Make your own wedding cake?

I can't bake for shit but I'm planning on just buying a cake from Costco

You can do separate levels of round cakes, that should help the cost a little. Instead of a traditional 3 tier we are doing 3 round cakes and it cut the price in half. (Same baker)

Costco, Sams both offer cakes at a great price. I think Sams has a 3 tier for less than $80. Save yourself your sanity and have a professional make it.

I love to bake and do so regularly, but I would never consider baking mine. Check with local grocery stores and costco because a lot of them will also do cakes.

For starters, that is not expensive for a cake that size, and far from "insan". By the time you buy the equipment and practice, you'll have spent half of it already. And once you start? You'll realize why pro cakes are priced the way they are (for a reality check? Most restaurant desserts in my area are 8.00+ pp....) And the time frame is several days before your wedding which is the craziest. And then you have to bring it there.

Just don't. Cut something else out.

If you don't want to spend the money on a baker, get something at Costco or similar. No way I'd even try this, and I bake a lot. Baking in bulk is so much different.

$500 for a wedding cake is pretty cheap for that many guests.

Hire a baker or at least buy a few nice-looking cakes from the grocery store.

Get a sheet cake to cut down on costs of cake. And you can always have a "fake" cake if you want the display.

Absolutely not. I am going non-traditional with several small Maryland Smith Island cakes in different flavors for my guests. I still think the price is atrocious, but it would be double for a more traditional wedding cake due to the number of guests I have, 250. I hear Publix cakes are delicious and beautiful, BTW.

Where's your venue and would they allow you to bring in a cake made from a non licensed food vendor? If I were you I would keep looking, I live in NY and have found plenty of good bakers who charge $4/slice. If that doesn't work out, check your local grocery store and order a sheet cake. Some groceries even do tiered cakes.

Do cupcakes they are usually cheaper. Don't put that stress on yourself

I made a large 3 tier cake for a coworker/friend. The bottom tier was chocolate chip vanilla pound cake filled with (consumption safe cookie dough- no eggs and heat treated flour) and the top two tiers were dark chocolate cake with a homemade mixed berry jam- then the entire thing was iced with vanilla bean butter cream...

IT WAS HELL ON EARTH. I practiced several time making and staking two tiered cakes, but this was so much work- and it was incredibly expensive to buy everything needed.... you're not just talking about ingredients, but different sized rounds, center rods and support rods, cardboard rounds for between layers, pastry bags, piping tips, unneeded to buy a turn table and cake lift and and I could go on for hours. My coworker gave me $200 to make it, but it didn't even begin to cover it when you factored in time and all of the other expenses. (I work full time and couldn't get off work- so I had to start baking and bake through the night, I finally finished stacking and crumb coating them by 5 am and was able to nap till 7 am till I had to get back to other responsibilities- and that didn't even include decorating it)

I've said since this day- I'm retired and I will gladly pay someone to do it for me. It was also incredibly difficult to get to their venue because I couldn't assemble it on site and it weighed between 80-100 lbs...I don't even know but all I can say is never again.

Publix has tasty cake!!! Or have a pretty cutting cake made up, and have sheet cakes (from the same baker) in the back to be cut up. PLEASE don't try to do it yourself - it NEVER goes well.

Also - is your kitchen sterile? Hard pass on that right there

So much nope. We made the cakes for my sisters' weddings, and cupcakes for my brother's. It was nightmarish and a huge headache.

Although I will say that my youngest sister's cake was still the best i've ever eaten: lavender-chamomile naked cake with lemon curd filling and buttercream frosting. It was remarkable. But it wasn't worth the headache.

Shhhiiiii... I wish mine was that price. You are getting a deal!

5 dollars a serving for cake especially fondant is average , myself being a baker know the work involved in baking a cake . Some ways to make it more cost effective is have a cake for display typically 2 tier simple buttercream design . Then have sheet cakes of the same cake filling and frosting to feed the majority . That's what I recommend when my brides tell me they need something more cost effective .

So I made our groom's cake for the rehearsal dinner. Like some others have said IT WAS HELL. It was not my first, I bake all the time, and I've done full out wedding cakes before. No big deal, right? Except when you have a million other things you're doing and you're an emotional wreck two days before the wedding.

Don't be me and end up with icing in your hair crying on the floor of your mother's kitchen over a cake. Order sheet cakes, cupcakes, whatever. Just don't do this to yourself!

Listen to everyone here. Anything edible really shouldn't be done yourself at a wedding.

$500 for 100 guest- that's a good deal. My cake was for 55 guest and I paid $575 (including transportation)- simple vanilla w strawberry filling and buttercream frosting. I advise to just pay the baker- $500 is not worth the headache....

I am... kinda.. and not by choice. I can't have eggs and none of the bakers in my mid sized city will accommodate a multi-tiered cake that's egg-free. I am determined to have cake to cut at my wedding, so guess that means I'm making it.

In order to actually enjoy my wedding and not subject my guess to the flax seed alternative, I'm ordering cupcakes from Sams for all the egg eaters and making my own 3 tier cake with the bottom two layers as dummy layers. Luckily with my rustic theme, the sloppy buttercream look is in style. I'm also practicing with marshmallow fondant in case we have an Indian summer. Since I'm using dummy layers, I'm saving myself hours of stacking and crumb coating, so the whole cake making will be about 1-2 hours max.

Costs- cupcakes are about $15 for 36ct at Sam's, so I will have about $45 invested in cupcakes. As for pans, dummy layers, and supplies, I'm probably about $50 invested. Not bad considering wedding cakes go for about $3/slice.

You could also get a smaller layer cake and supplement it with a sheet cake in the same flavor. They typically will cut that in back and guests don't know the difference.