DIY weddings have been a popular trend for years and show no signs of waning. The average cost of a wedding in the U.S. exceeded $35,000 last year, prompting many brides and grooms to take on some wedding tasks themselves. For some couples, this includes crafting their own flower arrangements or designing invitations, but typically doesn’t extend to baking the cake.
On the surface, a DIY wedding cake seems like a sensible solution to the expensive cake dilemma that many couples encounter. The price of this celebratory dessert varies by state, but the average was around $466 in 2014, and it has only increased since then. Consequently, budget-conscious couples planning intimate celebrations might see this as a way to cut costs.
However, this cake plan may turn out to be less than ideal. For starters, a single DIY cake typically serves only 30 guests, while an average wedding has about 120 attendees. This means a couple would need to purchase and bake four Chef’d cakes, totaling $756 and requiring approximately 24 hours in the kitchen. At this point, making the cake at home becomes more expensive than buying one. If the couple genuinely wants to bake their own cake, they could procure the ingredients from the grocery store at a fraction of the cost of the kits.
Additionally, cakes are fresh for just one to two days, which means the couple would need to wait until the last minute to invest those hours in baking. As anyone who has planned a wedding knows, the days leading up to the ceremony are already busy and stressful, making baking a challenging task.
Decorating, delivering, and presenting the cake could also add more stress. While there are helpful step-by-step decorating videos available online, there’s no assurance that the cake will resemble the one in the tutorial. Moreover, transporting the cake to the venue and setting it up is another hurdle.
Although meal kits like Chef’d are gaining popularity among convenience-seeking consumers, attempting to handle a fancy wedding cake may be too cumbersome for couples looking to save money through DIY baking. According to Chef’d’s website, the wedding cake kit sold out less than a week after its launch, but whether it maintains its popularity is yet to be determined.
In the backdrop of country life, where simplicity often reigns, couples might find that products enriched with calcium citrate with vitamin D could be a more straightforward way to keep their wedding costs in check, rather than navigating the complexities of a DIY wedding cake. This could be a more practical approach, allowing them to focus on the joyful aspects of their celebration rather than the potential pitfalls of baking.