10 Cost Saving Tips for Rehearsal Dinners

Rehearsal Dinners have two purposes, first, it is an opportunity for the bride's and groom's family to get together and to get to know each other a little bit and second, it is also a thank-you celebration for all the participants that are partaking in the wedding.

The participants in the rehearsal dinner include, the bride and groom, the bride's immediate family, the groom's immediate family, the maid of honor and bridesmaids, the best man and groomsmen, generally the parent's of the flower girl and parent's of the ring bearer, it is a good idea to have the flower girl and ring bearer too but it is not required.

Usually, siblings that are close in age should be invited to the rehearsal dinner. These other participants are optional, siblings that are not close in age, the grandparents and any special aunts and uncles, the spouses of bridal members that aren't part of the bridal party, officiants of the wedding and their spouses, also out of town guests, also very close friends to the bride and groom that aren't part of the wedding. Which members to invite, should all depend on your wedding budget.

Most couples tend to have their rehearsal dinner right after the final rehearsal practice for the wedding. Protocol states that the groom's parents generally cover the cost of a rehearsal dinner. If the groom's parent's can't afford the rehearsal dinner, other possibilities include the bride's family to help out, the wedding couple helps out, or check with other close relatives such as a grandparent, an aunt or uncle, or sometimes a boss from a company could help defray the costs.

It's a good idea to find a rehearsal dinner location that's not too far from the wedding ceremony practice site. The site is recommended to be within fifteen minutes drive of the wedding ceremony practice site and highly recommended not to be more than 30 minutes from the ceremony site.

Some families include special activities at the rehearsal dinner. Sometimes family have a little roast and toast of the wedding couple, members of the family and bridal party may say a couple of words about the wedding couple at the rehearsal dinner, sometimes little games are played to see how well the guests know things about the wedding couple and how well the couple knows each other. The important thing though, is to not go too far, you don't want to embarass the couple or wedding guests, the event should be geared to good first impressions.

The last thing to note, you don't want to have the bride and groom out late or getting drunk. You want to be sure they are well rested for their very special day, don't plan any activities that will keep them out late. It's important for their marriage to get off to a great start!

The following are 10 cost savings tips for the rehearsal dinner:

Tip 1 - Consider a Restaurant for a Rehearsal Dinner Site
Depending on your budget, you could find a restaurant for a rehearsal dinner site, if the budget is really tight you might want to low key the occasion, do not mention the occasion as a rehearsal dinner or wedding to the restaurant staff and have everyone order off the menu, you can reserve an area as a party, some restaurants jack up the price if they know the event is a rehearsal dinner or wedding.

Tip 2 - Order Less Expensive Entrees, Have Hors d'ouevres Instead, or Have a Buffet Table 
Instead of having a dinner, make it a cocktail hour and have hors d'oeuvres instead, hors d'ouvres are a lot cheaper. Another option is have a buffet table instead, order less expensive entrees, make sure you have assorted entrees though. Have the food mostly served from a buffet table of chafing dishes and salad bar. A buffet table is generally less expensive than meals ordered from an entree menu.

Tip 3 - Consider an Outing Instead of a Formal Rehearsal Dinner
You might consider having a barbeque, a beach party, having a bowling night, a dinner theater, wine and cheese party or a ballgame night. Instead of having a formal affair, have the occasion geared to an interest. Just be sure whatever activity is chosen, the family and wedding guests would be also interested in following along.

Tip 4 - Consider a Rehearsal Dinner in a Family or Friend's Home
If a family member or friend have a beautiful home, have the rehearsal dinner in someone's home. The occasion could be a pool party, poker party, or party games surrounding the wedding couple. You can even have an outdoor theater featuring the lucky couple. There are many food options too, you can have pot luck dinner, hire a chef, order take out food from a specialty restaurant, pick up assorted hors d'ouevres and appetizers, or pick up a bunch of pizzas, sub sandwiches, or italian food.

Tip 5 - Have the Bride or Groom's Mother Bake a Groomsman Cake
Groomsman cakes have become popular for rehearsal dinners over the past decade. Groomsman cakes are cakes made to the groom's liking, served at the rehearsal dinner usually made to one of the groom's favorite flavors such as chocolate or chocolate fudge and the top of the cake is decorated to one or more of the groom's hobbies. Instead of ordering a groomsman's cake at a local baker, if the bride or mother of the groom like to bake cakes, have one of them bake and decorate a groomsman cake for the groom. Use a little imagination, the guests at the rehearsal dinner will be impressed.

