Wedding Cake & Planning Packages
Wedding Planning Tips
- Have a realistic budget before you begin. Be honest with yourself and your Vendors about your budget.
- Hire your Wedding or Event Planner first, before other vendors. Your Wedding Planner is paid to provide and help you with your vendor selection.
- Weddings are expensive. The average formal wedding in the DFW area costs about $30,000-$40,000 for 150 guests. You can help decrease your costs sometimes significantly if you move your Wedding Date to a weekday including Friday or Sunday.
- Decide NOW to relax and have fun! Before you know it, your Wedding Day will be here, treasure every moment as much as you can, even seemingly tragic events will ultimately be what makes your Wedding Planning process memorable and your Wedding Day uniquely yours!
- Don't procrastinate. The Best Wedding Professionals book early. You'll want to have a selection of the best vendors available in your price range.
- Compare! Compare! Compare! Everyone you choose to hire for your Wedding! Some Brides will choose to spend a little more with a Vendor because of a 'gut feeling' or special connection to that Vendor. We've all learned the hard way "You get what you pay for". If a vendor doesn't seem interested in developing a life-long relationship with you, move on. If you compare you might find a Vendor you can continue to work with long after your wedding day. You deserve the best, after all, You are the Bride!
When choosing your Wedding Cake there are several things to think about and questions to ask yourself and your baker. Wedding Cakes are expensive and can sometimes become a substantial portion of your entire Wedding Day Budget. I just want you to have as much knowledge as I can give you and you need to know you have options.
How Important is a Wedding Cake to YOU?
No, really. Most brides have been dreaming about their Wedding Day since they were little girls. That includes the dress and a 7 tier- taller than life ornate and elaborately designed White Wedding Cake. What if thats not you? You might hate cake. Love pie, hate cake. This is a huge determining factor in just how important a Wedding Cake is to YOU, and how much you should budget for it. Some couples already have a favorite dessert or would simply rather serve a great Cheesecake, Pie, or even Cupcakes for their Wedding Dessert.
Do you want your Wedding Cake to be a focal point at your Reception?
Speak now or forever hold your peace. If a fabulously over the top cake is what you really want, then you should have it! What if other elements of your reception are more important and you'd prefer to emphasize them. I guess the question is do you want your cake to be a wallflower or the life of the party? For Instance: At some of our Weddings we place the cake front and center at the Reception Site and the Bride and Groom pose for pictures with their guests in front of the Wedding Cake. At others we put the cake in a corner or next to other Catering items, as the Bride and Groom have arranged to make room for other elements of their day to shine through (ie: Bands, Special lighting and flooring, Waterworks, Message or Video boards, Photo backdrops.)
Do I need a Baker for my Wedding Cake and what kind should I choose?
The simple fact is you don't. Unless you care about the quality of your cake including design & flavor. Premium Bakers use HIGH QUALITY ingredients. That means Real Chocolate instead of Chocolate Flavoring, Vanilla Bean or Pure Vanilla Extracts and high quality sweet cream butter instead of shortening. In fact, you will not find 'imitation' anywhere on their shelves. If you don't believe there is a difference, or that the higher prices of Boutique and Premium Bake Shops are not warranted allow me to give you the ingredients list for the type of frosting a 'regular' bakery including grocery stores, and most mass produced prepackaged cakes will give you, what I like to call "Grocery Store Frosting"
1 lb Confectioner's Sugar, 1lb Shortening, Imitation Vanilla and Butter Flavors.
Go Big or Go Home?
You have so many choices in the type of bakery or baker you choose for your Wedding Day. Larger bakeries can definitely accommodate larger volumes of orders, and more than likely can offer a store front location that you either have been to or can go to for samplings and tastings that give you an idea of how their cakes taste. Larger Bakeries are designed to be efficient and quick as to not turn down orders, including last-minute ones. However, some of these bakers get by with using frozen prepackaged cakes, frostings and fillings and continue to use imitation quality ingredients. Also most larger bakeries are committed to a certain 'standard of excellence ' ensuring uniformity and likeness, meaning every 3 layer Chocolate Cream Cake in their store is made EXACTLY the same. This is good for ensuring us that every time we buy a product it tastes exactly the same as we remembered Unfortunately that also means that changes and variations are not accepted.
Using a 'Boutique' or smaller cake design company would afford you the opportunity to truly customize your cake. Because Boutique Bakers like Miranda Christine's are smaller, we are able to spend more time and focus helping you bring your vision alive! Or if you choose, designing a one of a kind Wedding Cake created just for you.
Specialty bakers, bake just for you! If you don't like the cake they customarily serve for weddings; want a lighter cake? Denser? More vanilla, less? They wont stop until your happy. Since smaller bakeries and designers predominately work through referrals only, they know their reputation is on the line with every single order and because of this the quality of work is unmatched.
For instance, want to make your Wedding Cake from your grandmother's recipe? Miranda Christine's can do that for you.