A potential client sent me a pic for an estimate. I've never made a cake with this many flowers! Plus, I really hate making gp flowers so I will most likely order them online (otherwise I'd have to start making them yesterday).
Anyway, I'm wondering what a good ballpark figure would be to charge for something this... floral. I am at a complete loss!
Any help/opinions are greatly appreciated!
(I know this isn't the best pic, but it was scanned from a magazine and emailed to me as a PDF. The real cake can be seen at www.selenacakes.com)
Okay... I'm resorting to a pathetic self-bump here. 
I'm just a newbie - but those look like artificial flowers to me....
The cake designer is Selena Wong, and I'm fairly certain that they are made of gumpaste. This cake was featured in The Knot magazine - at least that's what she sent me.
I was just wondering if anyone here had ever done something like this. She only needs to feed 150 people, so obviously it wouldn't be this tall but I am pretty stumped as to what to tell her as far as cost goes.
In all seriousness... I would charge around $1000-$1500 to make all of those out of gumpaste... Plus the cost of the cake. If it were me, I would need to book a small cake the week before, or book it off completely just to make all of the flowers, let them dry, assemble, paint...
For only 150 servings you are talking only the top 3 or 4 tiers.
You are going to have to ask just what it is about this cake that she wants. Many times it's only one or two elements. If she really wants ALL the flowers I would suggest silks OR charge the same as a florist would.
It won't take near as many flowers for a smaller cake as there are in the pic. If it's the total look she wants - w/dummy cakes etc - then I suggest no less than $4-5 per serving of how many servings one would get if it were all cake.
I couldn't see someone paying less than 5K for that cake with all of those flowers. Now I understand that you are to cut it down but the ? is.....are you making it smaller or filling in with dummies to make it look the same? The cake is a big issue but the bigger issue is the $$$$ you are going to spend on those flowers. She really needs to make sure that this cake is within her budget. I would probably ask her about her budget and then see if she can afford artificial or gumpaste flowers.
Dude... that's a TON of flowers.
Even if it was just a 3 tiered version, you are talking 400 plus flowers. Yes a bunch are just small blossoms, but a good portion of them are not. They are detailed sugar flowers... orchids and roses and hydrangeas to name a few... do you have all of the cutters? I would price it like alison. A price for the cake and a BIG charge for the flowers. Charge more than a florist would sell them for. The florist doesn't have to make them by hand and paint them to make them look real. You are looking at HOURS and HOURS of work on those flowers. You could buy them, but even then you will have to color them.
I would sit down with her and ask her what she loves about the cake. If she wants the sugar flowers she will pay for them, but chances are the thought of a $2000+ cake will make her reconsider and maybe go with silks? Though I hate the look of silks on a cake.
Well, we've been emailing back and forth and I'm pretty sure she's of the want-an-uber-expensive-something-for-nothing ilk. I broke it down in the same way that aligotmatt suggested - $1K - $1.5K for the flowers alone.
Even with the cake being just four tiers, I just don't see how I can recoup my will to live for less than that! And I do have the cutters for most of these flowers, but dang! Did I mention I hate making gp flowers? 
I guess I'll just have to wait and see what she says.
Thanks for the help ladies!
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