Dessert Table / Wedding Cake alternatives?

So yesterday evening I attended a Google+ hangout hosted by a couple of big names in the wedding industry, including +HauteLook and +Nordstrom and it was such a blast! They addressed a lot of very interesting questions that brides have about planning their weddings including: pre-wedding diet routines, trending colors for 2014, and wedding cake alternatives (which i'll be discussing in this post).

One of the things I've learnt over the years being in the wedding planning/event decor business is that typically the components of every wedding are generally similar - you just need to tailor the wedding to the environment, culture, religion and demographics of the wedding attendees and host(s).

With regards to wedding cake alternatives, one of the more common alternatives is cupcakes. Most people love the idea of individualised cakes for their guests, and the different look and feel of their cake table. In addition with cupcakes you don't have to worry about cutting a huge cake on site. 


Other dessert items that are showing up at weddings instead of wedding cakes include cake pops, doughnut towers, macaroons, cookie buffets, mini-cakes, mini-pies and candy bars/stations. (* I actually know a vendor in Abuja who makes great cake-pops. I'll post a write-up about her company in another blog post)

Late last year, myself and 3 colleagues in the wedding industry hosted a mini-showcase event, where we highlighted a few items including flowers, dessert/candy table and balloon decor. One of the great things about candy bars/stations and mini-desert bars is that you can tailor them to fit in with your color scheme. The containers used to display your candy can be of varying heights or designs that can be tied into the theme of the existing decor. Candy / Mini-dessert bars/stations can almost be considered edible decor :)

To wrap this up, you have to be cognisant of the scale and size of your wedding. Some of the alternatives above may work if you are having a smaller wedding as opposed to a larger wedding. This is because the costs of mini-cakes, cupcakes and individualised desserts can add up pretty quickly because of the extra work it takes to create each item. If you would still like to have some of these items as part of your dessert table, you can consider including them as an add-on to the main cake... as long as you stay within your budget.

Do you have any wedding cake alternatives that you incorporated at a recent wedding or that you've seen incorporated at other weddings? Please share by commenting below.

Happy Wedding Planning!!!

Related articles

• This Season's Brides Find Yummy New Alternatives to Traditional Wedding Cakes, says Wedding.com (prweb.com)
• Wedding Cake Trends! (ohhowprettty.wordpress.com)
• Nigerian Weddings: Traditional Wedding Cakes (christinescreatives.com)