2022 might be the busiest wedding season ever.
Here are 5 of my favorite cake-artist-approved resources to save time
February is typically a slower month for me but I know wedding season is just around the corner. So I thought I’d do some research on trends & what to expect this year.
Here’s what I found out:
- The Wedding Task Force predicts 350,000 weddings in the UK this year
- That’s a 205% increase from the year before
- The Knot’s Real Weddings Study predicts 2.6 million weddings in the US this year
- and 65% of those couples are getting married in the summer and fall
- The most popular month? October
- 12% of wedding vendors told Zola they were already overbooked
It’s getting busy out there! And I’m gearing up to be fully stocked in ready-to-ship flowers, so you won’t have to worry about those last-minute orders.
And since it’s so busy, I thought I’d share some of my fav time-saving hacks. Like delegating. I always breathe a sigh of relief when I can take something off my plate and I know it’s going to be in good hands.
Despite fewer guests, couples are not scaling down their cake requests – they are simply sending cake to friends who could not attend instead.
— TRULY EXPERIENCES
Here are my recommendations:
Delegation is the secret to how bakers can save time…
Sugar Flowers
Surprising no one, the first thing I think you should delegate is Sugar Flowers. You can add a few extra hours back into your week and I’ll do the messy work (why do I always have green Americolor under my fingernails?!). Whether you need something totally custom or just want to stock up on some quick flowers for last-minute orders, I got you. Plus, sugar flowers are shelf stable so you can order well in advance of the busy season.
Fondant Sculptures
But maybe what you need are *the cutest* fondant sculptures for your cakes. In that case, I highly recommend Craft Sugar Studio. Her cake toppers blow my mind and her customer service is stellar too. I’m *never* spending a week making a fondant Elmo ever again (#flashback), that is not my zone of genius.
I’ll share pictures next week of the topper she made for my son’s birthday.
Cake Lace
Ah yes I remember the days of carefully mixing up some cake lace icing and precisely spatula-ing it into thin silicone molds, then waiting a day for it to dry, then realizing I put too much water in the mix and now I have to start over.
How can bakers possibly save time with that method???
But those days are over. I saw Amazon sold some premade cake lace (affiliate link) and thought I’d give it a try. I made a video where I decorated a dummy cake with it and I was honestly surprised with how good the quality was. They weren’t brittle and I did airbrush with some pearl spray but they stayed flexible without getting sticky. One of these days I’ll upload that video and share it.
Client Management
If you’re swimming in your email inbox and up to your eyeballs in client contracts, I recommend checking out Dubsado* for streamlining your booking process and client communications. It’s what I use for my custom sugar flower orders and it’s saved me a I of time. I watched some of their youtube videos to get a lay of the land and I’ve been up and running ever since. I think Dubsado* is truly an underused tool that is a great way how bakers can save time!
Writing
Okay this one is a last-minute addition. If you have anything to write: emails, product descriptions, blog posts (ahem) I recommend writing it out in Google Docs first, then pasting it into the app/service of your choice. Why? One word: autosave. This one stings a little because this is the second time I wrote this post. The first one is lost to the ether when I accidentally closed out of all my browser tabs. Save yourself: write things in Docs first!!
So those are a few of my favorite things to outsource or delegate. Do you have any secret time-saving hacks you’d love to share? Or maybe you’re just looking for one that wasn’t listed here. Let me know! I’ll help find the answer if I don’t know it myself.
PS, have you booked out on 10/22/2022 yet?
Quick note → Some of the links on this page are affiliate links. That means I get a small commission if you purchase through this link. However, I make it a point to only share tools and resources I truly love and use.
If you liked this blog post, check out my downloadable free guide of
my favorite sugar flower + cake decorating toolkit
