Be sure to check out the complete Wedding on a Budget series of posts.

[twitter]Jen and I are still 9 months out from our wedding, a little early to be booking cakes and flowers and the like, but we want to do this on a budget so we’re planning ahead and getting as much information as we can.

Today was a meeting with Cupcakes. Jen and I love their stuff. They’re cute, yummy, and as I’ve said many times before the Chocolate Chocolate Cupcake with Penfolds Bin 2 is one of my favourite things in the world.

So we had a consultation to talk budget, design and more. We’re planning on 60 people at the wedding, and a 3 tier cake at $8 a serving would roll us out at $500. Wow.

But that’s not all, Christina told me on Twitter that most venues also ding you for a $2-$3 cake cutting fee.

So let’s back things up a bit.

We also looked at a simple 7″ cake and a tier of cupcakes. That worked out better, $250.

My pal Shelley told me some venues still ding you for a cutting fee, even on cupcakes! WTF? See dollar signs when the word wedding is mentioned, or what?

Even with the cupcake version, things are still sounding very expensive, especially after what I was hearing on Twitter today.

“Oh please don’t book with cupcakes – you pay through the roof there for sickly sweet sugar and the brand,” said Laura.

John got his done by a friend for a mere $125.

Sean suggested going to VCC. “Solid cakes without the diabetic coma.”

John said to skip the cake altogether, and Susan agreed.

“We saved money and did a hard candy buffet and chocolate fondue. SAVED $$,” she wrote.

So this weekend we’ll go to WestLynn Bakery, a classic for kids from the shore, to have a look at their Lemon Cake.

We settled on a quote from Cupcakes that would give us a 7″ cake with some sugar butterflies scattered on it sitting on 3 tiers of 60 small and large cupcakes with pink, orange and yellow icing.

We have until January to make the order, so there is lots of time to shop around.

What are your thoughts on wedding cakes and how to get a good one on a budget?

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Note: this post was re-published from the Internet Archive after the original posting was lost in a drive crash. You can follow the original comment thread there.