Bride on a Budget - Part II - Let them eat (Cup)Cake!

No doubt you already know that weddings are expensive. I wanted to keep mine to a budget of around $5000 (which I successfully managed to do!). In this day and age that is challenge. Everywhere you turn there’s another expense to take into consideration, and everything wedding related always has an inflated price tag. So, if you have a tight budget to work with and need to cut back wherever you can, figuring out where you can cut corners is going to be very important to you!

One thing I decided I could cut the cost on was my cake. If you do a search on Flickr for “wedding cupcakes” you will find a ton of pictures out there of some very cool ways to switch up the wedding norm and do something different that will have people talking. Now, you could go to a bakery and have them do them, which might cost you as much as a cake, I’m not sure since I didn’t check into that. You could make them yourself if you’re a good baker, and you have the ambition and time (or helpers) to make as many as you need. OR….if you have a Sam’s, Costco or other warehouse store nearby, you might be able to get a very good deal on cupcakes, like I did. At my local Sam’s Club they charge about $12 for a box of 30 cupcakes. So it cost me $63 for 150 cupcakes! I recommend doing a trial run before your big day - order a box of them so you can see what they'll look like, and if you're going to try the doily wrapper you'll need a few for the pattern. Also, TAKE PICTURES of the cupcakes, that way when you place your official order for the wedding you can give them the picture so they make them exactly the same way. PS: You don't have to eat them all - your co-workers will appreciate the treat I'm sure! Mine did! :)

Now I still wanted to have a “cake table” and something displayed. So I got creative and made a tiered mirrored stand, which is in the picture on the right. I have instructions on how to make one of them on my webpage if you're interested. That link is below. I found a Wilton cake pan that makes giant cupcakes, and my friend and I figured out how to get it to turn out to a close resemblance of my cupcakes, and that became my top cake. To dress up the cupcakes (since they came in plain paper wrappers) we created our own wrappers out of gold and white doilies. This worked out really well. It was a little tricky getting them on the night before the wedding, but the look was just what I was going for.