Several CAKE options?

fallbride57 · June 2014

We are serving several different flavors of cake at our wedding. While our banquet will serve the cake to guests, they said they would need to know who wants what flavor. Any suggestions on how to do this? I already ordered my invites / response cards so I can’t put it on there.. nor do I really care for the idea of just having them select a desert on their invitation response card.

Maggie0829 · June 2014

Why not instead of serving the guests cake, just have your venue place the slices on a table and allow your guests to walk up and choose which flavor (or flavors) they would like to eat?

fallbride57 · June 2014

Thank you, that might be an option

It really is a good idea, but I really like the idea of guests being served since we are paying for the service anyway.

tammym1001 · June 2014

Can your venue just put several flavors on a tray and take them to the table and ask what people want or do they need to know ahead of time?

fallbride57 · June 2014

They said they need to know head of time. By ahead of time, I mean prior to serving it. So it would be okay to find out which flavor they want on the day of. I am not sure their exact reasoning behind it, but I imagine chaos/disorganization might occur if they try to carry around multiple servings of 5+ different flavors at a time.

mysticl · June 2014

Buffet or sit down dinner? If it's sit down maybe the servers could take cake orders when they bring out the first course.

Another idea. If you are doing escort cards also have the list of cake flavors with corresponding stickers at the escort card table. People take their card, pick a cake flavor, affix that sticker to their escort card. Pray everyone doesn't pick the same flavor.

JoanE2012 · June 2014

Who's going to take the flavor order before serving it? If the venue doesn't want to do it, then they should just walk around with several pieces of each flavor on a large serving tray and let the guest tells them which they want. It's really not that hard and that's how every wedding I've been to has done it if there are multiple flavors.

Truthfully, with that many flavors, I would do as Addie Maggie said and put the slices out on a table grouped and labeled by flavor. This will also save the server from being asked a million times what flavor each one is.

fallbride57 · June 2014

It is a buffet dinner. Thank you for your suggestion mysticl, I may do something like that. JoanE2012, I wish it was that easy to tell the venue exactly what to do but unfortunately they have rules, and one of them is if I want them to serve multiple flavors of cake they need to know which flavor to serve beforehand. The table idea is another good idea, although I prefer to allow my guests to stay seated and be served their desert. I was just hoping for some fun suggestions on how to determine who wants what flavor. Either way, thank you for the input

ElcaB · June 2014

mysticl said:

Buffet or sit down dinner? If it's sit down maybe the servers could take cake orders when they bring out the first course.

Another idea. If you are doing escort cards also have the list of cake flavors with corresponding stickers at the escort card table. People take their card, pick a cake flavor, affix that sticker to their escort card. Pray everyone doesn't pick the same flavor.

As a guest, I could not possibly avoid affixing every different cake flavor sticker to my card.

OP, how big is your guest list? If having them do passed trays or tables with labeled cake slices is not feasible, could you tackle this by phone/email to find out what each guest would prefer or just serve one flavor?

Maggie0829 · June 2014

fallbride57 said:

It is a buffet dinner. Thank you for your suggestion mysticl, I may do something like that. JoanE2012, I wish it was that easy to tell the venue exactly what to do but unfortunately they have rules, and one of them is if I want them to serve multiple flavors of cake they need to know which flavor to serve beforehand. The table idea is another good idea, although I prefer to allow my guests to stay seated and be served their desert. I was just hoping for some fun suggestions on how to determine who wants what flavor. Either way, thank you for the input

I am confused by this. You are having a buffet dinner but yet you want your guests to be served the dessert. Sorry but that doesn't make sense to me. If you want your guests to be served wouldn't you want them to be served everything, not just dessert? Will the cake be cut and ready to roll once everyone is done dinner or will you be doing the cake cutting after dinner so that when it is time to serve the cake no one will really be at their seats?

jenna8984 · June 2014

Maggie0829 said:

fallbride57 said:

It is a buffet dinner. Thank you for your suggestion mysticl, I may do something like that. JoanE2012, I wish it was that easy to tell the venue exactly what to do but unfortunately they have rules, and one of them is if I want them to serve multiple flavors of cake they need to know which flavor to serve beforehand. The table idea is another good idea, although I prefer to allow my guests to stay seated and be served their desert. I was just hoping for some fun suggestions on how to determine who wants what flavor. Either way, thank you for the input
I am confused by this. You are having a buffet dinner but yet you want your guests to be served the dessert. Sorry but that doesn't make sense to me. If you want your guests to be served wouldn't you want them to be served everything, not just dessert? Will the cake be cut and ready to roll once everyone is done dinner or will you be doing the cake cutting after dinner so that when it is time to serve the cake no one will really be at their seats?

