A friend's son is getting married in December. As their wedding gift, I'll be making the wedding cake. I spoke with the MOG and found out they are sending invitations to 125 people and an invitation will be announced at their church where the bride works in the nursery and the groom and his family are very well known. The reception is at the church and is cake & punch only.

Any advice on how much cake? I can do the 125 part but isn't the announcement just a little laid back? And how do you estimate that? My first instinct was to advise having enough cake for 175. I think they want a cake and sheet cakes but I plan to change their minds to either a larger cake or a cake and cupcakes. I'm meeting with the bride and groom next week to get more info.

Thanks so much!

They need to tell you how many serving they need or you tell them, "I'm giving 100 servings of cake as my gift and if they need more than that, we can work out a nice price for you for the difference."

If they invited 125 people, I don't see how they will need 175 servings. So can you clarify if they invited 125 PEOPLE or if they sent out 125 INVITATIONS?

How involved are they in their church? If they are casual Sunday attenders, I wouldn't count on too many. The "invitation on the bulletin board" doesn't usually net many attendees. But .... if they are really involved church members, they may get a few from church. My view is that if they are really involved, they will send an actual invitation to the ones they really want to attend anyway, and not rely on just an invite on the bulletin board (geesh, I really don't like that way of so-called "inviting" people.)

In general, 60% of the total number invited will actually show up. Here's my blog on this topic: http://cateritsimple.blogspot.com/search/label/RSVP

I think it just depends on the shape of the cake, and whether the bride is choosing to use wedding cake portions or party sized cake portions.

For wedding cake portions, a 6+9+12 inch round (excluding the 6 inch for freezing) and a 11x15 sheet (all 4 inch high) would give you about 162 servings (based on wilton) - you would get closer to 200 wedding cake servings with a 12x18 sheet.

I would imagine this might be a little easier than doing 100 cupcakes...but it just depends on your comfort level!

I hope this helps!

caymancake, thanks for your reply. While I agree that sheet cakes may be easier, they are not my preference for a wedding. If they go with anywhere up to 125 servings, I will just do a cake to serve that many.

Thanks again!

I totally agree to putting a limit on it when you give gift cakes. If they invited 125 people with invitations plus the church, 100-120 servings is probably fine.

Now, the type of church and people will totally affect this open church invitation. I had one bride that it was really a community church in the neighborhood.. I said, how many people are you inviting? She said, well, we sent out about 20 invitations to people out of the church, and we invited our whole church in the bulletin. Alright, how many people go to your church? are you known in your church? She ended up ordering 150 servings because I'll make someone whatever they want to pay for. She said towards the end they were barely cutting slivers to people could get a taste! Not my fault, 200 people came! From 20 invites and a bulletin notice.

Good Luck!!!

When in December is it? That could affect the turnout as well. If it's the week of Christmas or inbetween Christmas and New Years, there might not be as many people as some will be going away for the holidays. If it's early December then there might be more people.

aligotmatt, thanks for the input...I'll keep it in mind when I talk to them and maybe I'll share your anecdote, too .

cakesbymindysue, the wedding is in mid-December which could conflict with Christmas parties and affect the turnout. If it were me and I had a choice of a party with food, maybe some music, optional adult beverages or cake and punch in a church basement, I'd pick door #1 but that's just me .

**Update**

Thanks for all the advice! I pinned the bride and groom down and we've decided on 5 tiers: 14", 12", 10", 8", 6"...no cupcakes or sheetcakes. They seem really disorganized...now they say they sent out 125 invitations but don't know who might be bringing girl/boyfriends, spouses, kids, etc.

This is the biggest cake I've made...my previous biggest was 12", 10", 8", 6" so I know I can do it, it's just a teeny bit intimidating.