Wedding Cake Alternatives
As much as I adore wedding cakes, brides seem to be coming up with some pretty gorgeous alternatives. I kind of love the idea of a candy buffet, either in addition to or in lieu of a wedding cake. Here are some really gorgeous candy and dessert buffets that just might make you re-think the cake decision…
Top Row by Vanilla Bakeshop, Second Row by Rebecca Thuss, Third Row by Rebecca Thuss and Red Ribbon Studio, Fourth Row by Taste
I do think that it’s nice to have somewhat of a substantial dessert if you are skipping the wedding cake…maybe an array of fresh baked pies, a selection of great Italian pastries, a hodge podge of miniature cakes in your favorite flavors. Something that guests with a sweet tooth can really look forward to!
We're having an array of pies (baked by different family members) at our fall wedding. To me, no other dessert says fall/winter holidays like pie. I'll be making individual pie stands from cute plates, pretty candleholders and vases. We'll place the "cake" topper on a lemon merengue pie.
We're having pie instead of cake too. Wedding cakes are lovely, but I can't tell you how many times I've seen more than half a cake still remaining at the end of a reception. Hence the name of the blog cakeschmake.blogspot.com
Oh wow!
I've been a lurker here for a while, and today I was just thinking about desserts for my wedding. Thank you for posting this!
For my wedding my fiance's mother had originally volunteered to make our cake. However, since then her arthritis has gotten too bad to do it. A cake was not something I had budgeted for, because I thought it was taken care of. Now the plan is to have cupcakes that are an old special family recipe that everyone loves, and are super cheap and easy to make. We're also having a couple of pies, more traditional cupcakes, the caterer is providing cheesecake, and my Mom and I are going to make a small cake for us to smash in each others faces. :)
What luscious treats!! Great photos and wonderful post! I'm going to have to run out of the studio and grab a treat.
First of all, I am in LOVE with your blog. Secondly, this post is making my stomach growl! These ideas look great and I also recommend the candy buffet. Guests love having the choice and being able to pick their own favor. Great post!
um... droool. this is amazing. but I should definitely not be looking at this while: hungry; working; and trying to cut back on sugar! yikes.
I like the look of candy bars, but they are so overdone IMO. I am so tired of seeing them at every wedding! I love the first, second and last picture though. I love the idea of a bite size dessert bar! So cute!
I highly recommend the Vanilla bake shop! I used to work right down the street from it and the mini ice box treats shown in the photo (the southern banana pudding is my fave), as well as the cupcakes (red velvet is to die for), are delicious!!! I wanted to have the dessert bar at my reception next year, but my venue charges a $3.00 cake cutting fee:(
I am reading this blog from Australia and have noted the candy bar concept popping up a lot over the last few months. It's interesting - while I love the idea and think it looks gorgeous, I just don't think it would ever work well in Australia. Of all the weddings I have ever been to, only about 30% of people eat the dessert and practically no one eats the wedding cake. I think everyone is way too focussed on the drinking and dancing by that stage.
I am interested to know how dessert/candy bars go down in the states. Are the sweets a real focus at a wedding, or do they tend to get ignored like they do down here?
Molly~
I hardly ever see people take the candy from the candy bars. The one wedding that I took my daughter to, we got a lollipop and it was the ONLY one gone at the end of the night. IMO it's just another trend gone crazy, a la the grits/mashed potato bar from a few years ago. I think it's definitely one of the places you can save money and nobody will miss it.
I find that although the majority of wedding cakes I've seen LOOK like absolutely gorgeous little works of art, the taste tends to leave sometihng to be desired. People are so wrapped up in having it look good, they forget that the taste is what will be remembered. I love the idea of the little parfaits, that idea never even crossed my mind! The last pic of the mini desserts is absolutely drool-worthy! YUM.
Chelsea- I LOVE the pie idea especially for fall. Pumpkin, Pecan, Apple, yum yum.
Wow I think I may be eating dessert for lunch today. :)
Kate, I don't remember hearing about the potato bar but that sounds scrumptious too, expecially since I'm a meat and potatoes girl.
I tend to think that the success of your themed desserts (i.e. candy and cookie bars) have a lot to do with the types of people attending. I think the older more traditional crowd would prefer wedding cake, whereas the more carefree "kids at heart" crowd would go crazy for nerds rope and swizzle sticks.
I think that it's kind of luck of the draw, if that makes sense. If you have a coordinator or someone that can urge guests to "dive in," they will! If not, much of the candy will probably just sit there. I do think that having a dessert is nice though, whether it's a cake or a dessert/candy bar.
Thanks for the no-cake-at-my-wedding shout out! I'm a dessert buffet bride and lovin' this inspiration.
This reminds me of my sister-in-law's wedding. She is on a gluten free diet and wanted to still enjoy dessert at her own wedding, but she needed to get creative with the wedding cake. So her caterer recommended pavlova. It was beautiful! You inspired me to blog about it. Have a look at the photo and read the post at the link below. (Forgive me, the blog is still quite new, but feel free to share with anyone.)
http://tiffanyandink.blogsite.org/?p=43 " rel="nofollow">http://tiffanyandink.blogsite.org/?p=43
Whether you need to, such as in my sister-in-law's case, or just want to, there are so many creative ideas to the traditional wedding cake. Thanks for sharing!
For my wedding, we had chocolate candies from my favorite hometown chocolaterie, Bomboys (havre de grace md) in vintage glass jars with custom labels with whimsical little saying like "we tied the knot" on the choco-covered pretzels, and so on-we had 50lbs of chocolate and 30 guests and people LOVED it. We had small cake, but no one really ate it b/c they were too busy with the chocolate apothecary bar! I recommend this avenue to anyone who enjoys whimsy and romance-plus the guests can serve themselves, and it only cost us $200 for all that chocolate.
these are really beautiful ideas. thanks for those! i have been toying with the idea of having ice cream cones at my wedding...i think it would just be the most darling aesthetic. they would be scooped-per-order, of course...although i'm thinking that ice cream sandwiches would be a really adorable idea as well. (obviously i'm an ice cream lover...) any ideas?
[...] Apparently, other people have already been this brilliant. My friend immediately directed me to Style Me Pretty (a wedding blog) and soon I was venturing through tons of candy jar pictures, including a delicious post about Wedding Cake Alternatives. [...]
I recently got married and had Cold Stone Creamery in Lockport cater our wedding reception. This is the store we always go to since it is in the town we live in but when I was picking out my flavors and toppings another bride was booking her engagement party and she lives in NorthBrook and they said it was no problem to cater an event that was alittle bit aways
I choose the option of having the ice cream sundae bar atation and everyone loved it! I was going to do the option of the portabkle frozen stoen that they would mix the ice cream and candy on just like in the store but the sundae bar was a little bit cheaper.
We had our whole wedding catered for way cheaper than our cake or a chocolate fountain would have cost. This Cold Stone in Lockport is really pretty reasonable and did a beautiful job. My theme was fall with leaves and broze colors and they set their table up to match my theme for free!
At Christmas thats all my family could talk about was the sundae bar. I would go to this Cold Stone off 159th even if I moved away because they treated us so good. I couldnt decide on my flavors or she let em try all of them again and again and gave me really good suggestions.
We also had a Cold Stone Candy station setup with cold stone containers on the way out for people to et on the way home
They also do total Ice Cream cakes!
[...] clipped from www.stylemepretty.com [...]
Were having cake but only the top layer will be real..and just for ourselves. Were also having a desert bar with candy, mini parfaits, cakes and pies for our spring/summer wedding.♥ This is wonderful inspiration!