What Are The Wedding Dessert Table Ideas For Your Wedding Reception?

Having a dessert table at the wedding reception allows you to do two things: showcase your wedding cake in a way that's both beautiful and practical, and provide your guests a variety of sweet treats to choose from, cake included. What's the best part? It's up to you if you want to line the dessert table with five one-tier wedding cakes, pies from a local bakery, a homemade candy bar, or a mountain of cookies and doughnuts. Should we use force to get you to agree? There is always place for a dessert table, whether your wedding is being held in a casual barn or a grand ballroom.

Dessert options at a wedding go beyond the traditional cake. Despite our undying love for that classic treat, it's wonderful to have options when it comes to the sweets at the reception. Think about what you have available to you! Desserts include doughnuts and ice cream sandwiches in addition to the usual cupcakes and pies and cookies. Since it's impossible to predict which sweet will actually satisfy, why not include them all?

One of our favourite ways to include variety at the wedding is with a dessert table. As long as there's room, you can put whatever you choose on the table. The best aspect about this plan is that it leaves plenty of room for the traditional wedding cake, whether you choose a simple cutting cake or go all out with a show-stopping confection and your favourite delicacies. Feels too sweet to be true. Thankfully, it is not. And to back it up, we've compiled a collection of our favourite dessert table designs from real weddings to give you all the sugary inspo you could ever need. Let's raise a glass to a party that has something sweet for every taste.

Focus On Your Cake as the Main Attraction

Even if you choose with a big, traditional wedding cake, the dessert table could still be one of the highlights of the reception. Feature your cake as the main course, then select the rest of your sweets to complement it. Ideally, the wedding cake would serve as the table's centrepiece, with the other sweets tastefully arranged around it.

Since the two-tiered wedding cake is the centrepiece of the dessert bar, there is no need for a lot of extra colourful or ornate candies. What a stunning backdrop this dessert table would provide for cutting the cake!

Exhibit a Stack of Donuts

Picture a pegboard with doughnuts hung from each hook; that's the "doughnut wall," a trendy new addition to wedding receptions. Donut walls can be purchased or rented online, as they are a simple DIY project.

In addition, the doughnut wall can serve as a beautiful visual backdrop for the remainder of the dessert table, whether you choose to go all out or keep things simple.

Doughnuts are becoming increasingly popular as a substitute for traditional wedding cakes.

Construct Plateau-Style Desserts

Make the wedding dessert bar stand out by stacking sweets in towers. The structures' impressive appearance belies their relative ease of construction. Putting together the dessert bar was a lot of fun and ranks among our favourite DIYs.

A styro cone and some toothpicks are all you need to create a dessert column that appears to have came from a bakery. Fill your tower with bite-sized treats like macarons,  cream puffs, doughnut holes, cake pops, and more.

Offer Sample Size Sweets

You can offer your guests a sample of what you've prepared by serving miniature versions of the wedding dessert. Miniature desserts are ideal for wedding dessert bar because visitors will feel more at ease choosing one and will likely end up trying more!

Miniature versions of traditional sweets, such as cupcakes, doughnuts, biscuits, tarts, etc., are displayed on a table for guests to sample.

If you and your guests are fond of fruity sweets, consider serving chocolate-covered strawberries and miniature pies during the wedding reception.

Use the Colors You Have Chosen for Your Wedding

Decorate the dessert table in the wedding colours to tie everything together! It's possible to stick with the classic white wedding cake while requesting the bakery to decorate it with icing in a colour that matches the bridesmaids' dresses for a colourful accent.

You can get creative with the size and design of your wedding cake. Wedding cakes come in all shapes and colours, however some people still stick to the traditional white cake. A rainbow of colours on the wedding dessert table won't bother anyone's eyes.

Just a few drops of food dye will transform plain old cupcakes, macarons, and any other sweet treat into a vibrant addition to your display. You can use cake toppers and other displays to add colour to the tables if the sweets themselves are muted in tone.

