Custom Orders

How Far Ahead Should You Order a Wedding Cake?

By Elena Vasquez, Owner & Head Baker, Maplewood Bakehouse & Cafe · May 20, 2026

Every couple asks some version of the same question in their first email to us: "is it too early to book a wedding cake?" The honest answer is almost never — but it can absolutely be too late, so here's the timeline that actually keeps a wedding cake stress-free from first taste to delivery day.

Six to eight weeks before your wedding is our sweet spot for a first inquiry. That gives us time to schedule a tasting, talk through flavor combinations, and — if you want a design that references a photo or Pinterest board — sketch out how it'll actually look at scale, which is different from how it looks in a single reference photo of someone else's cake.

The tasting itself typically happens 4-6 weeks out. We'll usually offer three or four flavor combinations based on what you described in your custom-order form, plus one or two suggestions of our own if your event has a season or theme that lends itself to something specific — a summer wedding calls for different flavors than a January one.

Final details lock in about two weeks before the wedding: exact guest count (which determines size and tier count), delivery time and venue logistics, and any last design tweaks. This is also when we confirm allergy or dietary accommodations — if you need a nut-free tier or a gluten-free option for some guests, this is the point where that gets finalized, not the week of.

If you're reading this with a wedding four weeks away and no cake booked yet — don't panic, but call us today. We can often still accommodate a simpler design on a shorter timeline; what we can't do is a highly detailed custom design with only a few days' notice. The earlier you start the conversation, the more options you'll have, but there's almost always something we can work out.

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