Today, I spoke with someone about an up coming order. They said the venue is going to charge a cake cutting fee of $1.50 per slice. This is the first I have heard of a thing like this.

Anyone else heard of this?

Cake for 200 people X's cake cutting fee of $1.50 per slice = $300.00 for cutting cake?

I'm thinking about giving up cake decorating and becoming a professional cake cutter. My hours will be cut dramatically, and the overhead is way low! Lol!

Sure. That practice has been around forever. Usually ritzy hotels or country club type places.

Apparently many places are charging a cake cutting fee if the cake designer is not affiliated with them. It's an incentive to use their in-house baker.

That's cheep. Some venues here charge $4.

Yes, it's normal. Lots of threads on this if you want justifications on it.

Wow ! i guess I do live in the sticks .but yes I could see that if they use the venues china and forks .
Most weddings I go to here they serve the cake on those plastic type disposiable plates .

They charge the cutting fee to encourage the couple to purchase the cake from the venue. They may also charge a corkage fee if the couple is buying the champagne (or wine) from an outside source.

That's quite a bit of money. So can the couple forgo this cost if they just hire their cake decorator to cut the cake?

This has been around for many years in the larger cafes where I live. It is charged regardless of who cuts the cake and is per person in attendance. I would think you would only want to do this if it was a very special cake but that adds substantially to the cost.
Corkage for each bottle of byo wine and Cakage per person if you byo cake. Totally understand the reasons but wonder if it would seem less harsh if they charged a flat fee rather than per person.

One place here charges $5 a serving for the cutting fee. They just want brides to use their in-house baker...sure, they have costs for cutting the cake, but I don't buy the "we have to wash the plates" excuse. You'd still have to wash them if the cake came from the in-house baker.

Anyway, it's not an uncommon fee, but many places will also waive the fee if the bride pushes the issue. I do bring cakes into the $5-a-serving-fee venue, and I always tell the brides to ask about waiving the fee. Since the venue knows me they've always waived it.

IndyDebi wrote a great response to this a while back. The fee covers the wage for those cutting, the use of dessert plates and utensils, cleanup of those, etc. Location and venue will affect the amount.
Using the house baker may waive the fee, but the cost of the cake may be higher to cover these.

I started offering an attendant/cutting fee and since then, 100% have opted for it. I charge $25/hr and it is usually for 3 to 4 hours. My daughter does it and loves the money. The bride is relieved that her guests can enjoy the reception and not do the hard work.

This isn't a $300 job, but it is $25/hr. As others mentioned, that $300 is for other services too. I now do mostly dessert buffets with a central cake so they are also renting serveware separately. On the clock, she sets up, serves, refills, cleans up our area, and packs.