Reception

It is traditional to conclude all weddings with a feast, but it doesn't have to be a seven-course formal dinner.

At a minimum, there should be a cake, as it has a traditional significance. The custom began in the Roman Empire. Guests brought the couple thin wheat breads, which the groom broke over the bride's head as a symbol of fertility. In the Middle Ages, wheat breads became sweet buns. After the wedding ceremony the little cakes were piled up and the bride and groom attempted to kiss over the enormous pile. It was believed that the taller the pile, the more prosperous the couple would be. In the 16th century, a French chef visited London. Appalled by their wedding cake traditions, he went back to France and make a pile of good-tasting cakes, and covered them with sweet icing, and that's why we have multi-layered wedding cakes.

Wedding cakes don't have to be white, but it's good to have layers to symbolize fertility and prosperity. Like everything else, wedding cake can be elaborate and expensive or simple and tasty. Most bakeries will want to sell you something elaborate and sugary, so consider making your own cake, or have a friend do it. In some places, now, you can get bakeries to make cakes with organically grown grains, so ask around.

Our first wedding cake was poppy seed cake with a basket-weave icing, topped with fresh flowers. Two years before we divorced, Larry and I renewed our vows and made a "wedding-birthday" cake for the party. It was an oatmeal cake made with organic ingredients, with three tiers and candles on the top. I hired a professional cake decorator to decorate it, which cost a lot less than having someone else both bake and decorate the cake.

For this wedding, I made our cake with almost all organically grown ingredients, including some whole wheat pastry flour and honey produced by local Florida bees with pollen from local Florida wildflowers. Even though it was a small cake, I made three layers with local Florida-grown strawberries between each layer (and I put it on a glass pedestal cake plate to make it look taller). We served it with my grandmother's silver cake server.

I chose a honey cake in part because of its association with weddings. To ensure fertility in times past, it was tradition for the newly married couple to drink mead (a wine made from honey) each evening for one month (the duration of one cycle of the moon) following the wedding. Thus our word "honeymoon". We had our ceremony at 3:00 in the afternoon, which allowed us to serve hors d'oeuvre instead of a full meal. Again, I prepared all the food using as many organically grown ingredients that were available.

We toasted with sparkling grape juice. The number of guests was small enough that we were able to use our own stemmed glasses that we had collected in pairs in assorted styles.

We rented clear glass plates and real silver forks. Check in to this, as the rental fee in our area was less than purchasing paper plates and plastic forks. We could have also rented napkins but didn't because they were all made from synthetic materials. Paper napkins, though disposable, were more festive with their pretty printed floral pattern, and are made from a renewable resource that is also biodegradable.

<< previous | next >>