Montreal Wedding Planning: An Unconventional Glossary for Memorable Celebrations. Letter C: Cakes and Candy Bars
All about cakes and candy bars for your Montreal Wedding Planning
Cakes and candy bars are a really fun part of the wedding planning process, because who doesn’t love cake and candy! As with every other component of the wedding, your selections should reflect your personalities and wedding theme.
Historically, the cake has been a symbol of prosperity and good fortune. The size and complexity, and the quality of ingredients represented a solid marriage and a healthy family to come. The cutting of the cake symbolized the first official act as a married couple, maybe signifying a lifetime of care and duty towards each other that differs from other activities of the day such as the first dance. Nowadays, I have had couples who have opted out of cake, or opted for something else (such as pie!) so it’s apparent that this tradition can be adjusted to suit each couple.
Candy bars are a much more recent addition to wedding days and are less rooted in history than in fun! They are a great option as create-your-own-candy favour in lieu of traditional favours, and also fun if there are a lot of children at your wedding.
Here are three sweet things to consider when planning the sweetness at your wedding and optimizing photography:
1. Significance
I might venture to say that in my decade plus of photographing weddings, it seems that the size of the cake indicates the importance of this feature within the greater wedding plan. As I mentioned, some have opted out of cake tradition altogether, keeping only the sweet table or candy bar. More recently there has been a trend for offering cupcakes in lieu of cake - think of one cupcake as a single slice of cake! This avoids cake cutting, and can be tailored to needs such as offering allergy-friendly options, having different flavours for variety or offering gluten-free options.
For some, a large, multi-tiered cake displayed like an art piece is important as a central and WOW focal point of the room. For others, a beautiful, more subtle cake has a feature but is shared on a sweet table. Still a notable feature, but meant to blend with the other desserts and not necessarily and art piece focal-point.
The key elements of good cake photography is a pleasing but simple background and good light. Sometimes cakes are placed in a corner of the room where it’s dark. It may look nice for general display but a dark corner is often not a good place for the photographs. If a cake is small enough (because they are heavy the bigger they get!) then I will move it into better light and then safely replace it. If the cake is too big for me to move safely, I will speak to the caterer so that they may help to move it into better light for a few photographs. If moving a cake isn’t possible, then we work with what we have, but if you have flexibility over where the cake is placed ahead of time, ask for a spot by a window that has a clean backdrop.
Candy bars usually have a variety of candies available, and the containers and colours make up the aesthetic. For vintage vibes, old-school penny-candy is chosen and retro containers used. For elegance, candy can all be in the same colour family with use of different height upscale glass containers. With candy bars, presentation is like building a charcuterie board - making many items look balanced, cohesive and pretty! The table-scape matters too - filling spaces with flowers, or other decor items like fairy lights or candles. The details will really bring a candy bar to life in front of the camera!
This cake was a showpiece in a tiny wedding held at Restaurant Bice. One table for about 12 was set up and beyond it, against the backdrop of the floor to ceiling wine fridge, this cake made a big statement of celebration. The choice of glitter tablecloth and mirrored base made the whole table sparkle in the candlelight, and elevated this cake into a beautiful showpiece.
Simple and elegant. On a table all its own but with no decoration to help the cake stand out in its simplicity.
Part cake, part cupcake! This gives an opportunity for a traditional cake cut, but no slicing and serving required.
A small cake to cut, but the feature on this sweet table were the cupcakes and donuts, both regular and gluten-free options.
This candy bar had roots in retro with pop-rocks and Tootsie Rolls featured. It matched the fun-loving theme throughout.
This bride & groom actually found vintage gumball machines, perfect for a fun dispenser for kids and adults alike! I made the mistake of not taking a container and then had a giant handful of M&M’s to deal with. Lucky they don’t melt in your hand!
Lucy is a
Montreal WEdding Photographer
I’m here to photograph your joy, and [hopefully] make you ugly-cry (even if in private or just on the inside!)
My mission is your dream wedding.
Photo Credit: Talia Dezso Photography
2. The Cake-Cut photos
If you do opt for a cake at your wedding, then cake cut photos are a standard. The setup and posing is quite traditional, and is a quick thing in the greater scheme of the wedding - maybe 5 minutes! Often, the cake cut is done later in the evening and guests are encouraged to circle around to watch. However, that can make it difficult for the professional photographer because there may be dozens of guests vying for a good angle for their own cell phone photos. Some couples also do not keep the professional photographer too late and it’s hard to justify keeping someone on the clock for a 5 minute photo op. For these reasons, I encourage couples to do the faux-cake cut. We don’t announce it, but quietly make our way to the cake while guests are dining, and we go through the motions with a token cut. This way I have space and privacy to direct the couple and the couple is relaxed without having the entire room’s eyes on them. If I happen to remain later at the reception then I will photograph the actual cake cut, but then the pressure is off because we captured the moment previously. Then, it’s just about the couple having fun - feeding each other with cake and having a blast!
3. The best of both (baked) worlds
A wedding cake for your Montreal wedding is an area where you can get really creative and to have a baker create something extremely special that represents your relationship in a baked good! My spirit cookie is white chocolate and macadamia, and I think everyone has sweet preferences. The goal for the cake is to “blend” the two of you into a unique piece. And let’s face it, cake sampling is probably one of the best parts of planning! I absolutely love seeing the wedding cake for the first time as I find it solidifies my thoughts about who they are! Photographing a cake is a lot of fun too, because there is usually a lot of detail, even if subtle. It’s important to use composition and backgrounds in ways that will highlight this showpiece, as I know that bakers, like photographers, are very proud of their creations.
When it comes to the cakes (and other edibles) the photographer’s job is very important because the baker’s creation only lasts for the day - it’s cut and consumed on the day. Fleeting art. The photographs endure as the only record that the cakes and sweets ever existed!
This cake tells it as it is!
