Nate Perkes Photography
It was the perfect cake for the perfect wedding — because it wasn’t perfect at all.
“We’ve never been into fondant or overly perfect cakes,” Dancing with the Stars alum Amy Purdy tells PEOPLE exclusively of herself and her husband Daniel Gale, who were wed at an “outdoorsy” celebration at The Barn in Hidden Springs in Boise, Idaho, on Aug. 29. “We just wanted it to taste good.”
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So when the former Amazing Race contestants were looking for the ideal dessert to cap off a farm-to-table meal from Life’s Kitchen (a non-profit organization that teaches life skills and culinary training to at risk youth), the couple looked to their neighbor, a retired pastry chef, to create their wedding cake.
Nate Perkes Photography
“It’s a naked cake so there’s not a lot of icing on the outside. You actually see the cake underneath it,” Purdy says of the “rustic” vanilla cake, which was topped off with almond buttercream icing and a layer of peaches inside.
For the two groom’s cakes, Purdy, 35, and Gale, 39, kept it straightforward: chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream icing.
“Daniel is a simple guy,” explains the new bride, who, after a battle with bacterial meningitis, now has two prosthetic legs.
All three of the cakes were decorated by two of Purdy’s friends, including Complications actress Beth Riesgraf.
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“She does a bunch of parties so she’s a natural fit for that,” Purdy says of Riesgraf, who helped decorate the cakes with succulents and wildflowers from Blooms Flower Studio and positioned the vanilla cake on “an old, rustic crate.”
Purdy says the cake table was adorned with candlesticks and votive candles. Behind the table was a sign made by Gale which read “Love Is Sweet.”
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For more exclusive photos and details on Purdy’s outdoor wedding, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands now.
—Patrick Gomez
