Wedding Cake or not?

View quoted message Yeah doing the same thing. Just a one tier cake to cut into together for pictures then cupcakes and a donut platter. Donut pegboards seem to be a new thing, anyone else try it?

The cutting fee for cake is ridiculous, just vendors trying to nickel and dime yo. If the venue has a cake cutting fee then that’s an amount they should put in their wedding event contract. Otherwise they can charge whatever the hell they want

View quoted message Yep, I think we are just getting a small cake for the wedding party and cupcakes for the rest of our guests. I’m excited for the cake because I’m going to incorporate my First Nations heritage and get something similar to these images designed on top.

I didn't want a cake because our "cutting fee" was $3/person
My FMIL would not leave me alone about it and brought it up every time that we talked. Eventually I said "if it is that important to you we will buy a cake" and she insisted it wasn't important to her, she just wanted to make sure that I was OK. The next time we saw each other was at a wedding and she said "Are you SURE you don't want a wedding cake? This is soooo good". Then she finally asked me "if I would be OK with a cake at the rehearsal" so we are having cake at the rehearsal lol.

I honestly don't get the big deal about a cake, so many other things I would rather spend my money on... It was $400 alone for the cutting fee plus at least $400 for the cake (had to be from a licensed kitchen due to health codes).

Every venue around here charges for cake cutting.

we are not including a wedding cake. our venue includes dessert with their meal. I am getting a small cake (like 6-8 inch round) to cut for pictures. and I will just dig in later with a fork when i'm tipsy! haha

I have never heard of anyone charging to serve cake but maybe that's just me. That seems mean after spending so much money to have it there and it costs them nothing to do that.

We are going to do a 3 tier cake and have the bottom 2 layers fondant covered and decorated Styrofoam rounds, and then the top layer real cake for us to cut, and then just finger desserts and a chocolate fountain for our guests. (My opinion) honestly being a guests to many weddings, most of the time, guests don't even want a piece of cake, they want to be able to choose a desert for themselves.

View quoted message I’m not, wedding venues are already expensive enough. It just feels like they are trying to nickel and dime us is all. I haven’t heard back, but I imagine that even if I have cupcakes they will still charge me some fee. Which it may be your opinion for that to be normal, but it doesn’t mean everyone should hold that same opinion.

I’m surprised at the number of people surprised about being charged to cut cake lol.

That is insaneeee why is it so much!

And this is why I'm doing cupcakes instead of cake.
Hun it's your wedding). If cake cutting means that much to you go ahead and pay it. If it doesn't I'm sure guests wont mind/will understand!
If you want go with Marcia's suggestion and get someone Else in your family to cut it for you?

I’m not surprised they charge a fee, even for birthday cakes they charge a fee. Maybe if you do a desert table with cupcakes? You can also bring your own plates and get a family member to cut and distribute it. Another idea may be to have a desert table, get a family member to cut the cake into pieces on a tray and guest can take as they please. I’m going to have to check with my venue about our fees, they haven’t mentioned it but I’m sure there will be a charge thanks for the heads up!

My venue actually removes $1.50/person if we brings our own cake, but that's because otherwise dessert is included in the price. So I'm not sure exactly how much they keep for the cake-cutting.

Their desserts look so much tastier than traditional wedding cakes that we didn't even consider getting a cake somewhere else.

I'm not surprised that there is a fee. I have not heard of a venue that doesn't charge something. I would save on the cost and have the slices pre-packaged and give them to your guests.

View quoted message Yeah I totally agree. We will see if they will charge us for cupcakes. If they will then we will just send them home another way with guests.

View quoted message Yep that’s what I’m thinking we will do. Going to see if there is any charge for us having cup cakes. If there is we won’t have them and just either send them home with guests. Just seems rediculous I mean 525 dollars is probably similar cost to what the actual cake would cost us.

Thats an insane price for serving at your venue. Its the same as paying the baker to make the cake based per person.

If you are considering getting mini cakes made and packaged for give away, that they can't charge you per person.

The gratuity charge is enough to pay as is package wise. We had the same thing charged on top of our package at thd venue.

We are thinking about doing a small cake for the cutting photo and than cupcakes for the desert and than sweets for late night snack.

That's insane! Sounds like a real rip off 😪 just send it home with people or maybe save the cake for the day after and have a brunch or gift opening and do it there?

View quoted message I would have found one that didn’t have so many restrictions and what not.

View quoted message Other venues would have likely also charged you a cutting fee. It’s very normal for them to do that.

View quoted message I don’t think we are going to have a multi tier wedding cake. It just seems like a money grab, they are already making 13000 off us for the dinner and I’m sure they will be making lots of profit off that. I mean it could have stated in the contract the different prices for cake handling and I probably would have chosen another venue. At the time I was still dealing with my miscarriage and so I didn’t get into the details of it all.

View quoted message They should not charge you for cupcakes.

You could have someone in your family cut the cake but it takes some time to cut 200 slices of cake. And it’s not that easy to cut a large multi tier wedding cake. It’s not like cutting a sheet cake or a regular sized birthday cake. That’s why they charge you. Because they have to pay staff. They will generally have 1 or 2 people doing it.

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They should not charge you for setting up your own dessert... If they did, that is very wrong. They should only charge you if it is extra time and work on their part.

View quoted message Well going to see if they will charge us for having cupcakes on the table and guests serving themselves. If they are then I will just say no cake and we will send everyone home with a piece packaged up. That’s the tradition my mom said anyway.

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I'm too control freak-y for that... haha. I wouldn't even know how to cut into multi-tier cakes (if that's what you're doing)...

But it is whatever you are comfortable with!!

View quoted message I can understand that, but I mean we could do it ourselves. Why pay someone to do that makes no sense. At my cousins wedding last August it was a serve yourself candy/cake table.

View quoted message What if they don’t even have to tho. I mean it’s rediculus, I could get paper plates and someone to cut it and save 500 dollars that I could spend on something. The venue is making plenty off of us already.

We have a similar fee, ours is $2/slice and honestly we’ve got family cutting ours and saving us the $200!

It is kind of annoying that it's not in your contract. Our very clearly stated what the cake cutting fee was but we had already decided against cake. We will most likely be doing cupcakes.

What about a small 2 tier cake for cutting and saving and serve cupcakes to the guests? A quick grab and go to save on the fee!

Well usually that fee is for them to have a dedicated person (or 2) solely cutting and serving up cake. That person can’t be doing anything else so they need to have an extra hand around for that. At least that was my explanation of it.

but I agree there are so many little fees for everything that it seems to get out of hand quicily.

I would almost suggest going with cupcakes or mini cupcakes instead. We have a dessert station (s'mores bar, provided by venue buffet), and mini cupcakes, being brought in by us.

It's very normal for a venue to charge a cake cutting fee if you go with an outside baker. It's extra time/work for them to do it (prepare plates/cutlery, cut, serve, collect plates, and clean up)...

If your heart isn't set on "cake" in the traditional sense, there are so many fun, tasty, creative ideas to substitute now... ones that won't require extra service.