighten the list as we’ll have to think about who we really want and that will make it more special”. From the mouths of A Real-Life Actual Bride, peoples.

Current times are extraordinary, we can embrace these days and accept the challenge which make us best we can be, and to have those around us to make it so. Celebrate what you have and make it as magnificent as it can be!

To talk about your wedding plans, please make first contact to cakes@bunsoffun.co.uk.

I can’t wait to hear from you!

Emma

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Exactly when do I need to arrange myself a cake maker? Some guides will tell you that 6-9 months is enough to book your wedding cake… now, this might be okay to try if you are marrying ‘out of season’* or mid-week but you need to contact your wedding cake maker asap as every day the diary’s a-fillin’.

(*nb: every season is wedding season if you’re a sought-after cake maker ;o))

Diary Alert- If you have chosen May – October, Bank Holidays or somewhere the around school holidays you may find that those dates have been booked already, even well in advance (some of the more sought after cake creators can find themselves booking 18 months to 2 years ahead!)

So in order to clear up a bit of cake Q&A I’ve prepped a little guide to those newly engaged or looking to mop up wed-min pertaining to an as yet un-ordered wedding cake.

Image:  ‘and so the adventure begins’ topper  – Most Unusual Wedding Fair – Godwick Barn

When Should I Book My Wedding Cake?  As soon as possible in all honesty, it’s not a clever sales ploy it’s just bald reality. I’ll break it down:

Time & Space: Most of us artisan bakers will be self-employed with families to take care of and we are working from home. In my case I am very fortunate to have a second kitchen from which  to work from, but there are only so many orders we can ever take. Yours could be one if we know about it in time and we can create space in a busy kitchen for you.

‘Sorry I’m Full’: Not of cake – yet… I have met beautiful folks with fantastic ideas at some great wedding fairs. When we meet and talk, I can email you, give you a quote and follow-up. If you don’t come back to me, I don’t know that you would like me to bake for you.

I had a real-life scenario a couple of years back when I met a bride-to-be at a show, we talked, I quoted, we corresponded then lost contact.  I received a call 10 days before the wedding from the B2B asking ‘what time would I be there on the day to set up?’ She’d assumed that because I’d been in contact with her that I’d just take care of it all and had the wedding cake booked in.

Luckily for her I had some availability and with planning and experience was able to work it. Good times.  Had I already been totally crammed with cake that weekend she would have been looking for cake-maker REALLY short notice. Bad times.

Design Meeting: I love a design meeting, I really think this is a massive go-for-it opportunity when choosing your baker. I love getting together with couples (and sometimes meeting the entourage), discovering their personality and essence, then working with the couple to create something really ‘them’.  I find a lot of the smaller details you wouldn’t think to ask by email get sorted out quickly at a meeting, more than if we just corresponded just by email.  Facetime or Messenger videocalls work just as well, especially as some of my clients are out of the UK at time of booking their wedding cake. Saying that we’ve had a couple from Dubai in the kitchen recently – I don’t think I was their primary destination but we’ve nailed their UK wedding cake for next year!

Dietary Stuff: I’m a confident baker with gluten-free and dairy free but these are definitely requirements we like to bake for with time on our side to ensure no cross contamination.  I have ‘ingredient ommiters’ in my family and friend circle and I’m proud to say they don’t get side-lined with a shop bought or *gasp/horror* get left out of the wedding cake fun entirely.

Do you use sugar flowers or fresh? I am a fresh girl every time. Every time. Sugar flowers are beautiful and a truly skilful thing to make. I just prefer the velvet of a fresh rose petal, the newness of rose buds and lisianthus heads, the smell of rosemary and lavender and other botanicals.  For me, you can’t beat the heavenly gloss of a verdant palm, the tiny budding olives on a cut sprig or the little yellow pompom heads of crespidia.

If God made it that good, who am I to think I can make it better?  I can assure you that I carefully clean, wire and tape all of my flowers, I work with your florist to ensure we have synergy with your bouquet and buttonholes and bring it all together beautifully.

Image Big Phat Photos  Florist Flower30

Too Late: also known as ‘Not enough time to tweak’: If we have your design in early enough, we can accommodate changes to your order. We can nip it here and there or add in special touches or personalise things for you. If we get an order to later it all feels a bit generic and rushed, we like to give a little pizzazz and think outside the box for you every now and then.

One I pizzazzed earlier – venue The Bank House Hotel

Adapting your initial design: All the wedding cakes I create are bespoke. Once you have firmed up your booking, you have a written copy of what I am going to provide for your wedding day.  At this stage you will often get back to me with requests to tweak, adapt, add, remove. On booking your wedding cake well ahead of time, you allow yourself plenty of time for the design to evolve until it really is perfect. Sometimes it takes 2 iterations, sometimes a few more….

