Extravagant tiered wedding cakes, cupcake tiers on each table, dessert buffets, candy buffets, fake wedding cakes, separate cakes for each table, and the list goes on. The modern bride and groom have many choices before them when it comes to cakes, and not all of them need be expensive or elaborate. Make a statement! Explore your options, ask your questions, and be original. We have all your options laid out for you on our simple SmartBride Checklist so you can get this done quickly and move on to other things.
The following article is an example of the content we have in our online wedding planning membership site HappyWeddings.ca under the heading of Wedding Cake. To learn more and get useful wedding planning tools for FREE, click here!
Wedding cakes usually cost 1% of your overall wedding budget, or approximately $500 for about 150 guests. Count on approximately $3.50 per person or per slice for your wedding cake. Depending upon what you order, you can spend anywhere from $1.50 per slice to over $15 per slice.
Couples can have the traditional wedding cake, a groom’s cake, or a dessert buffet at a wedding. Sometimes, for reasons that aren’t clear, couples choose to have all THREE things at a wedding, and then have lots left over because the guests can’t eat that much dessert after a big meal!
The wedding cake is traditionally a white, fluffy cake served to your guests as the dessert. Traditionally, a wedding cake is a white cake with white icing which is made to compliment the bride’s gown, often mimicking the design elements of the gown. Today the modern bride is choosing any cake, any style, and any colour for decoration. Whether you choose a carrot cake with raspberry and Grand Marnier filling, or chocolate mint cupcakes with green icing, chocolate sprinkles and a sprig of fresh mint, your choice for a wedding cake is wide open. In fact, you don’t even need to have a wedding cake—just eliminate the cake cutting from the wedding events, which only affects the photographer and the couple, and have a dessert table instead.
Some modern alternatives to the wedding cake are a tiered plate with individual cupcakes as a centrepiece at each guest table, a dessert buffet, or a candy table.
The groom’s cake is popular in some regions, and is traditionally a chocolate cake in some regions, and a fruit cake in other regions, that is sliced and boxed, and given to the guests to take home. The box usually has the couple’s name and wedding date on it. The tradition is that if a single woman slept with the groom’s cake slice under their pillow, they will dream of their future husband.
Today, the groom’s cake can be as untraditional as the wedding cake, and allows for greater expression in design—like in the shape of a football, or any other expression of the groom or the couple—as they choose. Sometimes, the groom’s cake is not displayed, and is purchased as a slab cake, which is cut and boxed ahead of time, which reduces your overall cake costs. There is usually an additional charge if the cake is cut and boxed at your reception.
The tradition of saving the top tier of the wedding cake to eat on your first year anniversary is not followed much anymore. Firstly, after a year in the freezer, the cake will not taste very good, and secondly, with the variety of fillings, and types of cake today, most will not stand up to a whole 12 months in the freezer. Most couples choose to eat the top tier of the cake a few months after their wedding day—if the fillings allow for it to be frozen.
The other topics in the wedding cake module will help you understand everything you need to know to order the perfect wedding cake.