Money Saving Wedding Cake Ideas

The wedding cake is a traditional part of the wedding reception.

It can also be an expensive purchase eating up a chunk of your wedding budget. In order to save some cash consider these money saving wedding cake ideas.

Since wedding cake costs are most often quoted per serving, it’s good to know how many servings to expect from different size cakes. You can use the following chart to help determine the different tier sizes you will need to stack to serve everyone according to the number of guests you are inviting.
Typical Servings to Expect From Each Cake Size

Be aware that the per serving price you are quoted it often not the total and that the final cost of your cake will depend on choices you make as to fillings, frostings, flavors and decorations and may also include fees such as delivery fees and rental charges for cake stands, etc. Make sure you understand the quotes you are given.

Many people choose to have a small elaborately decorated wedding cake and use much less expensive sheet cakes to serve the wedding guests. Another money saving idea in this same vein is to use a decorated dummy cake made from styrofoam for display on the table. Sheet cakes are then served to the guests.

Bakeries Aren’t the Only Place to Find Wedding Cakes
Shop around and quiz your family and friends for names of bakers before you make your decision. You just might find an experienced cake maker who works from home at a much lower cost than the popular bakery in your town. I know in my location there is someone who because of family commitments closed their retail store but continue to offer their wedding cakes on a smaller scale from home. She makes beautiful very tasty cakes and is who made the cake for my daughter’s wedding.

Local supermarkets and grocery stores are another option. Some of these stores offer cakes that are quite good and look wonderful. Here again it pays to shop around and see exactly what kind of wedding cake the particular store turns out.

If there is a cooking school in your area, they may be able to make your wedding cake for you for not much more than the cost of ingredients.

Fondant or Butter cream
While fondant is the trend for wedding cakes now, if it is not made from scratch, it often has a taste that many people don’t like and butter cream icing is much less expensive. A huge part of the high cost of a wedding cake is the time someone has to spend making the decorations. Fondant is very time intensive and adds to the cost of a cake. A cake frosted with a smooth butter cream frosting can be decorated with ribbon and flowers and look just as beautiful but at a much lower cost than a cake that is elaborately decorated with fondant.

Final Thoughts
There are brides who make their own wedding cakes, and while it’s not something I would recommend since it will increase your stress level, if it’s something you feel like you could do and want to do, go for it. You can find a wonderful tutorial for making a beautiful cake here.

No matter where you decide to purchase your cake, a little forethought before you begin to look at beautiful pictures of wedding cakes, will help you not go overboard and your wedding budget will thank you.