If you’ve recently planned a wedding, you know that every little detail can cost a good deal of money. The wedding dress, the limousine, the band and food for the reception all can total what seems like a small fortune. If there is a way to save money most brides and their grooms are happy to hear about it. One easy way is to take a wedding cake decorating class.

It can seem very intimidating to think about decorating something as important as the cake that will be the centerpiece of your wedding. Most people don’t even consider this a possibility and instead order an extravagant cake that can cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. If there is someone in your family who enjoys baking and is creative offer to attend a wedding cake decorating class with them.

The baking part of the equation is fairly simple. In fact, you can even purchase plain, cakes that haven’t yet been iced from most bakeries. This is going to cost a bit more than baking the cakes yourself, but it’s certainly an affordable timesaver. In fact many bakeries who sell plain cakes may also offer a workshop that focuses on how to decorate a wedding cake.

It’s best to practice a bit before the big day. If you’ve been to a class to learn how to decorate cakes, yet you’ve never done it in practice, you really shouldn’t try it on the cake on the day of the wedding. Although you could claim it to be an original work of art, your guests may wonder exactly who did the wedding cake decorating and whether or not they should chance eating a piece.

I’d suggest trying with a smaller version of the actual cake a few weeks before the big day. What many people have found helpful is to purchase a few pieces of Styrofoam in the shape of the wedding cake and try decorating those. Remember that the texture will naturally be quite different than a cake will be, but the wedding cake decorating techniques most important when you are just beginning to experiment.

As with anything new trial and error is the key to success. Take your time when you are creating your cake. Icing is very forgiving and can mask many mistakes. Remember that it doesn’t have to be perfect. Wedding cake decorating is as much about creativity as it is about skill. Besides, if the cake itself tastes delicious, as most wedding cakes do, your guests won’t even notice if a candy rose is missing its petals.