(also known as The Wedding Yacht: Dream Maker)
This was inspired by the October 8, 2022 wedding of Garrison and Brittany! The wedding took place on the Dream Maker yacht and was the same yacht where Sharon and Chuck were married in 2011.
The upper deck includes the wedding reception dinner tables with floral arrangements. The middle deck shows their wedding cake, the bar and couches to sit on. The lower deck (which can only be seen through the little porthole windows) only has a bunch of candy which will be revealed upon the Deconstruction Celebration of the gingerbread yacht.
Here’s how we did it!
We started with photos of the yacht and sketched it onto cardstock paper. Templates were made for the pattern pieces. The angle on the front of the yacht was a little challenging, but we made it work.
Next, the gingerbread dough was made from scratch, rolled out and refrigerated for 4 hours. All the pieces were cut and baked.
When the gingerbread dough is baked, the edges become a little round, even the inside windows. Once the pieces are cooled, we use a Dremel tool and the belt sander to straighten out the edges.
We previously used metal files and manual labor until we realized how much quicker the electric tools are! Now instead of spending 4 or more hours preparing our edges, it only takes about 30 minutes!
Here is where we start our family (and friends) Gingerbread Guessing Game. After the pieces are baked, I text a photo to the group and see if they can guess what we’re building this year.
Each day, I add a few more clues with more and more pieces. After 20 guesses (a barn, an old cowboy saloon, Irish pub, a train, a chapel, nativity scene, Hobbit Village, fire station, a mission, a covered bridge, a castle…) we finally had a guess of “a yacht”. Then I asked, “What kind of a yacht?” And right away another guess was, “The Wedding Yacht”! Yes – we had TWO winners!
The construction begins! We use Royal Icing (see Recipes tab on the main menu) to “glue” the pieces together. Keep in mind, our projects are all edible, so it’s important to find items such as Royal Icing for decorating and constructing.
We let each of the three levels of the yacht dry overnight and they become super sturdy! You can see where I hid most of the candy…in the bottom level of the yacht. Once the back piece is in place, no one will know all that candy is hiding there!
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I tinted the icing to be light brown and added water to become “flow” icing and spread it onto the deck because I wanted it to look like wooden planks. Before the icing was dry, I used a toothpick to make lines on the top of the deck.
Ready to add furniture to the middle deck: A table in the corner was a Hershey’s mini chocolate bar with rolled out white fondant for the tablecloth. Wedding cake and plates on top of the table. More chocolate bars and Twix for the couches covered by Royal Icing. Chocolate bars for the serving bar covered with white flow icing.
It was fun to make little cans of Coke and wine bottles out of fondant for the bar. I used edible ink pens for coloring the cans and bottles.
After the details of the interior are completed, I added the middle deck roof (which is also the upper deck floor). Then I let the icing dry and harden overnight.
Next the front window panels were added.
The upper deck had dinner tables (round cookies with white fondant tablecloths) and chairs (smarties). And the lower deck was sealed up with a “Just Married” sign.
I prepared pretzel sticks dipped in icing and let them dry before I used them for the top roof and railings.
The top roof was a little tricky and I needed an extra set of hands to hold the roof up while the icing dried a little.
I added some blue, turquoise, then green gel coloring to the icing for the water to complete the scene. I added the gingerbread boy paddleboarder and goldfish crackers before the icing dried.
There it is – we completed another annual project! One day of making patterns and baking the pieces, five days of construction and here is our masterpiece!
For the final chapter of the gingerbread experience, everyone knows what comes next…
“DECONSTRUCTION CELEBRATION!”
(and eating the candy)
And that’s our 2022 Gingerbread Story! A good time was had by all!
The End