Posts
Can I find a good wedding cake baker at a bridal show?
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
, Posted by WeddingCakeOrg at 3:12 PM
The overwhelming answer according to our brides is YES! However, when we surveyed bakers as to
whether they were involved with at least one bridal show per year in their trade area, 80% said no!
This means you won’t
see
or meet 80% of the bakers
in your city at any shows.
Let me give you a little inside scoop about bridal shows. The smallest bakers or the ones whose sales are slacking the most are usually the ones you’ll find at smaller bridal shows.
Why? For two
reasons; first, they don’t have a way for most brides to find them. Many of them work out of their
homes, a shared
catering
facility, or small shop.
At a bridal show, they
hope
you will judge them on their artistic
work and form an opinion before you actually
see where they produce your cake.
A bridal show brings the brides to them. They cannot afford to pay $1000
or more a month for yellow page advertising, advertising in local bridal magazines or on local Internet sites.
A bridal show gives
them an opportunity to shine.
Larger bakers typically
represent themselves at larger or major bridal shows. Their strategy for being in
bigger shows is to “brand” themselves in your mind.
They don’t get that kind of “bang-for-their-buck”
at smaller intimate bridal shows. They want you to remember them when it is time to start shopping for your wedding cake. They know it is hard to sell you at a bridal show, so they try to entice you to come
in and visit with a wedding cake consultant
at
your leisure.
If 80% of bakers don't use bridal shows to demonstrate their expertise, you'll have to combine this method with other search methods to seek for a more diverse selection of bakers.
If you've attended bridal shows to look for a baker, please share your experience.
I
Can you negotiate your wedding cake price?
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
, Posted by WeddingCakeOrg at 10:41 PM
In most cases negotiating a price for your wedding cake doesn't work...except for two circumstances.
As a case in point, if you price a wedding cake at a grocery store or a wedding cake bakery with written prices, most of the time their prices are set in concrete.
Most of the the bakers you'll visit have photos and displays of their previous wedding cakes. Those particular wedding cakes have been previously priced based upon the experience of creating those certain cakes.
They price
them according to how much skill it takes, the time it takes and materials.
With that being said, there
are two situations where you can attempt to negotiate a better price.
First, anytime a wedding cake designer says they can
create something “original” for you.
Second, when you bring in a picture from the web, a magazine, or maybe something you snapped at a bridal show.
In both of those cases, the wedding cake designer has to estimate their price.
The fact they need to estimate the price of your wedding cake gives you a chance to negotiate the price.
Let me and other brides know how it works out by posting your experience.
How Bakers Price Their Wedding Cakes
Monday, September 24, 2012
, Posted by WeddingCakeOrg at 2:19 PM
In this post, I'll discuss two ways the majority of wedding cake bakers price their cakes.
Around 86% of designers price their bridal cakes by the slice, while 14% charge by time and material or what is described as total servings.
"Charging by the slice" is a easy way for you to comprehend pricing and it keeps it straightforward for the designer.
As an example, if you are undecided about buying a cake that serves 75, 100, or 150 servings at $5 per serving, you can quickly calculate prices of $375, $500, or $750.
If a wedding cake bakery charges by "Time and Material," the calculation of cost for the same three cakes of 75, 100, or 150 servings could be dramatically different.
A an example, the cake could start out at $5 per serving for 75 servings as in the first example, but at 100 servings the price drops to $4.50 per serving and at 150 servings, the price drops to $4 per servings.
Using time and material for a wedding cake for the same cake in the first example would be $600 instead of $750, a savings of $150.
A time and material baker drops their prices as the cake gets larger, due to the fact a 150 serving cake doesn't take two times as long to create as a 75 serving cake.
In essence, they feel you're getting a better deal by being more fair to you.
In essence, they feel you're getting a better deal by being more fair to you.
To put this example into perspective; a 75 serving bridal cake with a moderate amount of decoration may take 4 hours to create, while a 150 serving bridal cake with the same decoration may only increase the overtime time by 1-2 hours for a total of 5-6 hours...not 8 hours.
The bottom line: Whether they charge by the slice or time and material, it's still the final price that matters.
Go into a wedding cake consultation with a price range in mind and you'll be fine. You might even leave with a few extra dollars in your purse.
Go into a wedding cake consultation with a price range in mind and you'll be fine. You might even leave with a few extra dollars in your purse.
Have a question about wedding cake prices? Post it here.
Wedding Cake Ornament
Saturday, December 18, 2010
, Posted by WeddingCakeOrg at 5:32 AM
Choose A Wedding Cake Ornament That Suits Your Personality
The wedding cake topper ornament has improved immensely in looks and quality since the year 2000. In addition, there are 20 times the companies and individuals producing them.
You can find everything from traditional couples, gay couples, to themed couples, such as western wear, military uniforms, and motorcycle riding couples. You may even choose cutesy pigs, cows, ducks, bunnies, and Ma and Pa Kettle couples.
