You’ve found the one, you’ve fallen in love, and you’ve got engaged! And now it’s time to start planning!
Getting married is a once in a lifetime event, so it’s important that your wedding day is perfect and reflects your style and personality, but how do you know how much to budget for each element of what will make up your perfect wedding day?
Fear not, I’m here to help; well, with the wedding cake bit at least!
How much does a wedding cake cost? I’m afraid there’s no hard and fast rule when it comes to the answer how miuch a wedding cake costs. There are so many variations of wedding cakes, and several different elements that make up the cost of a wedding cake, but I’m here to help explain what these are, and how they can impact the cost of your wedding cake.
You may want to think about how important each of these elements are to you along the way; it will help you to understand how much of a part you’d like your wedding cake to play in your wedding day, and therefore how much you should budget for your wedding cake.
Size
It goes without saying that the bigger the wedding cake, and the more tiers a wedding cake has, the more it will cost. A bigger wedding cake will require more ingredients, more time to make, a better level of support to keep it standing, and potentially more decorative elements.
When choosing the size of your cake, it’s important to keep in mind the number of people you need it to serve. Not only that, but how big you’d like those portions to be! This depends on the role you’d like your wedding cake to play in your wedding day, when you plan on serving the wedding cake; will it be your dessert or part of your dessert table, will you serve it with coffee, or send it home with people at the end of the
celebrations. Do you also want to keep any of the tiers for ongoing celebrations the following day? Or is it more of a display feature?
A traditional wedding cake has three tiers, and each tier of a wedding cake has its own significance. Tradition has it that the bottom tier is for eating at the ceremony, the middle tier for distributing after the event, and the top tier was saved. Having said that, modern wedding cakes can take any form, and have as many tiers as you like; you may even have a preference of size based on aesthetic reasons.
Ingredients
We are all aware of the rising costs of ingredients in today's economic climate, and the cost of these ingredients will be included in the cost of your cake.
The quality of the ingredients used will also be reflected in the price you pay. Luxury cake designers will often go out of their way to use premium, locally sourced ingredients which cost a lot more than supermarket own brands. Cake makers who offer lower prices may compromise on the quality of ingredients to save money, which enables them to charge these lower prices. This in turn compromises the taste and texture of
your wedding cake.
You will also find that the flavours you choose will have a bearing on how much a wedding cake costs. Premium flavours such as Bakewell tart, Biscoff and Red Velvet, will use additional ingredients, and therefore command a higher price.
Design
One of the biggest factors in how much a wedding cake costs is the design you choose for your wedding cake. The more decorative elements you have on your wedding cake, and the more intricate these elements are, the higher the price. This is due to the amount of time and expertise it takes to create these individual elements. These may include individually piped buttercream flowers, textures, rice paper decorations and
stenciling; these all command a high level of skill to create.
The Designer
As with any industry, there are differing levels of expertise amongst cake designers. The more experienced the cake designer, the higher the level of skill they possess, the more you should expect to pay. A cake business owner with 10+ years of experience is more likely to charge more than someone who has only been in the industry for a couple of years.
It’s important that you choose the right designer for you; check out their website, social media pages and their reviews. Make sure they’re able to create the style of cake you’re looking for. Do they offer tasting boxes so you can sample some of their cakes? Do people recommend them?
Time
The time it takes to make a cake will vary depending on the size and the design of the cake. But the time spent making the actual wedding cake isn’t the only time spent throughout the process of delivering your dream wedding cake. The time spent on wedding consultations, designing, researching, practicing the skills needed to perfect your cake, consulting with your florist and wedding coordinator and making taster boxes
also needs to be accounted for. Wedding cake designers can sometimes invest up to 30 hours of their time to get your wedding cake to you. As we all know, time is money, and this will have a significant impact on how much a wedding cake costs.
Display
Something which is quite often forgotten about when budgeting for your wedding cake, is how you’d like to display your wedding cake at your venue. You’ve gone to the trouble of sourcing your perfect wedding cake designer at a price that’s within your budget, but then failed to think about where and how you’d like to feature it. Do you have a wedding stylist who can help to make suggestions? Do you need to buy or hire a cake stand or hire additional props to go alongside the display? Your wedding cake designer will often have a range of cake stands which are available to hire, so it’s always worth asking them about this option and including this in your budget.
Location
Where you choose to get married can also have an impact on how much a wedding cake costs. We’re all aware that where you are in the country affects how much you pay for everything, based on the cost of living in those areas. A cake from in Central London will cost more than a cake made in a Northern country village.
There’s also the cost of transportation of your cake to the wedding venue to consider; if your designer must travel far to deliver your wedding cake to the venue, this will drive up the overall cost. You may wish to consider sourcing a cake designer who is based close to your venue if your budget is limited.
In summary, how much you should pay for your wedding cake is all about what works for you. It is important to remember however, that the processes and time that go into producing your dream wedding cake are not the same as celebration cakes, and I hope this article goes some way to dispel the commonly held myth that cake makers automatically ramp up the prices of their cakes when they hear the word ‘wedding.’
To give you an idea, Louise Baltruschat Hollis of www.whimsicalwonderlandweddings.com provides some estimated costs of a wedding cake, based on the number of servings.
Cake Serving Size | Minimum Price | You Could Spend |
1 Tier - 50 Servings | £100 | £450+ |
2 Tier - 50 Servings | £250 | £650+ |
3 Tier - 100 Servings | £350 | £800+ |
4 Tier - 150 Servings | £450 | £1000+ |
5 Tier - 200 Servings | £600 | £1500+ |
I hope this helps to provide some clarity when deciding your wedding cake maker, and the style of wedding cake that’s perfect for your wedding.
Was this helpful? Let me know in the comments below.
Ready to start your wedding cake journey? Find out about working with me to create your dream wedding cake at www.whatkatybaked.com
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