For the best in the cake business in the Atlanta area, look no further than Lush Cakery! I…read moretypically never, ever care for wedding cakes... They're usually nothing special. But cakes from this shop are crowd-favorites! Everyone at my wedding raved about the cake, even months later people still brought it up. I highly recommend this business.

We had a great time tasting cakes with our wedding planner, Jordan Flowers of Wedding Belles, and…read moreKathryn ("Kat") Steed, sole owner and cake maker at Lush Cakery in Marietta. Jordan recommended Lush Cakery to my fiancee and me (our planner does not accept kickbacks, but instead passes on any discounts she may get on to us) and that is enough praise for me. My fiancee, through her own research, noticed that Lush Cakery has had a hand in a lot of nice weddings in Atlanta. She absolutely loves the look of Lush's cakes (she describes them as beautiful, fun, and creative). I asked Kat how many weddings she did last year and she told me, if I recall correctly, 185 (all by herself!). She doesn't plan on doing that many per year going forward, but she definitely has the experience and is well known in the Atlanta wedding community. Kat moved into a cute space just off Marietta Square a couple years ago. There's a retail space, open four days a week, and a tasting room, available by appointment only. The shop can also be booked for small events like bridal and baby showers. Kat was waiting for us promptly at our appointment time. My fiancee and I were accompanied by our planner for the tasting. The tasting room was quaint and charming. It reminded my fiancee of an attractive sitting room, like something you would see on HGTV. We got to know Kat and she got to know us. She let us swipe through cake designs on her iPad while talking to us about our wedding, our tastes/visions for our cake, and how our cake would align with our wedding overall. For example, we talked about the season of our wedding, whether it's going to be indoor or outdoor, etc. These kinds of things can affect the ingredients and flavors of our wedding cake. There was a menu at the table with Lush's most popular wedding cake flavors. We tasted the following six flavors: * Salted caramel * Amaretto white chocolate red raspberry * Triple chocolate hazelnut * Grand Marnier strawberries and cream * Cinnamon * Cream cheese pound with lemon curd Kat had the first five flavors in the list above ready to go on a plate for each of us. The last one was requested by my fiancee who was interested in trying the lemon curd after seeing it on the menu. My eyes lit up as I bit into these cakes. What impressed me most about them was actually not their flavor, but their consistency. Every single slice was perfectly fluffy and moist. They were tender and delicate with good crumb. Flavor-wise, they were sweet, but not too sweet. My favorite flavors were the salted caramel and the strawberries and cream. My fiancee's favorite flavors were the amaretto white chocolate red raspberry and the triple chocolate hazelnut. My fiancee thought both the strawberry and cinnamon tasted delicious, but were a little too simple for her tastes. The cream cheese pound cake with lemon curd was outstanding, but we agreed that we liked the lighter, less dense textures of the other cakes for our wedding cake. Everything we tried tasted great, so what it really came down to here was personal preference. We want a classic, elegant looking cake so Kat suggested a traditional three-tier round cake. We'll have it decorated with flowers from our florist, Julie Coffin of Unique Floral Expressions, who is one of the rock stars of the Atlanta wedding industry and whom Kat has worked many weddings with. We chose our cake and icing flavors, along with a fun design extra, and were quoted under $700 for our cake (tax and delivery included). The cake will serve 100. We'll have more than 100 guests, but there will be other dessert options too. Kat's quote is about $200 higher than another quote we recently received, so Lush is on the higher side. However, the other quote did not include an extra design element and the Lush quote also includes a "complimentary" anniversary tier a year after our wedding. A $150 non-refundable deposit is required to secure a date. We received Kat's proposal via email quickly after our meeting. My fiancee had a question and it didn't take long for Kat to respond. All in all, this was a wonderful experience. Now we just have to make a decision! Throughout our wedding planning process so far, this has turned out to be the most difficult decision yet.