So, you want to see some behind the scenes
from the wedding?
Of course you do. Alrighty then. I was overwhelmed deciding how to share the wedding photos and stories. What should I show first? How much detail is too much? Instead of overthinking it, I decided to break the story down into bite-sized posts. What better sweet escape than the cupcakes? We had a couple of special treats at the wedding, so I’m sharing two posts this weekend. Part Two will be Sweet Escape: The Candy Bar. Stay tuned.
When my daughter and I began planning the wedding, we thought cupcakes would be the perfect dessert for a youthful, beach-town celebration. The idea wasn’t entirely original, nor was the candy bar concept, but both turned out to be big hits. We leaned on wedding blogs and magazines for inspiration and stole plenty of ideas. In the end we chose cupcakes for their fun, portability, and the way they fit the casual seaside vibe.
We visited local bakeries and sampled many flavors (yes, we gained a few pounds while taste-testing). At over $3 each for standard cupcakes, we began to wonder: how hard could it be to make our own? The answer: doable, but with challenges. Baking 200 cupcakes on a day that topped 100 degrees was intense. The bigger concern was logistics: we baked most of them at home, traveled to a friend’s house in Gearhart to frost them, then moved them again to the beach house where the reception was held. Managing a destination wedding added layers to the process, and many of us were using pastry tools for the first time.
Yes, she knows Red Bull is not healthy — she regrets this picture lol.
The upside of making our own cupcakes was clear:
1) They cost a lot less than bakery prices.
2) We could customize colors to match the wedding palette.
3) My daughter and I created lasting memories of laughter, frosting in our hair, and flour on our faces.
And besides being meaningful, our cupcakes tasted better than any we’d sampled. We settled on three varieties.
The chocolate brownie cupcakes, topped with chocolate curls and mint-green bark, were especially delicious — a rich chocolate-mint combo that stole the show. We used a Ghirardelli brownie mix for convenience and flavor; yes, a mix, and we were perfectly happy with the result. The other two varieties were white cupcakes made from scratch: one with pink frosting and white pearl candies, and another with white frosting and pink pearl candies. My daughter learned to use the frosting tube and did a lovely job. They weren’t professionally perfect, but arranged together on trays they looked charming and cohesive.
We baked batches of brownies and finished decorating the white cupcakes at a friend’s beach house in Gearhart. She generously offered her home for some of the wedding party’s accommodations, and we took advantage of her kitchen the day before the wedding. While we were mid-frosting and flour-covered, a real estate appraiser stopped by to take photos of the kitchen — an embarrassing moment given the state of our baking operation.
In addition to the cupcakes, we were also preparing breakfast for the next morning and lunch for just before the ceremony. A large farm table was perfect for organizing food, care packages, and all the little items a wedding weekend requires. The girls’ care packages—spring-green Chinese takeout boxes—were adorable and practical.
After frosting, we faced the challenge of transporting 200 cupcakes intact — not stacked — for the half-hour drive to the beach house, along with dozens of suitcases, a wedding dress, a karaoke machine, and other essential supplies crammed into a minivan. It was hectic, but we managed. The effort paid off: those moments of teamwork and laughter are memories I’ll always keep. Was it worth it? Absolutely.
Look for the next post to see the wedding candy display — one of my favorite decorations from the reception.
If you’re new here and want to read who this wedding was for or see more about the beach house we used for the reception, refer to the original posts mentioned above for the full story and additional photos.