When royalty ties the knot, things have to be grand, especially the cake. When Princess Diana married Prince Charles, their big day featured 27 wedding cakes, with the official wedding cake towering 5 feet tall and weighing a whopping 225 pounds. And when American-born Grace Kelly said her “I dos” to Prince Rainer of Monaco, their cake was six tiers topped with a cage filled with two live turtle doves. So it makes sense that when the King of Rock and Roll married his queen, they had one of the trendiest wedding cake styles, with a price to match.
When Elvis Presley and Priscilla Wagner wed in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 1967, they spent $3,200 on their six-layer cake, styled by the chef of the Aladdin hotel, Bjorn Jaeger. Today, in 2025, the same yellow sponge cake filled with kirsch-flavored Bavarian cream, layered with apricot marmalade, and adorned with red marzipan roses would cost a couple more than $30,000 (per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator). That’s a lot of Benjamin Franklins to be dropping on a cake, and that price tag may leave you asking why we eat cake at a wedding in the first place. What made the “Can’t Help Falling in Love” singer’s cake so unique?
Elvis Presley’s wedding cake was iconic
To start with, there’s the flavor. While vanilla was the “it” flavor for a 1960s wedding cake, Elvis and Priscilla Presley opted for a yellow sponge accented by a not-so-common flavor. Kirsch, which is an abbreviated form of “kirschwasser,” is a brandy made with black morello cherries and has a subtle sour cherry flavor. Kirsch was also used to flavor the fondant icing.
Per Zola, the average cost for a wedding cake in 2025 is on pace to cost a couple $600. What makes this part of the nuptials so pricey? Pastry chefs tend to agree that a wedding cake is one of the hardest desserts to make, but it’s important to note that a wedding cake is priced by the slice. You will spend $4 for a piece of buttercream-frosted cake and $5 for one covered with fondant. Other factors that influence that final price include fillings, flavor choice, cake tier size, and how intricate the design is.
Elvis and Priscilla Presley’s cake definitely checked all those boxes and is still considered an iconic piece of Sin City’s story. In fact, Las Vegas celebrated its 70th anniversary as the Wedding Capital of the World in 2023, and to mark the occasion, one bakery recreated this slice of cultural history, giving Elvis fans an opportunity to experience the cake he and Priscilla celebrated with.
