At 59, I dance my ass off AND eat tons of cake. I’m really talented that way. 
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At my son’s wedding in May, they also used a Costco cake for serving (with a fake tiered cake that had a real layer on top to cut into). The cake was good and it was one place they could save some money on . Also didn’t have favors, so saved some money there as well. They splurged on other things , like the flowers and a 10 piece band.
These will be a minimalist cake at kid’s wedding. The groom is stressing out about having to cut a cake in front of the crowd! 
Plus the couple is not that much into sweets (Keto eating gets in the way of that, haha!), so they decided that they will have an assortment of desserts prepared by the caterer and that small cake for the show and anyone who wants it. Because the wedding is at a remote for us location, there are no cake deliveries unless we want to pay hundreds of $$ for that… so we have to transport the cake ourselves. Wish me luck!
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Just tell the groom to not smash the cake in your daughters face and he’ll be fine! 
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Oh I am 100% positive there there will be no smashing! These two are neat freaks!
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MOG insisted on doing a groom’s cake at the rehearsal dinner (I had never heard of it, growing up in the Northeast, but apparently they are more common here in the South). I’m sure she spent $500-$1,000 on it, since it was extremely detailed and included several fondant sculptures. Hardly anyone ate it, as there was already a dessert served as a course during the dinner.
It seemed like a waste of money to me, but she was very proud of it.
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I love a groom’s cake. More cake the better.
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IDK about serving groom’s cake at rehearsal dinner, as I have only been with southern weddings with groom’s cake along with the bridal cake at the wedding. Note the groom’s cake at movie ‘Steel Magnolias’.
Publix does have terrific bakery dept. A really good wedding cake is grand, but many brides do avoid some of the extra fees with ‘cake plating’. IDK how much better some specialty bakeries are and the pricing difference. I know the specific bakery I had was far above what anyone else in the area could do - and it was actually across the street from our venue. – and they are still doing their excellent work 40 plus years later. a 5 layer cake that served 300+; 10 slices and the top were all that was left. The cost of the flowers for the wedding was the only outlying cost my dad thought was ‘high’. My mom hosted some kind of party a little after our wedding and they ate the top layer of the cake - mom said it would not taste good 1 year later, ha ha.
If you have to cut corners for a wedding, wear do YOU vote to cut them?
Flowers?
Food service (the meal or main food feature)?
Venue?
Beverages?
Cake/Desserts?
Favors?
Wedding clothing?
Something else?
We are cutting costs (and trash!) by not doing party favors and by going with minimum decorations. We will be providing own booze and will pay for a licensed bartender to serve it (this is a somewhat cost-cutting thing but most importantly we are not restricted in wine choices by what the venue offers).
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My personal opinion is party favors are a total waste, unless they happen to be consumables that are easy to deal with. Great that you can bring your own alcohol!
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Also not a believer in wedding favors. The only favors we gave at my D’s wedding last summer was a small (pen sized) spray hand sanitizer with the kid’s wedding logo printed on it. Telltale sign of a covid wedding?
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I vote to cut favors. If possible find venue that is pretty enough to not need decor other than centerpieces and some fairy lights - avoid places that need additional lighting and draping. Can also plan wedding earlier in day so food doesnt have to be as heavy. Before Covid messed it up my niece was having a morning wedding with brunch reception and a party later in day with burgers, etc.
D really wanted a decently expensive band. That was her splurge so went with good but not super trendy photographer. No videographer (church did livestream with multiple cameras and we were able to download it to save the ceremony) Did do cake but fairly basic and not hugely expensive.
Around here grooms cake is usually at rehearsal dinner. Trend here is a fondant cake that looks like something important to groom. One niece had one shaped like his dog, another had one shaped like a golf bag. D just did small cake in different flavor than wedding. Added a topper from Etsy that looked like their two dogs. That served as dessert at rehearsal dinner.
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We’ve cut costs a number of ways. D and her fiancé wanted something low-key and personal. They got engaged the fall of 2019, and her schooling and Covid kept the wedding off the table til now.
Only 50 people.
Venue is our decent-size backyard. It’s meant that H had to move forward some repairs and redos, but that was going to happen wedding or not.
No band, no DJ. Curated music with an iPhone, Spotify, and speakers.
We’re doing the flowers and centerpieces.
#2D making and decorating the two cakes. They couldn’t decide which flavors, so are going with 2 small tiered cakes. (I know that the lemon cake with blackberry filling and blackberry buttercream is divine.)
Alcohol purchased by us, of course. One of the winery clubs we belong to had pick-up party specials, so we got good deals. There will be non-alcoholic beverages, hard cider and seltzer, a couple of local beers and cheap stuff in cans. If I can get my act together, there will be a cocktail.
The biggest expenses are food & beverages, renting tables, chairs, and all table and glass ware. Total flowers and decor are under $600.
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We didn’t plan to have favors at all…and also we’re going to do somewhat inexpensive invitations. BUT, the MOG hand made gorgeous and very unique invitations, and favors (handmade soaps…wrapped beautifully).
We saved money by using a grocery store florist for flowers. They were great at a much less cost than the florists we had give us estimates. They also let us provide five vases instead of charging us for theirs. I have a good source for nice, inexpensive vases.
DD wears the sample size and convinced the bridal shop to discount the sample in her size. We had a friend who made the hair combs she wore.
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Thanks all. Reading through tonight reminded me to give up the party favors if we want to do the gold chairs in the ballroom. We’ll still have party favors but they will be consumables — not luggage tags or bottle openers.
RSVPs are coming back with more YESes than anticipated.
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Almost everyone we invited said yes. We weren’t sure we would make the 90 person minimum and we had 125.
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We cut corners with the cake (vive la Publix!) and flowers. The wedding was outdoors in the mountains in October. Mother nature was at her finest with leaf colors, so we were able to get away with minimal additional flowers (other than the bouquets and minimal table decor). The challenge was finding a florist who would drop down to my D’s budget ($3,000-$4,000). Most were insulted by the number and acted like their social media pics wouldn’t be worthy 
The quotes she was getting were anywhere from 10k-15k. I ended up finding a wonderful mother/daughter florist who weren’t into the Instagram “likes” and they were very eager to work within that budget. I thought everything was perfect!
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She also used a photographer whose business was only a few years old, so her prices were still in the reasonable range.
They spent the lion’s share of the money on a 10-piece band, open bar and the food. Those were the things that were most important to them. They paid for the welcome party on their own. We did not do a formal brunch the next day but a group of us met informally for breakfast.
The flowers and greens are BEAUTIFUL. Double thousand digits for flowers? Never!