What to Know About a Wedding Cake Servings Chart
When you’re planning your wedding, there are a million little things that need to be considered and signed off on. From the date and time to the venue, flowers, seating chart, and more, there are just so many details to take into account. When it’s time to order the cake, you’ll taste cake flavors and discuss the design and overall vision, but one thing you can’t overlook is the size of the cake you’ll need to serve your guests. Do you want all of your guests to get a slice from your wedding cake? Or are you planning to serve other desserts or slice sheet cakes rather than focusing on the wedding cake itself? Those might sound like minor questions, but the answers to them can help you figure out what size cake you’ll need to order. A wedding cake servings chart can help as well. Designed to make sure you get the number of servings you need, wedding cake servings charts ensure your cake is just the right size. Here’s what you need to know about them:
Why Do You Need a Wedding Cake Servings Chart?
Let’s be honest: You can’t be confident that you’ll have enough cake to serve everyone who wants a slice unless you get a cake far larger than you could ever need. A wedding cake servings chart helps demystify what you’ll need so that you can order the correct-sized cake.
Wedding Cake Servings Chart
Here’s the real deal: wedding cakes are usually sliced differently than your average birthday cake, so you can’t just calculate based on the size of cake slices you’re used to. Standard wedding slices are about 1” x 2”—more elegant and refined than a large party-sized slice. Here's how to know how much cake you'll need to serve your guest list:
Cake Size (Round Cake): 6-inch
Servings (Wedding Cut): 15
Servings (Party Cut): 12
Cake Size (Round Cake): 8-inch
Servings (Wedding Cut): 24
Servings (Party Cut): 16
Cake Size (Round Cake): 10-inch
Servings (Wedding Cut): 38
Servings (Party Cut): 30
Cake Size (Round Cake): 12-inch
Servings (Wedding Cut): 56
Servings (Party Cut): 40
Cake Size (Round Cake): 14-inch
Servings (Wedding Cut): 78
Servings (Party Cut): 50
Cake Size (Round Cake): 16-inch
Servings (Wedding Cut): 100
Servings (Party Cut): 60
Wedding Cake Size: Tiered Cakes
Now that you know how many slices you can get from different sizes of round cakes, you can figure out how many wedding cake tiers you'll need in order to have the right number of portions on your big day :
2-Tier (6” + 8”) → Serves 39
3-Tier (6” + 8” + 10”) → Serves 77
4-Tier (6” + 8” + 10” + 12”) → Serves 133
5-Tier (6” + 8” + 10” + 12” + 14”) → Serves 211
6-Tier → Serves 311+
How to Pick the Right Cake Size for Your Wedding
What’s the guest count? First thing’s first, you’re going to want to look at the number of guests who have RSVP’d that they will attend. You can generally estimate that about 80-90% of your guests will take a slice of cake. If you're serving traditional wedding portion sizes, you can use the chart above, but if you're planning on larger portions, you'll want to factor that in!
Are you serving additional desserts? Think about your overall vision for the reception. Are you planning on a more extensive dessert spread than just your wedding cake? If so, you can pretty safely go for a slightly smaller cake. But if it’s cake or nothing, you’ll want to make sure you have enough servings.
Think about tiers: A taller, tiered cake will feed more people than a shorter cake.
Do you want leftovers? If you want to freeze the top tier of your wedding cake for your first wedding anniversary or want extra servings for any reason, make sure you add that into your calculations!
How is it being served? If the staff is serving it to each and every individual as the last course of dinner, you need exactly enough slices for everyone. If guests are serving themselves from a cake station, you only need enough for about 70% of your guests.
Our Best Tips for Serving Your Wedding Cake
Wedding cakes are usually cut from the inside out in a grid pattern, not like a pizza. This ensures more even slices.
Wedding servings are usually smaller than party cake servings, so make sure you know what you'll want to serve so that you'll have the right number of servings.
Have a designated cake cutter (preferably someone who can wield a knife like a pro). Your caterer or venue might handle this, but if not, make sure you know who is going to do it.
If you’re getting a faux cake tier for looks and a sheet cake for servings, make sure they match so no one notices the switcheroo.
FAQs
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A wedding cake servings chart makes slicing and serving your cake so much easier. You may not strictly need one, but you’ll be glad you used one when you end up with the right size of cake.
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We’d recommend ordering some more (maybe about 10%) servings than your guest count math would require. That way, you should be covered if your estimates were off.
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Grooms’ cakes are fun extras, but they’re certainly not required. If you want to serve a groom’s cake, consider it an add-on.
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That’s totally fine! Cupcakes, a dessert table, pies, cookies, the options are endless. But if you’re not serving cake to all of your guests, make sure you’re not over-ordering!
With a wedding cake servings chart, you can be sure that slicing and serving your wedding cake is stress-free and easy. You can be confident that you’ll have the right amount of cake for your guests—or the extra leftover cake you were hoping for! Wedding planning (and your wedding day itself) is stressful enough, don’t let guessing the number of cake servings you’ll need add to it.
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