And here's what I did with my bar trip...

And here they are. The long-awaited directions for making you're very own fabric covered pocketfold invitations.

As a disclosure, I found the original directions on how to make these here. However, I found the pocketfolders to be a tad small, and I found some easier and less wasteful ways to build the actual folders, so I thought I'd share my way, too.

Enjoy!

p.s. I still have aout 12 yards of black dupioni silk fabric if anyone's interested. *hint* *hint*

Note: I'm going to echo the original designer's (Tanya) warning to test your fabric before you go buying the entire stock you'll need for this project. You'll want something that will stick to your cardstock with adhesive, but that the adhesive won't bleed through. Like she mentions, stretchy fabrics won't work well, and neither will heavy fabrics (i.e. velvets, suedes, etc.). You'll also want to test the fabric with whatever cutting tool you're using to make sure it doesn't fray. To be honest, silk dupioni CAN fray - quite extensively - because of the nature of the interwoven threads. That being said, it looks so entirely awesome when it's finished that I highly recommend it anyway. ;)

Stage One

Determine what size you would like your actual invitation (the part with writing on it) to be; you can then extrapolate from these measurements. When I ordered a sample pocketfolder from www.cardsandpockets.com, I realized that the size of the pocketfolder was 5x7, making the inner invite quite a bit smaller; I wanted our actual invite to be 5"x7". I knew I wanted this larger invite, and I knew I also wanted one layer of backing betweeen the invite and the pocketfolder. So I took the size of the invite, added 1/4" all around for the backing, and 1/4" for space between the backing and the edge of the pocketfolder. To make a pocketfolder for this size invite, the cardstock needed to be 17.975" x 8" (the missing .025 is to make folding easier and make the folds lie flat). This will give you a pocketfolder with the following dimensions I doubled the width on these when I ordered the cardstock so that I could cut two pocketfolders from each piece, meaning fewer cuts and less wasted silk.

Stage Two Order your supplies - see my last post too see exactly what I ordered.

Stage Three Lay your fabric out, and place your cardstock on top of your fabric. I was able to get two sheets of cardstock - or four pocketfolders - per each "row" of fabric (I could have fit three pieces per each row had I turned the last piece on it's side, but then my neurotic brain would have had a fit, because one piece of cardstock would have had the threads from the dupioni going vertically instead of horizontally - use your own judgment as to whether this would annoy you). Cut out your cardstock and silk, leaving at least 1/2 inch between each piece of cardstock, and between the edge of the fabric, like so:


Stage Four

Tanya had it right. If you can do this step outside - do it outside. It WILL be messy. If you can't do it outside for some reason (like you're staying at a beach house and sand is flying everywhere, or you live in a major Metropolitan area (e.g. Manhattan) it can be done inside, but you'll need to do it in a non-carpeted area, and you'll probably still want to have a few old newspapers handy to lay down to soak up the overspray.

You'll want to lay out the fabric near (but not so near as to be contaminated by overspray) your spraying area, and smooth it out as best you can. Then, lay the cardstock on the ground (or newspaper if doing inside) and LIGHTLY mist the cardstock with your adhesive, following the directions on the can. Like Tanya said, "IF YOU CAN SEE THE CARDSTOCK GETTING WET AND DARKENED FROM THE ADHESIVE, YOU'VE USED TOO MUCH." Try to avoid streaking and wet spots - these will just soak through your fabric. The cardstock should just look slightly tacky - in my experience, it developed a *slight* sparkle sheen when it had the right amount of adhesive on it.

Stage Five

Turn your cardstock over, and carefully place it sticky-side down onto your fabric. LIGHTLY tap the cardstock to make sure it sticks, then immediately flip over the fabric and cardstock and smooth everything out. Note: DO NOT try to smooth it out until you flip it over - trial and error told us if you smoothed it out on the cardstock side instead of the side you can cause irremovable wrinkles. If you're doing two pieces of cardstock per piece of fabric, it helps if you smooth from the center of the two pieces to the edges of the fabric. Tanya recommended letting this dry for at least half an hour, and if you have the time to kill, it's probably best. We were trying to power through as many as we could in our short time at the beach, however, and found that fifteen minutes was plenty, especially if you were doing them in batches.