I agree. If they were being served plated dinner then I could understand them not getting up to get their own dessert. But since the evening is a buffet, a dessert table would fit in perfectly. I am doing this as well since I will have different flavors of things.

fallbride57 · June 2014

Sorry to cause so much confusion. Buffet was the only option for the dinner, but included in our venue pricing is cake cutting/ serving, so I want to take advantage of that... I already made the decision that I want my guests to be served there cake, I was just hoping to get some fun ideas on how to gather the flavor they want. You all have came up with great ideas and suggestions but I guess I wasn't clear on my decision that I want the guests to be served cake and wanted help thinking of creative ideas. We are not doing a traditional cake, we are purchasing several different flavors of normal cakes and they will be held in the back kitchen until serving time. So they can be cut at any time. Thanks so much for all the suggestions!

theartistformerlyknownas · June 2014

fallbride57 said:
Sorry to cause so much confusion. Buffet was the only option for the dinner, but included in our venue pricing is cake cutting/ serving, so I want to take advantage of that... I already made the decision that I want my guests to be served there cake, I was just hoping to get some fun ideas on how to gather the flavor they want. You all have came up with great ideas and suggestions but I guess I wasn't clear on my decision that I want the guests to be served cake and wanted help thinking of creative ideas. We are not doing a traditional cake, we are purchasing several different flavors of normal cakes and they will be held in the back kitchen until serving time. So they can be cut at any time. Thanks so much for all the suggestions!

That fee is charged regardless - it's for cutting/plating, not necessarily white glove cake service. You're not missing out on any added value by having the cake served to a common table rather than to each guest.

I much prefer to choose my cake off a table - I can get it when I want it (usually not right after dinner) and pick the slice I want (not too much frosting). I really think you're much better off this way.

Jen4948 · June 2014

lolo883 said:

Sorry to cause so much confusion. Buffet was the only option for the dinner, but included in our venue pricing is cake cutting/ serving, so I want to take advantage of that... I already made the decision that I want my guests to be served there cake, I was just hoping to get some fun ideas on how to gather the flavor they want. You all have came up with great ideas and suggestions but I guess I wasn't clear on my decision that I want the guests to be served cake and wanted help thinking of creative ideas. We are not doing a traditional cake, we are purchasing several different flavors of normal cakes and they will be held in the back kitchen until serving time. So they can be cut at any time. Thanks so much for all the suggestions!
That fee is charged regardless - it's for cutting/plating, not necessarily white glove cake service. You're not missing out on any added value by having the cake served to a common table rather than to each guest. I much prefer to choose my cake off a table - I can get it when I want it (usually not right after dinner) and pick the slice I want (not too much frosting). I really think you're much better off this way.

Not only that, but fees charged for cutting and plating cakes are often very steep.

fallbride57 · June 2014

Thank you for your input! I am really interested in hearing fun ideas to finding out what guest wants what flavor, if anyone has any suggestions for that I would be interested to hear them.

JoanE2012 · June 2014

fallbride57 said:

Thank you for your input! I am really interested in hearing fun ideas to finding out what guest wants what flavor, if anyone has any suggestions for that I would be interested to hear them.

I think no one has any "fun ideas" for finding out what flavors guests want because no one has ever done this before! I (as well as many PPs) would much rather pick up a slice at a table. It also seems to fit much better, especially because you're having a buffet.

I'm not sure how you can make this "fun". If you insist on finding out the preferred cake flavor ahead of time (because that's the only way the venue will serve it tableside), it seems your only option is to have it listed on the RSVP card in your invitation. Then have the escort cards coded with the appropriate flavor. As a guest, I would find this very weird though.

I guess one other option is to have the staff go around and take everyone's flavor order. Are they willing to do that?

fallbride57 · June 2014

Thank you for your input. I probably could have used a better term than "fun". I think I meant just any "good" ideas on how to figure it out. I appreciate everyone's opinion on sitting them out on a table though. Thank you for your idea. No, I forgot to mention in my post that the venue said I would need to have a way of finding out which flavors everyone wants before they serve. Thank you for the opinion!

theartistformerlyknownas · June 2014

JoanE2012 said:

fallbride57 said:

Thank you for your input! I am really interested in hearing fun ideas to finding out what guest wants what flavor, if anyone has any suggestions for that I would be interested to hear them.

