Outside wedding cake

[Jules~Marie]

OK, I'm sure I know the answer to this, I just can't find any paperwork on it. Does anyone know if you can have an outside vendor provide your wedding cake? We're having our reception at the California Grill, so I think we probably can't have someone from the outside provide the cake, but I don't know for sure. Disney quoted us at $1033.05 for a 3 tier cake and $216.94 for the cake handling fee. We're not having any fresh fruit or any out of the ordinary flavors. Our cake is Red Velvet w/ buttercream and Almond w/ buttercream. We did ask for the castle cake topper, so I know that's adding to the cost...but I still don't understand why it'd be so much money.

If we can't use an outside vendor, does anyone have any ideas on what we can do to cut down the cost? We originally planned on having a 3 tier, square cake. The bottom tier will be light pink, and then the color will fade as it goes up. Thanks for any advice!

 

[2nd Time Bride]

What is the price per person they are quoting? We are getting a replica of our Disney cake made for our home wedding party and I found there are different costs per person based on the amount of work and/or detail going into the cake.

Do you think it is the coloring that is driving the price up, the graduated color vs plain white? Also, is it fondant or buttercream frosting on the outside, that may impact the price as well.

They should be able to tell you and work with you on bringing it down...I would hope...

 

[princesswendy720]

Outside vendors can't provide food items.

Have you considered making it 2 tiers and serving sheet cake as well to cut down the cost? I know a lot of people with larger groups do this.

 

[pezaddict231]

It could be the decoration on the cake, fondant costs more than just buttercream. I want to say the Castle topper is like $100 - $150. Unfortunately, you have to use Disney for the cake, but we did a 2 tier cake with a sheet cake and it worked out great. It saved us around $400 or so, and they were able to do the same design as they would have done on the three-tier cake.

 

[Jules~Marie]

What is the price per person they are quoting? We are getting a replica of our Disney cake made for our home wedding party and I found there are different costs per person based on the amount of work and/or detail going into the cake.

Do you think it is the coloring that is driving the price up, the graduated color vs plain white? Also, is it fondant or buttercream frosting on the outside, that may impact the price as well.

They should be able to tell you and work with you on bringing it down...I would hope...

I'm not sure what the breakdown of everything is. I just got the quote from them as one price, so hopefully if I do some of the changes you suggested, it might help bring down the cost. I'm hoping they'll help bring the cost down, when I was looking to get a groom's cake made, they were VERY helpful when it came to sticking to my budget. Thanks so much for the advice!

Outside vendors can't provide food items.

Have you considered making it 2 tiers and serving sheet cake as well to cut down the cost? I know a lot of people with larger groups do this.

I didn't think of doing that, but it's actually a great idea. I'm going to email my planner to see about getting the sheet cake made. Thanks for the input, I really appreciate it.

It could be the decoration on the cake, fondant costs more than just buttercream. I want to say the Castle topper is like $100 - $150. Unfortunately, you have to use Disney for the cake, but we did a 2 tier cake with a sheet cake and it worked out great. It saved us around $400 or so, and they were able to do the same design as they would have done on the three-tier cake.

I didn't know I could choose between fondant and buttercream, they didn't give me that option. I will definitely ask them about that. That's awesome that you saved around $400!! That's exactly what we're looking to cut. Did you have the castle topper? I wonder if it'd look nice on a 2 tier cake instead of a 3 tier...It's good to see you're back! I hope you had a wonderful time. Thanks for the advice!!!!

 

[girli565]

I didn't know I could choose between fondant and buttercream, they didn't give me that option. I will definitely ask them about that. That's awesome that you saved around $400!! That's exactly what we're looking to cut. Did you have the castle topper? I wonder if it'd look nice on a 2 tier cake instead of a 3 tier...It's good to see you're back! I hope you had a wonderful time. Thanks for the advice!!!!

A lot of the times decorations can't be done on buttercream and they'll have to do it on fondant. You may want to ask your planner what can be done on the buttercream so you can cut down on costs.

And the difference between 2 and 3 tiers is ridiculous. Can you just go with 2 tiers? It saves so much, our cake went from $1000+ to $450 wen we dropped a tier.

