A special part of any reception or wedding is the wedding cake. Wedding cakes come in many sizes and shapes and can be designed to accommodate any taste or budget.

Wedding cakes are a necessary part of the festivities and require much thought and consideration to your theme. Traditionally, people often think of the tiered cakes when they think of weddings, but there are many ways that you can accommodate your own creativity into making your cake stand out on its own.

Here are some tips to keeping your cake costs down:

· Make your own wedding cake creations

· Serve cupcakes and a smaller cake for the cake toppers

· Ask a guest with a baking passion to make the cake for you instead of giving you a gift. Just remember to buy the ingredients and toppers yourself.

· Have a baker make the cake but you can put it together yourself

· Buy your own cake toppers and other decorative additions

· Pick up the cake rather than have it delivered.

· Use your own decorations like flowers, autumn leaves as accents rather than theirs etc.

· Use extra candies and Hershey’s kisses as accents

Extra cake accents and dividers that can be made at home for your wedding cake can be done by you and your wedding party.

Nice homemade dividers are:

Oversized Brandy Glasses: you can accent these with ribbons tied around the bottom flute of the glass and flip the glasses upside down in order to allow room for the cake sections.

The glass bottoms will also make a nice sturdy separator for the cake layers to sit on. The best part about this decoration is that you can also place candles or other nice things inside of the flipped upside down glass as an added accent. Aside from the ribbons, you can also use rhinestones or anything else that you might think would make your cake stand out. It’s beautiful, it elegant, and the decoration can be re-used later.

When ordering your cake from a professional, you should be sure to do the following to make sure that you have the smoothest transition possible. Here are the best tips to get you the right cake at the right time, without any hassles:

· Order your cake at least 6-8 weeks ahead of time

· Be prepared to leave a deposit when you place your order

· If you don’t know much about the cake that you want be ready to make an appointment for a taste test of different samples. If this is required, you might need to give yourself a larger amount of time for the cake like 6 months or more

· Know that you will be paying for the decorator’s time as well as the baker’s and the reserved time for your cake

· Think seasonal when it comes to your cake, for example, you can’t get a mousse cake in the summer months because it will go bad

· Remember that the simpler your cake design is the cheaper it will be · If you are planning an outdoor wedding, remember that the heat will melt the icing, flies loves sweet stuff etc. think of this before choosing your cake

· Have a big enough cake to serve all of your guests

· Try to be mindful of allergies and tastes of your guests when choosing your cake

· Choose ornaments that are not misplaced on your cake or too heavy etc.

· Don’t forget to confirm later

· If you have to cancel the cake, do it sooner rather than later or you might get stuck with the bill anyway.

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For more tips and ideas on planning your wedding, check out The Ultimate Online Guide to Wedding Planning