Buffet
Approximate time: about 1 hour
You can set aside time for cocktails and a light snack both before the ceremony (if the guests have gathered in the morning) and after (if the gathering of guests was planned immediately before registration or if the ceremony and banquet are taking place in different places).
This is the perfect time to greet all the guests and take photos together. And if after the ceremony you and the groom are planning a photo shoot, the buffet will allow guests to get to know each other in a relaxed atmosphere at this time and not get bored. Good entertainment for them will be live music, various master classes, etc.
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Photo by: Yulia Kaptelova | Wedding of Sergei and Karina
Start of the banquet
Approximate time: about 20 minutes
This is approximately the amount of time your guests need to walk to the banquet venue (if the wedding is taking place at the same venue) or get out of their cars and get themselves in order. Guests then head to the seating chart and find their seats at the wedding tables. The more guests at the wedding, the more time they will need, but, as a rule, seating arrangements take 10-15 minutes.
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Photo by: Shefter Polina | Wedding of Anastasia and Alexander
Fortune telling on a wedding cake
Are there any unmarried girls among the bridesmaids? According to legend, if you eat a small piece of wedding dessert at night and put the rest under your pillow, you can see your future husband in a dream.
There is also fortune telling when a ring is baked in a cake. The guest who gets the treasured piece of delicacy will be blessed with happiness all year long. At some weddings, instead of a ring, symbolic pendants are used - in the shape of a heart, horseshoe, boat, etc., which are placed in the dessert itself or in small festive cupcakes.
Dinner and toast
Approximate time: 1.5 – 2 hours
The wedding dinner is usually combined with toasts from the guests, but the format of the dinner largely depends on the start time of the banquet, the style of the wedding and the number of people wishing to give a speech. It is better to entrust control over this part of the evening to the host: he will make sure that the guests have time to enjoy dinner and communicate with each other, and that the toasts do not last too long (5 minutes is enough to say all the most important things).
The order of toasts is also important: first of all, they are pronounced by the parents of the newlyweds, then by grandparents, bridesmaids and friends of the groom, relatives and, if desired, other guests.
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Author of the photo: Sveta Svetina | Wedding of Nadia and Zhenya
Entertainment
Approximate time: 1 – 1.5 hours
The time comes for the newlyweds' first dance, and then all guests are invited to the dance floor. At this time, in order to “stir up” everyone, you can offer several competitions or quizzes. While guests are not yet very tired, they can fill out a crossword puzzle about the newlyweds, as well as leave a few words in the book of wishes and take a few pictures in the photo zone as a souvenir.
At this time, it is worth planning performances by invited musicians and artists, as well as creative congratulations to the guests, and all sorts of surprises from the bride and groom. Dance, have fun and just enjoy what is happening!
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Photo by: Pavel Melnik | Wedding of Sergei and Anastasia
Ceremony of serving and cutting the wedding cake
The most delicious and long-awaited treat at a wedding is the wedding cake. More than one celebration cannot take place without it, because in addition to the fact that the cake is a sweet end to the banquet, its presentation at a wedding also has a very deep meaning. In fact, using a wedding cake is a kind of ritual that makes the life of the newlyweds sweet, happy and bright.
The history of the “Wedding cake as a ritual”
The tradition of making a cake for a wedding appeared not so long ago, in contrast to the well-known “bread and salt” ritual, where the main role is played by the loaf. It is believed that the cake had many predecessors: wedding bread, wedding cake and wedding pies. But one of the legends says that the wedding cake was invented by one of the London bakers, who received an order from a very famous and rich person. She wanted to receive something unusual as a sweet treat for her celebration.
The baker thought for a long time about how to bring such an interesting order to life and went for a walk along the streets of Fleet Street to find inspiration. It was there, looking at the dome of St. Bride's Church, that he thought that it was possible to create an amazing multi-tiered cake, which was later called a wedding cake.
After this event, many brides began to order such unusual treats for their celebration, but the process of evolution of wedding cakes could no longer stop there. The ritual of serving a wedding cake began to change and be supplemented. The cakes became larger and more complex, their traditional white color began to change, and bright details and figurines began to appear on the sweet treat. The ritual of cutting a wedding cake and making it a beautiful and memorable element of the wedding ceremony also appeared and became established.