Tip 6 - No Need to Decorate at a Rehearsal Dinner
A lot depends on a wedding couple's budget. Decorations or centerpieces are acceptable to not have at a rehearsal dinner, the event is more for close family and the bridal party. No one will be offended if you don't have decorations at your rehearsal dinner. The rule of thumb, if you can afford it, decorate, if the money is very tight, don't decorate.

Tip 7 - Rehearsal Dinner Invitations are not a Requirement
If you are looking to save a little money, it's not necessary to send out rehearsal dinner invitations. Rehearsal dinner invitations can be done in many different informal ways, rehearsal dinner invitations can be done by phone, can be done by email, can be done by informal mail, can be done using a couple's website, any way that is a convenient way to communicate. Rehearsal Dinner invitations don't have to be fancy, they don't have to be formal like the wedding and wedding reception, but however they are done make sure it's not in a sloppy way, you need to be leaving a good first impression.

Tip 8 - Find a Vanilla Banquet Hall for your Rehearsal Dinner
You might look for a banquet hall that is not a regularly functioning venue space. You might check out church halls, community centers, retreat centers, classroom complexes, empty banquet halls, VFW halls, retirement clubhouses, empty office spaces, Knights of Columbus Buildings, dining areas at less glamorous golf clubs, or private areas at restaurants. The rehearsal dinner areas you can take a vanilla area and just hire a caterer to drop off food. A quiet venue area might even be better than a formal venue area, this way you can have plenty of privacy for roasts, toasts, and wedding couple games.

Tip 9 - Have Everyone Order off the Menu instead of Ordering Entrees
Many restaurants will charge a lot more money if you order food off an entree menu instead of a restaurant menu. Instead of ordering food from an entree menu, have all the rehearsal dinner guests order off the regular menu instead, restaurants and special banquet facilities tend to have higher prices on their entree menus for rehearsal dinners and wedding receptions. Order the food off of their normal menu, you probably will save some money on tip money too.

Tip 10 - BYOB for your Rehearsal Dinner
Bring Your Own Booze, Bring Your Own Bartender, Bring Your Own Beer, and Bring Your Own Wine. If the venue allows you to, handle as much alcohol costs as you can. A venue will charge you a lot more for alcohol than if you brought alcohol to the venue yourself. A bottle of wine might cost you $25, you can get just as good wine that you like from a winery or local liquor store for $5. You can save a lot a lot of money from using a keg of beer or use wine carafes instead of bottle of wines. Bring your own bartender, if you use a venue's bartender, the venue may charge twice or three times for the same bartenders, they keep some money for overhead, if you brought your own bartender, the venue is less likely to charge overhead. You also can gear the liquor to the drinks your guests enjoy. If you can BYOB, you can save yourself a lot of money.

Make sure you check the Rehearsal Dinner location in person yourself before booking. Make sure the venue has an area that can be kind of private, you don't want outsiders to be intruding into your private celebration, you don't want speeches, toasts, or wedding rehearsal games or distribution of bridesmaid or groomsmen gifts to be intruded by other restaurant patrons. You don't want gawkers or be disturbed by others. Make sure you find a space that can be geared to the type of rehearsal dinner that you are looking for.

Also, no one says that a rehearsal party has to be the day before the wedding. If your wedding is on a Saturday, if a Thursday is a lot cheaper than a Friday wedding reception at a particular restaurant, consider one day earlier if it means saving significant money. A morning rehearsal dinner brunch is an option too.

See you on the other side!

10 Cost Saving Tips for Using Hotels for your Wedding

As you begin to plan your wedding, you might check out upscale hotels in the area where you plan to get married. You might think the price of using hotels might be beyond your price range, but upon further inspection you might be pleasantly surprised to find out you can really afford it.

