Planning Your Wedding Cake: The Extras!

You really should just have all of the answers now for planning your wedding desserts! If not, at least you can make it look pretty, right? There are always more things to cover, so here’s a quick Q & A to answer everything that didn’t fit in the other weeks. As always, be sure to connect with me and ask anything you want – I’d love to help! Mostly just wish I could make all of your wedding cakes/s’more bites/waffles/truffles/snow cones. Until then…
 Q: How much dessert should I plan to have?

 A: You are going to need much less dessert than you think you need, unless you want a lot of leftovers! I definitely ate the most cake out of anyone at our wedding (I think I downed four or five pieces of cake). A lot of people just don’t get to the desserts. Don’t plan a lot of extra. Make sure you have one piece of something for each person, but you don’t need to go overboard.

 Q: How should the cake be cut?

 A: Here’s a great diagram that will get the most cake for your buck/slicing. Your caterer will likely know what to do, but some relatives, if that’s who’s cutting, might have more questions. Send the diagram to them ahead of time.

 Q: How much should I expect to spend?

 A: This will vary based on where you live, and who you hire. The latest info said the U.S. average is about $6/per slice of cake. Some states/cities will be lower, some will be higher. Some individual desserts can be a bit lower. For 200 people, I tell customers to average $1,000 for wedding desserts. This is, of course, variable. 

 Q: What’s the timing of the cake-cutting? Does it matter?

 A: Cut your cake before everyone leaves! Don’t wait too long! We did this right after speeches, which was right after dinner. Some people had already left, unfortunately, but we caught most of them. If you aren’t cutting a cake, you might still want to each a little piece of fudge/caramel/cotton candy/cupcake as a fun ceremonial thing for pictures. By the way, can you imagine sharing cotton candy instead of bites of cake at a wedding?!

 Q: Do you ever recommend sheet cakes?

 A: If you have more than 250 people, I highly recommend sheet cakes. You can still have a tiered cake, but you don’t need to pay to have a giant one. Do a four-tiered cake, then fill in with sheet cakes for the rest. Your guests never have to see those, but they will love them just as much a the tiered option.

Visit my introduction post to learn all about this series. FYI: I use the term “wedding cake” very loosely here and believe that it covers the whole range or your options.
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