Anne Chertoff encourages brides planning their weddings to take grooms and parents to taste potential wedding cakes. “It’s the one thing they all love,” she told an audience of women at various stages of the wedding-planning process last week.

Increasingly, brides-to-be are seeking the services of people like Ms. Chertoff, who is not a wedding planner, but who acts as a consultant to help brides through the days leading up to the big event. Her firm, the Wedding Workshop by Anne Chertoff, and organizations such as the Bridal Survival Club are among the resources to which New York City area brides are flocking for tips and support.

Ms. Chertoff, a Brooklyn resident and former editor at Martha Stewart Weddings – and a recent bride herself – opened the workshop on the Upper East Side in November because she saw a need. She was frequently besieged with questions from brides when she worked at Martha Stewart Weddings.

“There needed to be a place where brides could go to get their questions answered and to learn about specific topics, rather than ‘Weddings 101,'” she said.

For $149, a bride can enroll in a 12-month term with Ms. Chertoff. Member benefits include one-on-one consultations, several weekly workshops such as the recent “Cakes 101” and “Bridesmaids 101,” and the forthcoming “Creating a Budget and Negotiating Contracts” (Thursday, February 24) and “Hiring a Caterer and Creating a Menu” (Tuesday, March 15). Ms. Chertoff also assists brides in finding venues and vendors, figuring out budgeting and contracts, and provides a subscription to “Wedding Notes,” a weekly newsletter.

Last Tuesday, at “Cakes 101,” Collette Foley, a veteran of Cafe Boulud and a specialty cake baker, advised the brides to steer clear of the trend toward red-velvet wedding cake because of the “pink tongue and pink teeth” its dye induces. Sporting a blue denim chef’s jacket and surrounded by samples of her creations, Ms. Foley shared this and other tips.

Four brides-to-be sat at glass-topped, pink wrought-iron tables, tasting the master cake baker’s buttercream finished confections: chocolate butter cake with milk chocolate mousse and dulce de leche; cardamom-scented golden cake with lemon creme and berry creme (this reporter’s favorite); a nutless carrot cake studded with Grand Marnier currants, orange-zested cream cheese, and white chocolate buttercream; and a toasted almond torte with semisweet chocolate truffle and triberry creme, topped with a vanilla fondant (no, maybe that was the favorite).

Grooms, members of the bridal party, family, and friends can also attend the wedding workshop to learn the best and most helpful ways to get involved. Topics for nonbrides include shower planning, knotting bow ties, and delivering speeches.

“I always encourage the bride to bring her mom, the groom, a bridesmaid, or friend,” Ms. Chertoff said.

Emily Anderson, 34, who lives on the Upper West Side and who is planning an October 15 wedding to David Natt at Le Chateau in North Salem, N.Y., asked the cake designer about fondant versus buttercream frosting. Only fondant allows the designer to create a porcelain-like finish, Ms. Foley said.

Raquel Van Gelder, 27, will wed her beau of four and a half years, Matt Camassa, 30, at the Saint Francis Hotel in San Francisco, where they both are from. She has attended the wedding workshops since they started in November. “I didn’t know anything, so I just came to learn,” she said.

Even larger crowds of brides-to-be attend the free monthly meetings held by the Bridal Survival Club. Sponsored by the 1-year-old New York Wedding Group, the Bridal Survival Club offers informal get-togethers where brides sit in a circle and share questions and advice. Founded by Arlene Cronk, who started the Boston Wedding Group nine years ago, it draws a diverse crowd eager to share the fun and misery of planning a wedding.

Ms. Cronk, who has been “very happily” married for 15 years (“I’m very lucky,” she said), has been selling wedding invitations for 14 years. Explaining the genesis of her organization, she said, “Planning a wedding is very stressful. Brides don’t realize they need support. For one thing, this is the most expensive thing they’ve done in their lives. For some brides, it’s a great experience. But for others, they think if they’re not happy throughout the process, there’s something wrong with them.” The purpose of the group is to “support each other.”

“Some brides will come every month for a year,” she said. “The wedding day comes and goes very fast. It’s important that the planning process be fun,” she added.

Last Wednesday, “Exploring Inner and Outer Bridal Beauty,” the topic of this month’s meeting, drew about 40 women to the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown. Strains of an aria sounded from a female string quartet in the Plaza Suite.

Waiters offered champagne to clusters of women chatting about wedding details and gazing at ivory silk taffeta gowns with hand-beaded three-dimensional flowers and white fox stoles. Tanya Bianca of Model Bride showed a collection of bridal shoes, including ones by Stuart Weitzman and Vera Wang, while, nearby, makeup artist Keri Berman from Henri Bendel made up a pretty future bride.

Other brides looked at flowers by Marc-Antoine Event Design and lighting displays by Ira Levy as they noshed on chicken satay, lamb chops, cheese, and other goodies. Mostly, the brides just swapped tips and questions with one another. Brooklynite Alice Ann Gentry, 31, a corporate fund-raiser getting married in May, was there for her second meeting. This time, she brought along a colleague, Weronika Wisniewska, 29, a graphic designer with a wedding planned for October 8 at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, who explained, “We work together. We can commiserate back and forth.”

Ms. Gentry, whose wedding will take place in Las Vegas, said of the Bridal Survival Club, “If you’re not using a wedding planner or [you are] getting married somewhere else, it is very helpful.”

Linda Toscano, 26, a physician’s assistant, is planning a July 3rd wedding in Narragansett, R.I. She described her first Bridal Survival Club event as a “pleasant surprise. I’ve been meaning to come. I can’t believe it’s free.” As for her wedding plans, she said, “The big stuff is done. I’m thinking now about hair and makeup. Definitely hair. I’ve been stressing about up or down.”

In every conversation, “The Knot” (www.theknot.com, a popular Web site for brides) popped up. One bride said, “I live on that Web site.”

Even brides on their second go-round make appearances at the Bridal Survival Club. One, looking remarkably young and requesting anonymity (she said she didn’t want to “jinx” her second wedding), explained her lack of knowledge despite her veteran status by saying “there’s been a 20-year hiatus” between ceremonies.

Sitting at a table, six brides, ranging in age from 25 to 35, talked about dresses. “I’m shopping in all the wrong places,” said Maura MacDonald, 31, an accountant, who found one she loved, at a price she didn’t – $8,000.

Clearly not enjoying the process, she said, “I just want to get it over with. I just want the day to happen.”

Rebecca Scofield agreed. “I just wish the bliss period had lasted a little longer,” she said. Ms. Scofield, 29, who works at ABC, said she is getting married over Thanksgiving weekend in Texas, where, she said, “I can throw this shindig for about half the price.”

“This champagne is going right to my head,” said Ms. MacDonald, who finally seemed to be enjoying herself just a little bit.

For more information on the Wedding Workshop, visit www.theweddingworkshop.com. To learn about the New York Wedding Group, visit www.nywg.org.