Signature Desserts -- Comparison to other places for cake/desserts?

bamclaughl

Hi everyone --
  I'm having some trouble searching in just the Pgh forum for more info about price comparisons in Pgh for cakes...and since most of my friends were married 5-10 years ago, they're not much help when it comes to knowing what's 'affordable' for various things at this point.  So hopefully someone can help me with this.

My wedding is in June and pretty DIY... the photographer/DJ/florist are all friends, and besides the venue and caterer (which we definitely have already! , the cake is really the only thing left we don't have an 'in' on.  We do have the name of a friend of one of my bridesmaid's who does baking out of her home, and did my friend's wedding (cupcakes), and my friend was super happy and her wedding ended up in Pgh magazine, so I feel like that could be a good option, but I don't know that I'd feel safe asking her to do anything more than my friend can vouch for, and I really am not a cupcake girl

BUT, another friend of mine used Signature Desserts for their cake/dessert package about 7 years ago... said for 110 people, she remembers it being about $200.  So adjusting for it being awhile ago, now, and having more people (we're inviting 170, expecting 150-160), I was hoping we'd come in under $400, but all told, it's going to be about $480.  I have not looked anywhere else -- for various reasons, I really did not have the time to do much in the last few months after the initial burst of planning in the fall, and now I'm concerned about getting a Saturday (the only time that works for me) appt other places to price-compare (Signatures has a 3-mo wait for a Sat. appt right now).  I really REALLY liked the cake, the people were great, and I know that their real 'selling point' is their dessert spreads, which also look amazing. She asked to let her know within the next week-2 weeks, and frankly, I'd be kind of happy to just have this settled.

But, I'm hoping to find out -- does that price sound average-to-good  (I.e. comparable to most, or even a fair bit better than, other places)?  Because obviously bakeries don't typically have their prices online, but if I can get some kind of sense that I probably won't do MUCH better without sacrificing a good deal of quality, I'll gladly settle on them.  I just always feel kind of guilty settling on the first vendor I talk to for a given thing... but I also just need to get this show-on-the-road --  we JUST found out we have to move out-of-state at the end of the summer, and my energy for wedding planning was definitely waning badly enough BEFORE that! ;(

Thoughts??  Any place anyone knows that they think is a much better deal?? (In which case I'd definitely at least try to make an appt there!!)

thanks so much in advance!!

pantherRN

I love Signature Desserts and they're doing our cake and dessert spread. IMO, if you look at what you get for the money, it's worth it. Linda is crazy easy to work with. However, I honestly don't know the pricing for other bakeries because I didn't look anywhere else. If it matters, every wedding I have been to that they've done, everyone has raved about the cake and desserts.

JennyBee1018

I used Signature for my wedding in 2008 (so a while ago too). I LOVED working with Linda, and the dessert buffet was amazing.

I didn't end up shopping around for bakeries, but I'm with Panther that what you get with Signature is worth it. I think most bakeries will charge you around that much for 1 cake, and with Signature, you get all the extras!

If it were me, I'd definitely go with Signature and not even worry about price comparing! But if you're really concerned, why don't you just call a few other bakeries to see if they can give you a quick quote? It can't hurt to ask!

bamclaughl

thanks ladies... this is helpful.  I've looked a few other places, just online -- Bethel Bakery is apparently pretty notoriously expensive, Lincoln Bakery does not have great reviews for customer service (though I know it's well-loved for the taste:), Paddy Cake doesn't have prices online, and Prantl's says they are between I think maybe $2.75-3.75/person (with the amount Signatures gave me being I think about $3/person, so near the lower end of that range).  So, I *might* call Paddy Cake this week, but I feel like I'm likely to just settle on Signature's.  I can't stop thinking about the raspberry/mango filling combination!!  (I had chosen my two fillings for our 'sample' cake as raspberry and chocolate -- was underwhelmed by chocolate, liked the raspberry but wanted a second flavor to go with it -- she suggested the mango -- I was skeptical (thought it would be too 'out of the box' or just too sweet), but oh my heavens, it was INCREDIBLE. 

So if anyone knows more specifics about approximate per person prices for other places, it'd be really helpful, but it's good to know others feel confident about them too

mollyacita

My wedding is in July and I went with Prantl's...they do start at $2.95/piece and with that price you can get a three tiered cake that serves at least 100 (I'm having 100 guests so I forget what the max serving is).  There are many beautiful designs, flavors, and styles to choose from.  With tax, delivery charge, and everything our cake came to $400.  We're not doing other desserts so I'm not sure about those.  They were very nice and helpful.  I was very pleased with their service.

speckjian

I know this is a later post, but we just had our tasting at Signature Desserts, and after looking at several places in Pittsburgh, we loved them.  For a wedding cake with two unique fillings (you can choose from anything)- we found their prices very reasonable compared to the other bakeries we compared in Pittsburgh (and we compared quite a few).  We were thinking that we were goingt to cut back and not go "over the top"- a super simple design, only one standard buttercream filling, etc.- but Signature offered us a lot more and still fit within the budget that we determined to be reasonable for our wedding.