Good Luck and may the BEST Bride Win!!

Photo Courtesy of Scott Henrichsen

Contest Info

This contest will be held entirely on Facebook. We will open up a Photo Album with our contestants. The contestant that gets the highest number of points at the end of the contest will be our winner!  You can acquire points by getting your friends to “LIKE”  The Casual Gourmet Facebook page and “LIKE” your picture in our Photo Album! It is important that they “LIKE” The Casual Gourmet Facebook Page before they “LIKE” your picture to assure they have a valid Facebook account.  If they do not hit “LIKE” their vote will be disqualified.

To Enter: “LIKE” us on Facebook! Next, simply email us a picture of the “Bride and Groom-to-be” along with your names and wedding date to Sofia@thecasualgourmet.com you will receive an email confirmation once you have been accepted as a participant for the contest and your picture will be uploaded to our Facebook page.   So make sure that you submit your picture RIGHT AWAY!

FIY: You will not be admitted to the contest if you have not yet “LIKE”ed us on Facebook! This is to assure that you have a valid Facebook account.

Recognition for the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 is determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 750,000 WeddingWire newlyweds. Our past clients are among those that shared their experiences on WeddingWire, the largest wedding review site in the nation.

The Casual Gourmet stands among the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire community, representing quality and service excellence within the wedding industry. Awards were given to the top wedding professionals across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, and were based on the overall professional achievements throughout the past year.

“WeddingWire is honored to celebrate the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire community,” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “With the annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ program, WeddingWire has the unique opportunity to recognize the best wedding professionals across the US and Canada. We applaud The Casual Gourmet for their professionalism and dedication to enhancing the wedding planning experience last year.”

We are happy to announce that The Casual Gourmet is among the very best in Catering within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Martha Stewart Weddings, Project Wedding and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for nominating us to receive the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011.

For more information, please visit our WeddingWire Storefront today at The Casual Gourmet WeddingWire Storefront 

For more information on the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011, please visit weddingwire.com.

Stefania’s dream included a gorgeous gold and white themed event where no attention to detail was spared. Her linens, a Natural Botela fabric, that is actually made from recycled bottles, set the tone for the tablescape which included gold rimmed china and crystal glassware, gold flatware, and etched gold votives. Lilacs provided flowers in a mixture of white orchids, hydrangeas, and roses all arranged in crystal glass.

Elaborate Table Setting

The guests dined on scrumptious hors d’oeuvres that included garlic rubbed lamb chops and warmed goat cheese toasts with rosemary, walnuts & honey. They were also treated to an elaborate cheese table and raw bar.

Italian Cheese Table

For dinner, the bride and groom selected a four-course meal that started with a Caprese salad and moved on to a traditional risotto course to highlight the bride’s Italian heritage. For the entrée, they enjoyed a traditional Cape Cod ‘Surf and Turf’ with Beef Tenderloin and Lobster Tails.

For the Grand Finale, Stefania’s dream also included an elaborate five-tier wedding cake filled with lobster cream and decorated in gold leaf paint with her new monogram as the centerpiece of the cake. Guests were amazed by the detail of the cake and our pastry chefs did an excellent job fulfilling this part of Stefania’s dream. A candy bar and Viennese table completed the meal.

Five Tier, Gold Accented Wedding Cake

We were truly honored to have been a part of creating Stefania’s dream wedding, but the dream was truly realized when Stefania and Justin met and fell in love. Stefania, Justin and both of their families were wonderful to work with during the entire planning process and we wish them a lifetime of happiness together.

Perhaps cup cakes are more your style? (Photo by Bello Photography)

One of the latest trends in the Wedding business has been to ditch the traditional wedding cake and go with cupcakes instead!

Why Cupcakes?

Cupcakes might seem like an odd choice for  a wedding but they offer a number of advantages to a typical three tiered wedding cake.

First, they are easy to serve. No messy pile of icing and cake after a hot summer day to cut up and dish out.

Second, cupcakes can come in as many flavors and styles as you want. Sure you can get creative with a wedding cake but with cupcakes, you could have a unique ‘cake’ for each guest!

Finally, they are different and adorable! Cupcakes can add that little edgy spunk to your wedding to really make it stand out from the rest.

What about ‘cutting the cake’?

When breaking from tradition, sometimes a part of that tradition can get lost. Fortunately, this is not one of those times! Many couples will have cupcakes on a three tiered rack but instead of cup cakes on the top, they will have an actually cake topper for the traditional ‘cutting of the cake.’

For instance, take a look at the cup cakes from Grace and Silas’ wedding this past weekend. Instead of going with a traditional wedding cake, Grace and Silas decided to go with four levels of red velvet cupcakes topped with a butter creme icing. And on top of all that, a traditional wedding cake top so they could still cut the cake!

Other couples have skipped the cake topper completely and just fed each other a cupcake! Either way, cupcakes add a unique twist to any wedding.

Need more? Check out some of the links below to see what others have to say about cupcakes for weddings:

• Wedding & Shower Cupcakes
• Martha Stewart’s Wedding Cupcake Photo Gallery
• Wedding Cupcakes Instead of Cake

The Festival kicked off on Sunday, May 31st with a Grand Opening Tasting at Rectrix Aerodome in Hyannis.  Casual Gourmet was proud to be a Silver Sponsor of the entire festival and was at Rectrix handing out some delicious 30th Anniversary cake and chatting with festival goers about our services.  (I even got to meet and chat with Billy Costa from “TV Diner” who served as Master of Ceremonies for the event!!)

Throughout the week Casual Gourmet also participated in Cultural Receptions from Provincetown to Falmouth, providing a cake at each.  At the Falmouth cultural reception, held at Highfield Hall,  we not only served cake but had a great food display which included Baja Fish Tacos, Spicy Avocado Pate and Crudite.

The week wrapped up with a Tasting Finale at Heritage Museums and Gardens in Sandwich where guests not only had a chance to sample food & wine but were able to wonder through the lovely gardens at Heritage.  While I was busy handing out cake to the many festival goers, not 200 yards away Casual Gourmet was also catering a wedding on the grounds of Heritage Museums & Gardens.  We were certainly thankful when the sun came out in the afternoon!

Here are just a few of the wedding cakes that went out and a couple of photos from the lovely wedding at Heritage:

This year we are seeing a few new trends with wedding cake design.  One in particular is what the cake decorators and I like to refer to as the “Betty Crocker” cake.  Instead of smoothly iced sides these cakes have a fluffier less uniformed look to the icing usually accented by a colored ribbon to match the colors they have chosen for the wedding.  Fresh flowers to match the bridal bouquet, usually provided by the bride’s florist, are cut and placed on the top and around the tiers of the cake adding an additional splash of color.

On a side note, we want to wish last weekend’s brides all the best and say thank you for letting us be a part of your special day!