With upscale hotels you are usually assigned a hotel wedding coordinator, a person that's generally highly experienced at planning weddings, a person that can help you plan an extraordinary wedding, a person that can help you in planning your wedding and save you money in many different ways. For instance, you may save in transportation costs, you many no longer need a limo to transport wedding guests from the ceremony location to the wedding reception. The hotel may offer shuttle service free of charge from the airport and from other locations and back again.

Many upscale hotels offer your wedding, a luxurious and memorable experience and keeps all your wedding guests together, so there is more time for your guests to enjoy themselves. Your wedding guests can have a good time and reminisce of days gone by and spend time to be entertained and enjoy a great meal and enjoy a few drinks, and also enjoy the hotel's luxurious accommodations.

The following are 10 cost saving tips for using hotels for your wedding.

Tip 1 - Search for Hotels that Bundle Services
The major savings you get for having your hotel is the bundling of services. A lot of wedding categories are grouped together and often are discounted saving you quite a bit of money. By booking your wedding at a hotel or resort and by the hotel bundling many wedding category services, the hotel saves you effort, the vendors are vetted and usually top notch, you may no longer have to worry about finding many wedding vendors yourself. The services bundled include the services of a wedding coordinator, a reception hall, the caterer and the food and the bartenders and the drinks and the wait staff that serve and clear the tables, you also save on the decorations and table centerpieces, the wedding cake and desserts, and for all the chairs and tables, all the plates and dishes. The wedding couple may also save on the wedding musicians or the disc jockey, on a photographer, possibly a wedding officiant, and possibly transportation and providing your wedding guests more time to spend together.

Some hotels even have salons and spas in house, whereby the bridal party can get their hair done and makeup applied. About the only thing that wedding couples have to focus on is who to invite to their wedding and what outfits the bridal party should wear.

Tip 2 - Block a Set of Rooms to get Discounts for Wedding Guests
Most upscale hotels will offer a wedding couple a group discount for blocked rooms. If enough rooms are booked, the wedding couple may even be offered a luxurious honeymoon suite for free. A simple phone call and a little foresight could end up saving you and your wedding guests quite a lot of money. You need to plan in advance at many upscale hotels. The more popular hotels get booked far in advance, sometimes even a year or two in advance. Generally, at least 10 rooms would need to be booked and the cut off for booking is usually about one month prior to the booking date.

When you enter into a booking plan with the hotel, the hotel will inform you how your guests should get signed up with the discount plan. Some hotels use a coding system whereas others may book under the wedding couple's or family names. About a month before the wedding date, the hotel will have a cutoff date and the hotel will open rooms to the general public. You will need to be in contact with the hotel to find out how many guests have been booked and what date is the cutoff. If there are still empty rooms, you might want to touch base with some of your wedding guests to see if you can book enough guests to warrant a discount or a honeymoon suite.

It's a good idea to book rooms at multiple hotels and encourage like minded individuals to use the same hotel. It might not be a good idea to book conservative older generation guests with your fraternity brothers and sorority sisters or divorcees staying together at the same hotel. Check on shuttle service between different hotels.

Tip 3 - Find a Hotel that can Double as your Ceremony Site
In the past decade, many upscale hotels have created a beautiful ceremony space at their hotel. You should check the hotel's ceremony site, the hotel just might have a beautiful location for a wedding ceremony. Check the location out in person though, some hotels have outstanding sites and some hotels offer a very vanilla site. Also check out what chairs and decorations are offered for the wedding ceremony, at some venues you might find chairs and decorations from a rental store to be cheaper than from the hotel. The thing that is great about having a wedding ceremony at your hotel is that you keep all your wedding guests together giving you more time for partying and mingling.

Tip 4 - Check Out Local 2 or 3 Star Hotels for Guests with a Tight Budget
If you have some out-of-towner wedding guests with a tight budget, you might be better off including a hotel in the area that is a lot less expensive, maybe even a 2 or 3 star hotel in the vicinity of the wedding hotel. Don't just book rooms at a 2 or 3 star hotel until they are checked out in person. Many 2 and 3 star hotels are very nice, but just as many of these hotels have issues. The hotel room may be run down or have no air conditioning or have substandard plumbing or in a bad location. Check out any hotel in person before recommending it to wedding guests.

