Wedding cakes, how much!!
Discussion
One of my friends is getting married next year, anyway last night in the pub que him, yes him bringing the cake design book in to show us what they are having for the big day.
Imo, nothing very grand, 3 tiers, a few frills here and there, and the price? I nearly fell off my chair, £450!
Is he being ripped off or is this really how much they cost?
Imo, nothing very grand, 3 tiers, a few frills here and there, and the price? I nearly fell off my chair, £450!
Is he being ripped off or is this really how much they cost?
Edited by working class on Tuesday 6th October 06:49
Rules of planning wedding costs:
Rule 1: Get price for normal (non-wedding) versions of each required item / service, multiply by 4 and add £150.
That's the only rule.
My missus managed to spend over a grand on a f
king dress that now sits on the back of our bedroom door, £400 on a cake that I didn't like, £350 on a wedding car that took us 2 miles, £1000 on a dinnertime buffet (would have been £3000 for a sit-down two course meal), £600 on an evening buffet that nobody touched, £300 on some stty wedding invites, £300 on a photographer for 2 hours (photography only - no album included), £350 'donation' to the church (House of God PLC), £250 to rent my hot, uncomfortable suit (it was 30 degrees that day), and to dampen the day off nicely, England got booted out of the World Cup by Portugal in the afternoon so everyone was in a st mood for the night-do.
Our honeymoon was £3000 (a Med cruise) - we spent the whole second week locked in our cabin with tonsillitis.
Tell your mate to drag her to Gretna-Green and save a lot of money and buy something with a V8 in it instead, then take it for a two-week spin around Europe or something. I'm sure she'll understand.
Rule 1: Get price for normal (non-wedding) versions of each required item / service, multiply by 4 and add £150.
That's the only rule.
My missus managed to spend over a grand on a f
king dress that now sits on the back of our bedroom door, £400 on a cake that I didn't like, £350 on a wedding car that took us 2 miles, £1000 on a dinnertime buffet (would have been £3000 for a sit-down two course meal), £600 on an evening buffet that nobody touched, £300 on some stty wedding invites, £300 on a photographer for 2 hours (photography only - no album included), £350 'donation' to the church (House of God PLC), £250 to rent my hot, uncomfortable suit (it was 30 degrees that day), and to dampen the day off nicely, England got booted out of the World Cup by Portugal in the afternoon so everyone was in a st mood for the night-do.Our honeymoon was £3000 (a Med cruise) - we spent the whole second week locked in our cabin with tonsillitis.
Tell your mate to drag her to Gretna-Green and save a lot of money and buy something with a V8 in it instead, then take it for a two-week spin around Europe or something. I'm sure she'll understand.
As with anything with weddings you pay what you want to, and this'll depend greatly on where you're having it (friends in London always shock me with their wedding prices). Your mate shout shop around / ask their friends & family where they got theirs and how much.
We paid under half that for the exact cake we wanted, but then again it was 10 years ago. That was still hard to stomach though, for someone who thinks anything more expensive than a packet of Mr Kipling almond slices is showing off.
We paid under half that for the exact cake we wanted, but then again it was 10 years ago. That was still hard to stomach though, for someone who thinks anything more expensive than a packet of Mr Kipling almond slices is showing off.
working class said:
Imo, nothing very grand, 3 tiers, a few frills here and there, and the price? I nearly fell off my chair, £450!
that's cheapbearing in mind that it's not the ingredients which cost (£40 at the most) it's the labour that goes into them which pushes up the price
my mother makes wedding cakes for a living with hand made iced flowers (each petal is hand made and painted) - depending on how many tiers you want and the number of flowers in the bouquet, the cakes can cost several £k
While I can appreciate the work that goes into wedding cakes, and so can appreciate the cost of them, what annoys me is everything else associated with the W word, for a lot of places adding that to the beginning means you can charge silly prices.
I was talking to another jewellery designer, and she makes a lot of pearl jewellery and tiaras and was saying that if she puts stuff in in a bridal shop, or does a wedding fair, she always, at the minimum doubles her prices, I just can't do that, I make stuff that could be considered ok for a wedding, but when I price stuff, I do it with the material and working time cost in mind, I don't just then pluck another figure out of thin air to come up with a bridal/wedding price, I don't like to rip people off and it really annoys me when others do.