Adapting design on site The Fire Pit Camp  image Ali Dover   Florist Jo Flowers

Flavours: You can have a different flavour for each tier for sure. We don’t have a list per se as our wedding cake combinations are individual.  Some of our most popular flavours are lemon meringue and lemon curd, salted caramel, chocolate orange, gingerbread and cream-cheese buttercream, chocolate and raspberry, orange and almond, Victoria always does a turn too. You can recommend a bake you love and we can create just for you. Buns of Fun Bakery has been in business for 9 years, there’s not many things we haven’t put in our cake-hole!

Tasting: Yes, it’s all tasting great here, would you like some?  I hold consultation days or design meetings, which ever you like the sound of throughout the year. Look out for these on FB and IG as the slots go quickly. These are one-hour slots here in our kitchen in North Norfolk, we provide tea, coffee and a cake samples box, magazines and goodies to take away. In that valuable hour we can design and dress your cake, fine tuning as we go.  I only bake freshly (no defrosted slices here!) for these events so if you miss these wonderous dates then I can do other days which aren’t as elaborate but we still get the cake design nailed!  I bake only for the design meetings as you would only get fresh cake from Buns of Fun Bakery for your wedding cake and not something from the freezer. Brr. No cold shoulder here.

Do you deliver? Yes, I have a mileage calculator for delivery so once we have your cakes destination for the Big Day, we can quote for you. I also bill for time to set up for which allow an hour on site to  locate your cake table, transport cakes from car to table, set up the tiers and stand, ‘frame the piece’ (more on that below) and handing over to chef or wedding coordinator. I’ve been known to help set up tables and iron table runners on my last delivery if I have time too.

Real wedding – Image Rob Dodsworth – Venue Hautbois Hall

Do you have stand rental? I have stand rental and I have stands that I sell, loads of options for you and we can help you think thorough a few fresh and original ideas too. I can help source stands or toppers through a number of fabulous makers I’ve had the pleasure of working with if you want something ‘you’.

Getting ahead of price hikes: Now that just sound plain scary like we’ve going to add masses to orders and penalise you if you’re not booking with us. No, no, no nothing like it. We order and schedule waaay ahead of your date and if we know there are bargains and discounts to be had we can make that work in your favour. I work with some specialist suppliers for some the smaller things and they are tricky to price but with a heads up I can make it work in your favour.

And saving the best until last:

What makes your cake maker unique?  Ooh-ooh! I can answer this one!!

1. I hand draw your cake and label it with flavours and fillings for your guests to salivate over, you get to keep this as a little keepsake. I know of brides wanting the dimensions so they can buy a frame. Cute.
2. The other unique-y thing I do is to create a ‘space’ for your wedding cake to inhabit.  Using elements of the cake decoration, confectionery and floristry we carefully trail out either side of the base of your cake to keep the eye moving around the cake area. After all, if you’ve paid a decent dollar for your cake you want to have folks really pay it attention.

What to do now: As soon as you have a date and venue confirmed we should talk cake.  We’ll arrange a date and time to meet and design for you.  Firming up your booking well in advance doesn’t mean that you have to pay for your cake in full at the time of booking.  Cake makers each have their own terms and conditions around this. I ask for a deposit only, with the balance payable 6 weeks before the Big Day. I offer a “save the date” option as a deposit of £100. This allows you to book your date, giving you plenty of time to sort out the minutiae of the cake flavours and design.

I am currently (at time of writing in Jan ‘19) booking into July 2020 – I love my work and I hope to see your ideas and get talking to you soon.

Enjoy it all xx

Emma

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A Styled Wedding Shoot in the Woods – September 2018

When Sharon from Flower30 Styling asked me to come on board with a shoot idea she had and it involved a really loose and relaxed styling I was immediately hooked.  Lots of weddings I go to are highly polished or have been Pinterest-styled to the n-th degree.  Refreshingly here we found ourselves in deepest North Norfolk in a wooden shack on a brook, built by husband and wife Team Winterbourn, as a bolt hole at the end of a very hedoninstically verdant garden.

Our cake was luscious lemon with lemon meringue buttercream and lemon-curd, dressed with edible flowers by Nurtured in Norfolk as well as few home foraged beauties from our cutting garden. We had a white gold chocolate wave with split figs and freshly picked blackberries.

In the shack lay an array of foraged foods for a lovers picnic,  freshly baked bread, roasted vegetables, crumbled feta, micro herbs, roasted chillies, peppers, forest mushrooms, pine nuts and savoury seeds and  glossy red toffee apples with aromatic rosemary sticks.

Behind the lens we had multi-talented Janie from Big Phat Photos and her own brand Valentine Studio which caters for reportage demi-nudes, empowering the female frame.

