Wedding Cake (with pic) - is this normal??

Hi Girls - Can anyone help me with some feedback on wedding cakes?? I fell in love with this cake (hope the picture comes through) - my hall provides a standard 3 tier butter cream or whipped cream cakes, and anything else is an upgrade. They use La Bonne Boulangerie bakery in Port Jeff so I called them directly to get a quote on the cake, just to see what it would run. They said this cake will cost $700 for 125-140 people!! My hall will kick in $250 of that I believe, but that is still $450 out of pocket! That is expensive to me, especially b/c originally I thought I could get whatever cake I wanted included in my price....Anyway, what do you girls think?? Do your wedding halls allow you to have any cake you want included or is it normal to only have a standard wedding cake included and fondant is an upgrade?? Also, is $450 a lot to pay for a cake??

Thanks!!

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Re: Wedding Cake (with pic) - is this normal??

I'm not sure if $450 is a good price but that cake is GORGEOUS! I made Fox Hollow write into the contract that they would do fondant icing at no additional charge because I like its appearance more than butter cream or whipped cream. Myabe you can talk your hall into going half way on the cost?

Re: Wedding Cake (with pic) - is this normal??

My hall includes a cake also and they told us that if we bring in a cake from outside they'll charge a 2.00 cake cutting fee per slice. How crazy right?

Re: Wedding Cake (with pic) - is this normal??

yeah, my hall has a list of 'base' cakes that are included, and anything else is an upgrade. I haven't gotten to the cake choosing stage yet, so I don't know what exactly is standard... I know fondant is definitely an upgrade.

Cakes are frickin expensive. It's ridiculous. As I said, I'm not at that point yet so I haven't been pricing things out, but they are definitely very expensive.

Re: Wedding Cake (with pic) - is this normal??

sounds about right.

I brought in 3 pics and got qoutes as low as $400 and as high as $1200

Re: Wedding Cake (with pic) - is this normal??

As far as I know fondant is always an upgrade. The bakery my hall uses only offers yellow, chocolate or marble cake standard - any other flavor is an upgrade.

Re: Wedding Cake (with pic) - is this normal??

I got this cake with my hall... no additional fees... it was delicious... the filling was yellow cake with fresh strawberries and napoleon cream...

Re: Wedding Cake (with pic) - is this normal??

Wow that cake is gorgeous - did you get that through Hamlet Willow Creek?? Is it fondant or ganache??

Re: Wedding Cake (with pic) - is this normal??

oh wow..yea that is definitely crazy!!!

Re: Wedding Cake (with pic) - is this normal??

Our cake wasnt an important detail for us so we just used the hall's cake....which was round and tiered according to the # of guests. We chose the flavor, filling and frosting though and went with a strawberry shortcake - yellow cake with strawberry jam and whipped cream frosting.

What it looked like didnt matter but I was so pleased when I saw it.

If your cake is important to you, spend the $ on it so you have no regrets. Just know that not many guests care what the cake looks like, just that it tastes GOOD!

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Re: Wedding Cake (with pic) - is this normal??

That sounds about right for the price.