Wedding Cake Cost

It seems a lot of my friends are getting engaged and married lately. Darn, that makes me feel old lol πŸ˜† One question you might ask if you’re planning a wedding is how much money to spend on a cake πŸ˜€ So here’s a budgeting guide for wedding cakes.

Some people over estimate how much cake they actually need. This often leads to a lot of it being left over. Proper planning can reduce wasted food and money πŸ™‚ From what I’ve heard the general rule is each finger slice of cake can cost between $2 to $5. This is for a typical buttercream or fondant wedding cake with vanilla icing. However larger cakes with 3 more more tiers can cost up to $8 per slice because stacking becomes more difficult and more work goes into transportation. So make sure to budget accordingly to avoid walking on thin icing later πŸ˜€

To give a rough estimate using the numbers above, a wedding cake for a small reception of 25 people should cost around $150. A cake for 100 would be about $500. And for 200 people it would be $1,200. Simply extrapolate these numbers if you gateau-ver 200 guests πŸ˜€ These estimates will get you a pretty decent cake and should be enough for most couples.

However there is always a range of options you can choose from, so ask around and sponge off your friends for ideas πŸ™‚ High end specialty cake makers that can add exotic ingredients or wedge in πŸ˜€ additional services can charge $10/slice or more. The cake at Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding in 2011 was $80,000, and looked absolutely stunning!

13-10-royal-wedding-cake

Then there’s the other 8 tiered wedding cake made earlier this year by a bakery in Chester, England that was decorated with 4,000 diamonds and valued atΒ Β£34 million ($54 million USD)Β Erm…Yeah, that’s a bit outside of my price range πŸ˜• But I’m sure there are fruit cakes out there who would be happy to pay for it πŸ˜€

The average wedding cake in 2013 is around $400 to $500.Β No one should get a rise out of that figure because that’s actually a pretty good value considering the entire cost of getting married.Β This year the average cost of a wedding is about $32,000 according to a recent survey by Weddingbells magazine, and bakeries want a slice of that action πŸ˜€ For affordability comparison the median household income in Vancouver is around $67,000 πŸ™‚

 

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

14 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Clarrise @ Make Money Your Way
10/28/2013 11:58 pm

My wedding cake 8 years ago was $125 but it was sponsored by my father. πŸ™‚ And I think the wedding cake ranges now is thrice amount from my cake before.

Well Heeled Blog
Well Heeled Blog
10/29/2013 4:12 am

I got 3 non-wedding cakes for my wedding (I told the bakery it was for a family event) because days before, another bakery wouldn’t sell me a regular cake once I told them I’m having a wedding.

Brian
Brian
10/29/2013 5:47 am

Our cake was around $250 and it fed close to 300 people. We paid less because we took a risk and went with a vendor who had only done a couple weddings. Her work was fantastic. Of course it could have turned out to be a disaster too.

Phil
Phil
10/29/2013 10:50 am

Back in 2000, we asked our extended family prior to our wedding if they knew or could recommend a cake maker. Interestingly we found asking the question quite fruitful and found someone in the family knew some going to through school as a pastry maker, and on weekends made cakes for events and worked part-time at the Chateau Laurier. Long story short, she offered to make our wedding cake as part of a school project she needed to do, showing her skills so long as we could provide her professionally shot pictures of it as part of our wedding. So our cake was fully edible (real lemon filling), with outstanding hand crafted and coloured, intricate sugar flowers flowing cascading down one of the sides… Cost to us free! …well we paid her $200 because it really was the focal point of our small wedding, and could not see her not paid for the 50+hrs of work she put into making and assembling the cake . We still have most of the sugar flowers in a display case to this day. We never got a real quote for it so I have no idea what it should have cost us, but… Read more Β»

save. spend. splurge.
10/30/2013 10:14 am

I think once the word “wedding” is tacked on there, the price goes up 300%.

theoutliermodel
theoutliermodel
10/30/2013 4:24 pm

I haven’t had the opportunity to have a wedding cake yet πŸ˜‰ I kind of like the idea of having wedding cupcakes actually…

Marissa@Thirtysixmonths
11/03/2013 8:30 am

A lot of couples are being creative and cost effective lately. There are so many ways to save on cake. I know a couple who ordered a single layer of cake to be cut and then gave out cupcakes to the guests. Other couples also realize that the cake is not really something to spend more on.