Stage 6

Using your cutting instrument (I used a Fiskars handheld rotary trimmer), cut your cardstock in half, and trim away the excess on the HORIZONTAL edges. While Tanya set things up to cut some of the cardstock away along with the excess fabric, I simply used the metal yardstick lined up against the very edge of the cardstock to cut away nothing but the fabric. This is definitely easier with two people (because of the need to hold the yardstick steady while applying pressure with the cutting instrument), it can be done by one person if you need to.



Youll end up with stacks of cardstock looking something like this (the ones at the bottom):


Notes on this step:

(1) Tanya recommends using an exacto knife because her rotary trimmer was dulling to quickly cutting through fabric and cardstock. I found that the exacto knife "ripped" at the fabric too much, so we switched to the handheld rotary trimmer. And because we were primarily cutting fabric (we only made one cut to each piece of cardstock - to cut the two folders apart), the blade lasted a reasonably long time. When you notice that your fabric isn't cutting cleanly, it's time to change the blade - otherwise the fabric will start to fray.

(2) Tanya also recommends that if you do happen to notice the blade not going all the way through the fabric, to use your scissors to cut them apart to prevent fraying. This is a tip worth saving /repeating. Repeated tries with a dull blade will definitely fray your fabric.

Stage 7

Using your fingertip, spread a *small* amount of your liquid adhesive onto the cut horizontal edges of your pocketfold. As Tanya noted, YOU MUST PERFORM THIS STEP TO KEEP YOUR EDGES FROM FRAYING! The brand of glue that I used really did take about 30 minutes to dry - sometimes longer.

Note: All of my pictures of finger smearing from this part are blurry. BUT I can say that Tanya's way definitely was the best. If you hold the bottle with your thumb and first two fingers, you can smear the glue with your ring finger from the same hand, and keep from covering yourself or your pocketfolds in unwanted glue. It took me a few tries to get to the point where I could comfortably hold the glue while smearing, but once I did, everything went much more quickly.

Also note that if you're doing this step on more than one pocketfolder at a time, you will need to have a place to lay them all out to dry. And you CANNOT stack them on top of each other. You will inevitably get *some* of the glue on either the cardstock side or the silk side, and when you lay one on top of the other, they stick together. We learned this the hard way and had to throw out to otherwise beautiful pocketfolders. :(

Stage 8

Now it's time to cut out the "folder" and "flap" portions of your pocketfold and glue your edges. For our pocketfolders, I used the following measurements:


I had originally planned on using the rotary cutter to cut out the necessary portions, but soon discovered that a round blade doth not cut corners well. ;) Scissors really are your best friend here. Then you'll need to do the same gluing you did on the long (horizontal sides) to your flap and folder:

Note: Your life will be MUCH easier if you make a template first so that you'll have the template pieces for the pocket and flap to trace for each one, instead of measuring each and every single pocketfolder.

Stage 9

Almost there! Now (after letting this new round of glue dry, of course) it's time to fold your pocketfolder. Using the chart above, I drew lines on the cardstock side using a pencil, then scored each of those lines using a ruler and the back side of a common household butter knife, then used the bone folder on the fabric side (gently!) to make the folds as crisp as I could:



Stage 10

I have no idea how I didn't get pictures of this, put the final step in creating your pocketfolder is to create the actual pocket. This is where your adhesive tape comes in useful. I placed strips of tape as shown in the diagram above (the red lines were the adhesive), folded the pocket over and pressed again with the bone folder, and......TA DA!

A "finished" pocketfolder. Of course, I don't have my invites or inserts yet, I haven't glued down the invite backing, and I haven't attached the ribbon or the name card to the ribbon, but here's what they look like in their primal state:

Nifty, eh?

Hope this helped someone else. If so, send me pics. I'll create a lovely DIY gallery of all of our wonderful fabric-covered pocketfolders. :)

Invites - the supplies arrived!

