I often receive requests for wedding cakes with less than two months’ notice. Unfortunately, most of the time I turn them down; not only because I book months out, there also is a lot that goes on in planning a wedding cake.
In this blog I would like to help you understand why it’s important to book your wedding cake as soon as you have a wedding date. I know there are going to be couples who want to be spontaneous and randomly pick a date just weeks away. This is fine for very small, intimate weddings, however if you are planning on 200 guests, it’s not reasonable to ask your baker to make you such a large cake or other confections with that many servings with such short notice.
The first thing to do in my process of getting commissioned for a wedding cake is the consultation. I have a scheduling calendar in which the earliest appointment a couple can book is two weeks out. This gives me time to bake the samples. I bake six different flavor profiles, which includes cake, filling and buttercream. It takes time to bake and prepare for the consultation. I gather information from the bride and groom to make our meeting productive and get the most out of our hour.
Many wedding cake designs will need design specific items that would need to be ordered. Some items will come in quickly; however, some items take weeks to be delivered. I like to ease up the stress of having everything I need for the design far in advance of making the cake. This helps ease the stress of not knowing if something will not come in on time and scrambling to find a substitute.
Included in your wedding cake package are two personalized items if you choose to use them. They are a cake cutting knife and serving set and an acrylic cake topper. When ordering these items, they take several weeks to arrive as the serving set is specially engraved for you and the topper is customized to your wedding. The personalization will increase the time that it takes to be delivered to me.
I advise couples that the cake tastings and design consult be scheduled right after your dress, florist, venue and caterer has been selected. The reason for this is that you may want to have a swatch of the wedding dress fabric for the baker/designer to help with the design. With the florist, it is important for me to know what type of flowers you will be having for the wedding bouquet, table settings, etc. It is also important for me to get an idea of the type of flowers you would like, if any, for your wedding cake. I do have a preference of not using real flowers for wedding cakes. I have an entire blog post about this topic which you can read here.
As far as the venue and caterer, I will need to know if there are going to be other desserts being served, and it helps with the planning of the cake. Some venues require you to use wedding cake bakers only from their list vendor list. We will need to know this far in advance because if this is the case, and I am not on their vendor list, I will need to arrange a meeting with the venue to discuss.
Wrapping this blog up, putting together a wedding cake with only a few weeks’ notice is stressful not only for me as the cake maker, it is also stressful for you, not knowing if the baker can create your dream wedding cake with such short notice. If you or someone you know is planning a wedding, schedule a consult with me today to discuss your wedding cake design by visiting my wedding cake process page here.
I hope you enjoyed reading this blog and be sure to check out my other blogs for more wedding day tips!
Patty
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