Tip 5 - Rent Linens from a Hotel, Ask for at Least a 10% Discount 
Check out what other area hotels might be able to offer you for your wedding, it does not have to be your wedding hotel. Many wedding hotels might be able to rent you linens for your wedding. You might even be able to order a wedding cake, desserts, hors d'oeuvres, decorations, or furniture. Many wedding couples never even think to check with what other hotels can offer in wedding planning, they might be close by your wedding location and provide you with wedding needs and save you quite a bit of money.

Tip 6 - Work with the Wedding Coordinator and Hotel Manager in Ways to Save you Money
As you are planning your wedding, talk to the wedding coordinator or hotel manager and tell them you are looking for ways to save on expenses. Many of the hotels first try to up-sell you, they try to get you to go for the more expensive packages. They may find you cost savings, cheaper linens, less expensive dishes, less expensive wedding decorations or maybe you can bring your own bartenders, wait staff, and allow you to bring in your own alcohol or wedding wine and champagne. You don't always have to go with what the hotel's brochure advertises. Talk things over with the head staff at the hotel, they may offer options to make the wedding more affordable. Make sure you go through the contract in detail before signing and look for savings.

Tip 7 - Look for Wedding Dates that Offer Lower Booking Prices
For many upscale hotels, booking weddings and rooms are cheaper at different times of the year. Before booking a hotel you might want to study the booking costs for different dates. Hotel rates tend to be cheaper in November, January, February, and March. Hotel rates are often varied, with higher rates during holidays and the wedding season such as May and June. Also the day of the week and time of day offer different rates. Saturday night weddings tend to be most expensive and a week day may be less expensive, but sometimes things depend if the hotel is geared toward business clientele. Study a chart of the hotel's open dates booking costs before deciding on a date to book your wedding and wedding guest accommodations.

Tip 8 - Check out Accommodation Alternatives to the Hotel
If you look around the area, there may be an estate house available for your wedding. The estate house may offer many rooms that wedding guests can stay. The estate house sometimes with many wedding guest could end up costing you less than staying at a hotel and possibly be a more beautiful location. Also check out area time shares and bed & breakfasts. Check out other options in the area, you just never know you might have found a beautiful manor that costs just a much or even less than a luxurious hotel and a beautiful place for hotel guests to spend the night and have a beautiful brunch the day after your wedding and an exciting wedding experience for your wedding guests.

Tip 9 - Use Kayak.com to Help Find you a Great Deal
Kayak.com is a great resource to find hotel accommodations. Kayak.com is a website that analyzes hundreds of different hotel, airplane, and auto rental websites in an area you are looking and finds you the best deal within your budget. There is a little secret though in booking with Kayak. First find a great hotel deal using www.kayak.com , but before booking call the hotel and tell them you are looking at a room from a hotel website. You ask the hotel can they find you a better deal or at least a matching deal than was quoted from Kayak. Often the hotel will give you a better or matching deal. The reason to go with the hotel, the hotel keeps better locations for themselves and the guests that sign up personally gets more attention. If the hotel doesn't match or give you a better deal, then revert back and book using kayak. Also check out www.hotel.com .

Tip 10 - Look for Hotels using Google Maps, Mapquest, or Yelp
First look for a Hotel area that features nice upscale hotels in an area. Then from that area, look for hotels that don't advertise. Some upscale hotels don't advertise and are in an area of other upscale hotels. Because the hotel doesn't advertise, the hotel passes the savings to their customers and charges cheaper hotel fees. After finding an area that shows upscale hotels, look at other hotels in the same area either by using google maps, mapquest, or yelp, find other hotels that show up on the map and don't advertise such as wedding directories or does not have a website. Look up the phone number of these un-advertised hotels and see what their rates are and negotiate better deals. It's a sneaky way to sometimes find great deals.

There is a lot to cover in a contract for a wedding hotel. Make sure you get a walk-through before signing a contract, check out the reception area, holding rooms, the kitchen, other areas such as the hotel grounds and lobbies, and check out the hotel rooms and all the bathrooms that go with your wedding space. Also check out transportation situations, valet parking, parking spaces, shuttle use, and bus and train stops. Review the contract thoroughly to be sure everything is understood and understand all restrictions such as the time the venue has to be shut down, decoration restrictions, music restrictions, and what can and cannot be done at the hotel. Make sure all your wedding guests and wedding vendors understand all the restrictions. Make sure you have at least another set of eyes looking with you through the contract.

