A lot was accomplished yesterday! We met with the bakery that’s going to make our cake, and we also met with a videographer that we think we’ll hire.
First, we had our cake tasting and ordered our wedding cake. If you’re a fan of food shows on TV, you may have heard about “Cake Boss” on TLC. And if you have, you’d appreciate this even more because, guess what – Buddy’s making our cake! Well, maybe not Buddy specifically, but his bakery is.
Buddy’s the one in the middle (man, it feels good to be taller than a TV celebrity, even if it’s just a tad), and the guy on the right is Mario, his right hand man. These guys are pretty loud on their show, but during the meeting when we discussed our cake, they were so professional and low-key. Definitely gives credence to the thinking that reality TV isn’t reality at all.
Anyway, the process went like this. We went to the bakery at 11:30 for our appointment. When we got there, we saw a huge line outside. Ever since the launch of “Cake Boss,” celebrity gawkers flock to the Hoboken shop on weekends (it’s much emptier on the weekdays I’ve been there), and it was no different on the day we went.
After we got past the bouncer (no joke), we had to fight our way through a mass of people to get to the “waiting area” for people who had consultation appointments. Turns out there was a group ahead of us, so we had to wait.
While we were waiting, a bunch of kids tried getting autographs from some of the chefs and staff there. Here’s a pic of Joe and Grace, taken poorly with an iPhone.
We flipped through a couple of binders with wedding cakes, and after a bit longer, we finally got called to go up. So we went, up the “famous” stairwell where they dropped some big (fat?) cake, and through a hallway into an office where Buddy was waiting for us.
He was really gracious, and was pretty sincere in apologizing for making us wait. We shook hands, and he gave us another binder with cake options that were included in our hotel package. As we started looking through the binder, he walked up to the window of his office, which looked down to the people lined up outside. When the crowd saw him, they screamed. He thanked them for coming out, and then, because someone in the crowd asked him to, he said, “Fondant.” That was pretty cute.
He then stepped out, and his assistant came in with some cake samples. There were maybe 8 or 9 different slices of cake for us to taste. Surprisingly, given that the missus and her sister were there, we didn’t finish everything (because, you know, they enjoy eating 
). While there were quite a few really good tasting options, it wasn’t too difficult for us to choose what we wanted for our cake.
As for the design of the cake, Mario helped walk us through that. We found a design in the binder that fit the “feel” we were going for, and then made some customizations. Changing things up cost us a few more dollars, but in the end, it’s going to be fine since the cake design is exactly what we want, and shoot, it’s pretty cool that a bakery that’s on TV is making the cake.
Oh, one other thing — we got to go into the kitchen as well. Mario wanted to show us an example of the design/style we were discussing. It was pretty cool to go in, since it looked exactly as it does on the show. Plus, we also saw this HUGE cake that was going to a wedding that day. It was pretty elaborate, and sized to feed 300 people.
So, we’re pretty excited about our cake. We hope our guests enjoy it too. 
(Notes about the videographer to come separately.)