About four or five months ago (I think...time flies when you're planning a wedding) I found "my" invitations. A set of dupioni silk-covered pocketfolds. I was in love. They were magnificent. See?
I found them on Wedding Bee. Me, being the ambitious, slightly neurotic person that I am decided that I simply HAD to have them. But, being frugally conscious, I also decided that I couldn't buy them ($20+ per invite? Hells no!). Which left DIY. Luckily, the Wedding Bee member who posted these fab invites in a contest there was also a knottie, and had put together a bio of directions for making them. What follows in this post (and a soon to be directions post) is an update of her directions (set for making 100 pocketfolders), tweaked with some tips and tricks I discovered.

I put off making these forever (we'll say it was because I was interning, finishing up law school, and studying for the bar ;)), but then finally decided that my bar trip would be the absolute perfect time to get started on this ambitious project. Last Thursday, I took the plunge and ordered the supplies I needed to make 100 pocketfolders. What supplies, you ask? These supplies:


Cardstock
I ordered 55 sheets of black cardstock and 110 sheets of gold cardstock from Anchor Paper's Express Store, for an astonishingly low price of only $76, including shipping. I had them cut the black cardstock into 17.975 x 16 inch squares (to get two pocketfolds per piece), and the gold cardstock into 7.75" x 5.75".

Fabric
I ordered 25 yards (calculation mistake - apparently I'm bad at math when I'm tired *sheepish grin*) of midnight black dupioni from Fabric Freak on eBay for $11.50 per yard + shipping. I actually only needed 12 yards, so I'm in the market for either (a) someone to buy the leftover yardage, or (b) someone to suggest something nifty to do with 13 yards of black dupioni silk. Note: I highly recommend this seller. They had the best price I could find for the quality and quantity of silk I wanted, shipping was super fast (I won on Thursday evening, it arrived Tuesday), and their staff was incredibly friendly.


Spray Adhesive
I used Krylon spray adhesive. For 100 pocketfolds, I needed approximately 1.5 cans.





Clear Liquid Adhesive
I used Tombow MonaAqua, and it worked great. Whatever you use, MAKE SURE IT DRIES CLEAR. Some liquid adhesives dry a milky color.





Rotary Trimmer I used a Fiskars handheld rotary trimmer and it worked wonderfully. Just make sure to buy replacement blades (I purchased a pack of five) and change them when necessary. Cutting through the cardstock wears out the blades, and a worn out blade = frayed fabric.




Adhesive (Tape) Dispenser
I used an EK Success Dotto Dots Dispenser (make sure to get the permanent dots, not the removable ones).







Necessary, but not pictured (I'm pretty sure you know what these look like. ;)):

Scissors
Make sure to get a freshly sharpened pair, again, to prevent fraying.

Metal Yardstick
A short ruler really won't do if you're using cardstock this size. Trust me, you'll thank me later for making you buy the yardstick. Also, make sure to get a metal one. Blades cut through the wooden and plastic one, and the metal makes a sturdier base against which to press your blade to get a straight cut.

Rotary cutting mat The trimmer I bought came with a smaller one (pictured above). That worked...sorta. We left midway to purchase a larger one that permitted us to make one cut instead of many smaller cuts.

Coming soon: Step by step instructions. :)

Primp and Pretty, Round II

I think I have officially found a make-up artist.

I had originally thought of booking with Heidi McKenna and had arranged a trial with her. The trial went well; the make-up looked good, but I wasn't entirely thrilled with it. Plus, Heidi used a lot of coppery colors on my lids and apparently I have an allergy to the red dyes in a lot of make-up colors, including coppers - my eyes were entirely swollen the next day (totally NOT Heidi's fault - I had no idea I was allergic to red dyes).

In any case, when we had our recent epic session, my photog recommended that I check out Nancy with Brideface as a possible alternative. I had researched Nancy before, and had concluded that she was probably a tad bit over our price point. That being said, when my photog confided that Nancy was the ONLY person she let touch her own make-up, I decided it was worth at least a trial.