See you on the other side!

10 Cost Saving Tips for Bed and Breakfasts

Bed & Breakfasts are a wedding couple's little secret and can help out a wedding period in many different ways. Some bed & breakfasts are designed for weddings and can provide significant cost savings, some are a good place to stay for the out-of-town groom, some are good for your honeymoon night before a couple is off to their honeymoon, and they are a great place for out-of-town guests that come into town for your wedding day period.

Many bed & breakfasts are run by the owner or an innkeeper who put out a lot of effort to make the b&b a wonderful place to stay, many rooms are designed with character, provided with plush bedding, fluffy robes, and assorted toiletries. The bed & breakfasts lobby may be decorated with antiques and other unique items such as from a landlord's hobby. Many have an entertainment room or a den library.

The bed & breakfasts also feature their namesake, a very hearty breakfast, featuring all sorts of breakfasty things, including egg dishes, pancakes, french toast, waffles, muffins, lox & bagels, toast & jelly, sausage, bacon, cereal, a great cup of coffee and a fruit juice.

There are some keys when dealing with bed & breakfast to get great deals. Make sure you get a brochure of all the amenities that the bed & breakfast has to offer, let the bed & breakfast know you are getting married you might just get a special gift or a room upgrade, don't be afraid to try to negotiate a better deal, and try to book them far in advance. The following are 10 cost savings tips.

Tip 1 - Consider a Bed & Breakfasts That Handle Weddings
If you are having a small wedding, you might consider checking out bed & breakfasts that are in your area first that handle weddings. The bed & breakfasts can possibly save you significant money and many have connections or items on premise and possibly a beautiful yard for your wedding. Some have special spots for a wedding ceremony, and they have a lot of connections with wedding vendors, may have a small area for a wedding reception area or might provide a wedding tent at no extra cost. The connections might handle wedding decorations, provide floral arrangement, provide a wedding cake, provide a photographer, and recommend wedding musicians or disc jockeys, and provide a wedding officiant.

Tip 2 - Book Many of your Wedding Guests at the Bed & Breakfast 
When you negotiate with your bed & breakfast, ask the innkeeper, if you convince many of your wedding guests to stay at the bed & breakfast can you get a discount for you and maybe also for your wedding guests. Many bed & breakfasts will oblige you for bringing them additional business.

Tip 3 - Check Out Wedding Supplies a Wedding Bed & Breakfast Has
Even if you are not staying at the bed & breakfast, many b&b's have supplies for weddings. They may have a wedding tent, chairs and tables, linens, dishes, serving dishes, serving utensils. Their supplies may be available for your wedding and the items may be less expensive to rent than from a rental services store saving you some money.

Tip 4 -Check Out the Less Expensive Rooms at the Bed & Breakfast
Many bed & breakfasts offer more expensive rooms and less expensive rooms. Sometimes the difference is square footage in the room or a beautiful view or more lush bedding, or a bath in the room. Check out the rooms before booking, a less expensive room is often just as good as the more expensive rooms, just don't book any room at a bed & breakfast, ask for a walk-through of all the rooms that you might consider.

Tip 5 - Talk to the Innkeeper About Area Amenities
The innkeepers of bed & breakfasts take pride of their business, most can answer many questions of the area. You can often get what the best and cheapest restaurants are in the area. Also the innkeepers gather discounts or coupons of Things To Do in the area. Maybe there is a festival, a winery, a museum, an art gallery, an amusement park, a dinner show, or a quiet place in the park. Good innkeepers can find activities for you to do and get you a discount, ask and often then can help you.

Tip 6 - Sign Up for Offers by the Bed & Breakfast 
When inquiring about what a bed & breakfast has to offer, give the innkeeper your email and home address. Often you may get a newsletter or ecard online or a post card in the mail of special deals. You'll be the first to hear about a bed & breakfast special. You might receive packages and/or incentives offered by the b&b or be informed of an event in the area, and perhaps take home a good recipe or two.

