SInce this is for a relative and you are transporting out of state,, you can be a bit more demanding with design.    I would insist on a pillar design so you can stack onsite and go up as many tiers as you want...5, 6, 7...???  You will never have enough..but make sure the kitchen cakes are double sheet cakes that way when sliced, they look just like a slice of the wedding cake.  

A

Well me to! If I am honest, they are just asking me to try to save money and still have the biggest wedding, well I'm not stupid! I was talking to my aunt about wedding cake prices when the bride to be heard me saying:" sometimes a wedding cake can even be €1000" and then the BTB said in a bit angry way;" so you would also ask me to pay €1000" and my awnser was; " if you want a cake for 1500 guests it would be a lot more than €1000".

AJeetje! Do they sell cakes at Hema now? Surely she has had numbers from other vendors that would given her an indication of how expensive it is to have 1500 guests by now.

Surely with 1500 people invited, there should be another cake decorator or two in there....recruit some help if you are going to do this.

I feel bad that you are in this situation...you will probably never want to decorate a cake again.

I would provide cake for maybe 500 (tiered, kitchen cakes, cupcakes - combo) and the rest is up to them.  If they don't like that EXTREMELY generous offer, I would suggest they hire another baker to do this.  They will find out quickly how valuable your service is and how kind your gift is once they get quotes from other places.

Personally, I would run....run....run away from this titanic order.

Our wedding had a cookie table where all of my mom's friends and my mom made a boat-load of finger desserts.  I think it's tradition in some cultures to do this (I am a Heinz 57 mix of Europeans), so maybe the same is true of big Italian weddings?  If so, maybe they won't need cake to feed everyone.

Obviously this bride has NO IDEA how expensive cake ingredients are...let along the whopping amount of time it would take to provide cake for 1500.  I would figure out time and ingredients of 100 servings for her, break it down into butter and how much butter it will take for the cake and icing for those 100 servings.  Show it to her and ask her to multiply it by 15. 

She will be shocked and she SHOULD feel embarrassed that she'd even expect this out of ONE HUMAN BEING.

Don't give into the guilt, stand your ground.  Honestly, I can't even imagine..... 

Surely with 1500 people invited, there should be another cake decorator or two in there....recruit some help if you are going to do this.

I feel bad that you are in this situation...you will probably never want to decorate a cake again.

I would provide cake for maybe 500 (tiered, kitchen cakes, cupcakes - combo) and the rest is up to them.  If they don't like that EXTREMELY generous offer, I would suggest they hire another baker to do this.  They will find out quickly how valuable your service is and how kind your gift is once they get quotes from other places.

Personally, I would run....run....run away from this titanic order.

Our wedding had a cookie table where all of my mom's friends and my mom made a boat-load of finger desserts.  I think it's tradition in some cultures to do this (I am a Heinz 57 mix of Europeans), so maybe the same is true of big Italian weddings?  If so, maybe they won't need cake to feed everyone.

Obviously this bride has NO IDEA how expensive cake ingredients are...let along the whopping amount of time it would take to provide cake for 1500.  I would figure out time and ingredients of 100 servings for her, break it down into butter and how much butter it will take for the cake and icing for those 100 servings.  Show it to her and ask her to multiply it by 15. 

She will be shocked and she SHOULD feel embarrassed that she'd even expect this out of ONE HUMAN BEING.

Don't give into the guilt, stand your ground.  Honestly, I can't even imagine..... 

WOW. My sister married an Italian last year and with a very restrictive guest list and two wedding parties (one in Germany, and a smaller one in Italy) we totaled about 250 guests. I understand it can easily go up to 300-400 but anything more ist crazy, even by Italian standards ;-) (Just talking about my experience here, not putting down anyone). The wedding cake is quite important in the Italian tradition. I wonder how they will handle the usual photoshoot with the cake with that many guests. It took us over 2 hours for less than 100!

