by Karen S Musselman

Created on: September 20, 2009

A Traditional Wedding Cake versus a Wedding Cupcake Tree - Is There Really a Savings?

Let's take a look at the cost of having wedding cupcakes instead of a traditional wedding cake and see if there really is a cost savings.

Having wedding cupcakes instead of a traditional cake can still cost just as much with no real savings if you start getting just as fancy with them. Cupcakes may cost less basically, as little as a buck or two per cupcake versus $3.25 and up per person or per slice of a traditional cake.

But you certainly don't want the same kind of cupcakes you'd serve as a dessert at dinner or at a birthday party.

So now the bakeries and cake designers have to miniaturize their work and decorate each cupcake individually as a separate mini wedding cake instead of decorating one large cake. Otherwise, you're looking at a few tiers worth of plain ordinary cupcakes. And even those must be frosted individually.

Then if you add embellishments like fancy cupcake liners or monogrammed fondant hearts, it adds more work plus you're really adding to the cost of the cupcakes.

Now let's look at all of the time involved in setting up the wedding cupcakes as opposed to a multi-tiered wedding cake.

Several little mini cakes per tier that must be carefully arranged on the tiers versus one cake per tier that sits centered on its tier. That's a lot of work, especially if you're serving 100 guests or more.

And if your baker charges for setting up the cake, you may run into some added costs there as well with wedding cupcake trees versus a traditional wedding cake.

The Easiest Way to Save ... make your own wedding cupcake tree:

Check department stores and craft stores for cupcake stands. Buy your cupcakes already frosted at the grocery store then add wedding cake decorations to them to match your wedding theme. Buy small decorations for the cupcakes at a discount store and match them to your wedding theme or colors Buy table decorations to match your wedding theme. Bake or buy one small wedding cake for the top of the cupcake tree. Ask your bridesmaids or family members to help set up and arrange the cupcakes up before the reception.

So the bottom line is, if you really want a wedding cupcake tree for your wedding, do your price comparisons first. Check with some local bakeries, grocery store bakeries and even doing it yourself to see where the real cost savings are. You may be surprised!

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