cupcake tree

Wedding Cupcake Trees - Are They Really a Cost Savings?

By Karen S Musselman

Many couples are opting for wedding cupcake trees as a way to save money on their wedding cakes. And cupcake trees can be just as arresting as traditional wedding cakes since they can be designed on tiers just as big as a five tier wedding cake.

But let's take a look at the cost of wedding cupcakes versus traditional wedding cakes and see if they really will reduce your budget.

They Can Actually Cost About the Same and They're More Work!
Having a wedding cupcake tree instead of a traditional cake is no real savings if you start getting fancy with them. Cupcakes may cost less basically, as little as a buck or two per cupcake versus $3.25 and up per person or per slice of a traditional cake, but you certainly don't want the same kind of cupcakes you'd serve as a dessert at dinner or at a birthday party.

So now your bakery or cake designer, instead of decorating one large cake, has to miniaturize their work and decorate each cupcake individually as a separate mini wedding cake on its own, otherwise, you're looking at a few tiers worth of plain ordinary cupcakes. And even those must be frosted individually.

Then if you decide to add embellishments like fancy cupcake liners or monogrammed fondant hearts, you're really adding to the cost of the cupcakes.

Arranging a Cupcake Tree vs. Arranging a Traditional Cake
Now let's look at all of the work affected in setting up wedding cupcake trees as opposed to multi-tiered traditional wedding cakes.

A lot of little mini cakes per tier that must be placed on the tiers versus one cake per tier that sits centered on its tier. That's a lot of work, especially if you're serving 100 guests or more.

And if your baker charges for arranging the cake, you may run into some added costs with wedding cupcake trees versus traditional wedding cakes.

The most at ease way to save with cupcakes...make your own wedding cupcake trees:

· Check department stores and craft stores for cupcake stands.

· Bake your own cupcakes or buy them already frosted at the grocery store.

· Buy small decorations for the cupcakes at a discount store and match them to your wedding theme or colors

· Buy table decorations to match your wedding theme.

· Buy or bake one small cake for the top of the cupcake tree.

· Ask your bridesmaids or family members to help set the cupcakes up before the reception.

So for the best savings on wedding cupcake trees, do your price comparisons first. Check with some local bakeries, grocery store bakeries and even doing it yourself to see where the real cost savings are.

See more related articles : Birthday Cupcake