http://weddings.about.com/od/weddingplanningtools/a/moneywasters.htm

Of course. Cake is a money waster. I knew it before I read the article!

While the advice of not buying a huge cake for a small wedding is good...I hate the kitchen cake idea!!!! I don't offer "cheap kitchen cakes"...now if they want a $10/serving cake then the $3/serving kitchen cakes will be a money saver I guess...but who gets the fancy cake and who gets the kitchen cake?

Also I don't mind that for a huge wedding, say 300 guests...but articles like this make brides think they can get a wedding cake to serve 50 people and then cheap cake for the rest of the 100 guests. Weird.

And then the link in the article takes you to questions to ask the baker....including "how long before the wedding do you bake" and "What ingredients do you use".

I guess valid questions....but still.... the thing is...why aren't all these questions being asked the caterer? The ice sculptor? The dressmakers? Why do they always ALWAYS pick on the cake???? One of the most traditional parts of the whole wedding????

Honestly, everything about modern weddings are a huge waste of money. If anything, though, food (caterer and cake) are the things that I would advise people not to skimp on. No one is going to remember the centerpieces or some ridiculously expensive dress, but people will remember if you serve them crappy food.

Where oh where do they get all this MISinformation?
Not sure I am qoting correctly but basiclly it says: ........usually a wedding cake will take 3-5 days.........anyone who tells you they can make a wedding cake in a day is lying......
They certainly haven't worked with/in a bakery or cake decorator!

Really? Why dress? You wear it once for a few hours and then that's it.

Okay - I've been wondering about this....

There seems to be differing opinions. I have a local cake joint that markets "fake cakes" as an inexpensive way to have a neat cake as a display & then just purchase these kitchen cakes for everybody. They may offer one tier as edible for the cake cutting part of the reception.

But, I'm confused. I don't make a lot of cake anymore....just cookies. So, I don't really know what the truth is. There are people on CC that say to charge around 80% of what they'd charge for a regular cake, when using a "fake" tier. How is that saving money? Cuz you gotta buy the kitchen cakes too.

I don't think cake is wasted money. Coming from more of a consumer standpoint on this topic.....I'm not sure I buy into the "money saving" fake cakes. Is it the labor in assembly thats saved? I'd take forever to stack a cake...but that's cuz I don't do it often. Somebody who does it all the time...it shouldn't be a big deal... right?

What are your thoughts?

No, it's not just the cake. It's the caterer, too. I used to just LUV getting the bride who is reciting the "10 questions to ask your caterer" (I can spot them a mile away). They are not bad questions, for the most part. But my problem is the bride has NO idea why she's asking them.

For example, I was asked "How involved are you in the reception? Do you cue the band?" My gosh-I-wish-I-could-say-this answer was "Who do I look like .... Ricky Ricardo?" I'm the freakin' caterer, not the band leader!!! If you need a band cue'er, then hire an event planner!

Do you use fresh or frozen? Fresh or frozen WHAT??? I actually did ask one bride what she was looking for and said, "If you are adverse to me buying the chicken 3 weeks before the event and storing it in my freezer then we need to talk. Because if that's the case, then I can only assume you expect me to buy freshly killed chicken the morning of your wedding and that will cost you quite a lot more than you're willing to spend."

As far as cake questions, my favorite nerve-wringer is "How many other weddings do you book on my date?" Uh, wrong question. If I have a huge freakin' shop and can pump out 15 wedding cakes a weekend, then I will book 14 other weddings and that is perfectly fine. The CORRECT question is "what is your capacity and how often to you book to full capacity?" And even THAT is assuming the bride understand capcacity and how full capacity impacts productivity and all that is involved with that. Which they usually don't.

Had one bride who asked, "Will you cook the food on site?" I said, "Is there a full catering kitchen available at the faciity that I can use?" She said, "No." I said, "Then I guess I won't be cooking it on site, then." (WANTED to say, "Sure, kid. I'm gonna grill 300 meatballs and 120 lbs of chicken on a habatchi that I'll just set up on the banquet table. Shoulnd't take me more than three ... four days tops!")

How about those useless favors? Why spend/waste money on them?

Those kinds of articles are written by people who are paid a small amount of money to churn them out. The website who buys them then uses them as bait to get people to the site so that they can look at the ads, which the website gets paid for when they're clicked on. You have to take them with a grain of salt. I've seen some that are written so poorly and in such broken English it makes your eyes bleed.

Well, at least we weren't number one on the list! Imagine those poor favor people!!
I call those articles the "How to Piss Off Your Vendor Before You Meet Them" articles. Just a list of questions that may have merit, but are worded in a way to imply that we are all trying to rip off said bride in any way we can- by serving old cake made from top secret chemically-laden generic flour, frozen (gasp) meatballs, and non-freshly butchered meat products.

I just had a doozy today. She had emailed me about 10 months ago for her cake saying "I only have a budget of $150 for 200 people. Not everyone will eat cake right?"
I told her that she needed to reorganize her budget before I would even consider talking to her, which she did.
Come to talk to the florist today, and it will take him 2-3 HOURS to set up all the floral pieces she ordered to decorate the MOST EXPENSIVE club in our area. I wanted to pull my eyebrows out one by one.
She must have been reading those articles when ordering her cake.

