Do we need to have cake for everyone?

I think 135, not everyone actually eats cake unless they're served

I don't know about this one....... I think that you need to have food/drink/cake for everyone attending. Unfortunately you may need to cut the guest list if you can't afford to feed everyone.

Do you have a dessert bar? If so, then definitely. If not, can you do a sheet cake by the same baker to cover the difference?

Eh... probably not, sorry. Can you do the four tier cake and then have sheet cake in the back?

I think you need to have a piece of cake for everyone, especially since the 4 tiered cake is going to leave you 40 pieces short. I agree with @MoonRide, go with the smaller tiered cake and then get 1/2 a sheet cake to feed the rest, as sheet cakes are a lot less expensive.

Ashlee - thanks for the input - no cutting the guest list now though. We will make it happen if we have to, just will have to dig in the couch cushions for extra change

MoonRide and Rebecca - I didn't even think of having a sheet cake for some of it! Great idea, thanks!

Elizabeth - no dessert bar. Although we could also consider that if it's cheaper to cover the rest.

I was going to suggest sheet cakes too. You can have a smaller maybe 2 tier for you and your wedding party and sheet cakes for everyone else. Wedding cake slices or kinda small, im afraid you just let everyone get whatever they want then you might run out before the people who want a piece get a piece. Get sheet cakes from Costco or Sam's club!

Not everyone eats cake and this comes from someone that makes cake. Probably about 30% of your guests will not eat cake. Go with the smaller one.

A friend of mine is doing cupcakes and a smaller cake for 250 people from Sam's club for about $160.00, just FYI.

Honestly Kathryn and Michelle, that was my initial thought. I never eat cake at weddings, so I thought maybe I could get away with it.

CareBear - thanks for the info! Unfortunately I can't bring any outside food into my venue

Why don't you do a 2 or 3 tier cake and sheet cakes in the back for cutting? Even cheaper.

A smaller tier cake and sheet cakes in the back would definitely save you money. We also found that cupcakes (plus a small round topper cake) were about half the cost of a traditional tier cake (at least at our bakery). That's not for everyone, but I LOVE cupcakes, so the cupcake idea worked out well for me!

If it were me, I'd be nervous ordering under the total guest count. I plan to order some extra cupcakes, just in case. I'd always rather have too much than too little.

I wouldn't risk it. I'd get the 5 tiers especially if your guests are going up to grab a slice, than means some can go up more than once for cake ??

Have you consider having your baker do a dummy cake??

FMP - do you mean a fake cake for show and then have like sheet cakes in the back that we'd actually serve? We decided on a naked cake, so not sure that this would work for that!

Yes that is what I meant but wouldn't work for naked cakes. Sorry, didn't know you're doing a naked cake.

Our cake was for 165 guests we had a very traditional flavor and filling, nothing crazy and we paid $535 which included delivery. Our cake was fake, only one slice was real that we used for the cake cutting.

No. If you're having a dessert bar, yes you could, but ask your baker about doing a smaller one and then a sheet cake that looks just like it for backup; in other words, you don't have a nice high wedding cake layer with two filling and some people get what looks like a birthday cake.

I'm not opposed to doing sheet cake, definitely. I will ask the baker about that, and price check what it would be to do a small dessert station in addition to the cake, and probably do one or the other. Thanks everyone for the input!

Are you saving the top tier? We didn't do that and it saved us a bit.

Staci - that would be a good suggestion, but we weren't planning to save the top tier anyway!