Wedding Cake Cost - Buyer Experiences and Price Information

Hey my friend just got married and had about 100 guests. Instead of trying to get a cake that would feed all of them, she got a smaller cake that was beautiful and then got two sheet cakes in the same flavors. The wedding party got the actual cake while the guests were served the sheet. She saved quite a bit this way

Just a note from a Cake Artist, make sure to REALLY search your local area for talented pastry chefs(or if you don't have time, that's what bridesmaids are for!) Generally, if you can find a smaller bakery or single out of house chef, they will take more time to make your special cake personal & unique and are often less expensive. Ask around, check out business cards posted at reception sites. But also note, more flavors, more details = more artistry= more $. Remember, you're buying a work of art!

As a baker, I feel it's important to be fair about the cost of a wedding cake. There are a lots of expenses that can go along with what you may want. (more details/flavors/size = more time = $'s) The important thing is to remember this is a one time deal and decide on what you want and have it made to your liking. Shop around for the right price and talent. A wedding cake can say something about you. It is very special on your day.

Please be careful stacking layer cakes you have purchased. Most standard layers will not stand up to the weight of another cake being set on top them. Tiered cakes take supports that are placed into the cakes.I have been involved in the wedding cake business for 20 years.

Luckily my mother makes wedding cakes that taste fabulous (fondant looks great, but tastes disgusting), so my wedding cake is free. I feel sorry for everyone who has to be reamed by the wedding industry. Everything else in our wedding is ridiculously expensive for very little frills. If I didn't have such a talented mother, I'd go the route that the smart people have and purchase round cakes and stack them myself. But for those who have money to burn, the wedding industry is more than willing to provide the fireplace. Cheers!

I purchased 3 round plain decorated cakes from Sam's club and a sheet cake, we then purchased a cake stand from Michael's stacked the rounds and put our own flowers on top of the cakes. it was gorgeous delicious and affordable

For a friend's wedding she purchase a three tier cardboard stand and i decorated it with ribbon. I made white cupcakes with raspberry filling and chocolate with custard. they were decorated with buttercream and chocolate seashells. the top tier was a cake to keep. kind of a lot of work but easy to serve and a little different then an ordinary cake. got more compliments on this then anyother i've made.

the cake was huge and everyone got 5 small peices

my mom made my cake! the first layer was a white cake with red food coloring and white cream filling, then a globe separater from michaels (we filled with silk rose petals)and then a white cake with rasberry filling and then separated by grecian colomns and topped with a rich red velvet cake with white buttercream filling. all was covered in fondant (expensive stuff!) and plastic pearls draped around and then topped with red rose petals from my garden. the topper was from joann's and it had S with rhinestones red (CUTE!) and each layer was so pretty cut up and guests got a choice of flavors- each of which matched the linens and flowers!

I once was fooled by the whole "fake cake" premise too. Here's my story...

The cake I wanted was 3 stacked layers with the top one on pillars, Gold cake with strawberry preserves and buttercream, clusters of raspberry colored buttercream roses and green ivy vines and white swags. I priced it with a local baker to get real cakes and another baker who does real and dummies...

Guess what? I would have BEEN a dummy to pay $300 for an identical STYRO cake and another $300 for sheet cakes to feed my guests. $425 vs. $600? A NO BRAINER!

As it was explained to me, it costs the baker money to buy styrofoam OR real ingredients. The decorating is going to be the same artistry on either cake, so I'm still paying for someone's time/talent. Then I STILL have to pay for real ingredients and some labor to frost the sheet cakes and add at least SOME decoration to make the slices look decent when they're served to my guests and not something served in the school cafeteria!

I'm so glad I went with REAL cake. The price was better, my guests knew they were getting a slice of my beautiful and delicious wedding cake, and I wasn't left storing a fake cake in a plastic bag in my attic!

Lorianne - brilliant and realistic way to have a very nice wedding cake on a tight budget. Props to you!

GP - I would definitely see about being able to get a cake from somewhere else, while there are many places that will charge you that price, that seems a bit high for the style they are promising you. Also a 6" and 8" should feed 34 people, but you can't really make a nice tired cake smaller than that. Also beware of a cake cutting fee (maybe $1.50 per serving) if you get your cake somewhere else, valid cost on the part of the venue, but can sometimes be negotiable.

The notion that you will save money by having a "fake cake" for show and sheet cakes in the back to serve is ridiculous! It still takes ingredients and TIME and TALENT to create a "fake" cake for show. It takes just as long to decorate a Styrofoam cake as it does a real cake, no price break on that here! You are paying for the artistry. Cheap cakes aren't good and good cakes aren't cheap. :-)

The cake was not free. Someone paid to make this cake. Have you checked the cost of ingredients lately? The fondant alone had to be very expensive. Yes, it might have been free to the bridal couple but someone paid dearly to make this cake and you should be extremely grateful for the generosity.

