Avoiding Budget Busters Tip #1

Everyone wants to be smart about how they spend their money on their wedding. Couples want the most bang for their buck and we'll post our favorite budget savers all week!

Tip #1: You can easily save money on the cake. Today, cake's range from $3.50 to sometimes $10 a slice depending on how elaborate your design is. Here is a way to achieve your dream wedding cake without breaking the bank. Rather than ordering a huge five-tiered cake, talk to your baker about designing a small "Bride & Groom Cake" that you will cut and feed each other at the reception. Then have your baker create the same flavored sheet cakes that can be hidden in the kitchen or another room of your facility. The cake can be pre-sliced and brought out by the facility or caterer during the cake portion of your reception - and no one will ever know! Undecorated sheet cakes are significantly less expensive than tiered cakes and taste just as good! If however, you still want the effect of a large wedding cake, your baker can work with you to create only sections of your cake that are actually real and edible. For instance, consider making the bottom or top layer the only real section of the cake. The rest can be decorated foam or cardboard. Then, just bring out the sheet cakes for your guests.

Pictured Above: Consider how little of this cake is actually real. The the large calla lily focal point creates the illusion of a large cake without actually using real edible elements.