 

[pezaddict231]

I didn't know I could choose between fondant and buttercream, they didn't give me that option. I will definitely ask them about that. That's awesome that you saved around $400!! That's exactly what we're looking to cut. Did you have the castle topper? I wonder if it'd look nice on a 2 tier cake instead of a 3 tier...It's good to see you're back! I hope you had a wonderful time. Thanks for the advice!!!!

From what I remember they did have a few buttercream designs... but those would be really simple, and depending on when your wedding is and how hot it is, you may not be able to leave a buttercream cake displayed. So definitely make sure you check with your planner on that. I've also seen people use flowers to dress up a buttercream cake, but that would add to the bill, so I'm not sure if it would save you much.

We didn't have the castle topper, I had a crystal letter on top. While I would have liked a 3 tier cake, in reality the 2 tier still looked nice and it was nice to save the money.

Thanks! We had an awesome time, I'll be starting my TR soon.

 

[2nd Time Bride]

Ok, I think I saw in your PJ that you are having 40 guests, is this correct? If so, you are paying almost $26/person for cake?! That is insane. I would ask them how many people that cake feeds, I bet it is waaaaaay too big. Ask what the dimensions are of each tier - I bet they can scale that down appropriately and then make a 3 tier but a smaller 3 tier.

Sorry I am worked up on your behalf, I would really hope they can work with you to create the cake you want at a much better price. Most bakeries I called in the Grand Rapids, MI area quote wedding cakes at a per person cost and I really never heard anything higher than $15/person and that was for a Mad Hatter cake with very custom fillings and outside frosting.

 

[carolina64]

I want to say the Castle topper is like $100 - $150.

The castle toppers come from Impressions. The small one is 6 inches high and costs $125. The large one is 12 inches tall and costs $275 plus tax. The small one would be a good size for a two tier cake. There are more pictures at their site, fairytalewedding.com. HTH

 

[disfan melissa]

I'm not sure why you are being quoted so high
What type of cake are you getting? There are definitely ways to get a 3 tier (or 2 tier of course for a lot less)
In case it helps:
Our cake was a 3 tier destination castle with fondant delivered to the Napa Room. We paid $560 for the cake (including the white castle topper which was $106 with tax) and then around an additional $50 (1.79 per person) for the cake handling fee. We had 25 guests but gave our guests 2 slices from 2 different flavored tiers. We had leftover cake and the anniversary layer to take back to our room. It is a lot of cake!!!!

I would say, talk with your planner about ways to cut down the price on the cake and what aspects are making it so expensive.

 

[Chilly]

I'm pretty sure square cakes are more expensive than round cakes.

 

[Jules~Marie]

I'm not sure why you are being quoted so high
What type of cake are you getting? There are definitely ways to get a 3 tier (or 2 tier of course for a lot less)
In case it helps:
Our cake was a 3 tier destination castle with fondant delivered to the Napa Room. We paid $560 for the cake (including the white castle topper which was $106 with tax) and then around an additional $50 (1.79 per person) for the cake handling fee. We had 25 guests but gave our guests 2 slices from 2 different flavored tiers. We had leftover cake and the anniversary layer to take back to our room. It is a lot of cake!!!!

I would say, talk with your planner about ways to cut down the price on the cake and what aspects are making it so expensive.

Wow, glad to see that you were still able to get 3 tier cake for 25 guests. We were planning on getting a square, 3 tier cake. I know it's a lot of cake, even for the amount of people we plan on having, but we really wanted a nice cake. This gives me a lot of hope for my cake! When I have my consultation with my new planner, I definitely plan on asking for ways to cut down the cost.

I'm pretty sure square cakes are more expensive than round cakes.

Yes, that's what my original planner had told me when we said we wanted square. I guess if it's going to make that much of a difference, we will change it to round. We just liked the look of square, but we'll do anything to save money!

 

[girli565]

I'm pretty sure square cakes are more expensive than round cakes.

The reason square is more expensive is because you need more of it to feed people. A 9in square cake is smaller than a 9in round cake. My mom bakes and told me this when I wanted a square cake.