The most delicious aspect of your wedding? The dessert! Wedding cakes are a fun tradition that makes your wedding day that much sweeter.

These days, wedding cakes no longer need to be tiered, white masterpieces with a bride and groom cake topper. Lots of different trends are popping up, like assortments of mini pastries with a smaller cake for the bride and groom to cut. Since guests love sampling different treats, varieties of cupcakes or other mini desserts are very popular. More home-style desserts, like pies or chocolate chip cookies, are also seeing a sweet surge.

If you’re still hoping for the hand piped, multi-tiered wedding cake, don’t fret—that’s still a very popular option. You can still offer variety within the cake as well. For instance, you can have different flavors for each layer of your wedding cake.

As for texture, there are a lot of options when it comes to decorating your wedding cake. Fresh flowers (instead of frosted!) can be a beautiful touch. You can also bring in any heirlooms, brooches, ribbons, etc. that you want incorporated into the décor for a Pinterest-perfect dessert. There are tons of cute cupcake toppers or pie forks on sites like Etsy.

Bakeries aren’t like what you see on The Food Network. It’s a lot less glamour and a lot more work! The price of your baked goods will coincide with the level of elaborate details you’re aiming for. For instance, watercolor cakes are a big trend this summer, but to make a cake resemble a watercolor painting is going to be a very labor-intensive process. Consider this when selecting how important your dessert table is.

One popular tradition to discuss with your partner is a groom’s cake. Groom’s cakes are special, smaller cakes that can be decorated to the groom’s taste. For instance, if he’s a huge fan of a certain sports team, you can have the cake decorated in those colors as a nod to one of his passions. Groom’s cakes are often eaten at the rehearsal dinner. Another tradition? Saving the top layer of your wedding cake for your anniversary. However, some couples opt to just buy a smaller version of their wedding cake to save, eliminating the hassle of preserving a layer.

Before you book your bakery, make sure to schedule a sampling appointment so you’re sure your wedding cake is up to your taste buds’ standards. Sampling appointments should be made 6-8 months before your wedding date, and as soon as you’ve confirmed that bakery is the one you’d like to go with, you can put down a deposit to lock in your wedding day. It depends on the bakery, but your final balance will often be required a week or two before the wedding. One reason that you might have some wiggle room in terms of booking is that unlike other vendors, like an officiant or photographer, a bakery can often do multiple weddings per day. So depending on your bakery, don’t panic if you still haven’t decided and your day is creeping closer!

Planning Tips:

If I have this many guests, how much dessert do you think I’ll need?

What flavors are you particularly known for or proud of?
Can you accommodate allergies (for example a  gluten-free cake)?
Do you deliver on the day of our wedding, or will someone need to come and pick our dessert up?
Are you able to use an old family recipe for my cake?

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