Going to a specialty baker to craft your dream wedding cake can cost you more than $1,000.

Or you can order a few half sheet cakes from Costco for about $30 each.

“We love Costco, first of all,” said Anna Holleran, who got married in California’s Bay Area this year — and, yes, picked up her wedding cake from the grocery wholesaler.

“Their cakes are so good,” she said. “How can you go wrong?”

Weddings are one of the most expensive days in many people’s lives, costing on average about $36,000, according to the wedding-planning website Zola. The Bank of America Institute reports wedding spending among its customers was up 8.5% in May from a year earlier.

Some of that is by choice, with couples deciding to splurge on the venue or chasing the latest TikTok reception trend. But there are less controllable economic factors too, from inflation driving up the price of suits and catering to tariffs bumping up the cost of imported flowers and bridal gowns.

And according to Emily Forrest, head of communications at Zola, one place where couples are willing to trim costs is the cake. About a third of couples surveyed by Zola said they’d consider spending less on cake and dessert.

“When it comes to a wedding, every couple always has to sit down and say, ‘Where are we going to save, and where are we going to splurge?'” said Forrest. “And cakes just don’t seem to rise to the splurge occasion for a lot of couples.”

What couples aren’t willing to do is ditch the cake tradition entirely.

“You can’t skip the cake!” said Lily Alana Stewart, who got married last year in central Alabama. “Everybody looks forward to a cake at a wedding.”

To save money, she ordered her cake from Publix, a grocery chain in the South.

Stewart used baby’s breath for decorating the venue, and Publix incorporated that into the cake design. Her co-workers who attended were surprised to learn where the cake came from. “They said, ‘Wait, wait, wait. Your wedding cake was from Publix?'” Stewart said. “And they were still mind blown.”