My best friend from high school and I just got married a little over a month ago on June 9th, and those of you who know us know we’re still talking about the wedding. More specifically, we can’t stop bragging about all of the wonderful vendors who helped make our dream wedding a reality. While I could spend all day talking about our photographers, videographer, caterer, and more, this post will focus just on our wedding desserts.
One of the most traditional parts of any wedding is the wedding cake, but Chris and I have never been very traditional people. 🙂 Instead of a typical wedding cake, we decided to go a different route: one big tower of cupcakes from Gigi’s Cupcakes surrounded by three small towers of french macarons from La Rue French Macarons.
It was a great idea in theory if I do say so myself, but the reality was even better than I could have imagined. Our guests raved about the variety of flavors, the uniqueness of the macarons (I can’t count how many times I heard, “I’ve never had one of these before!”), and the beautiful display that truly captured our personalities.
Photo: Sydney Young Photography
Gigi’s Cupcakes
While Gigi’s isn’t specific to Huntsville, their cupcakes can help bring any Rocket City wedding to life. The managers at the Huntsville store were so easy to work with, and honestly, the desserts were probably the least stressful part of my wedding. The process started with a cupcake tasting the summer before the wedding where we ultimately decided on three flavors: Strawberry Shortcake, Midnight Magic Chocolate Chip, and of course, Wedding Cake. We were also able to add a small cake to the top of the tower so we could still do a cake cutting at the reception.
Photo: Sydney Young Photography
I only met with the managers at Gigi’s twice before the wedding, but by the end of our second meeting where we finalized all the details, I was 100% confident that this cupcake tower was going to be perfect. All I had to do the day before the wedding was mark which table the desserts would go on, and Gigi’s handled all of the delivery and set up.
In the picture above, you can see we did a mix of big cupcakes and mini cupcakes, and our guests loved getting to try all three flavors with the mini cupcakes. However, you could always opt for all of one size, a different number of flavors, different color frosting, and more. Gigi’s offers a ton of other flavors and options to make your wedding “cake” exactly what you what, and the store provides gluten free options as well!
Overall, I would recommend Gigi’s Cupcakes to anyone who wants to add a little nontraditional spin on the traditional wedding cake. The price is reasonable for the quality of cupcakes and customer service you receive, the workers are exceptional, and your guests absolutely won’t be disappointed.
La Rue French Macarons
After deciding on our cupcake tower from Gigi’s, Chris and I knew we wanted to add in one more option to our dessert table. I stumbled upon La Rue French Macarons by accident one day on Instagram, and I was instantly blown away by the beautiful pictures, bright colors, and the overall elegance of authentic French macarons right here in Huntsville, Alabama.
This small local business is run by Katie Parkes, a labor and delivery nurse who just happens to also make the best macarons in her free time (so she’s kind of a superwoman!). I contacted her the summer before our wedding, and she quickly sent me a menu of flavors I could choose from and a breakdown of pricing. Chris and I were invited to do a tasting with her, and after one bite, I knew we had to have these unique desserts at our reception.
After the tasting, we decided on three flavors: Pink Champagne, Sea Salt Caramel, and Pistachio, all of which went over so well with our guests. Katie offers a few different options for how to display the macarons, but since we were doing three flavors that matched our wedding colors perfectly, we decided to do three small towers surrounding our cupcake tower. She decorated the bottom of the towers with greenery (a prominent theme in our wedding), and the display was just beautiful.
Photo: Sydney Young Photography
Throughout the entire wedding planning process, Katie was so quick to get back to me whenever I had questions, and she made sure everything was exactly how I wanted it for the reception. Not only is she efficient and professional, but she’s one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met, and working with her was an absolute dream!
My wedding day was the best day of my life, but I could not have pulled it all together without the help of so many amazing people. Desserts are of course just one part of the wedding (although one of the tastiest parts for sure), but as you can see, you don’t have to go far to find amazing wedding talent in the Rocket City!
Huntsville Food Life 