Cutting the Cake Ourselves

I think it's a lovely idea! Maybe to speed things up (so GUESTS aren't waiting for their cake?) you could have the wait staff "tray up" the cake plates per table and you can walk with them to the table and distribute the slices one table at a time. The only snag would be if people are up and dancing during this process.

I think it’s mostly that it’s more efficient to greet people in a receiving line or at tables. You’ll be holding up people in the back for a long time if you chat with each person as you’re giving them cake. I’d let the professionals handle it and devote your time to talking to people without having to worry about logistics.

View Quoted Comment Yes, that sounds preety efficient!

People will be waiting a long time for cake. It's going to take quite a while to get through the line with everyone wanting to talk to you. I would rethink this idea.

I like this idea for smaller weddings under 40, but not for 150 guests. A long, slow line for anything is a party killer, that's why receiving lines are commonly scheduled at the beginning. You'll have all night to spend time with guests and thank them so don't worry. You essentially are still breaking bread with them by holding a dinner reception. You can give a parting thank-you gift in the form of favors though the entire reception is a thank-you.

FYI, in many wedding schedules, after cake cutting photos, the food servers bring the cake to the back for cutting and plating. This is often during speeches or dancing so guests are distracted. Servers use large trays to distribute it at tables en masse and no one is kept waiting. Guests are often dancing when distribution happens. I personally love finding cake at my seat during dance breaks.

We went to a few weddings that did this and it actually went over very well and the couples still greeted their guests at the end of the ceremony by dismissing the rows which took 15 minutes max for that same number of guests (150-200), compared to 1+ hour that it can take for table visits at the reception and they still don’t get to everyone. None of the above listed concerns were ever an issue either. Something that some people forget or were never made aware of is that not every venue has a kitchen and among the older generations who are still attending as guests, it is unheard of to hide a cake in a “back room” that may not exist at the venue and it magically comes out sliced, because when they got married the cake was cut in front of everyone and not a single individual was scandalized. The construction of tiered cakes is often different than sheet cakes (3-4 layers of cake with 2-3 layers of filling compared to 2 layers of cake and 1 layer of filling in a sheet cake) so people can tell them apart.


For the weddings we attended as you are describing, one had no display cake and the other used a fake cake for cutting that confused everyone. The couple didn’t know where to cut (it wasn’t marked) and guests were wondering why they spent that money on a prop (that had to be returned by the groom’s parents). However the cake in all cases that was served to guests was 3 different flavors of full sheet cakes (these are huge, minimum 18x24ish) that were cut fresh as guests requested in front of them and never hidden away. They were birthday cake sized slices so the equivalent of 2 wedding cake slices, and guests could get 1, 2 or 3 flavors and come back for more as often as they liked. The couples (in both cases) cut and sliced the first half of the cake and then aunts took over. The minimal leftovers were served at the dance portion at a different venue afterwards (no full meal was served because it’s not customary in those social circles to do so) and there was nothing left when the dancing ended.
There was no mess and no one had to wear aprons in either situation. They had separate knives for each flavor and plenty of napkins and it was fine. None of the mess and chaos that naysayers think you will have.

View Quoted Comment I wasn't talking about fake wedding cakes with sheet cake in the back. I don't know fakers. I've only been to formal weddings where venue staff plate all food in a secured kitchen, not guests in the open. I personally did not serve cake.


OP, I would confirm your venue will allow you to serve as there may be liability issues with knives and food safety (hairnets?). I also recently read long sheet cakes are trending this year and pics were pretty.