Flowers, caterers, reception hall, and bridesmaids' dresses. Engraved invitations, honeymoon locale, gift registration, and table linens. These are only a few of the hundreds of components that are involved in planning a wedding. It is easy to forget (between calls to the photographer and decisions about place settings) about the centerpiece of your celebration, your wedding cake. Too often this task is assigned to the caterer or reception hall without much thought to the final product.

Your wedding cake is one of the last things your guests will get at your wedding and one of the first they will remember. How many weddings have you attended where you remember how terrible the cake was?

Size

Bigger doesn't always mean better. A six-tier cake serves no purpose unless you have to feed five hundred people with it. A smaller cake, four tiers or less, is always more delicate and beautiful than a hulking, four foot creation towering the corner. A bigger cake also requires more detail, which is less likely to stand out and shine, the larger the cake becomes. Bigger cakes, due to sheer size, are always more expensive. If you bring in a cake from an outside, a larger cake will come with a higher transportation costs. Always remember that you can have a small cake to cut for photos and a sheet cake to serve to your guests.

Seasonality

If you're planning a December wedding, disregard fresh raspberries in your cake right now. Many summer weddings happen not only due to the beautiful weather but due to the abundant availability of amazing berries that adorn the inside and outside of cakes. Berries are a popular filling but only serve their purpose for a few months a year. Finding berries out of season is expensive (as they have to be imported) and are always of a lower quality than those found locally in June, July, and August. They also don't taste as good and have a tendency to be smaller in size, meaning that more will be needed to obtain the desired effect in your cake. If you must have some sort of berry filling in your cake in January, consider a jam or marmalade as opposed to fresh fruit.