Omaha local wedding message board: OmahaWeddingForum.com

Hello,
My wedding is this october in Lincoln. I'm trying to keep on a very tight budget, so I don't want to spend a lot of money on the wedding cake though I have seen some beautiful ones and would still like something nice. I'm just not willing to spend $1000 or anything close to that for a cake. Any suggestions?

I would seriously consider using Hy-Vee's bakery. Many of my friends (and I) have used them for their wedding cake. The cakes I have seen are always delicious and beautiful. To give you a ball park figure, I had a three-tier cake designed to serve 181 people (the tiers were 8 inch, 12 inch, and 16 inches in diameter) and it cost about $330 (it would've been less if I hadn't had fillings). Another great option is to have a smaller "fancy" cake (for example, only do two tiers, or do smaller cakes, like 6, 10, and 12-inch), and then have a sheet cake, which serves a lot of people and is less expensive. Finally, if you have family or friends that are decent at baking, they could make extra cakes for you. My grandmother made a carrot cake and german chocolate cake that were 12x18 inches each, and my mother-in-law made my husband's favorite chocolate peanut butter cake for the groom's cake (yes, we had a LOT of cake).

Another tip if you decide on HyVee--if you use multiple departments, you get discounts. For example, they also did my flowers (they were beautiful), and we got a couple of trays from their deli department to use at the gift opening the next day, and they put everything together on one bill and took 10% off everything. Every little bit you can save helps!

Also, don't even consider fondant--it costs three times as much and most people don't like the taste of it! If you like the look of it, a baker can probably do a fondant look-alike with buttercream frosting.

Great advice. Thanks a lot!