Wedding Cake Do's and Don'ts

Don't serve individual cakes to each guest

The reason usually given for this is that you will save money on individual guest favors. The amount that you save is inconsequential compared to the biggest loss--your cake as the centerpiece of your reception and the cake as photoprop. When you and your beau are cutting the cake, everyone is snapping photos. Long after the cake is gone, what you have are the photos and the photos are forever.

The only reason catering managers suggest cupcakes is that it saves them a huge amount of time and labor if they don't have to cut, plate and then serve cake for 200 guests. Don't fall for it!

Do order different flavors for each tier

The wedding reception is the opportunity for the bride to show her skills as a hostess to her new family and friends. If you order cake that not only tastes great but you offer different flavors to satisfy all of your guests (including the chocoholics), it just makes you look like a much more accomplished hostess.

Don't order a dozen smaller cakes as centerpieces for each table.

First, let us say that if you have done this and it was a success, pat yourself on the back! This idea is a logistical nightmare. Don't do it unless you are prepared to solve all of these problems:

• After the cake is cut, there will be a big mess in the center of the table instead of a beautiful floral centerpiece. Can you imagine how that will look in all the photos afteward?
• You deprive yourself of a fabulous photoprop for the cake-cutting ceremony. Remember--after the cake is gone the pictures are forever!
• Your guests' photos of the reception will show the big mess in the center of each table.
• A magnificent cake is the centerpiece of every reception--your guests look for it first when they arrive. Don't disappoint them.
• Your guests will get their sleeves in the soft, buttercream icing if they reach across the table. This stuff really stains!
• Individual table cakes will cost much, much more than a single wedding cake.

Sure--let the guests cut their own cake. Bad idea!

Don't be afraid to order tinted icing

Cakes that are too white are often washed out in the photographs, especially if people are using a flash on their camera. Even a barely off-white cake will photograph better. If you are wearing an ivory gown, your cake should be a very pale ivory, so it will better match your gown in all the photographs and the detailing on the cake will show up better.

Cupcake weddings

Cupcake wedding are so 80's! Unless your doing a vintage retro-reception, this is an even worse idea than individual cakes on each table. Cupcakes have no filling and are really, really boring to eat. You also rob your guests of their favorite photo op--cutting the a beautiful cake, the centerpiece of your reception. Reception hall managers push cupcakes because it saves them so much work--serving hundreds of pieces of cake, cleanup and plate washing. Don't fall for it!

Grooms! Don't mash the cake into your bride's face!

This horrible custom is finally disappearing. It is simply disrespectful and undignified and you could stain your bride's gown. Do you really want her to suffer through the rest of the reception in a gown with a stain on the front?

Do serve cake that hasn't been frozen

Many bakeries freeze their cake and then thaw it out and decorate it as needed. This is usually done because they sell a lot of cake, not just wedding cake but party cakes as well. Freezing a cake dries it up. That dry, gritty, too-sweet cake you had at the last wedding had been frozen!

As of March of 2008, these were the prices we found around the country for quality wedding cakes:

• California: 12 - 15 dollars a serving. (250 guests = about $3500.00)
• New York and Eastern seaboard: 13 - 30 dollars a serving. (250 guests = about $3800.00)
• Midwest: 6 - 12 dollars a serving. (250 guests = about $2100.00)

Not surprisingly, better cakes in the midwest are much more affordable. Compared to everything else at your reception, a quality cake is a true bargain since the cake has the most impact on your guests and helps to make your reception truly memorable.

Where did we get these prices? Easy--just read the fine print in the wedding magazines when you look at photos of cakes. They often print the price per serving in the description!

Here are some of our favorite cake makers and their prices for custom cakes (see www.brides.com/cakes for a complete gallery of cakes and prices:

• Sylvia Weinstock at www. sylviaweinstock.com — 22.00 per slice
• www. robynlovescake.com — 13.00 per slice
• www.weddingcakesbykimpayne.com — 12.00 per slice
• Elisa Strauss at www.confetticakes.com — 20.00 per slice
• Marina Sousa at www.justcake.com — 18.00 per person
• www.colettescakes.com — 15.00 per person
• www.somethingsweetbymichelle.com — 30.00 per slice
• www.anascustomcakes.com — 13.50 per slice
• Ron Ben Israel at www.weddingcakes.com — 20.00 per slice