Not all places charge different prices just because it is a wedding cake.

Fondant doesn't have to taste horrible. Wilton crap is pure poison. High quality (not cheap) fondant brands (Massa, Albert Ulster) are VERY tasty.

Cupcakes are not cheaper and can be more expensive in the end.

Tiered cakes don't necessarily cost more. Certainly not signifucantly more. Most places charge by the serving.

What you think is a serving size is way bigger than what a serving size actually is.

That price isn't unreasonable if you want anything more than a plain iced buttercream cake to serve that many people.

Think about what you pay for dessert in a restaurant. Now multiply that by the number of people attending your wedding.

When you get quotes, don't say that it's for a wedding. The mark up is huge. The PP who had a tiered retirement cake proves this.

When I got married, we had a croquembouche. It is a just a tower of cream puffs with spun sugar decorations. It was perfect for our small wedding (about 50 people), very fun and affordable (about $200 if I remember correctly).

I've ordered sheet cakes from both Costco and Wegmans, I prefer the latter.

At my friend's wedding recently they just had a bunch of cakes from a local bakery, that were sold at Safeway. They didn't do a cake cutting, seems that a lot of people skip that part anyway. They just had, say, 8 little round cakes and people served themselves. IT was perfect and couldn't have put them out more than $150.

All of these suggestions are great. while fondant is pretty it tastes horrible. i had a buttercream frosting for my wedding cake done by a woman in falls church who bakes wedding cakes. another thing about the cakes are that they bake them several days in advance so some can taste dry. she used pudding in hers so our cake was moist. cost about 300 for 70 people.

i totally think you should get a smaller cake for looks and pictures and then serve sheet cake. giant does have kick ass cakes but i agree everyone loves costco. they are cheap, baked fresh and serve a ton of people.

don't go with cupcakes. went to a wedding where they served them and definitely make the wedding feel more informal. it was ok for them b/c they were a very young couple and paying for a lot of things themselves.

if you go with a bakery cake randolphs in arlington does cakes better than heidelberg. i live in arlington and frequent both regularly.

also, i am quite familiar with shilla bakery as i am korean american. you won't save any money using their cakes. they are not as sweet but not for all tastes. i enjoy serving them occassionally and american guests have enjoyed them but seriously go with costco sheet cake and then get the prettiest small cake for your wedding pic.

good luck on the cake search and congrats!

Is Creative Cakes still open in SS? Very reasonably priced. You might want to check out some of the Korean bakeries like Shilla too.

Don't tell the bakery it's a wedding cake. Just get a cake and put fresh flowers around it. And get cupcakes for the guests if you don't want to get a big cake

I'm sounding like a broken record here but I would MUCH rather eat Costco sheet cake than 90% of the wedding cakes I've ever tasted. They are delicious and $20 for a huge filled half sheet that can probably serve 40 alone. I buy them for every event and they have never failed to be a hit. I think it's a great idea to get a small fancy cake for photos and then a big sheet for behind the scenes.

DH doesn't really like traditional cake so we did cheesecake which was very affordable and delicious!

Anonymous wrote:Check out Heidelberg Bakery in Arlington - I forget how much it cost but they are local - do something simple yet special.

+1, people still talk about our cake. Yum. We did a small cake to cut with a sheet cake in back.

Anonymous wrote:The only trick is to NOT tell the baker that it's for a wedding. Mention the word "wedding" and the price doubles, if not triples. That goes for flowers, too.

Well the issue is when you need it delivered. That costs money and then they also will see it's a wedding.

We ended up just having a small cake to cut and giving guests a choice of desserts. It was way cheaper to roll desserts into our catering package than pay extra for a big cake plus the cake cutting fee from the venue. We were looking about around $7 per person for a slice a cake - $5 for the slice of cake (assuming no fancy decorations, that was extra) and $2 just to cut and plate it. The whole thing is a racket.

The only trick is to NOT tell the baker that it's for a wedding. Mention the word "wedding" and the price doubles, if not triples. That goes for flowers, too.

We got our wedding cake at KoGiBow Bakery in Adams Morgan (7 years ago.) It was so delicious. They use whipped cream icing instead of fondant and the fillings are fruit or creme based (tres leches, lemon curd, etc.) The website currently quotes a 2-tier cake wedding cake that serves 50 people for $88.