Your Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wedding - October/November 2020 (Issue 85)

Our regional experts solve your wedding worries HOT TOPIC Meet the expert: Sarah E. is the owner of Berkshire-based Tiny Sarah’s Cakes, a vegan wedding and celebration cake business with a studio in Woodley. We’re planning an intimate winter wedding and half of our guests are vegan. Can you give us some ideas for wedding cakes that will work for everybody? We were thinking of having a dessert table with a few different varieties? Sarah says: Having a fully vegan wedding spread of cakes means that everyone will be able to treat themselves - vegans and non- vegans! Because vegan cakes can taste the same as non-vegan varieties, and have the same shelf life, I would recommend going all vegan. Your vegan guests will appreciate being able to choose from the entire selection, and not have to worry whether what they’ve picked is vegan or not. It’ll also mean that you can style the display how you like without having to keep everything separate. I always recommend having a combination of cake and desserts because not everybody likes cakes (I know, I know, but they do exist!) It means that your aunt who prefers brownies, and your cousin who prefers cookies will all have something to delight in! Another advantage of dessert tables is that guests can dip in and out of them whenever they fancy and don’t have to wait for them to be cut like a wedding cake. It’s also very easy to give everyone cute paper bags or cardboard boxes to take home any leftovers meaning no waste. Most of my clients opt for a wedding cake that feeds about half of their guests, and then desserts for the other half. Most choose some chocolate-flavoured (for example, chocolate cake, brownies, rocky roads and cookies), some fruity-flavoured (lemon, lime, carrot cake, banana loaves and lemon tarts), and some biscuit-based (biscoff cake and bars), and finally, more often than not, mini doughnuts, because they look, and taste, adorable. Tiny Sarah’s Cakes | www.tinysarahscakes.co.uk | www.instagram.com/tinysarahscakes | www.facebook.com/tinysarahscakes 58 CAKE, GLORIOUS CAKE Photography of cake table against smoke bombs and pink doughnuts and cookies courtesy of Chloe Lee Photography; cakes against neon sign courtesy of Kirsty Mackenzie Photography; muted dessert table courtesy of Rock Salt Photography SUITED AND BOOTED Meet the expert: Alexander Edwards is the managing director of The Cotswold Tailor, an award-winning business taking traditional British cloths and tailoring them with a contemporary twist. What suit styles and menswear accessories are trending for spring and summer 2021 weddings? Alexander says: With the majority of weddings this year having been impacted in some way, we are starting to see several patterns emerging in grooms attire for 2021 celebrations. Firstly, there has been a surge in weddings booked for next March. Never before have we been so heavily booked for this month, a result of many 2020 weddings having been rescheduled. Because this can be a colder month, blue tweed suits work well, paired with lighter tweed check waistcoats for a nod to spring and Liberty-print ties that finish the look. The second change we are seeing is a growing demand for grooms opting for a bespoke suit. As ceremony numbers have been capped for weddings taking place in 2020 and possibly into 2021, an increasing number of grooms contacting us now are looking for something special to wear that has been made just for them. I imagine that we might see groomsmen numbers reduced with greater importance on the groom’s suit. Finally, for summer 2021 celebrations, I am seeing a growing demand for grey lightweight linen-blend suits. This summery look and feel are perfect for the hotter months. We recommend a blend of linen, wool and cashmere because it breaths, is lightweight, feels great to touch and more importantly, it doesn’t crease as much as other fabrics. The Cotswold Tailor | 01993 358 284 | www.thecotswoldtailor.com www.instagram.com/thecotswoldtailor | www.facebook.com/TheCotswoldTailor | https://twitter.com/cotswoldtailor