Tammy M-Johnson: Depending on the style of the cake and the design work involved, 3 to 6 months is recommended. If somebody wants a very simple white cake, you wouldn’t have to plan very far ahead. But for something unique and creative, you’d want to go with 3 to 6 months for design.
Mark Lotti: At a good stage, you should have at least one slice of cake for all of your guests. So based on that, you can kind of get a rough idea of how many cheers you’ll need.
Christine J. Harris: As you’re deciding about your wedding cake, it’s really important to keep 3 things in mind. One, you should definitely know your budget. The second thing is you should have an idea of what you want for your wedding cake, what type of style, how big you want your cake to be, how many serving it’s going to be and the last thing is you’re really going to want to do your research. Know how much the average wedding cake costs in your area.
Catherine Ruehle: Some of the more important things are whether the person is professionally trying or has experience; they really understand the food product. They’re not just looking at it from a decorator’s perspective, but they have sort of a whole vision of what they’re trying to achieve. They know how to decorate a cake. They know how to make it taste good. They know how to get it there in one piece, they can advise you on whether butter cream is going to work for you in July in Texas or if you should go with fondue then.
Diane Forden: Flavor is every bit as important as the way your wedding cake looks and don’t be afraid to use different cake flavors or fillings for each tier of your wedding cake.
Mark Lotti: Some flavors of cake work better than others in different times of the years. For instance, if you’re having a summer wedding, obviously you don’t want to go with something very heavy. You want to keep on the lighter side normally in the fruits like lemons and raspberries whereas a winter wedding, you can do anything. You have more of the chocolate based cakes and there are more rich kinds of cakes too. But again, it’s personal taste. There are no rules any longer.