The trial with Nancy went FABULOUSLY. I am VERY fair and matching foundation to my skin is always a challenge. Nancy managed to do it perfectly. And the lashes - oh, my. I have naturally long lashes, but I was still infatuated with the falsies that Nancy applied. If you're on the fence about whether or not they're "necessary," they are! ;) If you want that nice, fluttery look when batting your eyes at your fiance on your wedding day, you'll definitely want these. Just make sure that your MUA uses individual lashes, not strips, and BLACK glue - my photog recently shared that some MUA use white glue to attach the lashes, and it shows irl, and in pics.

Also, Model in a Bottle is a godsend.

My trial was at noon, and I didn't remove the make-up until 11:00 p.m. This stuff is amazing!

Anyway, here are the shots. The first was taken right after we left the trial. The latter two were taken ELEVEN hours later. Were it not for the shine (damn you, oily skin!) and the lack of lip gloss, I could swear they were taken at the same time.

Did I mention how much I loved the false lashes? ;) So watcha think? Wedding worthy?

E-pics are in! E-pics are in!

Don't really have much to say here other than - WOOHOO!

Well, that and Steph Carson = photo goddess. A few pics for your viewing pleasure:

And we're done!

Whew! That was one marathon photography session.

We just got back from our engagement photo session w/ Steph Carson and we're exhausted. I can't imagine how Steph and her photojournalist feel after shooting a wedding all day Saturday in the heat, traveling back into the city on Sunday, shooting a warm-up session, then doing ours....

The day started out w/ a marathon shoe shopping expedition this morning to find the perfect fuschia shoes to go w/ the new Herve Leger dress. After scavenging through about 12 stores on Broadway this morning, I finally found them at The Shoe Box - a pair of Courtney Crawford, fuchsia patent leather slingbacks with 5" heels. THEY ARE AWESOME!

After finally finding the perfect shoes, it was time to head out to to prettify myself w/ nails, hair, and make-up (to clarify, I'm not REALLY a diva - if I had any make-up or hair skills myself, I would have done them on my own. Sadly, I don't. *sigh*).

I won't mention the hair place b/c my experience was less that stellar there, but I will talk for a minute about my MUA - Amy Eidelman. She was fantastic! My make-up was amazing, and it stayed put even in the sauna that was NYC yesterday evening.

Then, when a scheduling snafu on my part (apparently I was too busy to remember that the Met would be closed on Sunday evenings so we couldn't do pics on the rooftop garden :( ) meant that we had to switch locations, she stayed for the entire shoot, trekking w/ us around the east side and into Central Park, helping to carry our bag, touching up lipstick that had rubbed off (everything else stayed put - amazing considering how hot it was), and helping me transfer between shoes and flip flops (I didn't want to ruin my brand new Courtney Crawfords walking through the mud). Again, this woman is amazing! If you're still looking for a MUA, definitely give her a call - her work is phenomenal and her rates are very competitive.

And Steph was, well, simply amazing. I knew we loved her work, but I didn't know exactly how it would be to work with her. Once we actually got started though, I was immediately put to ease. When the scheduling snafu happened, Steph suggested we just take some pics around the area instead of travelling somewhere else, so we were able to get a few "grittier" urban shots before heading into the (semi)dry park. Her eye for lighting and creative angles just can't be matched - I'm getting antsy sitting waiting for our proofs already!

And for those who are wondering whether or not to do e-pics, definitely go for it. We've haven't seen our proofs yet (just a few shots that Steph shared w/ us via her digital camera), but we are soooo very glad we did it. We had a lot of fun, we got to know Steph really well, and she got to know what does and doesn't work for us photographically-speaking - which will hopefully help us get better pics on our wedding day.

Are you coordinated?

Sorry for slacking off as of late. All this bar studying has kept me pretty busy. But there's only so much New York Practice I can cram into my head in one day, so here I am.

I wanted to talk just a little bit about choosing a day-of-coordinator, mainly because my local knot board has been inundated w/ requests for DoC's over the past couple of weeks.

So, why should you hire a DoC? What do they do? How do you pick one?

