Wedding Planning--How Soon Should I Book?

Not a day goes by that I don't tell at least three or four people who call to ask about cakes that I'm already booked for their date. I don't do many wedding shows anymore because when I did the last few I spent most of my time saying "I'm booked for your date." I do a limited number of cakes per week, so I tend to book faster than someone who does twenty, for example.

This relates to my earlier post about booking vendors...Brides are always asking me how soon they should book their cake. Wedding magazines usually say to start shopping for cakes 3-4 months before your wedding. In my opinion this is WAY too short a time. Depending on what month you're getting married, you might need to book up to a year in advance if you want to get the vendor of your choice.

May and June are traditionally the most popular months for weddings, but October is just as popular now. This surprises a lot of brides when they start calling around to book vendors for their October wedding and start finding that the vendors they thought they'd be able to hire have already been booked by other people.

I generally don't book dates more than a year in advance, but if I start getting a lot of calls asking for appointments for a certain month more than a year ahead, I'll start booking the month. In general, though, I'll start booking dates up to a year in advance. The right time to start looking for your cake, then, is up to a year ahead of time if you're thinking of hiring me.

If you're thinking of hiring someone who does more cakes per week than I do, you can probably wait longer. More production equals more availability. I personally would go to a custom baker, though, rather than a larger bakery that does a lot of production each week, but that's just me ;)