D&H’s Wedding Dessert Table

Before this year ends I want to do a quick recap of D&H’s wedding dessert table that I catered back in August.

First off, how crazy is my friend to trust me with this HUGE task? When she first approached me, I actually rejected her kind offer and told her that she would be much more satisfied with the final product if she got a pro to do it. Obviously she could have hired a pro if she wanted to but I realized that she wanted to give me the opportunity to expand my blog into a real business. So in the end I got convinced to accept this amazing, probably once in a lifetime, offer!

We met about 10 months before her wedding for cake tastings ad designing her dessert table. I was so so so excited. I spent loads of time poring Pinterest for dessert table ideas and all I wanted to do was spend my waking hours buying cake pedestals.

The excitement faded about 3 weeks before the wedding during the high tide of my crazy summer season. I was already working 3 part time jobs and the thought of catering for 200 people became really real really fast. I knew I had to move out of the planning stage and get into action to actually grocery shop, measure, bake, scale, decorate, store and deliver dessert for TWO HUNDRED PEOPLE.

It was not easy. There were a couple meltdowns where I never felt crappier about myself and OVERWHELMED with stuff to do. Oh and lucky me, things at work blew up at around the same time where I was needed to put in EXTRA hours during a time when I had NO time. Everything happened all at once and I went, well, BEZERK.

I’ll never forget the day where I just couldn’t hold it together any longer. I got home from work one day, thoughts OVERFLOWING in my mind. My mom asked me when the wedding was and I just BURST into an unstoppable sob. I ran into my room and cried in my bed for the rest of the day. It was the loud kind of sob that shook my entire body. I couldn’t even speak, I just sputtered half-words between gasps for air. I couldn’t eat and that was a HUGE shock since I’m usually a stress eater. I skipped dinner with my family. I skipped seeing my friends that night. I just cried and cried. I cried for being tired. I cried for losing balance in life. I cried for giving up my social life and young years for work. I cried for feeling weak. I cried because I was afraid I would fail and disappoint my friend who put so much faith in me. I had one tiny lamp on in the opposite corner of my room so that I sat in mostly darkness that day and that night. I wish I was exaggerating, but nope, it was actually THAT depressing.

But that was the only time I gave myself to feel like absolute crud. The next morning I had to be at work by 11am, so I knew I had to get some sleep at some point. I kept reminding myself that there are worse things in life. At least my hard work was spent on moving me FORWARDS in life and getting me to where I want to be at some point in the future.

I wanted the desserts to be as fresh as possible so I only started baking 3 days before the event. Of course at such a high volume and complexity with my limited skills and equipment, I had to be up working for most of the day. I got about 8 hours of sleep cumulatively on those 3 days.

So you can imagine the relief and delight I felt when I finally delivered and set everything up. I took a step back and saw 10 months of planning FINALLY before my eyes. I did it. I made it. I was OVERJOYED with happiness. I proved to myself that I can do it. I proved that I can somewhat bake if I really wanted to. I proved that I take on a whackload of stuff, cram it into every nook and cranny of my schedule and still survive, maybe even thrive.

Here are some photos from the event! Maybe I’ll post the recipes and tutorials if there’s enough demand for them.

All photos belong to White Day Photography