I seem to do the same thing every time I have an order for a wedding cake (I usually do about 4-5 per year and so its not my habitual) I consult a million different portions charts to eventually attempt to feel comfortable with the size of cake to make in order to ensure that they have enough.

The couple has invited 170 people to the wedding

1) Do you wait until they have all of their confirmations and ask them to send you a final count or do you base the cake on the number of invites?

My cakes are the standard 4'' high and they want all tiers to be the same height.

2) what size rounds would you use?....they initially wanted a 3tier because they like the look but I could convince them on the 4 tier but no bigger.

Thanks for your input!!

i base it on how many servings they want to pay for-- i try to guide them through the decision process with all the available information and variables for them but they need to finally decide well in advance of the catering count so the cake can be prepared/designed -- it's not like adding or subtracting 20 portions of chicken or shrimp at the last minute -- a big discrepancy like that would change every detail of a wedding cake right -- so no last minute (aka 6 weeks away) changes after final payment is made --but servings can be added in increments of 25

maybe a 15x12x9x6 or 14x12x10x8x6-- that's more than they need about 200 but you can sell them on keeping the top tier

for a three tier 16x12x8 about 180 servings

best baking to you