Pursue Wooden Decor

The dessert table would look lovely decked out in natural wood decorations during your outdoor or rustic wedding reception. If you put in the time and effort, you can make your own dessert displays, cake stands, and other table decorations out of wood.

Against by the wood, sweets in white and bright colours will stand out beautifully. Actually, it's a popular item for barn wedding receptions and other non-traditional venues. Create a weathered board for displaying desserts.

Embellish With Metals

If you're having a wedding but don't want a dessert bar made of real wood, you could always go for metallic elements instead. There is a wide variety of metallic furnishings available, including silver, gold, copper, and brass.

Get the ball rolling with the essentials like dessert display and cake stands, but don't be afraid to get imaginative when hunting for other fascinating or even historic objects. Exquisite dessert displays have been arranged in unconventional places, such as bird cages and antique candelabras, by some couples.

Embellish Your Sweets With Flowers

Full-bloom flowers are a typical centrepiece and decorative element at weddings. When this is your objective, don't go without sampling the sweets! If you don't want to embellish the tables where the desserts will be exhibited, you may either decorate the dessert themselves with flowers or use wedding flowers in the colours and themes you've chosen.

Flowers can be added to the cakes and other sweets without even having to put them in a vase first, so this isn't simply a good option for the dessert table. Make a beautiful floral centrepiece to set atop the dessert table at the reception.

Consider purchasing flowers in bunches to serve as a garnish for desserts instead of using them in the ceremony to keep the cost down.

Statement Tables Can Help

Display your wedding desserts on a bold table for maximum impact. Try hunting around at thrift stores and antique malls for some interesting furniture to serve as a tabletop for your sweet treats.

You might also use a piece from a different era or genre if it goes with the rest of your wedding decorations.

Use Fancy Glassware for Desserts

Create some creative treats! Serving mousse or ice cream in shot glasses, martini glasses,  coupe glasses, glass jars, or a hodgepodge of glassware creates a casually elegant ambience.

Highlight the Lovebirds’ Fave Sweet Treats

Displaying the bride and groom's favourite sweets is a nice concept for the wedding dessert table. Mark the dessert that is the favourite of each couple, especially if it is a treasured family recipe. To decorate the wedding cake, you can use the couple's preferred doughnut on one side and the couple's preferred cookies on one side.

Sugary Treats are Great Wedding Favours.

Giving away sweets as wedding favours is a great way to cater to your guests' sweet tooth. Add a donut wall or candy bar, as well as to-go bags so guests may take a delicious treat along on the way back home or for the after-party.

Sugary Treats for Brunch

Consider offering brunch-inspired sweets at your wedding if you're planning a daytime ceremony or brunch wedding with both breakfast and lunch dishes. Instead of a traditional wedding cake, some couples opt for breakfast-themed pancake or waffle cakes.

Desserts befitting a brunch should include pastries, croissants, waffles, and crepes, all served in miniature or in a range of combinations.

Bar With Milk and Cookies

Cookies and milk are a classic dessert option that will never go out of style. Put together a cookie and milk bar as a sweet treat for the cookie couple. If any of your visitors have a dairy allergy, don't forget to provide non-dairy milk options.

Exclusively Family Recipes

You might go for a homey and endearing vibe by serving solely desserts made from family recipes at your gathering. So honour your relatives by sharing sweets from your youth and setting up the dessert table. If you're having a DIY wedding and want to serve your favourite family desserts, you may invite guests their homemade desserts.

Let's call for the Ice Cream Truck

Having dessert delivered in a truck is a unique and enjoyable option for wedding receptions, and ice cream van weddings are on the rise. Hiring an ice cream van at your summer wedding makes for a great photo prop. Catering from a food truck may be a fun and unique twist on the conventional wedding cake, and it works especially well during an outdoor wedding.

