Graduation Fever? Here are 8 Tips for Planning Your Party

As graduation season nears, it’s easy to get caught up in the emotions surrounding the momentous occasion. After all, years of hard work have led to this day.  To take the pressure off planning the graduation bash your graduate deserves, we’ve compiled a list of helpful nuggets to keep in mind. Here are 8 things to know before planning your party:

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Believe it or not, the vibe your party gives off greatly affects the amount of food your guests will eat.  If your event is held in a formal setting with heavy foods, your guests may not eat as much.  Conversely, if you have an assortment of catered trays such as our chicken drummies or sandwich trays, your guests will graze the food table and consume more.

Timing:

Time plays two roles in determining the number of guests to expect and food to serve. If you’re planning a party during a busy holiday or during a busy time of day for your guests, such as church or work, you should expect fewer guests to attend. On the other hand, if you plan your party around conventional meal times, your guests will expect to be fed. Careful consideration of both date and time should be used prior to mailing those invites.

Venue:

Like the atmosphere, venue plays a role in attendance. If your venue is hard to get to or ultra-crowded, more of your guest may send regrets. If you have a more intimate venue, such as your backyard, you could expect a higher turnout. If you’re unsure where to host your celebration, Eventective has a great list of venues for every celebration every where.

Now we can get into the nuts and bolts of the cake elements:

Servings:

We make cakes to serve eight or up to eight hundred. Knowing the size of your intended crowd is always helpful when planning. If you’re unsure how many guests to expect, a good rule of thumb is to plan on serving 80% of invited guests.

Flavors and Fillings:

Having a general idea of your cake flavor really helps when planning your party.  We offer vanilla and chocolate as our base options. However, red velvet, carrot, hummingbird, and sawgrass are also available.

Aside from our famous homemade buttercream, some designs allow for flavored icing as well.  These icings include chocolate buttercream, strawberry buttercream, colored buttercream, and our cream cheese icing.

Our fillings are not available for every flavor or design. Some of the popular fillings include strawberry, raspberry, lemon, strawberry/cream cheese, raspberry/ganache.

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Design:

The internet is full of amazing designs for graduation cakes. From elegant three-tiered masterpieces to an easy to serve sheet cake, the design choice is completely up to you.

While a tiered cake acts as a beautiful centerpiece to any event, there are some things to consider prior to settling on this design. Tiered cakes require a skilled server. They also require a steady hand when transporting from place to place. In some cases, they require a cooler temperature.

If ease of serving is more your style, a sheet cake may be the way to go.  While not as ‘glamorous’ as their tiered counterpart, sheet cakes can be made with many special features.  We can place a personal photo of your graduate on the cake. School colors and logos fit better on a sheet cake than a tiered cake.  A sheet cake is also the winner when it comes to putting multiple schools on a single cake.

Can’t decide which option is best? Why not consider another approach? Mixing cakes and cupcakes can solve a multitude of potential issues.

If you want more flavor options, fancy cupcakes can fill the need.  Or, if you’re looking for an alternative to a large cake, cupcakes designed to match your decor colors may be just the answer.

Cake not your thing? Our cookies are a tasty alternative.

We have several shapes for graduation.  Our skilled decorators can match almost any school colors and party themes. Our bachelor buttons may also be ordered to match your decor.

Setting up a dessert table with our iced cutouts and bachelor buttons that all coordinate with the cupcakes or cake of your choice is a great way to provide options for all your guests.

In any case, our staff will work hard to create a plan to fit your serving and design ideas. We have a full listing of our cake servings and pricing on our FAQ page.

Budget:

This is the topic least discussed but is the most important element. Knowing your budget ahead of time allows us to make suggestions well within your desired price point. We wouldn’t want to build up a cake design with every fondant bell and whistle you could imagine only to come in way over budget.  When we know a price area you want to stay around, we can create packages that keep your guests and wallet happy.

Space:

Before you finalize flavors, sizes, and catering trays, there’s one more element to consider.  Space.  Do you have the space in your refrigerator to hold the trays until the party?  Do you have room on your kitchen counter to house the elaborate display of foods you’ll be ordering from us? Can you borrow your neighbors fridge? While space may not be the deciding factor for your event, where you’ll store your food is important to know ahead of time.

So Let’s Party!

With these eight tips by your side, you’ll be on your way to planning the most memorable celebration yet.  We have a great sales team standing by to answer any of your graduation party needs. Get ahead of the rush! Give us a call or stop in today!