How Much Should I Budget For My Wedding Cake?

The simple answer is somewhere between 3%-5% of your overall wedding budget.

As an example, if you are putting $10,000 toward your wedding, then setting aside $300-$500 for your wedding cake is a good average. If you have resources of $20,000 then a $600-$1,000 cake is in line.

Initially, I conducted surveys (through WeddingCake.org) across the country based on six geographic regions: Northeast, Southeast, Upper Midwest (including Omaha), Lower Midwest, Northwest, and Southwest.

We asked brides how much they were spending on their bridal cake. Then, we asked how much they were spending on their entire wedding. 

 

My team concluded the average spent was between the 3%-5% range. Of course some spent less and some a lot more. It depended on how important the bridal cake was to the individual brides.

 

Then, we took it a step further to understand typical price ranges based upon the regions of the country. 

As it turns out, my idea didn’t work.

To illustrate my point, a cake that was produced in Miami, FL for 300 servings at a cost of $1650 was also produced in Charleston, SC for $975. Both states are in the Southeast region, but the demographics of the citizens are different.

As another example, a cake designed in New York City at a price of $5,500 for 250 servings was reproduced in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for $2,500. Again, both states are in the Northeast region, but the demographics were completely different.

What we did find was a correlation between higher prices in larger cities and lower prices in less populated cities.

 

This forced us to rethink the regional pricing strategy and change it to a pricing model according to relative populations anywhere in the US.

As an example, it is a better comparison of prices between Omaha, NE and Memphis, TN than Charleston, SC and Miami, FL.

If you really want to know the current prices in Omaha, do the following: Go to a couple of baker/designers who appear to be out of your price range. Then, go to a couple that are priced in the middle, and finally, go to a couple of lower priced baker/designers. After visiting them, you’ll know within a $100 what you'll need to budget.

Or, you can take the quick, easy and convenient route of using OmahaWeddingCakes.com  free pricing service to accomplish the same goal.

 

Either way, the prices you'll pay in the Omaha wedding cake market are about 40% less than what you'll pay in the larger cities such as LA, New York, or Atlanta.

 

Just keep in mind the 3%-5% average we found other brides were spending and use it as a yardstick for your overall budget.