I was talking to another jewellery designer, and she makes a lot of pearl jewellery and tiaras and was saying that if she puts stuff in in a bridal shop, or does a wedding fair, she always, at the minimum doubles her prices, I just can't do that, I make stuff that could be considered ok for a wedding, but when I price stuff, I do it with the material and working time cost in mind, I don't just then pluck another figure out of thin air to come up with a bridal/wedding price, I don't like to rip people off and it really annoys me when others do.
Don1 said:
This was what my mum made for us - everything is edible (including the leads). Centre piece is gluten free, and not a single piece of it was left at the end.
Cost was under £100.
May I just say, God Bless your Mum!Cost was under £100.
Edited by Don1 on Tuesday 6th October 08:01
They are Brilliant, arent they?
And fair play to you for being proud of her (and rightly so) to post the picture here!
rlw said:
fking hell. She's VERY good.Make your own? I'm a bloke, an average cook, and it isn't hard.
Take one Good Housekeeping book - £10 second hand, or parents tend to have a copy. Follow the fruit cake recipe to the letter.
a) it will look different
b) its a talking point
c) even if you make 2 practice ones, it won't cost more than £80-£100. Buy the best fruit possible.
d) they are delicious
e) the guests will be amazed
f) your MIL will have something to shout about
g) they are delicious
Oh, and you can soak all the fruit in oodles of booze.
Having got married in March, I can highly recommend:
1) do your own thing. people will remember the wedding more.
2) it's easy to do your own invites. and cake, and plenty of people have a car good enough for a wedding - it only plays a part for about 20 mins at the most. Flowers aern't needed at a good venue; or provide your own
4) AVOID TELLING ANY SUPPLIER THAT ITS FOR A WEDDING
5) Spend saved cash on honeymoon extra treats
Take one Good Housekeeping book - £10 second hand, or parents tend to have a copy. Follow the fruit cake recipe to the letter.
a) it will look different
b) its a talking point
c) even if you make 2 practice ones, it won't cost more than £80-£100. Buy the best fruit possible.
d) they are delicious
e) the guests will be amazed
f) your MIL will have something to shout about
g) they are delicious
Oh, and you can soak all the fruit in oodles of booze.
Having got married in March, I can highly recommend:
1) do your own thing. people will remember the wedding more.
2) it's easy to do your own invites. and cake, and plenty of people have a car good enough for a wedding - it only plays a part for about 20 mins at the most. Flowers aern't needed at a good venue; or provide your own
4) AVOID TELLING ANY SUPPLIER THAT ITS FOR A WEDDING
5) Spend saved cash on honeymoon extra treats
Are there no old dears in your family who can actually make:
This is how we kept the budget down, in todays money probably less than four grand for the whole event.
- A cake fed with a little brandy (a nice one with real brandy, not the rubbish you'll get fobbed off with)
- Proper icing (not disgusting readyroll)
- Assemble it in tiers (talk to a cattering shop though, you can easily get this wrong!)
This is how we kept the budget down, in todays money probably less than four grand for the whole event.
pork n beef said:
Don1 said:
This was what my mum made for us - everything is edible (including the leads). Centre piece is gluten free, and not a single piece of it was left at the end.
Cost was under £100.
May I just say, God Bless your Mum!Cost was under £100.
Edited by Don1 on Tuesday 6th October 08:01
They are Brilliant, arent they?
And fair play to you for being proud of her (and rightly so) to post the picture here!
And I'd much rather have something like that, which meant something to me, than the usual white, 3 tiered things you get
My Mum's friend mate our wedding cake.
A simple design of 3 square tiers (placed on top of each other at a slight angle). Two chocolate sponge layers and a normal sponge, white icing and with 3 handmade flowers placed on the top.
Total price £80 and that included her delivering it on the day!
A simple design of 3 square tiers (placed on top of each other at a slight angle). Two chocolate sponge layers and a normal sponge, white icing and with 3 handmade flowers placed on the top.
Total price £80 and that included her delivering it on the day!
On the plus side, a couple of years down the line, when you've lost your home, your Ferrari and pretty much everything you've ever owned, and you're standing in court trying to work out exactly how your ex wife has spent twenty grand of your money on lawyers to achieve all that, 8 quid for a slice of st sponge cake will seem like a bargain.
Oh, and congrats.
t sponge cake will seem like a bargain.Oh, and congrats.
Puggit said:
Neither of us are big cake fans - both of us love cheese.
£170...
legend! got any photos of you and the wife "cutting the cheese" chortle....
NEVER EVER EVER going to get married, the ONLY thing I'm missing out on is a stag do of my own and some of you poor sods probably got deprived of that too "NO you're not allowed to get drunk and stare at naked ladies with all your mates"
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