The Cupcake Collection: Your Favorite Workday Treat Does Custom Cupcakes and Gorgeous Wedding Cakes!
Monday, January 21, 2013
Raise your hand if you've had cupcakes from The Cupcake Collection? For many Nashvillians, The Cupcake Collection, located in Historic Germantown, is the one temptation that simply can't be avoided. My personal favorite is their chocolate cupcake; just enough balance of cake and icing. Yummy! I know, I'm a simple girl. My fancier friends swear by their Strawberry Lemonade, Pineapple Upside Down Cake, or wait - Caramel Apple. If you've had one (or two or a dozen), you have a favorite flavor. (If you haven't, stop reading and pick up a couple during lunch today, then resume this post to join the rest of us in our cake love!)
Did you know that the same place that we rush to on Friday before they close, offers more than your indulgence of the week? They create custom cupcakes and cakes for Nashville weddings. Yes, I said cakes!
Mignon, the co-owner of this family business, is locally known and loved. If you've visited The Cupcake Collection, I'm sure you've experienced her infectious aura. I stole a few minutes from her cupcake-crazy schedule to learn all about The Cupcake Collection to see what all they offer the Nashville bride and groom.
Here's the oh-so-sweet scoop...
Brides love this cake, designed by The Cupcake Collection!
This is Mignon who co-founded The Cupcake Collection with her husband. The Cupcake Collection is a Nashville original and family-operated business.
The Cupcake Collection designed the Apples to Apples game box for the couple as their cake, surrounded by other board games and cupcakes. Photo: Jonathon Campbell Photography
How many years have you been in business?
The Cupcake Collection: 16 years of experience in the business, 4 year old bakery
How did you get started in weddings?
The Cupcake Collection: People were seeking my husband at the time to do cakes and I was always really good at making incredible icing, so I started working with him to bring my icing to his creations. I began designing some of the ideas because he couldn’t necessarily express himself for what he wanted to do. The first memorable wedding we did together was when one of my best friends was getting married and she thought no one else in the world could make her a cake that would taste good enough. She wanted to take a stab at it and it was gorgeous. The rest is history. We kept learning, practicing, and going forward from there.
What do you like most about weddings?
The Cupcake Collection: What I like the most about weddings is being entrusted with that much of a person’s dream. This is something little girls dream about and they keep expounding on those ideas until they find themselves a groom. So for someone to lay that much responsibility in your hands is the greatest honor for a wedding practitioner.
What is your favorite wedding picture/video? Why?
The Cupcake Collection: My favorite wedding picture is going to have to be the Manogins. It took me a whole year to come up with something for them. We would meet and talk about things and they would bring me samples for what they were using for their invitation. That’s when a light bulb went off! The bride decided she really didn’t have a preference for what she wanted, she said "just do something for me." She trusted that it was going to be good and she gave me full creative control to make her a cake. That, to this day, is my favorite cake (two years later). Even the mom came in while I was setting it up and cried because the cake was a great representation of her daughter. On that particular set up, a film crew was following us and there was documentation of everyone’s feelings as we did it.
It was pink, orange, two shades of brown, gold, and white. It had a handmade fondant bow on top and they had a custom cupcake stand that my husband built from wood. Even the groom’s cake was a grouping of cupcakes shaped into the notorious Kappa Alpha Psi Kane.
What is your service philosophy?
The Cupcake Collection: Customer service is not giving the customer what they want, it’s giving them what they expect. They expect knowledgeable, helpful personnel that understand the product enough to make intelligent and experienced suggestions that will make their cupcake experience better than they anticipate.
What are your strengths compared to others in your category? Why should a bride hire you?
The Cupcake Collection: Our greatest strength is our flavor. Not only is that a very good reason for a bride to hire us, we also take the time to get to know our bride and groom to find out what they really want not just from pictures pulled out of magazines.
Who are your five favorite Nashville vendors?
The Cupcake Collection: There are so many to choose from, how can I just pick five? StudioWed is a wonderful option because there are so many fabulous choices under one roof. Rhonda Patton is a florist that I tend to see at a lot of different weddings and I’m often amazed at her creativity. Monell’s never disappoints whenever I have used them for catering. Chef’s Market is one of my new favorites for innovative food. As a former photojournalist, photography is a quintessential place that you need to spend the biggest portion of your wedding budget. There are so many choices it is hard for me to just pick one. Kristyn Hogan, Chris and Adrienne Scott, and Mark Denman are just a few of my favorites.
For budget-savvy brides, what’s the one thing that should always make it into a budget?
The Cupcake Collection: A delicious cake because it serves at least three purposes: it’s a centerpiece, it serves as the first thing that you do as a married couple, and it gives your guests something to talk about long after the rice has been thrown.
The Cupcake Collection offers cupcakes or can design a custom tiered cake or even sculpted grooms cakes. Photo above and below: Kristyn Hogan.
What’s one way brides can save money/be more economical without sacrificing her vision?
The Cupcake Collection: Choose cupcakes. At a more cost-effective dollar per slice, you can feed all of your guests, possibly even box some as favors, and make them really fancy on a much more reasonable budget. With all the money you’ve saved, you can add a one-tiered anniversary cake to the top of a cupcake tower and spend an extra seven days honeymooning in paradise.
What is your favorite thing about working with brides or grooms?
The Cupcake Collection: Whenever I get the chance to be involved with the creation process, I take my brides and grooms on a psychological journey by answering a few questions that I learned back in college. I am able to apply the answers to my wedding business and you’ll be quite surprised at how much they tell you about what they really want in a cake. A lot of them are really surprised at how much I understand about their style after asking a few very unrelated questions. It’s fun for them and me. We can create something that fits their wedding day, not the one they saw on the cover of a national bridal publication.
How and who should brides and grooms contact to learn about weddings at The Cupcake Collection?
Main Contact: Mignon, co-owner
Visit our website: thecupcakecollection.com
Call us: 615-244-2900
Email us: thecupcakecollection at yahoo dot com
Tweet us via Twitter: @cupcaketweets
See our cakes on Pinterest: pinterest.com/cupcakeweddings
Friend us on Facebook: facebook.com/cupcakecollection
The Cupcake Collection is located in Historic Germantown. They are open M-F and Sunday for cupcakes. Bridal consults are by appointment.
About the Author:
Ashley of Ashley's Bride Guide
Hey - I'm Ashley! I started AshleysBrideGuide.com to give Nashville brides, or folks planning a Nashville wedding, a local resource for inspiration and resources. Hope to see you at a bridal show soon! Happy Planning.
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Posted on January 21, 2013 |
Filed under: Helpful Vendor Interviews!, Cakes & Food
