8 Tips for Cutting Costs on Your Wedding Cake

Not many people realize that the average price of a wedding cake these days is astronomical—all for a dessert! Prices can make a serious dent in your wedding budget, but these tips can help! Check out some of the best ways to have your cake and eat it too!
1.) Doing Double Duty
Contact your catering company and inquire about a pastry chef. Many hotels, clubs, and larger catering establishments keep one on staff, and if you can secure their services you will stand to save a boatload over a cake designer from an outside bakery. Cake cutting fees, service charges, tips, and delivery costs are some of the extra charges you may be able to avoid by taking this route.
2.) A Little Variety Never Hurt Anyone
Give your guests what they want – provide several smaller cakes in a variety of flavors. You can save money by eliminating the need for a baker or cake designer to assemble and decorate a much larger cake. You can serve these smaller cakes together or separately, and the best part is you’ll have a chance to sample them all!
3.) The Power of the Flower
Fresh flowers are one of the most lovely and inexpensive ways to decorate your cake. To cut your costs even more, try keeping to the “less is more” adage and let your fresh blooms take center stage and cut back on the number of sugar decorations you use. Always remember, though, to use organic, food-safe flowers!
4.) I Sheet You Not!
You’ve seen your fantasy cake; it looks amazing and tastes twice as good. What’s a girl to do? Try ordering a smaller version of your dream cake and ask your baker to make sheet cakes using the same recipe and a similar decorating scheme on a smaller scale. After you and your new spouse pose for pictures, cut the cake, and feed one another the first bite, whisk the dream cake out of sight to be cut and served, and use the sheet cakes to supplement. Your guests won’t know the difference and you’ll have saved a ton!
5.) The Secret of the Satellite
A satellite cake is a cake that uses its lower layers to create its upper layers. The lower layers are hollowed out to create the additional layers, rather than being a solid base. This is an ideal solution to the problem of expensive layer cakes.
6.) Rent-A-Cake.com
For extreme savings: If you’re one of those brides that loves the look of the larger, tiered cakes but don’t want to go through the hassle and expense of ordering a real one, help is just a few clicks away! Websites like CakeRental.com offer cakes that really do look like the real thing, and even have a concealed area filled with real cake to use in the cake-cutting photos.
7.) Don’t Be Square
Though boxy and square cakes are very en vogue, they’re also difficult to build and frost. It takes time and patience to make sure all the edges are even and level and this can lead to increased costs. If money is an object, go for more traditional rounded layers instead.
8.) Something Old, Something New
If you’ve gone ahead and sprung for a gorgeous cake, why not bring in elements from your family’s past to enhance your lovely confection? You can ask to look through the family heirlooms in search of a cake topper, cutting knife, cake stand, or other accessory that you can use to honor the brides of the past and save money at the same time.