Cheap Chic Wedding Tip: Get A Gifted Friend To Make Your Wedding Cake

If you're on a tight wedding budget, consider having a gifted friend or family member bake your wedding cake.

Perhaps it's because we're big fans of Ace Of Cakes on The Food Network, but it's no surprise that when it came to our wedding cake, we wanted it fun and quirky, so we decided on a madhatter cake.

When we were doing our cake sampling, a lot of the bids we were getting for a madhatter cake to feed 80 guests was in the high $600 range. While we have a reverence for the artistry that goes into making a wedding cake, and respect for the fact that these bakeries do have a sizable overhead, that price range would throw our $7,000 Cheap Chic Wedding Challenge budget out of whack.

We were pretty lucky that over the Christmas holidays, I bumped into an old friend, Debbie Cordova. Years ago, she had baked a beautifully simple yet elegant wedding cake for someone at work, and it had been absolutely delicious. We had even commented on the fact that she should have her own bakery instead of doing property management.

Debbie still hasn't opened her own bakery liked we urged her to do way back then, but from the pictures she sent me, it looks like she's kept honing her craft all this time. We can't wait to try her cake samples, and have her do our wedding cake because we know it's going to be fantastic.

If you're not lucky enough to have a Debbie of your own, here are a few more tips to consider:

• I've heard that Albertsons actually makes a pretty decent wedding cake (although you're probably going to be limited to what designs they have available, design-wise).
• You may also want to consider getting a small cake just for the cake-cutting, and get sheet cake (in the same flavor as your smaller cake, of course) to serve guests.

The $5,000 Cheap Chic Wedding Challenge

They say the average wedding in Southern California costs $33,000.

We are 10 months away from our October 2008 wedding, and the quotes are coming in for wedding cakes, venues, flowers, gowns, what-have-you, and while it’s nowhere near that $33,000 magic number, the one line that goes through my head after a visit with one of these wedding vendors is, “ARE YOU FRIGGING KIDDING ME?!!!”

The mortgage consultant in me - the one who gives clients a stern lecture about taking the cashout from their refinance and putting it towards their daughter’s college fund or putting it back into their homes (great for value appreciation) instead of blowing it on a spiffy sportscar that strokes their egos and nothing more- can’t even comprehend how a couple-unless one of them had a last name like Trump or Hilton- could spend that kind of money on the Big Day. I know it’s the most important day in every couple’s life but $33,000 ? Come on! You can pay the closing costs and the down payment on a starter home. A starter home which would give you major tax deductions, and grow in equity over the years.

Having worked as an ad agency account exec prior to becoming a mortgage consultant, I also had to handle some event planning for my clients. We would do a decent markup on the vendor items, but it’s interesting how the mere mention of the word ‘wedding’ is reason enough for the markups to go through the roof.

So, we decided to take on the $5,000 Cheap Chic Wedding Challenge, of course. But how does one go about having a simple, elegant wedding for $5,000 in Los Angeles ?

I have planned enough successful events in the past to where we can do without a wedding planner. I make handmade paper as a hobby so we will be making our own custom wedding invitations. We just walked through the L.A. Fashion District over the weekend and found a store that would sell us two 50 yard-rolls of tulle for only $60, and 20 yards of gabardine for $1/yard (the vendor was going to charge us the same amount to rent it, but I intend to do something arts-and-craftsy with the runner after the wedding). I found these elegant burgundy floor-length gowns with intricate beadwork for my bridesmaids at $76. Corey found beautifully made black paisley vests ($29) and ivory shirts ($15) that his groomsmen could wear over and over at special occasions, and that was just the start. We didn’t make it down to the Wholesale Flower Mart before they closed but we know we’ll find some really sweet deals there as well.

Will we meet the $5,000 Cheap Chic Wedding Challenge? Who knows, but it’s a lot of fun to try. Plus, it’s one way to ensure that we won’t be up to our eyebrows in wedding debt when we're pronounced husband and wife!