after a year of this as a serious hobby, my husband and i are making plans to turn it into a serious business within a year and a half from now. my question is this...how realistic is it to commit ones self to ONLY doing wedding cakes and having a successful thriving business?
i'd like to hear from some of you who have done this exclusively and your results. honestly, i'd prefer to have a shop without walk in business, by appointment only (meaning no small occasion cakes, pastries, coffee etc). am i misleading myself?
i live in a metroplex area of 3 to 4 million people, in an outer suburb. i know that demographics play a role....advice?
I don't have a business, but I know when I'm looking for something I always head to the internet first to get basic information....
A website presence would be essential, as well as advertising in brides' magazines (or local bridal fair publications) and attending bridal fairs.
If you're hunting brides, you have to be where they can find you. 
HTH
P.S. I used all the above sources when planning my son's wedding last year.
My wife & I have the type of business that you describe; licensed, weddings only, open by appointment only.
Honesty, It's pretty tough... especially since our entire household income comes from our business. Based on our average cake price, we have to create a minimum of 16 wedding cakes per month in order to pay our home & shop bills, taxes, health insurance, etc. Basically if we aren't doing at least 4 per week, money starts coming from our bank account to pay bills.
Some months we do 45 weddings, some months we do 12 weddings.
The viability of it for you will depend on how much money you need every month to pay all of your bills and the price at which you can sell wedding cakes.
If your numbers are anywhere close to ours, that means during wedding season working 7 days a week 12-14 hours per day to meet the demand and to make certain that you make enough money so that the lean times don't hurt you. We are fortunate enough to make it work, but we certainly aren't throwing piles of money into the bank.
Once we add another employee we will likely start doing non wedding cakes but right now we are so busy during certain times of the year that when a slow time comes all we want to do is relax, but until then the thought of making $80 cakes for parties is less than appealing.
In short, it can work but you really have to bust your behind. On the other hand, even though we have 100+ local competitors, off the top of my head I can't think of another local legal company that does only wedding cakes, and many of them open up for lunch to sell sandwiches to help make ends meet.
Perhaps it doesn't work and nobody have told us yet. 
that is what im starting, a wedding cake only business. i will do small party cakes for friends and family if they ask, but wedding cakes will be what i advertise and what my priority will be. my husband works full time, which helps with the money issues, but also i plan on continuing work as a personal fitness trainer while im doing this biz. see, PT season is fall and winter, and its really slow in the summer due to vacations, pool season, etc. conveniently its summer that wedding season is in! so during my off months for wedding i can work as a PT, then during PT off season i can focus on weddings. and since as a trainer i set my own schedule, work when i want and im off when i don't want to work, i never have to worry about being too busy training to take a cake order. so i guess, in answer to your question... i don't expect to be able to do just wedding cakes as a year round, only income business. but i expect to be able to work full time at it and make a good income during the peak season. we'll see how it actually works out, as i just barely started my biz!
my husband does work and makes a decent living doing what he does (IT industry) so i have been a stay at home mom for the last 8 years. my youngest son will be starting school in a year so i will be free to do something for myself. to make it clear, my husband does not do cake with me (not the type ) he is just my biggest fan (haha). i dont think we'd need this as an exclusive income, but i dont want it to bomb either. i am the only one doing it now when i have projects, and i dont intend on hiring a ton of employees, but i imagine i'd need some help. i also need to figure out how to not do the 12 - 14 hour days, as my three kids are young and need me. i can tell this will not be an easy thing to figure out.
my main thing is that in my state, home cake sales are not legitamate so i will need to have an actual place of business. i dont know if i want to do this every day all day, just on occasion, but i want to advertise and i want to be legitamate and legal. but i dont want to go bankrupt because i take out a gigantic loan to pay for a shop that i dont use often enough. aaaah! so confusing, too many loops to jump through, and yet, i must figure it out!
I don't do weddings only but I have done weddings. Advertising is everything. When people can get to you and see what you do, it spreads. Within my short experience what I have learned:
-have biz cards made and put your site on it... both speak for you
-brochures or cards in places where soon to be brides may go...bridal shops etc. (given they will allow you too)
-your vendors can also help, they can refer people to you
-a coordinator can be your best friend. I work with 3. I didn't have to advertise to them, my site did for me but if you don't have a site, maybe you could hook up with a coordinator. They could be your main source of advertising. Work out a deal with them to use you for their weddings.
-advertise, advertise, advertise....people like to see what you can do. Where you don't have a site, make a portfolio. I have 3 made...1 for me, 1 for my husband and 1 for my cousin. I'm working on 1 for my coordinator as well. Take pics of your work so people can see what you do. All of these people work for me when I can't because of the portfolio's.
I don't claim to know everything, but this works for me and I just got into weddings late last year. I have done 3 this year with 6 so far...but this isn't my main biz, I'm sure if I focused more on it, it could be more.
My biz is 99% weddings. Factor in that I also do catering, but it's 99% catering for weddings only, so the marketing and advertising factor is the same. It is possible.
I advertise on The Knot, Brides.com and my biggest payback for advertising is Respond.com. I only do small cakes (and the smallest sheet I will do is 11x15) for family/friends and very good customers.
I do not have time to devote the majority of a day to a $75 cake when I can devote that same amount of time to a $3000 cake/food reception.
Oh and some people also charge for the consultations, the tasting, additional samples, rentals (like the plateaus), offer other wedding services etc. If you dive in, I'm sure you can make the money you wish.
I understand how you feel about the shop. I once considered getting a place small enough just to do cakes, have consultations (cause I do them with my custom cakes) but no flow through business. I couldn't afford shelling out gobs of money for a full blown shop either. Just appointments only. I could set my own hour, working when I wanted and take care of my 3. But it was just an idea. Not sure how this would work for you. Just trying to offer some other suggestions. I know how you feel.
this is my 4th year of doing wedding cakes only. occasionally i will take a birthday cake. but my advertising reads...specializing in wedding cakes...and that pretty much tells people i only do weddings.
my husband has a different job, so we have the 2 incomes. if you can hang in there to get established it can work. took me about a year to get my name out there.
so yes, its deff. possible to do wedding cakes only.
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