so, yesterday I attended a wedding with a friend of mine. (she needed a date ) Of course I was dying to see the wedding cake and critique it in their glory to come report to you guys it was sort of plain just a plain white cake with her brightly blue colored ribbon and a magnolia type flower. Buuuut...there were these HORRENDOUS sheet cakes actually displayed on the tables next to the wedding cake! It was a nice thought I guess...they did double layer sheet cakes (assuming the wedding cake was fake because they had 5 of them for a 300 guest wedding) and they had edible photo images of the bride and groom on top of them. Unfortunately someone did a horrible job of using an airbrush/color mist on them. not sure if someone made these for them but they totally looked like an after thought and the photo images were so dark I kinda of felt bad for the poorly made cakes on display.

To top it off....someone used STORE BOUGHT CHOCOLATE FROSTING in the middle of the marble cake
I was all ready to taste some fudgey type filling and when I put a touch of it in my mouth all i could taste were the chemicals I was really sad and I had to spit it out. I wasn't expecting it because the chocolate cake had some really nice mousse in the middle of it. ANNND they did confetti cake.

is it just me or are the trends to save money looking tacky???

I always wonder about sheet cakes and real wedding cake. Who gets the nice wedding cake, and who gets assigned to the plodgy little sheetcakes? Is there another list out there when it comes to cake cutting? Tables 1 thru 10 get real cake, and the other tables can have sheetcake. Unless they brought a large heavy present, then they get nice cake too. I've never understood that.

definitely tacky
LOL @KimmyKakes, that's so true! funny observation

Yep. The tackiness factor is getting out of hand. It's the "advice" columns.

I agree...I sometimes wonder what the credentials of the expert advisers are :-/

I wanted to write something succinct on my website about NOT having some crappy cheap sheet cakes to serve after the proper wedding cake is gone as its being tacky...but my husband wouldn't let me, haha. He said I was being too negative. Maybe he's right, but its tempting to sometimes 'tell it like it is'!

I try to be charitable about less-than-amazing cakes....remember that when you're a cake artist or highly proficient in baking and pastry skills (and I don't put myself in either category!,) anything that doesn't meet your high standards is going seem tacky. And I've tasted many a cake that looked beautiful but tasted lackluster, and I know I got the "real" cake because they cut it in the dining room, not the kitchen.

Some people don't value cake and would rather put their scarce wedding dollars toward a great dj or an open bar or even a lovely venue. Isn't that up to them? I'm just happy to be part of the celebration. Then I make a mental note to bring them some awesome espresso cupcakes with caramel filling and cinnamon cream cheese icing when they get back from the honeymoon.