A bride contracted my business to do her wedding cake next April. The wedding and reception are being held at the zoo. She decided to go elegant with the cake, but is adding some whimsical touches. She requested that we sculpt a bride and groom for the topper as well as realistic looking animals to be incorporated into the design...tiger, monkey, zebra, giraffe, and elephant. We've done figures here and there, but nothing to this scale. How much would you charge for the bride and groom topper and each of the animals? It's a 3-tiered cake with 6", 8", and 12" tiers with the animals being sculpted to scale to fit on the cake. Hopefully that will give you a idea that they won't necessarily have to be extremely large. My concern is the detail that will have to be put into realistic animals and pricing accordingly. My husband (who is my business partner) and I have differing opinions on pricing, and I wanted to get others' opinions on the going rate. TIA!

Having just taken aine2's Bride and Groom class, I was just talking about this with some other students in the class, and we decided the Bride & Groom would be about $100 each.

When I used to do animals for baby shower or birthday cakes, I charged $10 for them. I can generally do one in about 15 minutes.

Wow, that's really fast! My hubby suggested pricing the bride and groom at $100 each and $50 each for the animals. I thought the animals should be priced much lower. Thanks so much for the info. It really helps.

Hey, kelleym! I was just thinking about this myself. I didn't think to ask any of the rest of us who took the class. But I was thinking more of $150, so I am way off base. I guess pricing should be based on he intricate design and scale you are using. But I would price the Bride and Groom as a set not each piece. JMHO

Never mind, what I said. I thought you meant $100 for the set, kelleym! Not all here this morning. But perhaps you are right with the 100 each thing. They were alot of work!!

I will be taking a class with Aine2, the end of October. Bride & Groom and Baby in Bath. I can't wait!

I haven't done a Bride and Groom yet, but I have done other figures and I think $100 each sounds about right for the B&G figures. I think $10 each for "realistic" animal figures sounds too low. If you were doing them as cartoony type figures $10 would be about right, but I think realistic is going to take much more time to make.

Does aine2 have an instructional video for the bride and groom?

No, you have to take the class to learn how to do it her way.

And let me tell you it is worth every penny! She makes it so much fun and so easy once you are doing it! I thought that it was harder before I started. Not to say that it was a breeze. But I felt very confident with doing it afterwards!

I would LOVE to take a class with Aine2! Hopefully, it'll be in the cards one day!

$100 a figure? Wow! I don't think that anyone would ever pay me that. But if you can get it, good for you!

I think $100 for the bride/groom topper is reasonable. I charge $20 each for fondant/gumpaste figures. I can't do them in 15 min (yet!), and I try to add lots of detail. The fact is that you often have to mix several diff colors, maybe make a batch of RI or chocolate "glue"...these guys can be very time consuming, so I don't do them super-cheap. If you're doing several animals that involve some of the same colors, you might be able to charge less, and if you're doing them all at one time you won't have to go thru the process over and over, but I wouldn't do them for less than $15 ea. absolute minimum. JMO.

Where is Aine2 giving a class?

Check out her blog.

http://extra-icing.blogspot.com/

Thank you for the lovely comments...you're all much too kind! (blush, blush, cheeky smile! )

I'll be back in Austin next April so another Bride and Groom will most definitely be on the menu. I'm in New York in October/November but the class is full. I'm in Chicago in March if that helps anyone. In fact, I'm in a few places next year and they are listed on my website. Seattle isn't listed but I will be there in August 2010. The dates will be confirmed soon. Bride and Groom classes are always the first to fill up but the other classes are a lot of fun too! The aim is to learn the techniques and put them to use in all aspects of your modelling.

I DO plan to have a DVD available but I cannot say exactly when this will be. I need to get this year's commitments finished and am already planning a better schedule for myself in 2010 to allow the time to do all these things so fingers crossed my organisation skills won't let me down!

Thank you ladies. It's a pleasure to teach you, here's to 2010!