@zoosermom, our three tier vegan cake will be $375. I expect NYC would be much higher.
Just have to add, cake tasting day was my favorite prep day so far. Can’t decide between chantilly cream and champagne flavored cream? Take another bite!
How many people does the cake feed, @greenwitch?
Officially, I’m not sure. But we told her we were expecting a reception for 100. There will be 2 other desserts too.
Their website says $3.75/serving for a buttercream cake, $4.50/serving for fondant. We are having vegan buttercream (bride is lactose intolerant).
Good price! I’m all for the buttercream. Not a fondant fan.
On a cheerier note… my beautifully altered dress arrived today from Lord and Taylor. Honestly…you would never know it was altered…at all, I actually checked the tag because I thought maybe they found the smaller size!
I’m so happy with this dress.
I’ll post on the wedding dress thread too,
@Marian there is NO fee to use the room at the hotel where the guests are staying…for either the brunch or the welcome event. We have to pay for the food…but we would,have to do that anyway.
A macaroon tower was once seen as a groom’s cake.
I’m all for having a cake plus something else, be it macaroons or cupcakes
@doschicos The first wedding cake I made actually had fondant. I made the fondant myself, and put fresh lemon juice in it. The cake was filled with tart raspberry buttercream (the real thing made with egg yolks and cane sugar and butter, not sweet confectioner’s sugar and shortening stuff), made with real raspberry puree (also made by me).Each tier consisted of two split layers, so there was a nice amount of the tart fruity buttercream, which also skim coated the tier.
The fondant was amazingly good: very tender, not too sweet because of the lemon juice. Lemon goes well with raspberry. I may possibly have rolled the fondant a bit thinner than is the norm.
I was actually pleasantly surprised by how very good the fondant was. I don’t like overly sweet cakes.
After that I used Wilton fondant a few times. Although greatly improved by the addition of lemon juice, again, it wasn’t as good. I know there are other brand you can order, maybe they are better.
My BIL and SIL’s wedding cake had fondant, but it was almond flavored and also very tender. Delicately tinted and light. Nice.
I really think it depends on how it is flavored and how it is used.
My own wedding cake was buttercream. Unfortunately, I did not make it myself. I really wanted to. But I made everything else. 
I think the big thing when ordering a wedding cake is finding a scratch baker, not someone who uses doctored cake mixes, as MANY of them do. I recently made a doctored cake mix recipe of the type typically made for weddings, with the typical confectioner’s sugar icing. Actually, it might have been better because it used butter instead of shortening. It was very, very sweet. People said, “It tastes just like wedding cake!” Um, yes. But ultimately, no.
Here’s the recipe:
I think I would have still peeled off the fondant and saved the calories while indulging in the rest. 
Marzipan I’ll eat though.
Love lemon/raspberry together. Great combo. And buttercream should never have shortening. Yuck. I hate that old timey wedding cake frosting that leaves a coating inside your mouth.
WASC is just the best “doctored,” imo. There’s also a recipe for making the same from scratch. It’s my go-to and what I used for D2.
Want to make a REALLY good wedding cake? Consult Rose Levy Beranbaum’s The Cake Bible. Forget about WASC.
Consolation, your fondant cake sounds a lot like my wedding cake long ago. We also had raspberry liqueur brushed on the cake layers. It was made by a wonderful pastry chef named Lenny.
We didn’t have lemon in the fondant though. That sounds great! Adding a little tart lemon makes some things just irresistible.
@greenwitch , the white layers were brushed with syrup flavored with framboise. (The real thing that is clear and costs about $45 per bottle. )
I knew things were going just a bit too smoothly. I am beginning to feel the heat of making sure everything come together in Jun. We are about 6 months away now. I can’t believe it.
As soon as D1 got engaged (2 yrs ago) she knew where she wanted the wedding party and the family to stay. It is also the place where we are going to have the welcome party on Fri night. We met with the Inn manager and agreed on the price for all rooms. They kept on saying they were going to send us the contract as soon as it was ready. I didn’t think much about it because I figured it was just matter of time. This week I started to call them regularly and was not able to get hold of anyone. Then last night D1 called me up in a panic because she found out the Inn had doubled per room rate (online and from a friend of hers who is also thinking about having her wedding there). I tried to calm her down, but I was secretly panicking myself. To have them double the room rate would just blow our wedding budget. I consulted my sister who is lawyer about our agreement over emails/verbal. She said email confirmation was as good as a contract.
This morning the contract came through with the original rate. Whew.
Whew is right!! @oldfort!
Deep breaths, @oldfort! Hopefully, unnecessary and panic-inducing events will be few and far between!
Yay for having it in writing!
I have found the perfect place for the wedding of my S and his GF. Now all they have to do is get engaged. 
We and her parents will be spending this Thanksgiving with them. Perfect time for an announcement!
Not holding my breath, though. :((
Looks lovely, @Consolation. I’ll have to go visit that place sometime. I haven’t been but have been to this one which would also make for a nice venue: http://www.shakers.org/
Nice that you share the holidays together already even if not engaged. And if you are cooking, then they are all very lucky.