If you're like me, you've spent months planning your wedding - carefully researching vendors, picking your colors, your flowers, your invites. And when the big day rolls around, you want all of this planning to come together exactly the way you envisioned it. This is where a professional day-of-coordinator comes in. Hiring a DoC means that you get to hand your vision over to someone who knows EXACTLY how you want things done, and will ensure that they're done that way, without asking your friends and family (who should be enjoying this day with you) to set up your centerpieces.

So what precisely do day-of-coordinators DO? In my (I'll admit) rather limited experience, it seems like most will provide an initial consultation meeting to get the "feel" of your wedding day and then will disappear until about a month (or possible a week) before the big day, when you be able to contact them more frequently to arrange all of those last minute details. Generally, DoC's will: run the rehearsal if requested; offer time management during your day, keeping you, your party, your guests, and your vendors all on track; decorate your ceremony and reception site the way YOU envision it; handle payment for vendors; gather and transport gifts and other items; keep in touch with vendors throughout the day to make sure things run smoothly; and handle any issues that arise so that you don't have to. Some wedding planner provide less, and some provide more (e.g. my DoC provides a couples massage before the wedding w/ a licensed massage therapists, and permits you to use her design inventory - saving you $$$ in creating centerpieces), but they all seem to fall somewhere along these general lines.

And how should you pick one? Personally, I think the single most important thing that you should consider when picking a DoC is their personality, as in "how well do your personalities mesh"? You will more than likely be spending the ENTIRE day w/ the person, perhaps even more time than with your photographer, so you should know that you will feel comfortable having her (or him) around you all day. That being said, I suppose that there are a few other important things to look for as well:

• What is their experience like? In other words, how many weddings have they done? How many of they done as a professional (many coordinators start out doing this "on the side")?
• Do they have references? If they do - CONTACT THOSE REFERENCES!
• Precisely what service do they provide?
• How have they handled "emergencies" in the past?
• Do they have additional staff? How many? How experienced are their staff?
  
• Do they have any other weddings booked for the same weekend or *gasp* for the same day?
• What is their cost? It's no good to get your hopes set on a particular planner if they are WAY out of your budget.
  

Also, I've heard a lot of DoC's touting that they belong to this professional organization, or that professional organization, and while being able to network within your profession is important, I don't personally think that this is that big of a deal. When I looked into all of these organizations myself, I realized that the cost to join is EXHORIBITANT, particularly for a new wedding planning professional, and the benefits they receive are minimal - for instance, the "training" provided to members could just as easily be gained by working at a few weddings - so if you're already out working as a planner, you've already been trained. I guess what I'm trying to say is please don't let someone's membership in any organization they can join just by forking over a lot of money be your guiding factor in picking your wedding planner. Pick them based on their skills and their ability to deliver, NOT on whether or not they belong to a specific organization.

As a final note, if anyone is looking for day-of-coordination (or full coordination) for their wedding in southwest Ohio, you should definitely look into Kristen Kloth with Tres Chic Event Planning. We hired Kristen after only meeting w/ one DoC - she was that good. And she has been sooooo helpful, even a year out. Her work is fabulous and her prices are incredibly reasonable - trust me, you won't be disappointed.

Happy coordinating!

How I Got My Gown

Shopping for my gown wasn't the horror that others had made it out to be, but it wasn't the fairytale *gasp* *tear* *this is it* experience, either.

I actually ended up going to 5 different places, multiple times, before I finally worked up the courage to plunk down the Amex for a deposit: Wendy's Bridal (Cincinnati, OH), Bridal and Formal (Cincinnati, OH), RK Bridal (New York, NY), Adrienne's (New York, NY) and the ever-popular Kleinfeld Bridal (New York, NY).

I thought I knew exactly what I wanted - simple A-line, no lace, a little beading, no poufy skirts, and no mermaid/trumpet gowns - but found that some of my requests really didn't do a lot for my body. My first shopping experience (at Wendy's) was HORRIBLE, and I actually wrote off dress shopping for a bit because of it. RK Bridal was just as bad, if not worse - I say avoid that store like the plague! My experience at B&F was a lot better, if a bit tame in terms of pushing my creative options, and then I actually found my "bridal style" at Adrienne's in NYC. If you've never been there, go! The owner is actually a dress maker, and has a knack for knowing what you'll look great in - and actually uses real pins instead of plastic binder clips to fit samples to your body so you know what the dress will look like on you.

