Are you the traditional classically elegant type or would you love something a bit more contemporary for your cake? Do you like muted colours or bold? Would you like a 'Wow' cake that stands out from the crowd and is a bit of a statement or perhaps your taste is for something a bit more understated? Finding ideas you like which reflect your own style and taste is a really enjoyable part of the process. I'd recommend making a Pinterest board where you can pin all your ideas. Very soon you're likely to see a pattern emerge, and you can home in on your favourite things. If Pinterest isn't your cup of tea then you could make a scrapbook filled with magazine cut outs, or a style mood board.

To a certain extent this is decided by the number of guests you're catering for, but you needn't be restricted. Single tiers can serve up to 80 or 90 (if you really want them to!); two tiers generally serve from 40 upwards; three tiers 65 upwards; four tiers 100 upwards; 5 tiers over 200. Of course these numbers are generalisations, and your cake designer can play with tier sizes to adjust the numbers up or down. So really I'd recommend just having a chat to your cake designer about the number of tiers you think you might like and they'll be able to discuss your options with you. Sometimes you can add to the height of a cake by including dummy (fake) tiers, but the price difference between real & dummy often isn't that much.

The standard wedding cake portion size is a finger slice, 1" x 1". Most of today's wedding cakes are baked nice and deep, so the height of your slice will be around 4" or 5". This is a lovely size, and just enough for a proper taste without leaving your guests feeling as if they've eaten too much. However it's no problem to go bigger than this - perhaps you're considering serving your cake as dessert after your meal? In which case a dessert portion (1" x 2") would be perfect. Remember though that if you double your portion size you'll double the size of cake you need.

This is an important one. Wedding cake prices vary hugely depending on how much work and time the decoration takes. Just as an example, consider all the beautiful sugar flowers you see (made not just by me but by any cake designer). Every part of those is hand made from scratch, and it can take between one and five hours to make each one! So if, for example, your dream cake has a cascade of sugar flowers on it your budget will need to account for this. Be realistic about your budget and discuss it and your wishes with your cake designer, who will take everything into account and discuss all your options with you. Remember also you'll most likely have a delivery cost to add in too.

Perhaps you know already who your cake designer is going to be. Perhaps you're still looking around. Look at past examples of suppliers' work and taste their cake (the best bit!). Look for reviews previous clients have given them. Does their work fit with your budget? Can they deliver to your venue? Do they have availability for your date? Take your time, it's an important decision. If you have any questions along the way we're all a pretty friendly bunch, so just ask and we will answer. What I would say though is that when you do decide which cake designer you'd like to go with then don't delay and make a booking as soon as you can. Because every aspect of our cakes is hand made (I'm speaking for myself and also on behalf of my fellow cake designers out there) we restrict the amount of orders we take so we can give 100% focus to every cake. I myself take no more than one wedding cake order for any given week, so when that date is gone in my diary it's gone.