The wedding cake is guaranteed to put a smile on the faces of everyone attending the wedding. Maybe they’re only second place to the bride when it comes to looking glamorous on that special day, but as beautiful as the bride may be it is the cake we will be sinking our teeth into!
Wedding cakes are a major issue when putting together your wedding budget. Cake types and flavors are awesome to dream about mixing together, but if you have champagne wishes on a PBR budget this is going to be difficult for you. Here are a few ideas we put together to help you save $$$ when it comes time to plan for the sweetness at the end of the wedding day. The cake, we mean! What were YOU thinking about!?
Show, Don’t Tell
Shh. The biggest and best money-saving tip we can share when it comes to wedding cakes is this: Don’t order a wedding cake.
Seriously.
Order the most glamorous and delightful, elegant and over-the-top cake you can imagine — but just get an 8″ cake. Get a 6″ cake if they have it. “It’s for my mom’s birthday!” you say. “She loves pale peach and gold with hints of turquoise!”
Every single vendor even remotely associated with weddings will tell you there’s not a markup on things just because ‘Wedding’ gets shoved in front of them, but frankly, they’re lying. It may not be an overt markup, but it’s there. Cakes might have the biggest markup of all. But you can find ways around this!
Show off that gorgeous, tiny, adorable cake with a fun little cake cutting show, and then have sheet cake served to your guests. Stop thinking the word ‘tacky’, because that is – frankly – bullshit. Can I say that on here? I’m saying that on here. I’ll even say it again. It’s bullshit that some voice in your head is telling you ‘No, you can’t possibly serve sheet cake to your guests because…because…they’ll know.” Oh wait. No, they won’t. And so what if they do know, who cares? At the last wedding you went to, do you recall the cake? Do you recall exactly what it looked like and what it tasted like, and the mouth feel of it. Do you? Next year you won’t. And neither will any of the guests at your wedding.
You can get a sheet cake at Costco for about $40. You can even request that it be very simply decorated without the weird swirly edge piping that everyone who ever sold a commercial cake does. Chocolate or vanilla, they’re both delicious, it doesn’t matter. Slice it up, hand it out, enjoy your night and sleep easier knowing you didn’t spend $500 on a cake that literally only lasts a day. Maybe two if you have leftovers. Don’t do that old ‘freeze the top layer and eat it on your first anniversary’ shit either. Do you know how gross that is? You’re a grown up, go out and buy a fresh cake on your anniversary if you need a cake so bad.
Let Them Eat Cupcakes
I hope this cupcake trend never dies because seriously, cupcakes are amazing. You can have several flavors of cake at your wedding and everyone can have their favorite! No need to argue over who gets to pick the cake and filling flavors. Pick them all! Regular sized cupcakes or mini cupcakes, either way is a win. At an upscale grocery store in my area, the cupcakes are only $0.89 and you can customize them with your preferred flavors and frosting. That’s a huge price difference from the $30 per dozen that a cupcake-dedicated store charges. Oh, and there’s a minimum purchase of four dozen, of course.
Let Them Do Double Duty
If you decide to go with cupcakes, they can stand in as seating assignments, as well.
Well, the cupcake itself might prove to be difficult for that purpose, but a single cupcake box would be perfect! Perhaps the name and table number is written on it, or tied on top with ribbon or string. A sticker in your wedding colors. Hell, some duck tape if you’re going with a Duck Dynasty themed wedding. (You’re not, right? Please don’t.) Okay, moving on.
With a little bit of searching I found a really awesome amount of cupcake favor boxes you could use and customize to give to your guests as both sweet treat and wedding favor!
Leave a Reply