Here are some of the gowns (the good, the bad, and the just plain ugly) that consultants pushed my way:

I finally found "my" gown at Kleinfeld Bridal (a fellow knottie made me go) and went WAY over budget, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE my dress. I didn't exactly cry when I put it on, but I knew I wouldn't be happy in any other gown once I saw myself in it. I brought my knottie friend and FMIL back the next day w/ me, and worked up the gumption to put down the hefty 60% deposit.

Done, done, and done! Now I've just got to wait the 9 months for it to arrive...

[Images: Christina Wu, Jim Hjelm, Melissa Sweet, Paloma Blanca]

Flowers?

And now on to florists. Flowers are definitely not my "thing," though apparently I do have a taste for the expensive when it comes to floral design. I wanted to stay as far away as I could from roses, and use primarily mini callas, and cymbidium and dendrobium orchids.

We were only able to actually meet w/ one florist - Katie Elfers - while I was in Cincinnati, but we were so blown away by her that I don't feel too terrible about not meeting with more. I found Katie through some fabulous recommendations on the Knot, and once I saw her website (go there! - it's AMAZING!) I knew we had to meet her. Her designs seem very fresh, creative, and modern - things I was definitely looking for in a floral designer. Katie agreed to meet w/ me on her day off (because of my smushed schedule) and so we drove down to a small coffee shop (Reality Tuesday - I highly recommend them for their yummy sandwiches and fair trade-only coffee policies) in Kentucky.

SIDE NOTE: Anyone who thinks they don't need a professional-looking website to get business, take note - we knocked several florists off of our list because their websites were a bit shoddy looking, and we refused to talk at all to DJs who didn't have one. A fantastic website doesn't necessarily mean that you're a great florist/DJ/etc., but it does tell me that you care about your company, and about presentation - two things that I want our vendors to care about on our wedding day..

Back to our meeting. Katie was fantastic. I'd sent et her quite a bit of information before our meeting (she asks you to fill out a form describing your wedding and I had given her access to my planning bio) and she had definitely looked over all of it before we met. She had examples prepared for the look I was going for, and was very upfront about what would work (and what wouldn't), and was incredibly knowledgeable about floral design (at one point I pointed to some greenery in the photo of the bouquet I want - see below - and Katie was able to immediately spout off its name - pretty impressive).


And she was very quick to respond to my questions and concerns. Less than 48 hours after our original meeting, I had a VERY reasonable quote in my hand (a quote, I might add, that was THREE TIMES LESS expensive than our second choice - Benken's Florist). So reasonable, in fact, that I felt a little uncomfortable and ended up asking her for references - which she promptly provided. Her past brides have nothing but glowing reports about her, though, so it looks like we'll be definitely be booking w/ Katie.

If her future work is anything like her past and current work, we'll be worry-free when it comes to floral design on our wedding day.

The Search for the Perfect Buttercream Confection

I decided to extend my trip back to Ohio last week for graduation a few extra days so I could knock a few more wedding-related tasks off my list: cake, florist, and make-up trial. Now that I'm back in New York and taking a few days off before studying for the bar, I decided I'd post a little bit about my experiences with each vendor.

Going into our cake tastings, I had a few requirements: (1) I wanted a fresh cake, not a frozen cake. That immediately knocked several vendors off of our list (including a very well-known bakery in the Cincinnati area); (2) we needed someone who wouldn't charge for doing different flavors/fillings in each layer (I'm more of a fruit person, while Joe is more of a chocoholic); and (3) I had a pretty specific idea about the design for the cake, so I needed someone who wouldn't balk at potentially doing another baker's design.