The tradition (at least in the area of Naples, where the family of my brother-in-law comes from) is that around midnight, the cake is cut, the guests will come up to the bridal couple, hand over their present, recieve the bonboniere (give-away) in return, have their picture taken with the couple and the cake and then either eat some cake or take it with them and leave. With 1500 guests this will take the best part of about 3 days ;-)

Seriously though, I think when the guest list is really final and RSVP'd it will probably boil down to about 800-900. Still madness :-)

The next thing to consider that we Europeans will rarley be satisfied with a Wilton standard-serving of cake. Usually, we plan quite a bit more cake per person.

IF you do this at all (and I would SERIOUSLY think about it) I would agree to a nice 4-or 5 tier for the cutting and pictures and they will have to find a solution for the rest of the servings. You are a teenager, this is more than enough of a wedding present!

I did a company anniversary cake 2 years ago that totaled about 2000 servings, but these were flat sheet cakes, not filled, just iced with ganache, all put together about 40.000 square inches, with the company logo and Happy Birthday in laaaaaarge gumpaste letters. I have a small professional bakery and just the baking and rough-icing with ganache took me 3 days straight with no sleep. I had to buy 100 boxes of the correct size for the cakes and we had a van and a large car to deliver them. It netted me a nice amout of money but I will N E V E R  E V E R (can not stress this enough) do anything like this again. So think about this really carefully!!

A

I am going to tell her that I will rate them the same price as everybody else(about €5000) and give them a €100 discount cause thats allready more money than most people would give to a wedding couple and if they don't agree I wll run away lol

A few years ago my sister, and mother and I made 1500 cupcakes in our home kitchen. It took us a solid 24 hours to bake and frost all those cupcakes and we were completely spent at the end. I wouldn't have been able to attend a wedding afterward, that's for sure.

AI went to a wedding that had about 500 ppl and that was a zoo. They had several different desserts though I couldn't imagine having one cake for 500 let alone 1,000!! Your plan seems like a good one. good luck!

Omg, bless your heart Taartenmaker, as I read the thread I didn't realize you are 16 years old!! wow, congratulations you do amazing work  --- In spite of your great talent and skills how can your family put such a burden on you and expect cake for that many guest!!   the thought doesn't fit in my head...---only once I made a cake for 250 people and I was overwhelmed!!! I'm a hobby baker and I enjoy making fun cakes but I would not want to make a cake of that magnitud. I suggest you follow the advice to make cake for let's say 200-250 servings and let them take care of the rest.

The cake I made for 250 people was also a gift and let me tell you, aside from all the work involved it was very expensive!! Especially because I used the best ingredients, expensive ganache, everything from scratch etc and yeah the b-day lady and family loved the cake of course.

Good luck and many blessings to you.

AAnd based on what I've read, the bride seems like one of those people who will never appreciate the magnitude of what they are putting on the OP. Even if OP offers the deepest discount ever, they would still complain about something. Such vultures to drop this on a teenager.

Maybe if you tell them they have to help pay for the ingredients that go into making that huge masterpiece, they may change their minds!  How would you gift that huge cake or cakes?? Would you pay for it? Or your parents? I'm just wondering who would take the responsibility of paying that enormous bill to serve 1500 people cake! That sounds like a nightmare!! 1500 people??  They must be a very popular couple! Good luck with whatever you do! You sound like you have a great plan in place! I didn't read all the comments so sorry if you've already answered my questions!! 

A

Since i am studying for baker i don't want to involve my parends in this huge cake. I never involve my parents and i always do it well because people pay for the cake. So neither i or my parents will pay if they refuse than its a cake at another bakery or no cake at all! I just realize that i actually can't belive the greedyness of these people

Most people will pay for a cake because they understand all the hard work that it requires.  Then there are those types of people that want everything for FREE.  Very greedy people, indeed.  They are trying to take advantage of you.  I think that if they paid for the cake, they would find every reason wrong with it and complain so they that they wouldn't have to pay or get a huge discount.  