Styling and greenery, every bloom and fruit were tended by Sharon.  Our model Cathy Wilson wore Mia Sylvia, hair by  Chloe Winslade and makeup by Stephanie Alexandra.

I helped on lighting once the cake and foraged picnic were setup – although I’m not sure Janie thought I was actually very helpful based on the evidence we see.

Supplier credits

Flowers and concept: Flower 30

Cake and food: Buns of Fun

Photography: Big Phat Photos

Dress and textiles: Mia Sylvia

MUA: Stephanie Alexandra MUA

Hair: Chloe Winslade

Cabin created by Toby Winterbourn.com

Model: Cathy Wilson

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When Nathan asked me to create a cake for the styled shoot he had planned at Chaucer Barn, (being their recommended cake maker) I was thrilled as a seagull nicking chips! He sent a couple of inspirational pictures to get the creative flow going on and a few sketches later we were shooting. Our brief was Rustic-Boho and Your East Anglian Wedding magazine have featured it in their June/July ’18 issue. In brief we had a stellar crew of suppliers all of which are available through the links provided.

Our 4 tier stack comprised a pure vanilla bean tier, lemon meringue, cafe creme and hazel-nut praline and a salted caramel. Decorated with raspberries,blueberries, split passion-fruit, white chocolate, food safe covered rustica and white broom.

Thanks to Jenna and fabulous gardening team at Chaucer Barn we had the whole place to ourselves and this is the result.

Venue: Chaucer Barn

Photographer: Nathan Neeve Photography

Florist: Bridget’s Flowers

Stationery: Sam Wood Stationery

Props: The Little Lending Co &  Banqueting Hire

Model: Grace Appleby

Hair: Hair Design by Lisa

Make up: Annalise Durrant

Cake by Buns of Fun Bakery

To book with Buns of Fun Bakery for 2019/2020 contact us today.

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Nestled in the Norfolk broads Hautbois Hall is a stunning Tudor Manor house dating from 1555. This was my first visit here and I return in 2019 and beyond (yes, already booking into SS2019/20)

While Emily & Tom were getting spliced and I was dressing the cake for the after party. Our 3 tier wedding cake comprised a Chocolate Guinness Cake with cream cheese frosting, caramel cake,  salted caramel frosting and home made Cornish salted dulce du leche, along with our all time favourite lemon meringue and scratch cooked lemon-curd. Finally, decorated and completed with chocolate sails, Aunties blooms and our hand drawn, bespoke personalised sketch as a standard.  Once E &T were spliced it was time for the wedding cake to get sliced.

I love it when a family member gets involved in something for our couples wedding day. If Aunt Fanny is a dab hand at flowers and knows her daffs from her dandelions I’m all up for it, I’ll work with whatever I’m given.  Luckily Emilys Aunt was the bee’s knees at scooping some fantastic colours and textures for Emily & Toms wedding cake blooms.

(N.B: We have a raft of contacts for very talented florists to hand if it’s all going to get too much for Aunt Fan’ and her kitchen scissors.)

Venue: Hautbois Hall

Photographer: Rob Dodsworth

Flowers: Emilys aunt (Disclosure: Aunt Fanny is not her real name..)

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We have had the massive priviledge of working with some absolutely stonking suppliers throughout ‘The Season’. The Season is generally thought to be May – September but let me tell you now… there is no end or beginning. Those in the industry are tirelessy busy providing goodies for Real Weddings and Styled Shoot Weddings all year round. I will get round to these in subsequent posts in this series.

Wedding Season – Episode One.  Holkham Hall Wedding:- there are lots of venues in Norfolk because this one has a special place in my heart. For me, rather importantly for the Gingerbread masterpieces  which are part of the annual seasonal ventures that Lady Leicester and team tirelessly produce. Google ‘Holkham Gingerbread’ and see the last 6 years worth..

We are booked by our lovely wedding clients to create something magical for them on their wedding day. The following posts are all real weddings with real photographers, florists and venues who I work with regularly and deeply admire their artistic work.

This particular wedding at Holkham was a lot more concise in it’s execution as we adhered to some serious tailored planning.  We can occasionally be tamed from the wild abandon we usually inhabit in our wedding cake styling.

Venue: Holkham Hall

Photographer: Douglas Fry

Flowers: Constance Rose (styled by me if the pro-florists see any bloopers)

Cake: 4 tier featuring amongst others a gluten free and vegan lemon cake, with home made lemon curd and lemon ‘buttercream’, a double height rich fruit cake with all the trimmings and bespoke keepsake sketch – standard with all our wedding cakes.

Insta image on my IG @bunsoffunemma

Beautiful bride and groom, my favourite ‘cutting the cake’ with a ceremonial sword!

I simply can’t get enough of David Austin roses, they are absolute perfection and very popular with a lot of clients hosting all styles of vwedding, some how I just I can’t tire of their beauty!

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