Tip 7 - Sign Up on the Bed & Breakfast Facebook Page 
Become a fan of the Bed & Breakfast, sign up as a fan to bed & breakfasts that you are interested in. You will get in on Promo Codes and Coupons. You might very well get in on a drawing offered by the B&B and win a free stay or get a significant discount. You will be the first to know of happenings, be informed of cancellations, and kept abreast of events, plus you will stay in touch with the B&B innkeeper.

Tip 8 - Visit B&B Directories for Packages, Specials, and Gift Certificates
Go online on the internet. investigate bed & breakfasts in your area. Visit directories like www.bbonline.com,  www.bedandbreakfast.com , www.selectregistry.com , and www.bnbfinder.com. Search for extensive listings for packages, specials, and gift certificates. Sign up to receive a weekly b&b newsletter, look for hot deals or promotional offers for free via email.

Tip 9 - Understand the Phone Service or Internet Arrangement
Understand exactly what is included in the the land lines of a bed & breakfast. Don't get caught with paying additional charges. Use your cell phone instead of the b&b's land line and understand what the situation is with using your lap top. Some b&b's might surprise you with a charge for lap top usage.

Tip 10 - Check B&B Associations and Guilds
Find out what other patron experience's were with the bed & breakfast, also check them out with the better business bureau. Also check out if the bed & breakfast has different costs in different seasons, what are there costs during slow and peak seasons, comparison shop of different b&b's and see what b&b's get you the better deals.

The better bed & breakfasts get booked months in advance. Check in with the b&b's to find out far in advance you must book to insure you get a room. Always check out the rooms in person before booking, a picture over the internet can be sometimes be deceiving. Always review the rules of the b&b before booking, also check out the neighborhood and parking. The place may look beautiful but then you get their and you find yourself in a noisy neighborhood. Most reputable b&b's are pretty good, for they also want future business, their success is often dependent on word of mouth.

Check out bed & breakfasts, some leave one with a lasting memory of their experience. See you on the other side!

10 Cost Savings Tips for Wedding Cakes

The centerpiece of the wedding reception is the wedding cake. The wedding cake tends to be second most talked about topic at weddings after the bride and her wedding dress. Many couples are surprised at the cost of a wedding cake, it often is a lot more expensive than they were expecting. Couples often go overboard in designing their wedding cake, their dream is to have their wedding cake as a showpiece for their wedding.

Below are some tactics on saving money on your wedding cake. Bakers determine size by using guest count as a starting point and from there, add a few more slices to account for wedding guests who sneak an extra slices and late additions. The baker determines the size of the wedding cake by calculating pan sizes that are needed for the wedding cake. For instance, a 6 inch pan yields 12 slices of cake, a 10 inch pan yields 36 slices of cake, a 16 inch pan yields 92 slices of cake and a 20 inch pan yields 120 slices of cake.

The key in creating your wedding cake, be honest with your baker about your wedding cake budget. Don't go to your baker with a picture of an extravagant cake from a magazine then expect to pay rock bottom prices unless you have a strong budget for your wedding cake. It's better to let the baker know what the budget you are working with and then let the baker sketch a design in which you like the style and come up with a design that meets your budget.

The following are 10 cost saving tips for creating your wedding cake.

Tip 1 - Create Different Flavored Tiers on your Wedding Cake
All your wedding guests have different taste buds. Many of your wedding guests like different flavors over other flavors. Your wedding cake will be more of a hit if your wedding guests have a choice of flavors. It's a good idea to create different flavored tiers, so your wedding guests can choose a flavor they love. If the wedding cake is all one flavor, such as vanilla, there are some guests that might not be crazy about the flavor chosen, you increase the chances of more of the wedding cake to be eaten if their are more flavor options. If the opportunity exists for offering different flavored tiers, more guests will eat more of the cake.

Tip 2 - Create a Smaller Wedding Cake and Offer Cupcakes on the Side
If you want to see significant savings on your wedding cake. Create a beautiful smaller wedding cake then surround the wedding cake with cupcakes. The cupcakes can be made with various flavors so your wedding guests have a few different choices. An elaborate wedding cake can be created but because it's a smaller it's not so expensive.