Variants of the ceremony “Cutting the wedding cake”
Each country has its own traditions of cutting and serving the wedding cake at the celebration. True, no one knows which country established this or that ritual, since for more than 20 years the ritual of cutting a wedding cake has been constantly interpreted, here are the most common options for serving a wedding cake that you can use for your holiday:
1. Ritual “Wedding cake with a secret.” This option for serving a wedding cake will surely please guests, and especially unmarried bridesmaids. The essence of this ritual is that the pastry chef places a glass ring of a contrasting color into the dough. After this, the cake is baked and decorated.
During the wedding, the bride cuts the cake into small pieces and the groom serves sweet treats to the guests, who are warned in advance that there is a ring hidden inside the cake. It is believed that the person who finds it in his piece of cake will be happy, and his life will become sweet and full of adventures, bright and memorable moments.
For unmarried girls and boys, such a find promises early marriage. This ritual is often supplemented with other elements, for example, you can also hide it in the cake: a glass coin, a clover leaf, a horseshoe. When using this ritual at your wedding, it is important to warn guests in advance about what to look for, so that none of them accidentally swallow the small souvenir.
2. Ritual “Bride’s cake, groom’s cake.” In some countries, there is a tradition according to which two sweet treats are present at once at the holiday. In this case, the bride’s cake participates in the ceremony, and the groom’s cake is its backup.
During the final part of the ceremony, the bride cuts her cake into small pieces, eats the first piece, and then cuts a piece for her new husband. At this time, the groom’s task is to cut his double cake into a certain number of pieces (according to the number of guests), then put these pieces into small boxes and hand them to each guest together with the bride.
Of course, due to such an unusual ritual of serving wedding cakes, this ritual can take quite a long time, but if it is accompanied by beautiful music, a video or presentation, then the guests simply will not have time to get bored.
With this version of the ceremony, the groom's wedding cake should be larger than the bride's cake, so that each guest gets a piece from it, and when serving a sweet treat, you can play a trick and ask the confectionery shop to cut the cake into a certain number of pieces in advance and put each of them on a napkin so that the groom has It’s more convenient to transfer the wedding cake into pre-prepared boxes.
Another variation of this ceremony of serving a wedding cake is that the bride shares her cake with all the guests, and the newlyweds take the groom’s cake with them after the wedding. In this case, on the contrary, the bride’s cake should be large so that each guest gets a piece, but the groom’s cake can be small and pre-packaged in a small convenient box for transportation.
3. The ceremony of selling the wedding cake. This version of the ritual is the most popular in our country, and it is what lovers most often choose as the main one for their wedding. The course of the ceremony is that the bride cuts off the first piece of the wedding cake with a spatula specially prepared for this and places it on the wedding plate. This piece should be eaten together by the newlyweds during the final part of the wedding ceremony.
After this, the second piece of the treat is cut off, and a fun auction begins to buy back this piece of cake. The treasured piece is given to the guest who offers the highest price for the treat; often, in a fit of excitement, this piece can be sold for more than 10,000 rubles. After the sale of the second piece, another 2-5 auction rounds are held to sell subsequent pieces of the sweet treat. As soon as the ardor of the guests subsides, the newlyweds cut the rest of the cake and treat all the guests without exception. The money that was received from such an impromptu auction is transferred to the newlyweds, to the so-called young family fund.
By the way, according to tradition, it is the bride who must cut the wedding cake, since she is considered the keeper of the family hearth, but this element of the ritual is often neglected and the cake is cut by the bride and groom at the same time.
What is needed for the ceremony of serving and cutting the wedding cake?
The first thing you should do is order a wedding cake. To do this, you should choose a pastry shop in advance, decide on the theme, size and decor of your sweet treat. Book a delivery service and agree on the terms and conditions for transporting the wedding cake to the wedding.
In addition to the cake, you need to buy or rent a tray in advance on which your cake will be placed, if you do not want it to be placed on plywood as standard. This should be done before the bakery starts making the sweet treat, so that bakers can start assembling the cake on the right tray.