The popular trend for wedding cake ornaments over the last 3 years has been monogram initials, either one larger, one for the couple’s last name, or three initials, two smaller initials for the couples’ first names, and one larger initial for their last name.
A large variety of options are bringing brides back to using
the wedding cake ornament.
If you would like your wedding cake to standout from other wedding cake designs, choose a wedding cake topper that fits your personality and adds pizzazz to your wedding cake.
In most instances, consider a decision on your wedding cake design first…and then choose a wedding cakes topper .
Here is a common rule-of-thumb; 90% of all wedding cake toppers will look fine with any wedding cake design.
Most of the time, it becomes a personal preference issue, not a design conflict.
Be sure to discuss your wedding cake ornament with your baker/designer, and ask their opinion as to how you can use one that will “fit-in” to your overall wedding theme.
Remember, anyone can place fresh flowers on top of a wedding cake and make it look beautiful. But when you choose an unusual or unique wedding cake top that is interesting, you will create a memorable “WOW” factor in the eyes of your guests.
For more information on wedding cake toppers, you can you can use a search engine like Google to search keyword phrases such as wedding cake ornaments, wedding cake toppers, wedding cake tops, wedding cakes toppers.
And/or you can download the free clickable list for The Best 30 Websites For Wedding Cake Ornaments.
Check out the hottest wedding cake trends, cutting-edge information and opinions straight from the lips of recent brides: http://www.weddingcake.org/
Wedding Cake Topper
, Posted by WeddingCakeOrg at 4:53 AM
In most instances, you should decide on a wedding cake design first and then choose a wedding cake topper that goes with the design.
We did find cases where a bride received a wedding cake topper as an engagement or bridal shower gift. The bride then took the topper to a Baker/Designer to create a wedding cake design that took elements from the topper. This approach to designing a wedding cake is rare, although it is a very cool idea.
Here is a common rule-of-thumb; 90% of all wedding cake toppers will look fine with any wedding cake design.
Most of the time, it becomes a personal preference issue, not a design conflict.
Here’s another interesting side note to our research; we were astonished to find out the majority of brides choose fresh flowers for the top of their wedding cake because…it didn’t require any additional thinking about how to finish the wedding cake.
In essence, it didn’t require any additional shopping or time making another decision.
We found by the time many brides order their wedding cake they are so tired of making decisions about their wedding, they don’t want to spend a lot of time making a decision on their topper. So, they default to choosing fresh flowers.
However, if you want to standout from the crowd and not do what everybody else is doing, get a cake topper that fits your personality.
You’ll find tons of companies that sell all sorts of traditional bride and groom toppers to companies that make custom one-of-a-kind toppers. It all depends on your budget and sense of style. Monograms are very popular as well as contemporary couples and specialty toppers.
To help you locate companies that sell a wide diversity of wedding cake toppers, the research team at WeddingCake.org has put together a free resource listing for their 50 favorite wedding cake topper companies.
Wedding Cake Topper: Portions of this article are reprinted with permission from IGR Communications publisher of “How To Buy The Picture-Perfect Wedding Cake…GUARANTEED!”
Check out the hottest wedding cake trends, cutting-edge information and opinions straight from the lips of recent brides: http://www.weddingcake.org/
We did find cases where a bride received a wedding cake topper as an engagement or bridal shower gift. The bride then took the topper to a Baker/Designer to create a wedding cake design that took elements from the topper. This approach to designing a wedding cake is rare, although it is a very cool idea.
Here is a common rule-of-thumb; 90% of all wedding cake toppers will look fine with any wedding cake design.
Most of the time, it becomes a personal preference issue, not a design conflict.
Here’s another interesting side note to our research; we were astonished to find out the majority of brides choose fresh flowers for the top of their wedding cake because…it didn’t require any additional thinking about how to finish the wedding cake.
In essence, it didn’t require any additional shopping or time making another decision.
We found by the time many brides order their wedding cake they are so tired of making decisions about their wedding, they don’t want to spend a lot of time making a decision on their topper. So, they default to choosing fresh flowers.
However, if you want to standout from the crowd and not do what everybody else is doing, get a cake topper that fits your personality.
You’ll find tons of companies that sell all sorts of traditional bride and groom toppers to companies that make custom one-of-a-kind toppers. It all depends on your budget and sense of style. Monograms are very popular as well as contemporary couples and specialty toppers.
To help you locate companies that sell a wide diversity of wedding cake toppers, the research team at WeddingCake.org has put together a free resource listing for their 50 favorite wedding cake topper companies.
Wedding Cake Topper: Portions of this article are reprinted with permission from IGR Communications publisher of “How To Buy The Picture-Perfect Wedding Cake…GUARANTEED!”
Check out the hottest wedding cake trends, cutting-edge information and opinions straight from the lips of recent brides: http://www.weddingcake.org/