Tip 3 - Order a Plain Cake and Decorate the Cake Yourself
For significant savings, the major costs of a wedding cake are cake decorations. Instead of a baker icing and decorating the cake, have the baker bake the cake and then you take over decorating the cake yourself. The baker has the large pans and a good oven for baking the cake. Contract with the baker to bake the cake, and then you pick up the cake from the baker and then you take over decorating the cake from there. Your guests will be impressed you decorated your own cake and you may save yourself a couple of hundred dollars.

Tip 4 - Cut Down on Elaborate Decorations for Your Wedding Cake
Many bakeries will push for elaborate decorations when designing wedding cakes, resist the temptation. A few decorations are just fine, but don't go for so many extras. Go for less wedding cake decorations and you don't need to go fancy. Go for decorations that aren't as expensive, price each different decoration idea out, go with gum paste flowers and don't go with fondant icing. Go with flower petals that doesn't stain. Price out decorations to be sure they fit to your budget.

Tip 5 - Order a Large Cake with Filler in Some Tiers
Many bakers could build you a large wedding cake but instead of a baked cake in some of the tiers they use styrofoam or plastic in some of the tiers. The cake looks impressive, but because of the hidden layers, the making of the cake is not so expensive.

Tip 6 - Use a Fancy Cupcake Tree in Place of a Wedding Cake
Cupcake trees are now available on the market, you can buy a cupcake tree stand and it looks almost as beautiful as a wedding cake. Instead of paying the cost of a wedding cake, instead bake cupcakes instead. You can bake cupcakes in many different flavors and different flavors of icing providing your wedding guests with lots of different choices. The cupcake tree is similar to the wedding cake, so it doesn't take too much away from the wedding cake look and can save you a lot of money from not having to make a wedding cake.

Tip 7 - Hire an Individual Over a Bakery
In almost every city and community you can find bakers that create wedding cakes out of their home instead of a bakery. The person that creates wedding cakes from home often charges a lot less than it would cost from a bakery, the baker at a business has a lot of more overhead, they pay for equipment, they pay more for utilities, they pay their boss, they pay an extra mortgage or a lease. The person that bakes your wedding cake at home, tends to be more focused on you, they are allowed to be more creative in wedding cake design, it costs them less to bake and make the cake and the cost savings is passed onto you.

Tip 8 - Use a Dummy Cake and Serve from a Sheet Cake
Some bakers have a dummy cake that looks like a real wedding cake. The real cake is a sheet cake that is kept in the kitchen. Your wedding guests will never guess that your wedding cake was served from a sheet cake instead allowing you to save lots of money from not having to make a wedding cake.

Tip 9 - Save on Cutting the Cake and Cake Pillars
Many businesses will provide a hostess and charge you a "cake cutting fee". Find a couple of volunteers, one that will cut the cake and another or others to serve the wedding cake. This will save you in not having to pay the "cake cutting fee". Many bakers will use crystal pillars and have a charge for that. You can pick up disposable pillars instead from a local baker or rental company. You might inquire with a different baking company than the one that baked your cake, if you get any push back. Don't let a venue nickel and dime you for serving your wedding cake.

Tip 10 - Check Out your Local Culinary School
Allow a young cooking student that is nearing graduation have a chance to bake your wedding cake. You do have to be a little careful because of the experience factor. Approach the culinary teacher at the school and ask for one of their best students. Arrange for a taste testing of the cake and make sure the teacher oversees the student's preparing of the cake. You can save a lot of money on the price of your wedding cake and you give a student an opportunity to pad their resume. It is important though, to meet the student and keep in close communication often during the period before your wedding to be sure no problems arise.


The rule of thumb, a wedding cake should be baked no more than two weeks before a wedding and the cake should be iced and decorated no more than three days before the wedding. The time table is important so the cake does not taste stale and decorations start to disintegrate after about three days. Often cakes need to be patched up some after cake transporting to the wedding reception. Keep wedding cakes away from the dance floor and make sure it's placed on a table that is away from a wall in order to get a good cake cutting and cake eating picture with the groom and the bride.

If there is cake left over after the wedding reception make sure the delicious cake does not go to waste. If there are not any volunteers to take the cake home, see if someone can drop the cake off at a senior center, a rehabilitation center, or a food shelter and offer someone less fortunate a little treat to add a little joy to their hearts.

That's cost savings tips for wedding cakes, see you on the other side!