Assembling a cake

aleighk1

We went to our cake tasting yesterday and while I knew the slices were going to be $4 a piece, I didn't factor in all of the other fees that go with booking a bakery so the total price ended up being double what I budgeted. FI is really wanting to go with this place so I'm trying to cut corners where I can.

The delivery fee is $70 but the woman we talked to said if we wanted someone to pick it up, we could and we wouldn't have to pay the $70. So, how easy is it to assemble a 3 tiered cake? Anyone know? Should I just suck it up and pay the $70?

NOLAbridealmost

I'd suck it up and pay.  Imagine how pissed you'd be if you spent several hundred dollars on a cake and then goofed it up trying to assemble it or hit a pothole while driving it to save on the delivery fee. 

Are there other ways you could cut the cost?  You could ave a smaller display cake and supplement it with slices of sheet cake from the same bakery (that's what we did; it saved about 200 dollars and no one including me could tell which slices came from the actual cake which slices were from the kitchen cakes). 

kmmssg

I only dabbled for awhile in decorating tiered cakes and I would pay that 70.00 and enjoy the piece of mind.  You don't just slap them on one another, there are dowels that support each layer and one center dowel you put through all of the layers when the last one is in place to keep everything from moving.  Wouldn't touch that with a 10 foot pole, no pun intended.  This far out is isn't difficult to find a way to budget that money in.

If the cake is double your budget though, you and FI need to talk about that.  Where are you taking the money to pay for the extra cost of the cake?  If you are not sticking to your budget now you may in trouble later.

aleighk1

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_assembling-cake?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:8e66c5fd-9114-44ec-9e45-35030127b03dPost:02f41dd4-48a7-4b6d-8b1f-01f696203e40">Re: Assembling a cake</a>:
[QUOTE]I only dabbled for awhile in decorating tiered cakes and I would pay that 70.00 and enjoy the piece of mind.  You don't just slap them on one another, there are dowels that support each layer and one center dowel you put through all of the layers when the last one is in place to keep everything from moving.  Wouldn't touch that with a 10 foot pole, no pun intended.  This far out is isn't difficult to find a way to budget that money in. <strong>If the cake is double your budget though, you and FI need to talk about that.  Where are you taking the money to pay for the extra cost of the cake?  If you are not sticking to your budget now you may in trouble later.</strong>
Posted by kmmssg[/QUOTE]

<div>There are things that we overbudgeted on so we have some money left over.</div><div>
</div><div>I saw on the sheet she had that there was an option for a kitchen cake but she never brought it up. I might say something about it and see how much money it saves us.</div>

NOLAbridealmost

Seriously, I'd look into kitchen cakes.  I forget the actual numbers but at my bakery it was something like 5.50 per slice of the "show" cake and like 1.50 per slice for the exact same flavor kitchen cake (because there is SO much less labor involved).  We still had a pretty (albeit small) cake, but it saved us a ton.

baystateapple

If you're going to go with this bakery, I'd just eat the $70.  If you are having a tiered cake, that is much more difficult to transfer than a regular cake.  They are usually shuttled in refrigerated vans, plus the guys who move them in and out of the reception hall and put them together are experts.  Plus, think about how upset your friend or family member or whoever would be if they dropped your cake, or took a corner too tight and it fell over, or whatever.  If something happens during transport and a professional is doing it (God forbid), they can fix and will fix it.  But nobody is going to fix it if you have a friend or family member transport it.

aleighk1

She is supposed to email me the designs we decided on so when she does that, I'll ask her about it. 

Milsey32

I'd pay the $70. I would not want to ruin my own cake... I'd rather blame someone else. 

andy71781

We did the sheet cake option.  I highly recommend it.  I think it actually meant faster cake for guests.

barrelbabe004

Definitley look into sheet cakes. We did a small display cake and then Costco sheet cakes. Our caterer was awesome and cut those for us for no charge so the guests had cake immediately after we did our cake cutting.

PinkRoseAcct

I used to work on wedding cakes, too.  Actually, I need to make a 2 tier for this saturday - Jesus' birthday   I would definetly go with the kitchen cakes, or cough up the $70 - you don't need the stress the day of.

ootmother2

IMO, this is one thing you don't want messed up.  IHO, I'd pay the $70. accept the fact that I was beind ripped off and get on with everything else.

mica178

I would definitely look into the kitchen cake option.  Assembling tiers should be left to the professionals.

BMcLeodTeam

At a wedding of a friend of mine the whole cake collapsed when they cut it... 

I would pay the $70, and look into the sheet cakes, I know that's what we'll be doing!