The wedding cake is one of the highlights of the reception decor, and wedding guests look forward to catching a glimpse of it. It is also one of the first pictures people who did not attend a wedding want to see when handed a wedding album.
Unfortunately, many brides are not proud to show off pictures of their wedding cakes. Wedding cake mistakes are common in Nigeria and many brides.
While for some brides, the wedding cake disasters were unforeseen, I will tell how to avoid making decisions that could lead to wedding cake mistakes and fails.
When newlywed Nigerian brides reflect on mistakes they made and what they wish they could have done differently, many said they made wrong decisions during cake shopping that led to regrets and a waste of money.
To help you avoid making the same mistakes, swipe or scroll down to read the top wedding cake budgeting mistakes to avoid.
MISTAKE #1: Tight Budget and Want a Big, Expensive Wedding Cake
In my “top Nigerian wedding mistakes to avoid” eBook, wedding cake regrets is the first I touched on. In this Cakes edition post, I’ll elaborate on things to do to avoid mistakes and regrets.
Here’s what a bride told us: “I regret spending so much money to have a very tall wedding cake and our guests did not even care about it. They peeled off the expensive top icing and left them on the table. I wish we ordered a moderate size wedding cake and spent the extra money on a better DJ, live band or even on video coverage (all of which we ignored)”.
Read on to find out cool things to do to have a big, tall and fancy wedding cake without spending plenty of money. It’s the secret used at many big Nigerian weddings, and all over the World.
It’s better to cut costs on a wedding cake and spend the money saved on a good photographer because photos that capture your big day will last a lifetime, while the cake will soon be forgotten.
Many brides make the mistake of putting so much money on their wedding cakes, in order to show off on social media and also impress guests. They order a very big, tall wedding cake with expensive assorted flavour per layer and complex-design icing.
Then manage on their remaining budget to get a not-good-enough DJ whose music selection bores their guests and leaves their reception cold and dry. They spend minimally on food with the left-over wedding budget. Imagine, a huge cake, average quality every-other-thing!
On top of that, they only serve guests a small portion of that expensive cake and take the rest home to preserve for their wedding anniversary. What a waste of money! And the guests leave the wedding feeling used (because they bought the bride’s aso-ebi and brought gifts for the couple).
That’s the kind of wedding that looks cheap, no matter how much was spent in organizing it. In some of those to-impress and out-do type of weddings, you may find that food and/ or drinks are not enough to serve all the guests.
Being stingy to guests you expect gifts from makes you appear cheap and cheesy! Don’t do that – instead, spread and balance your budget across your wedding expenses, cut down your guest list to match your catering budget and take good care of your guests (they don’t care much about the cake, but they do care about entertainment – good music/ DJ and good food).
MISTAKE #2: Wedding Cake with Buttercream Icing
Some Nigerian brides overlook the weather when choosing the type of icing for their wedding cake. Some are totally ignorant of the fact that not every type of icing holds well in this weather, and buttercream is one of them. Buttercream icing tastes amazing, but it does not withstand the usual hot weather and humidity in Nigeria.
I remember a wedding we attended several years ago where the bride ordered a very expensive cake with buttercream icing.
That cake vendor was a new Chinese pastry shop with amazing cake artistry and tasty desserts – all pricey. So, they delivered the cake right from the fridge to her cute outdoor reception venue, and it looked so beautiful.
Imagine the disappointment on her face when the damn thing had partly melted right before her eyes, even before it was time for the cake cutting. Also, she was super embarrassed when slices of the melted cake were being distributed to guests. What a way to waste money and not get the desired effect.
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