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Page Number: 43

6 

MASTERPIECE CAKESHOP, LTD. v. COLORADO 

CIVIL RIGHTS COMM’N
 
Opinion of THOMAS, J. 

who ordered it.  In addition to creating and delivering the 
cake—a  focal  point  of  the  wedding  celebration—Phillips 
sometimes  stays  and  interacts  with  the  guests  at  the 
wedding.  And the guests often recognize his creations and 
seek  his  bakery  out  afterward.    Phillips  also  sees  the 
inherent symbolism in wedding cakes.  To him, a wedding 
cake  inherently  communicates  that  “a  wedding  has  oc­
curred,  a  marriage  has  begun,  and  the  couple  should  be 
celebrated.”  App. 162.

Wedding  cakes  do,  in  fact,  communicate  this  message.
A  tradition  from  Victorian  England  that  made  its  way  to 
America  after  the  Civil  War,  “[w]edding  cakes  are  so 
packed  with  symbolism  that  it  is  hard  to  know  where  to
begin.”  M. Krondl, Sweet Invention: A History of Dessert 
321 (2011) (Krondl); see also ibid. (explaining the symbol­
ism  behind  the  color,  texture,  flavor,  and  cutting  of  the
cake).  If an average person walked into a room and saw a
white, multi-tiered cake, he would immediately know that 
he had stumbled upon a wedding.  The cake is “so stand­
ardised  and  inevitable  a  part  of  getting  married  that  few 
ever  think  to  question  it.”    Charsley,  Interpretation  and 
Custom:  The  Case  of  the  Wedding  Cake,  22  Man  93,  95
(1987).  Almost  no  wedding,  no  matter  how  spartan,  is
missing the cake.  See id., at 98.  “A whole series of events 
expected in the context of a  wedding would be impossible
without it: an essential photograph, the cutting, the toast,
and the distribution of both cake and favours at the wed­
ding and afterwards.”  Ibid.  Although the cake is eventu­
ally eaten, that is not its primary purpose.  See id., at 95 
(“It  is  not  unusual  to  hear  people  declaring  that  they  do 
not like wedding cake, meaning that they do not like to eat 
it.  This includes people who are, without question, having
such  cakes  for  their  weddings”);  id.,  at  97  (“Nothing  is 
made  of  the  eating  itself ”);  Krondl  320–321  (explaining 
that  wedding  cakes  have  long  been  described  as  “inedi­
ble”).  The  cake’s  purpose  is  to  mark  the  beginning  of  a