Do You Really Want a DIY Wedding Cake?

Dear Bride,

Your wedding budget is shot, but you still want a perfect start to your perfect married life. You don't want to cut corners to save money. You want perfect wedding flowers in a perfect church. When you walk down the aisle, you want the perfect wedding dress, the perfect hair and the perfect wedding ring.

If you have to make wedding budget cuts. Why not make your own wedding cake?

Your Own Wedding Cake Design

Imagine your own wedding cake design. Then think about all that baking and icing and decorating. Just like Betty Crocker. It will be a memory to last forever and your new hubby will love you even more. He'll think you're beautiful and thrifty too.

Sleep On It

It's a great idea. A bride can save money by making her own wedding cake. Hundreds of dollars. But if you decide to make your own wedding cake, at least sleep on these thoughts for a night or two.

• Your wedding cake will be a key focal point of your most important day.
• When the bridal party is posing for pictures in the park, your reception guests will be doing a 360 ogle of your wedding cake.
• Your wedding cake will be the one thing photographed and commented on nearly as much as you and your new hubby.
• The pans, ingredients, flowers, boards and all the other things you need to create your wedding cake, might end up costing you nearly as much as getting a professional to do it.
• This will be your wedding, hopefully your only wedding, and your only wedding cake, reason enough to rethink the whole do-it-yourself angle.

If you've considered these caveats and still insist on baking and decorating your own wedding cake, there are lots of things to do. Check out the links below for lots of information to guide you on your bold wedding cake journey.

The Risks

Where will you find the time? You have a wedding to plan, bridal fittings, showers, rehearsal dinners, guests to entertain; and if you add one more thing to the list, you won't have time to keep your husband-to-be calm and cool until the big day.

Then there are the wedding cake horror stories brides deal with every day: Wedding cakes crashing to the floor, white frosting melting on a hot Summer day. Even the professional wedding cake designers have mishaps aplenty when they are making the cake for your wedding day.

The Rewards

First of all think about the satisfaction of a job well done. Then Imagine those pretty wedding photos. They'll be around until death you do part; and each time you see them, you will be reminded of how you made your own wedding cake.

It will be a story to tell and retell for generations to come..... Ahhh... the memories.