By Angie Sarhan
As all brides know, it’s a lot of work planning a wedding. If you’re lucky, things may fall into place easily and the people in your inner circle may offer to help. This team could consist of your mom, your sister, your BFF and maybe your groom.
I consider myself lucky. David is the perfect amount of helpful. He’s been there for the major decisions: picking a venue, a photographer, the food.
He also knows when to back off and let me do my thing with my closest ladies: like picking flowers, wedding colors and invites to name a few.
But there was one appointment he was adamant he couldn’t, wouldn’t miss.
The cake.
As a man with a certified sweet tooth, I was not surprised by his eagerness to be a part of this appointment. He even took charge and called the bakery himself.
From the moment we got engaged, we knew we would be asking Alice at LaSalle Bakery in Providence to help us put together a perfect cake. We knew this because David’s family has been longtime consumers of their treats and cakes on a regular basis. I have a sweet tooth too, so once we were together he introduced me to LaSalle Bakery and I was instantly hooked.
When David called to make the appointment, Alice asked if we would like to sample cake, and at first I was surprised when he said no. But I understood the logic. We already know we love their cake. Plus, the appointment would be at 8:45 am; maybe we wouldn’t want to be eating cake that early in the morning.
Still, there was a part of me—the part that knows my fiance’s sweet tooth very well—that couldn’t believe David wanted to go to a cake appointment and not eat cake. Why did he want to come if he couldn’t eat any? Could he make it through the cake appointment without tasting cake? I looked skeptically at him, but didn’t push it.
The morning of our appointment we arrived a few minutes early and ordered coffees. Alice greeted us warmly and from there we were ushered to a table where we would talk cake.
Our chat started off with the type of wedding we were planning and what our vision for the cake was. I had pictures on my phone and Alice and I went through each of them discussing the pros and cons of the designs. This one was too much; this one was too little; none of them were just right.
We looked over at David to see what he thought. He seemed distracted. By that I mean he was looking at the photos and offering input, but I could tell he was waiting for something.
Alice must have sensed this and asked if we wanted breakfast. We gratefully accepted and she went to order us breakfast sandwiches. I thought the food may boost David’s energy. While we waited, David turned to me, “When do we talk about flavors?”
I laughed. Now I understood.
For me, the perfect cake would have to look a certain way, and for David the perfect cake would have to taste a certain way. I explained that before we could get to that, we had to design a cake.
While he completely understood, I could tell he hadn’t factored that in when he made the appointment. I assured him it wouldn’t take too long.
Alice returned with our breakfasts and a binder showcasing some of the previous wedding cakes the bakery had made.
We ate and flipped through the binder. Alice began sketching our cake on a piece of paper and taking notes. She left to get an example of a fondant flower and I continued to look at pictures of cakes on my phone.
She returned with the flower and more pictures. We looked at David and once again we could tell we were losing him. He was people watching as if he was hoping someone would come in and have to talk to him in private, away from the cake table. Alice immediately had a solution.
“Would you like a cupcake, David?”
“Cupcake? Sure, I love cupcakes!”
Alice returned with a cupcake for David and he ate it with the exact excitement of a little boy who’s been given a cupcake at 9:45 in the morning. With chocolately goodness on his side, he returned to being focused, attentive and in cake mode.
I had to laugh. Only David would go to a cake tasting, say he didn’t want cake and then end up eating a cupcake.
“Thank you for bringing my fiancé back to life,” I joked.
In the meantime, I had found a picture of a cake that I had been imagining for all the weeks leading up to this appointment. Alice and I oohed and ahhed over it, while David oohed and ahhed over the cupcake.
Alice sketched some more and finally our wedding cake was coming together. It was now time to talk flavors and frosting.
We had David’s full attention.
As Alice detailed all our options and we debated what would be best, we seemed a little indecisive when it came to the type of frosting.
“Would you like to sample different frostings?” she asked.
“Frosting? Sure, I love frosting!” David sat up and got ready for our frosting showdown.
Alice returned with two spoons for each of us.
I nibbled on the first sample and looked over at David to see him swallowing the whole spoonful.
“Oops,” he said when he saw my way of tasting.
“Well, I want to compare,” I explained. I planned on trying each kind back and forth until I knew my favorite.
David had a different method. It turned out he didn’t even need to taste the second frosting.
“I don’t like that one. I like this one.”
“Well, why are we tasting them if you already know?”
“Because I like frosting!”
Shortly after that, all the details were confirmed. We had a cake. I was impressed that David had lasted for the whole two hours. Even I hadn’t anticipated the appointment taking that long. As we thanked Alice for her time and her expertise, I thanked her once more for keeping David sustained throughout the meeting.
“He did pretty good. Most men don’t make it.”
We left happy with our selection and happy to know we were one step closer to our wedding day. We may not have tried a piece of cake, but we left with peace of cake—knowing the cake will be stunning and taste delicious—and that gave us both peace of mind.