AND- who on earth orders a cake to serve 300 when they invite 100 guests???

UGH seems like the budget is gone by the time these people are ordering cake....

Someone needs to write an article titled "How to Piss Off Your Vender Before You Meet Them!" Well...maybe not in those words...but certainly educational.

When I got married, I very specifically wanted to order my wedding cake from the same shope that baked all my childhood birthday cakes. Family owned and operated. DELICIOUS. The cake was wonderful. Everything surrounding the cutting was memorable. We cut it with a fencing sabre (we were both fencers) and shoved cake into our MOH and BM's faces (his best friend and my only female cousin). Out of everything that occurred at our wedding, they talk about the cake festivities the most. I know it isn't the case for everyone, but it was for us!

UGH! I can't stand these articles. I really want to know who they are consulting for their info, maybe the favor people!!?? lol

I must say I did have a bride order a cake to serve 350 when they were only counting on 250. She was very excited to have 2 FULL tiers of cake left for the next day for their family brunch/ I thought it was nuts..but not when she wrote me the check

A lot of people don't understand the amount of time that is put into making cakes. When I go to weddings it's all about the food and the cake. Of course I'll look at the dress and think to myself "WOW" that's really pretty or " WOW" that's really ugly. I'd rather spend the money on the cake/food and photography.

http://weddings.about.com/od/weddingcakesfoodmenus/a/weddingcakedeco.htm

Here's another article, written by the same woman, suggesting that the bridesmaids and groomsmen can do the cake for the bride on a budget! Recipe attached from Epicurious, and is fondant covered. They'll beg us to do their cakes after reading this!!!

I would not want this cake at my wedding even if I had made it myself.

http://weddings.about.com/od/weddingcakesfoodmenus/ss/decoweddingcake_10.htm

HAHAHAHAHAHA

Has this woman ever been a bride or around a bride, possibly watched an episode of any of the reality wedding shows.

Can anyone follow her "schedule" with regards to time? Maybe if you follow her time schedule, you will need to accept a cake that looks like an eleven year old completed it!

I don't know about all of you...but I can NOT stack 3 tiers in 5 minutes...I can't torte a 3 tier cake in 5 minutes, nor can I ice in 20 minutes. And what about the flowers. If they are silk...I wouldn't want them laying on my cake...especially if they plucked them out of a bucket of flowers at the craft store. If they are real...Really? Real flowers laying on a cake!!! Sheesh...

DUDE!!! I can't believe we have been going about things all wrong! What an eye opener. My wedding:
Butt naked (because what is cheaper then wearing my own skin!), eating ice cubes (FREE!!... if I make then myself) passing out rocks (another free party favor! besides who doesn't like rocks?). Much more cost effective!

Here's a tidbit from the favor side -

I looked into advertising on the knot. The rep suggested I advertise under cakes, more specifically a dessert bar & then add at the end of the conversation that I do favors. When, in the first place.....all I wanted to do was favors.

The rep explained that favors are falling out of style. I personally, don't take it as a slight. It's extra money spent. If you don't want them....don't have them. But, skipping the cake would be unacceptable.

If people are gonna write articles to help people...then they should come up with real solutions. It took me quite a while to learn how to frost a cake smooth. So, torting, stacking, decorating and the frosting the icing smooth is just too much to learn I think.

They should suggest some of the pretty cake stands that are available now. Or, a cupcake stand could be rented or built waaayyyy ahead of time. Wrappers could be cut and embelished way ahead of time. So many ways to have a beautiful display with out the "freak outs".

I made a Christmas themed cake that was all white. All the layers were coated with white sparkle sugar (this was "pre" airbrush or I would have sprayed with pearl) And, I had hot glued bulbs already pre-arranged for my "spaces" in between the tiers. It turned out okay for my first attempt at stacking a cake. It was definitely festive. But, I made the decoration way ahead of time.

Just my 8 cents!

Please invite me to the wedding with rock favors. I will gather up the ones left on the table, saving the clean up crew time. I need gravel for my driveway and my husband said it's gonna cost a grand.

Did you notice there's no date on the article? The link for the floral topper takes you to the Wilton site- where the item is discontinued.

As far as favors going out of style, I attended a wedding and reception just last Saturday. The favors were cake truffles. I guess this small town is behind the times?

Did you see how they said to board the cake? A slab o' wood and foil! Oh my!

im sorry, but did i read correctly in tha article that she expects a bride.. who most probably does not have acess to a commercial oven.. to BAKE a cake in an hour??? =/ hmmm.. anyone who has ever made any sort of cake before is going to know this article is a load of crap just from that "step".

Well it was published on the internet.... in a bridal forum.... it has to be right.... where is my list of questions to piss of my vendors...*LOL*

Indy..... I DARE you to write an article....call it exactly...*how to piss off your vendor before you meet them*... and submit it.... I would love to read your spin on it. That would be worth the read...

I've seen that article around for at least 3 years now. I can't see how someone would actually display that cake, but maybe I'm just picky...