We first met with Marilyn, of Cakes by Marilyn, in Ludlow, KY. Marilyn works out of her home (her basement has been transformed into an awesome kitchen) and had prepared three cakes for us: a chocolate cake w/ chocolate ganache, a white cake w/ strawberry filling, and a vanilla cake w/ raspberry filling. We spent about half an hour there flipping through her gigantic book of cake designs - I was very impressed that Marilyn offered to make us a color copy of one of the cake designs from her book that we were particularly interested in. Overall, Marilyn's cake was very good. The cake was incredibly moist and her fillings were incredibly tasty. My only complaints would be that her icing was a little too sweet for my tastes (I am NOT a sugar fan) and her cake seemed to be a little less dense than what we were looking for. Her prices, however, couldn't be beat: $265 for a three-tier square cake with different fillings in each tier, delivery included to downtown Cinti (she also had silver pedestal cake stands for rent for a very reasonable price).

We had originally scheduled our next appointment w/ Lisa of Lisa's Cakes in Lebanon (I'd heard her cakes were second only to Maribelle from people who had tasted both) but, unfortunately, I received a call from a very hoarse sounding Lisa the day before our tasting informing me that she was ill and needed to cancel/reschedule our appointment. Unfortunately, I was flying back to NYC before Lisa would be well again, so I wasn't able to schedule a new appointment. I was, however, very appreciative of the fact that Lisa was more concerned w/ keeping her potential clients healthy than with making a sale. If I had had more days to spend in Ohio, I would have definitely rebooked an appointment w/ her.

To replace our appointment w/ Lisa, I turned back to the Knot. A search of the Knot's vendor list and reading through previous posts on the Cinti board turned up Tres Belle. I contacted Tracy at Tres Belle early the morning before I was due to fly out, and she was nice enough to squeeze us in for a tasting that afternoon (immediately earning extra brownie points) - she even found the time to make three completely different mini cakes for us to try, and even packed them up so we could take them home for FFIL to try. At Tres Belle, we tasted a lemon cake w/ lemon filling, a dark chocolate cake w/ chocolate ganache (VERY chocolatey), and a white cake w/ raspberry filling. I liked her cake flavors slightly more than Marilyn's, but her icing seemed to have a "strange" texture. Tracy's prices were *slightly* higher than Marilyn's, but not enough to really make a difference.

Our final cake tasting appointment was w/ the famous Maribelle Cakery in Cincinnati. Walking up to their door, FMIL actually joked that we probably shouldn't go in (we're both bad about picking expensive things - usually w/o knowing the price...) but I just had to try it - their cake design from knottie KaraMGM's wedding was my inspiration for going there and they get such rave reviews on the Knot.

Their shop is an actual shop (not a home-based business), and it was the first place we were offered something to drink with our cake. Once we were settled and had been offered our sparkling water, we tasted 5 different cakes: an orange butter cake w/ strawberry and cream cheese icing, a tiramisu cake, a white chocolate cake w/ mocha and raspberry, a lemon almond pistachio torte, and a chocolate cake w/ Irish cream filling. All were unbelievable. Their cake is a LOT more moist than anything else we tried, and their icing was the first I tried that wasn't sickly sweet. The price, however? Wowza. A little over $1000 for a three-tier square cake for 150 people, delivery included. They have the same silver cake pedestals, for free, w/ a $200 refundable deposit.

Our decision? Maribelle. It's a splurge, we know. But once we'd had their cake, we just couldn't go back. We're having the orange butter cake w/ strawberry and cream cheese filling in the first and third layers, and the white chocolate cake w/ mocha and raspberry filling for the middle layer. YUM! We've both been to weddings where neither one of us wanted to eat the cake, let alone finish it. We'd like our cake to be something that our guests remember - and they'll definitely remember this cake.

And my overall thoughts on cakeries in Cincinnati? You can find a really good cake in Cincinnati for much less than what Maribelle charges - but you won't find anything that comes close to matching Maribelle in taste. Maribelle was originally in our budget (well, a smaller cake from Maribelle was), but we were hoping to find somewhere less expensive. However, once we tasted Maribelle, we had to find room somewhere - there just wasn't any other option. So a word of warning: if you're SURE that you can't find room in the budget, you might want to skip them. I think you might be disappointed otherwise...