AIf they persist, maybe you can write the shopping list required for 1500 servings of cake, and have them go to Albert Heijn to see how much 150kg of butter and 300 eggs costs (no idea how many it actually is but it's got to be up there). An estimate of time and other costs should make it clearer for them if they're not getting it.

I'd doubt most retail bakeries with staff would consider taking on 10 wedding cakes for 150 servings each all for the same date and they expect one person at home to do it?

AI would suggest providing a nice tiered cake that would be the centerpiece for photos, of whatever size you feel comfortable making. Explain that you don't have the capability to make anything more than that. It takes oven space, refrigerator space, freezer space, vehicle space, all of which will be limiting factors. My oven will not accommodate larger than a 16" round, and my freezer space limits me to about 250 servings max. (i bake all my cakes ahead and freeze). I don't think they could find fault with that. It is an equipment/facility issue, not that you wouldn't be willing to do it. They could then find a bakery to supply the appropriate number of kitchen cakes. that would be more fun for you as well as you could then just concentrate on the show piece cake. If you must do it all, plan, plan, plan. Make everything ahead of time and freeze as much as you can. Find people who an lend freezer space. Also, find people to fill and frost the kitchen cakes, since that is easier, but will take a huge amount of time. I hope it works out for you.

A

First off all, thank you so much for your kind words!And I will follow the advise to say I won't make a cake bigger than 250 servings

1500 guests, I can't even imagine making a cake that big!

AUPDATE!!

I spoke to the couple a few days ago, i rearly see them and this was at a funeral, i know thats not the best time to talk about a wedding cake lol! The wedding is the 14 of May.

The number of guests is putten way down from 1500 to 750 and now its 325, pff its so anoying. they are pretty sure now the numer of guest is under 500. I allready told them the maximum discount i will give them is 10%, they seemed cool with it.

Can someone tell me what cake sizes i should do, i know they really want the biggest cake thats possible so i will do the oldschool style with the stairs and fountain and all those stuff because then the cake can really appear big.

AYou could suggest that they supplement with other desserts. Being Italian, our weddings are not complete without those Italian wedding cookies or canoli's. I make my canoli's small, and you could even fill them there. Both the canoli shells and the cookies can be make weeks ahead of time and frozen with no problem. And if if you didn't make the cookies, they could always buy them at a store (less work for you). Plus variety is always nice! :)

wowzers

I would definitely do a large display only cake made with faux tiers

and then kitchen cakes for cutting 

you could do 20 three layer half sheet cakes, that would feed about 75 guests per cake if you cut industry standard of 1"x 2"

then there is the issue of storing 20 cakes. You will likely need a commercial kitchen space or a large deep freezer at the least. 

with a large deep freezer you can bake and freeze all the layers ahead of time and then defrost, fill, stack and ice the day of.

Van rental is a must, you should be able to rent a utility van for about 90$ plus gas and maybe mileage. you'll have to work out your best option with the rental place, of course

you can do it, just pleassseee don't undercut yourself for payment. This is a huge undertaking and family or not you deserve to be compensated properly

best of luck :)

ps just read your update, under 500 is much much more doable

but id still suggest a display only cake and then kitchen cakes. 

if you had exactly 500 guests you need about 7 kitchen cakes

and you could make the display cake as large and in charge as they wanted

No matter what the serving amount is in the end, be sure you get payment for the cake at least  two weeks and a month would be better before the wedding date.   Let them know that no check, no cake, and cash the check to make sure it is good.  I have the feeling that if you do not get paid before hand, you will not get paid after the fact.  "After all you're a relative and you will understand that they can't afford to pay you right now"  Which actually means you will never be paid.  So NO CHECK NO CAKE!  Good Luck

Glad to hear they trimmed the list down! It's still a huge project. I wish you the best of luck. :)