I think no one has any "fun ideas" for finding out what flavors guests want because no one has ever done this before! I (as well as many PPs) would much rather pick up a slice at a table. It also seems to fit much better, especially because you're having a buffet.

I'm not sure how you can make this "fun". If you insist on finding out the preferred cake flavor ahead of time (because that's the only way the venue will serve it tableside), it seems your only option is to have it listed on the RSVP card in your invitation. Then have the escort cards coded with the appropriate flavor. As a guest, I would find this very weird though.

I guess one other option is to have the staff go around and take everyone's flavor order. Are they willing to do that?

This will also be the only way of ensuring everyone gets the flavor they want without it running out. If they're all set on a table and the chocolate runs out, whatever, it's just gone. But to go through all the hassle of everyone making their choice at the reception and THEN realizing you don't have enough of one flavor and having to go back to them is going to be a pain for you/the staff and disappointing for the guests. Likely not the efficiency the venue was hoping for when they said they'd need to know everyone's selection in advance of serving.

The RSVP card is the only "good" idea for determining guests' choices in enough time to ensure adequate servings so everyone gets what they asked for. That's why it's used for plated entrees in lieu of anything else. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I suppose if you insist on not asking them until they get there, you could have everyone take a place card indicating their cake preference, and only make as many cards as there are servings of each flavor. But since that's not a normal thing to have to do at a wedding, you'll probably have a lot of people skip it. Or people taking multiple cards hoping for multiple pieces, then you could still run out.

Maggie0829 · June 2014

All I have to add is that this better be the best fucking cake in the world. I mean you are going to be making a big deal about getting people's chosen flavor and having it being served to them by waitstaff then they will probably be disappointed if the wedding is only kind of okay.

ETA: I meant that the wedding cake was only okay not the entire wedding

fallbride57 · June 2014

lolo883 thank you for the suggestion. maggie0829 thank you for your input.

lyndausvi · June 2014

Just to throw a wrench in your plans. I'm rarely at my seat when it comes around to cake time. At least in my social circle the cake cutting is done sometime after dinner and in between some dancing. People are normally at the bars, on the dance floor, where ever. They watch the cake cutting, grab a slice then go who knows where.

At my own wedding we did our father/daughter, mother/son dance while people were eating cake. Some people were eating their cake standing up. Others at a table near the dance floor, but not necessarily their "table".

Point being, even if you knew what flavor I wanted, I'm not sure how they would track me down to give it to me as it's unlike I would be at my seat at that point.

Hence why I like the grab the cake from the table and/or having staff pass around the cake.

AddieCake · June 2014

I just want to say that I love that Joan mistook Maggie for me above. Tee hee!

mysticl · June 2014

Maggie0829 said:

fallbride57 said:

It is a buffet dinner. Thank you for your suggestion mysticl, I may do something like that. JoanE2012, I wish it was that easy to tell the venue exactly what to do but unfortunately they have rules, and one of them is if I want them to serve multiple flavors of cake they need to know which flavor to serve beforehand. The table idea is another good idea, although I prefer to allow my guests to stay seated and be served their desert. I was just hoping for some fun suggestions on how to determine who wants what flavor. Either way, thank you for the input

I am confused by this. You are having a buffet dinner but yet you want your guests to be served the dessert. Sorry but that doesn't make sense to me. If you want your guests to be served wouldn't you want them to be served everything, not just dessert? Will the cake be cut and ready to roll once everyone is done dinner or will you be doing the cake cutting after dinner so that when it is time to serve the cake no one will really be at their seats?

I kinda get this. Our dinner was a buffet. The venue staff cut and plated the cake and then left it on the cake table. A lot of people did not get cake because they did not realize where it was.

JoanE2012 · June 2014

AddieCake said:

I just want to say that I love that Joan mistook Maggie for me above. Tee hee!

hahaha! I had to scroll back up to see my screw up. That's terrible on my part.....you hadn't even commented on the thread when I posted! Addie, Maggie.....I'll blame it on the "ie" ending names.

Several CAKE options?

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