Hey y'all, 

I'm working on a quote for this cake and I have no idea how many flowers are on the topper and then around the bottom "tier", which looks like some sort of light up box. I have an idea for pricing the rest of the cake, minus the flowers. I'm thinking with THAT many flowers, that I would purchase ready made flowers to make my life easier since I'm the only one at my shop who can make sugar flowers. And i really don't feel like making that many! So if someone has an idea of how many flowers are on there, I could get a better idea of how many I would need to order and then how much to charge her. 

I would love to see how people would price it as well. Here are my thoughts: 

I'm thinking is a 6/8/double 10/12/14. It looks like the 8 and the 12 are shorter or the 6 and 14 are taller, but I'm not sure. If I were to do it, I would make the 8 and 12 three layers of cake and the 6 and 14 would be four layers of cake. The 10 would be a double stack with 8 layers and a board after 4 layers. My base price for just the cakes would be $889.50. The upcharges don't see too challenging but time consuming. It looks like sugar pearls or drages on the 6, a lace mold on the 8, the bow and rouching (sp?) on the 10, and then some piping and more lace mold on the 12 and 14. Plus all of the bling! Without all of the flowers, I'm looking at about $1300. I estimated the servings to be about 214, but I didn't really calculate how many the shorter tiers would serve. That is about $6 per serving before the flowers are added. 

I'm just waiting for this bride to respond that she only has a $300 budget. :/ 

Oh and the wedding is June 15 of this year!! June is still fairly open so I have no problem doing it but I'm worried she'll be a PIA. 

OOPS Forgot the picture! 

AShe only has a $300 budget and wants this cake??!!

I would say $3,000 because of the tons of flowers.   

Yes, $3,000 based on the size of the cake and the flowers as well.  Hope that bride is ready to hear the price, although if she's from a major city she may be parepared for the price.  Here in Boston depending on the baker that could end up being $5,000.

Looking on my phone, so hard to see, but I would guesstimate 150 flowers. Without really breaking it down and running the numbers, I'd probably be charging around $2,500.

Yea most of my brides haven't needed more than a four tier cake. I haven't emailed her the quote yet but I really want to add about $200 as a PIA charge for it having to be all white. Part of me wants to have it in my portfolio and part of me doesn't want to deal with it. I'm thinking of saying $2,000 and telling her it is a close approximation that is based on that design. Once we sit down face to face and discuss, the price could increase. The biggest thing I don't know how to calculate is the number of flowers. 

AWhat makes an all white cake a PITA?

$2,000 is a lot for a wedding cake, but for that cake, it's a bargain!

I just priced out the flowers on a cake like this, but they were daisy-type simple ones. Those look like multiple-layered roses or something ruffly like that, and they'd be around $900-1000 jsut for the flowers on the base and the top. Not even taking the rest of it into account. I can't wait to see what her budget is, make sure to let us know.

My guess is 150-200 flowers.

As much as I adore sugar flowers, would you consider using real flowers around the bottom instead? It'd save you a whole lot of work and you'd still end up with a completely fab cake in your portfolio.

I don't have my reading glasses on, but when I count how many flowers are on 1/4 of the base I come up with 24. So around the base alone I'd say 100 flowers. Plus the middle and top layer flowers (guessing there are 50). The cheapest you might get each flowers for are around $6.00 each. Thank-goodness they aren't all hand painted....

So I'd guess your costs alone buying the flowers will be around: $6.00 x 150 flowers= $900.00 But realistically it probably will be more depending upon your shipping fees.

This is why I price out my décor separate from my cake. So a client can see just how expensive those pretty sugar flowers are. So far, all of my customers opt. for real flowers because they are far cheaper. Unfortunately, usually the florist in my are barely uses enough flowers to go around the base....so clients rarely get what they are dreaming of.

To me, an all white cake is a PIA. We do more than just cake so I would probably have like a cupcake order that my team would be working on so I'd have to keep everything super clean. I wouldn't actually charge more for all white but its going to drive me nuts! I was looking at Caljava for flowers. If I did it all in roses, the cost would be $314 and I typically double the cost for the time it takes to put them all on and to cover for breakage. Peonies are about $6 each and I can't tell what the third flower is. So if I do half roses and half peonies, it would be $157 for the roses and $408.75 just to cover the cost. So my price to her would be $1131.50. So if I combine that with what I mentioned earlier, I'm looking at $2431.50. Keep in mind that if I was a PERFECT designer, I'd probably be charging much more, but I think that's a reasonable price based on the cake, my skills, and the area I work. I'm going to type of the email and let y'all know. 

I could probably suggest fresh flowers for the bottom; I'm just worried that they won't coordinate with the sugar flowers on the cake. I am anti-fresh flowers on cake; I can do it but you're gonna have to pull at me to do it. 

I can't wait to hear how this turns out... and my two cents regarding white cake? I love it. shows fewer flaws in the buttercream and you never have to worry about the color changing because you went back and fixed an error or accidentally touched the finish.

I sent her the email last night quoting slightly over $2500. The 30% deposit that I require was over $700, which is at the higher end of what I usually charge for my wedding cakes. I already told my team that we're popping a bottle of nice champagne if this potential customer books that cake! 

I did tell her that I need a 30% deposit to reserve the date and then the remaining balance is due three weeks prior to the wedding, which would May 25. Problem is, I'm not available for a Sunday tasting until May 19. She's in the greater Los Angeles area so a weekday appointment after work isn't possible. She also didn't really understand why she could do a Saturday tasting. I explained that Saturdays are our busiest days. Not only do we have custom orders, we also have a retail day selling cupcakes and decorated sugar cookies. She is more than welcome to come in and try a cupcake to see to make sure I know how to bake :D but I can't schedule a formal sit down tasting and consultation. 

I'll keep everyone updated on the progress. Thank you for everyone's help with the flowers! 

Good luck!  Hope you get it!

Liz
 

Ok so she hasn't responded yet but I was showing my mom the email I sent. The bride originally emailed me about 10 days ago and inserted a picture. I wasn't originally able to view the image on my computer. When I showed my mom our communications, and the original picture showed up. Be prepared for the cake she first sent me. 

Now that I've seen this "original" cake, I'm fairly convinced that the bride doesn't have $2500 to spend on a cake. Which is fine but I'm not sure why she sent me a simple cake the first time and then a completely over the top cake the second time. I'm going to see what she says to the second cake and go from there. 

Update: Bride just called me and her finance didn't approve of the large cake BUT she did tell me her max budget was $1300. Which I'm happy about so we can rework the design and have less flowers but still be able to have the drama of that cake. :D 

Yea I told her I could for sure do a cake for $1300! My most expensive coming up is almost $700 too! I would need to serve 185. She also mentioned a groom's cake and I asked if that needed to be within the 1300 along with the bride's cake and she said "No, I know how much work it would be", so that's a plus! 

Oh I am too! If I do end up doing it, it would be about $7 per serving, including delivery. I typically start at around $4.50 per serving but I price by the tier so it sometimes comes out to less. Just doing a 4-6-8-10-12 in fondant including some detail would be $751.50. 

I'd order all those flowers from www.AvalonDeco.com.  You'll save money over CalJava.