This clip from British comedy series Man Stroke Woman, while hilarious, is sadly what many people assume that the entire wedding industry is like. Granted, there are crappy people in every industry who are out to rip people off, but most of the people that I meet in this industry are passionate about what they do and the clients they serve.
As shown in this clip, there is this myth that if you put the word “wedding” in front of something, the price will double or quadruple immediately. I called one of my bakers, Joeleen from A Sweet Design and asked her how she prices her cakes. She told me that she bases her pricing on: number of people it will serve, the filling and flavors (BTW, Red Velvet is the most expensive cake to make because of the ingredients) and the design. To most brides, the design is the key component in a wedding cake, and that’s where the dough (literally!) comes in to play. She told me that a simple 3 tiered cake to feed 100 would range between $350-700 from her bakery. So yeah, $350 sounds insane for a cake, right? But look at it this way: if you ordered 100 Cappuccinos from Starbucks, what would that come in at? She also mentioned that her 3D cakes frequently tend to be pricier than tiered cakes, so groom’s cakes, 1st birthday, Sweet Sixteen, etc. cakes that are complex 3D cakes can run much, much higher than a 3 standard tiered wedding cake.
Recently Joeleen made a cake for one of my brides and the the labor alone of replicating the pattern of lace on my bride’s dress took 5 hours. Pause for a moment and realize that 5 hours is almost an entire work day. What is your work day worth? Joeleen’s 5 hours of decor does not count the time that it took to bake the 3 tiered, multi-flavored cake, pack it up for delivery, transport it, and set it up.
The wedding world is its own universe and there are reasons why things are priced what they are priced. Planning a conference for a company is light-years away from planning a wedding. Trust me, I’ve planned both.
