Budgeting for your wedding cake

Budgeting for your wedding is difficult. Everyone you will ask for advice on the subject will no doubt give you entirely different answers, and this is because everyone’s wedding is totally unique. I’ve found that for me, my own research was the best way to do it. I left no corner of the internet left unturned, no friends left ‘untapped’ for information, so I had a full idea of what things cost at loads of different levels.

I think the most important thing is to prioritise what you really want to spend money on. Some people will happily spend thousands on a band, but not flowers, as an example. It’s about what you want to spend money on as a couple and allocating it accordingly. 

When thinking about the cost of your wedding cake, there are a few things to consider:

  • How intricate and detailed you want your cake to be. The more decorative skill that is required in creating the cake, the more expensive your cake will be. Sugar flowers are a good example of this as they take hours to make and a huge amount of skill from the cake designer.

  • How many tiers do you need/want? It sounds basic, but the bigger the cake, the more expensive it will be.

  • The types of ingredients can also push the price up. Organic or specialist ingredients, for example.

  • Dietary requirements can also push the price up, especially when specialist ingredients are needed such as gluten free flour or special types of low carb sugars for diabetics.

Pinterest is a fabulous source of knowledge which really helped me when choosing any of my wedding suppliers. Cake is no exception, and will really help you to understand and compare all the different cakes on the market, so you can really understand what you want, and then choose your cake designer from there.

Couples that I speak to often ask whether they should mention their budget to me before I quote them. I always say yes. Not because I want to over charge my couples (which is a common misconception of wedding suppliers), but to make sure that I can design them something that is in their price range, give them various options at different budget levels, or to be able to tell them whether they may get better value for money else where. I believe whole-heartedly in transparency, and I love when my clients do too.

My final point on budgeting for your wedding cake is a slightly selfish one, but its to let the other cake designers know if you are going ahead with them or not. Most of us don’t mind if you don’t choose us because there is usually a good reason why you didn’t. You win some, you lose some and that’s ok. We really do care about you, so just drop an email to those people you haven’t chosen - it make us feel so much better when we hear from you.

If you’re looking at your wedding cake for late 2020, 2021 and 2022 weddings, drop me an email and we can chat about your options.