DIY wedding cake vs buying from a professional?

Buy a cake. Are you close to a Publix or BJ's or Costco? Perhaps you can get a cheaper cake there. Another option is instead of a traditional wedding cake to do pies, cookies, etc for dessert

I would rather have a grocery store wedding cake than try to make my own.

My mom is a retired cake decorator so I am asking her to make it as a wedding present. If she couldn't I would probably do it myself. The cost alone would give me more stress then baking it myself would.

I'm sorry to hear about the job loss. Going with a grocery store or wholesale club will be your best bet. DIYing your cake will quickly become stressful

I'm a cupcake baker and wanted to bake for my rehearsal and my family convinced me it would be too much stress. I wouldn't even attempt the wedding. Buy a small tier cake and have sheet cakes in the back for serving. I did cupcakes this weekend for an engagement party for a family member and it was a lot of work. I also did cupcake tower for my sister's wedding. It was also a lot of work but I was nervous because it had to be right for her big day. I can't imagine it would be easy to do your own wedding.

Definitely don't do it. You will have enough going on in the days leading up to the wedding to worry about baking a beautiful cake.

Baking is hard. Leave it to the professionals. You can find good cakes that aren't super expensive.

By the way all of this talk about food poisoning, dirty kitchens and cat hair etc is just nonsense. Sure, I have bitten into hair at a cookie exchange but I have also done so at a restaurant. Again, do none of you eat anything at family picnics, holiday parties or church potlucks. Most people who cook for others exercise proper food safety. No one wants be know as the person who made guests sick. I do agree that you should buy the cake and save yourself the stress of trying to get it done.

Purchase a small round cake and put a topper on it. Have sheet cakes in the back. Boom, done. No stress. ETA I also advise to never diy a two or more tiered cake. A friend did this for their wedding and it was beautifully decorated, but melting and falling over. The other cake they had (yes, two diy cakes) got smashed in transport. Leave it to the pros.

I am a semi professional cake artist and I had the hardest time convincing myself not to do our cake/cupcakes, primarily due to the control factor.

BUT my logical side knows that decorating 300 cupcakes is the last thing I need to be doing the day before my wedding.

There are affordable options out there! PPs have listed plenty of them above. Good luck!

Just like pp have stated, you don't want that kind of stress on your wedding day. Have a small 1 tier cake for you and future husband to cut and then some assorted desserts for your guest. You can even purchase a sheet cake from a local grocery store to have cut for your guest. It'll be less money and you won't have to worry about anyone getting sick at your hands or not being able to relax on your wedding day.

NotFroofy made our wedding cake. I loved it--it was delicious! And at my daughter's wedding, a bunch of friends made different cakes, which she just put on identical stands to tie them together. But a few things to think about:

* Think about when you'll have time to do it. Baking several cakes, letting them cool, then frosting them takes time.

* Unless you are experienced, do not try to create a traditional tiered wedding cake, or complex decorations. If you need more than one tier, think about having them on separate stands to avoid having one slide off the other. Use simple flowers rather than complex creations made out of fondant or the like.

* Be realistic about the costs. You may find that just having several supermarket (or Costco, etc.) cakes doesn't cost you a lot more than homemade cakes. NotFroofy did it because she wanted nonstandard flavors, but if you're looking for chocolate and vanilla, Costco may be your best bet.

We are contemplating making our own cake. Our wedding is 6 months out. It will be small, just 40 people at most.

We did our first trial this weekend to figure out what we like and if its feasible. We discovered what we don't like.

We may buy a cake yet, but we wanted to give this a go to see if we can get something we love and worked on together vs just some store bought thing.

If I didn't have 6 months to go and plans for multiple tries before the wedding, I would just buy it.

Have you checked out Walmart? Believe it or not they can make some really beautiful cakes and they taste good too! I never woulda believed it until I seen a few at different events.

View Quoted Comment Where are you getting the cake from? I’ve been thinking of buying a store bought cake and decorating it as I please! I was thinking Costco’s vanilla cake. My FH and I love it!

I am buying our cake. We are getting it from Publix which cut off a huge chunck of money

My FH and I are going to make our cake. We aren't professionals but we both think it will fun. Also we don't want "cake" so it has been hard finding a baker to make it. I am looking forward to it. We will make one a month until we get it just right. I say if you want to do it go for it. I discovered a lot of people have said not to do this or that but they are taking the party part of the wedding too seriously for me. The serious part is that we will be married everything else is just fun.