Cheap wedding cake ideas normally involve spending hours in the kitchen creating your wedding cake masterpiece. This is fine if you are a talented cook or have friends and family that are, if you don't then this could add to your wedding day stress. Stress is something to be avoided!

The cheats way to having a beautiful cheap wedding cake is to buy your cake, now that wasn't too much of a surprise but I don't mean the perfect wedding cake that is going to cost you hundreds. What you need to buy is pre-iced cakes - different sizes if you want tiers and cupcakes if you want a cupcake tower. The way you are going to make them your own is by decorating.

Have a look through wedding magazines and online and you will find that most wedding cakes are either unusual or simple.

The unusual cakes are really cakes that you would not associate with being a wedding cake; deep cheesecakes and chocolate gateaux spring to mind. The good thing about choosing this style is that it can easily be your wedding dessert and therefore saving you money on your wedding breakfast. You need to think about how you are going to display these cakes - the easiest way is to hire a cakestand with support for the individual layers and then you don't have to worry about stacking the cakes. If you went to a local baker and ordered 3 cheesecakes in different sizes it will cost you a fraction on the price of a normal wedding cake from the same shop. Cheesecakes are tasty but the traditional cake is normally thinner than you would want, so that it looks good in photos ask for it to be make deeper. To avoid the cheesecake spilling over the sides you can decorate the cake with lady fingers or charlotte sponges and then add more fruit to decorate each layer. Bunches of berries tumbling over the edge looks lovely.

Chocolate gateaux look great as wedding cakes and you can add your personal touch by decorating the sides with chocolate matchsticks or chocolate fingers then make chocolate shavings to scatter over the top. Berries look great with chocolate to add a touch of colour.

For those of you wanting a more traditional cake then it is worth going to the supermarkets and choosing their celebration cakes, these come pre-iced and on board ready to either stack or decorate.

For a very simple and beautiful look use flowers either real or sugar crafted. There are lots of people who love to create decorations with sugar craft, so ask around, somebody will know somebody!

Another way to decorate your cheap wedding cake is to use sugary crystallised petals and they are very easy to make yourself. You will need organic rose petals, egg whites slightly beaten and caster sugar. Brush the petals with the egg whites and then coat very generously with sugar, place them on a plate to dry overnight. You can use this process with fruit and leaves and it looks stunning. No one will know how easy it was.

The best way to come up with more cheap wedding cake ideas is to find your ideal wedding cake and then work out how you can re-create the look using shop bought cake and your imagination!