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our reception site does not make the cake on site but uses a local baker who is amazing
Shay, I wish I were so lucky. I'm not a cake person per se, but it seems wrong to serve bad wedding cake at a wedding. My FH on the other hand loves cake, and would like to order a better one. We just aren't sure if it's worth it.
Have you thought about sending them home with cupcakes? You could use the supplied cake to cut into and use for pictures. I haven't priced cupcakes but maybe they would be cheaper?
Can you see if your venue will offer a discount if you don't use their cake and go outside? We were lucky, our venue supplied the cake through a local baker and the cake was ridiculously delicious. Loved it.
I would then start shopping around! Maybe cupcakes or cookies and do a fake cake or personal two tier cake for you and FH.
Could you have them do a non-cake dessert instead? Maybe they do an awesome creme brulee or a great key lime pie. If you aren't too attached to a cake, this could be a yummy option. Cake really is difficult to do well.
@Brena80 & Shay- I am going to see the cost of cupcakes, that could be a good idea. It should cost less than wedding cake. The cake the hall currently supples is a faux cake with only one real layer, then they cut the sheet cake in the back for the guests.
@Janna19 - The reception hall will add vienese trays to each table or will provide a dessert table in addition to the desert they plate. If I decide not to do cake.
That's really annoying. If money is really tight, I would order sheet cake from Costco and have them cut those up in the back instead of the bad cake. At least Costco cake tastes good!
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MegK - They supply dessert. That's why we were planning on having the cake cut up and given as the wedding favor. We figured we can save some costs and the cake wouldn't go to waste. However bad cake as a wedding favor... :/
Sakoro - I have never had cake from costco, that's actually a pretty creative idea. I just have to be careful about that. The reception hall has specific insurance requirements for foods not made on site. i.e. if I order outside food the company has to be insured in case someone gets sick from the food so that the catering hall doesn't get sued.
Chela- Does your venue charge a cake-cutting fee if you bring in your own cake? At my sister's venue they charged $0.50-1.00 per slice to cut and serve the cake. Thankfully her's was really good so it wasn't an issue, but you should consider that fee if you get another cake.
Two options I can think of:
1. Shop around for different sources for your cake- not just bakeries. I got my cake from a grocery store bakery! It was only $2 a slice and we got rave comments on it (it also looked very nice) and people were shocked to learn it was from a grocery store. Another option to consider is Walmart- Walmart's with bakeries do wedding cakes for very reasonable prices and they look good. I'm not sure if they do tastings, but you could probably just buy a cake from them and see how it tastes.
2. Get the cake through your venue for the cutting then buy sheet cakes of something you like to give out to your guests (you also may be able to avoid the cake cutting fee, if there is one, by having someone cut and box the slices before the reception). But keep in mind that at some places they charge by the slice whether it's a sheet cake or tiered cake.
Good luck!
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Rosychiclet - I don't believe they charge a cake cutting fee, since they already cut the bakery supplied cake. Around here our walmarts do not have bakeries, and I had never considered ordering from the supermarket $2 a slice sounds very comprable. Getting another sheet cake cut up is also a good idea.
My FH wants to go to some tastings this weekend as he wants to have this settled. We'll definately look into these options and the cupcake option. My sister gave out cookies so I would want to avoid that.
Chela429-
I think that if the cake is *that* bad and if you are planning on boxing it up as the favors, you definitely need something that tastes good. So I would splurge on this added expense.
Definitely check and see if your venue will have a cake cutting charge for a cake that they don't make. Even though they don't state one up front, they might not have told you because they assumed you were using their cake. If they have a charge, you just want to be aware of it up front so that you can factor it in.
I really liked the suggestion of using their cake for your pictures, and then serving sheet cake to all of the guests. This could be very cost effective- I know that you can get a large sheet cake that would serve
Do you have PUBLIX by you? (The grocery store chain.) They have actually started creating wedding cakes that are very pretty and very tasty. I've actually been to a wedding where everyone was RAVING about the cake and it turned out to be from Publix. If you don't have a Publix, consider calling your local grocery store. If they don't make wedding cakes, you could still purchase sheet cakes from them (or Costco like someone else suggested). My guess it that large chains would have the insurance that your venue requires.
And I just checked the Publix website-- the large sheetcake that serves 80 people is about $75.00. You could get a few of these for the back, and it wouldn't break the bank! I'm sure other grocery stores are within that range.
Let us know what you decide to do.
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I would just have a small cake for you guys to cut ceremoniously and ditch the cake favor (if you are gonna serve bad cake). In fact, I wouldn't splurge on the cake favor for a good cake either, because I am cheap and I personally would not love to take cake home. Supply some good desserts/petit fours and maybe some boxes for people to take them in instead.
Oh and I second finding out about the charge. I have never heard of a place that didn't charge for bringing in an outside cake (if they supply you with something in the cake's stead...i.e. desserts)
Ditch giving it as a favor. Take the extra $1000+ and spend it on your honeymoon, on your house, put it away for a rainy day, anything. At this point IMHO I don't think it is worth the money.
I third rosychicklet, in fact I was going to suggest exactly that (their cake for pictures, cheaper/maybe grocery store sheet cakes in back) until I got to her post. Just to offer perspective, I think it's really important that if you do serve a cake it should taste good (no problems not having it at all though). It's the last thing that people are going to taste, and you don't want to top off a great dinner with something people might want to spit out.
BTW, I think the cake favors sound really creative...it allows people to enjoy the cake later if they don't have room after dinner. aRe you also going to serve slices at the wedding?
I would nix the yucky tasting cake and go with a dessert you love. I hope that you will be able to find some options that won't cost you $1,000. Could you live with the cake if you weren't planning to give it away as favors? Maybe you could do another favor (or no favors).
I'm going to try to answer as many questions as possible:
1. I have a call in about a cake cutting fee (if any).
2. We were planning on using it as a favor. Orginally we planned to use these. http://treeinabox.com/Treeinabox.jpg However most of our friends and family live in apartments and planting their own tree would be difficult. I was afraid that we would spend a lot of money getting them and most people would just leave them behind at the hall. This would have cost about $600
3. When our attending guest list skyrocketed (we were originally expecting 220 people, and we could now get 250/260) we knew that all costs would increase, more tables means more centerpieces, more people means more favors, etc. We thought that by boxing the wedding cake we can give those out as favors since the catering hall supplies dessert in addition to wedding cake they wouldn't be missing out on a sweet treat with coffee and tea. Since we were ditching the tree idea, the boxes for cake would only cost about $200 and we could save $400.
4. Based on someone's suggestion, I looked up the cost of cupcakes and those would cost $375, but I have to check if they can be boxed and if there would be a delivery fee. My FH and I will also check with local supermarket bakeries to see what several sheet cakes would run us and if they can cut and box them for us.
5. We would prefer to give some kind of favor, it doesn't have to be expensive but I think it's always a nice touch. Trust me if we could save all this money it would be awesome.
Right now, you guys have given us great options and I am open to more suggestions to look into. My FH and I plan on going this Saturday and looking into more options. Hopefully we can make the decision by Sunday.
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Our catering hall gets the wedding cake for the receptions from a local Italian Bakery. My FH and I went to a cake tasting on Sunday and as my FH likes to say "no es bueno". The cake tasted like nothing (no flavor) and wasn't spongy at all, almost as if it had been refridgerated for a long time. We are very concerned since we planned on having the cake cut up and boxed to give away as part of the wedding favors. We have 250 people coming to the wedding and at $4-6 per person the cake will cost at least $1000. With less than a month to go, should we splurge on this unexpected expense?