A Local Bakery called Mermaids Bakery made my red velvet cake and my favors. The cake designer Diana is a rockstar! She is full of wonderful ideas, which helped a lot. I decided on wite fondant with pearls and a tiffany blue silk ribbon and bow at the base of each round tier. I had a very strict budget and I just shopped around because I wanted it to taste great and look pretty too. I got the best of both worlds. I bought my topper from Mermaids too, it was Silver initials. my favors included silver dipped almonds in a pretty little clear box with a tiffany blue ribbon, just awesome! They delivered my cake, I have to say my Mermaids experience was perfect.

Went to a local filipino bakery instead of a fancy place. The flavors were ordinary, but the cake looked like a million bucks!!

four tiers plus cake an extra small cake for cutting in kitchen. MMfondant covered, roayl icing for decorations. chocolate/kahlua and yellow cakes. buttercream flavored fillings. Cake topper was heart inside heart from Michael's. Gorgeous cake, much photgraphed. If you are willing to work hard, you can have a wonderful cake for very little money.

I went to the local grocery store and ordered 3 indiviual cakes a 6",8" and 12" vanilla with white frosting and red trim.. I then bought a cake stand that holds the 3 cakes on individual levels. I brought the cakes with me to the reception placed the cakes on the cake stand and then put real roses on top of each cake....I saved a bundle!!
here is an example of how to do it yourself. http://www.efavormart.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1361

Mark Caldwell of Everett Washington Created a one of a kind masterpiece for my wedding.� Sharing a love for France, Mark was able to artistically re-create Paris' Eiffel Tower to an brilliant likeness.� The entire cake was frosted in a light buttercream then overlayed in sculpted white chocolate.� The cake was then airbrushed with gorgeous color and then finished with gold leaf.� After the cake was assembled on site, Mark spiraled white rununculus, white hydrangea, white roses, white miniature cala lilies, looped beargrass and swarovski crystals.� Centered on top of a satin draped round table, his creation towered just over 9 feet tall!� We could not have ever dreamed of something ourselves.� Our cake creator sat with us and brought our love of Paris and created the very place that my husband Bradley proposed.� Thank you Mark!

GP, $18 per slice sounds awfully steep. Sylvia Weinstock, the superstar cake designer for celebrities and royals, typically charges $17-20 per slice. Unless there's something extraordinary about your hotel cake, I believe they're ripping you off. Can you get the cake elsewhere, or is it a part of the hotel package? Maybe it's negotiable.

If you know local vendors, make sure you price around, they are all different. I heard about my vendor from someone else & she priced my cake at 1/2 what the others wanted to do a 3 tier stacked cake with different flavors and little decoration. Plus, she gave a great deal for the groomscake: $50 to do a sheet cake with a soccer ball on top designed to look like it was breaking through a net!!!

Hi

I am an English Bride getting married in Naples FL in May. I can't help but feel my hotel where I am getting married is taking the mick a little. I am having a 6" and 8" two tiered carrot cake with buttercream icing decorated with fresh flowers. They want to charge me $18 per slice. I think this is a little excessive, thoughts welcome?!

Our cake was an original design from a local vendor. The cost included everything from the consultation to the delivery and setup. We are having a snowmobile wedding with a snowmobile cake topper, with the Wilton Bride Running after the Groom cake topper. The cake is a sheet cake made into a design with mountains, evergreens and a stream running through the mountains down to an iced over pond which will be in front of the actual sheet cake. For the time and amount of detail, this is an amazing price!

The cake was huge and delicious. 3 Layers were French Vanilla Almond with Raspberry Filling, 2 Layers were Chocolate Cinnamon with Strawberry Filling. Vanilla Buttercream with Homemade Marshmallow Fondant and Royal Icing Decorations. Price included Delivery and Setup.

For my daughter's wedding,I purchased white cake mixes for $0.93 & premade Wilton white creamy decorator icing(using coupons from JoAnn Fabrics & Michaels for 40-50% off. I ordered soft premade fondant pearls. I also ordered gum paste flower sprays to top off the cakes. I purchased cake boards, boxes, & accesories from our local cake making store. All these things made for quite a savings!

The florist was going to charge about $40 per cluster of flowers, and I was looking at 3 clusters for each layer of cake. In the end, my mom decorated the cake with fresh hydrangea blossoms from my garden -- it was beautiful, and I saved $120.