If you do not plan to place the cake in the Kende Bar, but want the sweet treat to be rolled out to the guests during the ceremonial ceremony of cutting the cake, then you should take care of the presence of a buffet table on wheels in the restaurant. It is very important to match it to the weight of the sweet treat, otherwise during the wedding ceremony, under the weight of the wedding cake, the table may simply fall apart.
A mandatory attribute for cutting a wedding cake is a cake knife and spatula. They should be made in the same style and be combined not only with the sweet treat, but also with the image of the bride, since it is she who will cut the cake into pieces during the ritual. Wedding accessories such as a spatula and a cake knife can be purchased at a regular kitchenware store, or you can order them from a private craftsman if you want these accessories to be unusual and original. Here the choice lies entirely with you, but it is worth remembering that these attributes, as well as wedding glasses, after the celebration, the bride and groom take with them to the apartment and keep them as a memorable souvenir of their wedding celebration, endowed with positive energy.
If you plan to pack pieces of cake as a sweet souvenir for each guest, then you should take care of the packaging. It is purchased 5 pieces more than the number of invited guests. It is best to use small boxes for this, so that during the banquet part of the wedding ceremony it will be easier for you to transfer them from the tray to the packaging.
Some tips and features of the ceremony of cutting and serving the wedding cake:
Since from ancient times the wedding cake was a symbol of the purity and purity of the bride, it was always made in white. Now the tradition has changed, but meanwhile there are certain interpretations of the color scheme that will be used to decorate the sweet treat, for example:
– red elements on the wedding cake will give the newlyweds passion and fidelity; – pink details help fill family life with tenderness and romance; – green color will give the bride and groom financial well-being, as well as stability in their careers and family budget; – orange color symbolizes healthy offspring, as well as strong ties between the family of the bride and groom.
In addition to the color interpretation of the elements of the wedding cake, there is also a specific interpretation of the decoration for this treat, here are the most popular of them:
– swans are a symbol of fidelity and devotion of lovers; it is believed that a couple who uses white swans to decorate their wedding cake will not know grief, scandals will rarely occur in such relationships, and the spouses will be faithful to each other.
– roses – these flowers are a direct symbol of love, passion and tenderness in a relationship, while the color of roses can enhance a certain interpretation, the only thing that should be taken into account when making this decoration on your wedding cake is that roses in no case There should be no thorns present.
– the heart – is also a symbol of devotion and strong mutual feelings between the newlyweds; this element of the wedding cake can be supplemented with woven wedding rings, which, if the sweet treat is properly decorated, should form a symbol of infinity.
In addition to decorative decoration of the wedding cake, it is also important to correctly integrate this ritual into the celebration. Traditionally, the wedding cake ritual is performed at the end of the wedding ceremony before the ceremony of throwing the garter and lighting fireworks. For this ritual, romantic music is selected; if finances allow you, then you can also create a lighting design for the wedding banquet hall, which will focus the guests’ attention on the bride and groom during the cake cutting ritual.
Taking out the cake
Approximate time: 30 minutes
Near the end of the wedding, it's time to cut the cake. It should not be too early, but also not too late, when all the guests are already tired and getting ready to go home. A professional officiant or wedding coordinator will advise you on the ideal time depending on the situation.
Cutting a cake is a beautiful tradition that deserves a beautiful frame, so you can hold it in a photo zone or in a ceremony area, the decor of which is complemented with lights and candles.
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Author of the photo: Igor Sazonov | Wedding of Alexander and Anna
Cutting the cake
It is considered a good omen if the newlyweds cut the birthday cake together, helping each other. The bride, as the future housewife, must cut the delicacy, and the groom must support the knife, showing that he will be her support in family life. Whose hand is higher will be the main one in the family. The very process of joint cutting symbolizes mutual understanding and family unification.
The groom should not be allowed to cut the cake himself. This can lead to a childless marriage, quarrels, and misunderstandings in the future family. The groom treats the bride to the first piece of dessert, the bride to the groom with the second, and only then the delicacy is distributed to the guests. Treat your friends to a festive treat - wish them a happy life.
By the way, refusing a wedding cake is a bad omen. Even if you don't like sweets, try at least a small piece. This will bring good luck to both you and your future family. Moreover, our cakes are so delicious that the first piece will definitely be followed by a second.
