For the other two wedding cakes I have made (my brother's and my cousin's), I baked and crumb coated the three tiers separately before transporting them to the reception venues, and then stacked and piped the buttercream decorations on-site. But for today's cake, the finishing decorations were too labor-intensive to risk waiting till the last minute, so I decided, after much deliberation, research and lost sleep, to finish the cake at home and transport it fully assembled to the venue - the gorgeous Ocho in Toronto. (By the way, this is one of the couples that I made this engagement cake for back in April.)
For their reception, the bride and groom went with touches of this beautiful mercury glass as the basis for their decorating scheme. (This is mercury glass, is it not??)
I spent two nights after the girls' bedtime this week just molding and shaping tiny fondant beads and spray painting them with Americolor edible food color spray. I should have counted, but I feel like there were about 600 of them. At any rate, I did the math and the circumference of the three tiers together was over 7 feet. So I made more than seven feet worth of tiny spray-painted sugar balls this week. Move over Gwyneth, who leads the glamorous life now!
I wasn't worried about perfection with these little guys, since the inspiration aged mercury glass is by definition quite imperfect itself. Oh - and this is just half of the lot of them!
After Clara awoke from her nap, I turned on the A/C in the car to its lowest setting and bundled the girls in jackets and blankets in preparation for the refrigerator on wheels they would ride in. (In another twist, I had had childcare all worked out for the morning, but found out at the last minute that the cake could only be delivered after 3pm, so the girls got to tag along on the delivery.)
I took the cake straight from the fridge...
Congratulations on your marriage, Paige and Graham! Thank you for letting me be a small part of your big day.
Unrelated: The girls couldn't have been happier at having been dragged along, as they were treated to tiny chocolate bars from the event coordinator.