S'mores Station

Incorporating a bonfire and s'mores bar into your outdoor wedding reception is a fun idea. To make s'mores without risking your life by gathering around an open flame, there are other methods you may use inside. S'mores are a delicious and inexpensive dessert option, making them perfect for any wedding.

Embellish With Signs

If you want the dessert table to stand out, employ lots of signs. A large sign can alert guests to the dessert buffet, while smaller signs can direct them to specific treats. A blackboard sign is a terrific way to make a statement whether you or someone in your bridal party is proficient in calligraphy.

Signs for the dessert table may be found in a wide variety of designs, allowing you to pick something that works with your party's colour scheme, aesthetic, and overall vibe.

Create a Sweet Shop

Make the wedding dessert table look like a classic candy shop. Vintage signage and candies, as well as one-of-a-kind jars and containers, are just two examples of the various options available for adorning a wedding piece of candy with the sweets that your guests will love. A bar cart with wheels makes it easy to transport and distribute the candy bar.

You could also use candy bar as a wedding favour. Inviting guests to take their favourite candy bars with them as they leave can be as simple as providing them with empty bags.

Place Sweets in a Vertical Stack

When the dessert table arrangement is lacking, try putting some of the dishes on stands. You can add depth and interest to the dessert bar by stacking stands and shelves vertically, even if you don't require as many as would be needed to hold all of your treats.

Brightly-Colored Cake Pops

You can't find a more fun new dessert than cake pops. These colourful cupcakes are the perfect addition to any dessert table. Cake pops, whether store-bought or homemade, can be made into a visually stunning dessert spread by decorating them with icing in a wide variety of colours.

You may add some flair to the dessert table by building a tower of cake pops or arranging them in a bouquet.

Make sure the colourful cake pops are displayed in style by snagging some cupcake pop stands for the dessert tables.

Bar of Rustic Sweets

A dessert bar should reflect the same earthy, unrefined aesthetic as the rest of your rustic wedding. Caramel apples, Mini pies, whoopie pies, or some cookie bar would look great atop a wooden dessert bar, which would be perfect for a wedding with a lot of wood accents.

Setting up a dessert bar where guests can serve themselves to sweets is a great idea for any party, but a wood bar looks especially good for an autumn or outdoor event. So, decorate with seasonal colours and flavours, taking cues from regular home treats.

Drinkable Desserts

Dessert drinks are a thing. A hot chocolate station is a wonderful way to help your guests keep warm and cosy at a winter wedding. All through the year, you may find various alcoholic dessert drinks such as ice cream floats, slushies, dessert wines, milkshakes, and more.

These dessert drinks can be served anywhere at the wedding reception by employing a mobile bar cart.

Candlelit Cakes

Candles on the dessert table create a romantic atmosphere. Candles are a great way to brighten up the dessert table, especially if your reception hall or outside ceremony location lacks adequate lighting.

The cake table should be illuminated by candles if you're going for that romantic atmosphere. Just make sure the guests won't get burned if they reach too close to the fire while trying to grab a treat.

Mobile Sweets Cart

Roll out sweets wherever guests may be with a dessert cart. If you look around, you can find a wide variety of mobile carts that will complement any wedding's aesthetic.

With a rolling dessert cart, you can have your cake arrive in style while still keeping the dessert spread pristine until the last possible minute.

Constantly Evaluate the Backdrop

Even though the dessert table isn't the most important backdrop of the reception, it's still important to think about the decoration surrounding it. Think about the backdrop of the dessert bar in your wedding venue.

The dessert table at your wedding can be the focal point of your reception by being decorated with flowers, vines, curtains, signage, mirrors, and more.

Beautifully adorned dessert alternatives make for inherently stunning dessert bars, but there's certainly no harm in doing the extra decorative mile. Decorate away; wedding cakes aren't supposed to steal the show.

Change up the Ingredients and Flavours

Even if the chocolate-loving couple knows that not all guest will share their enthusiasm for chocolate-themed wedding sweets, they can still plan accordingly. Therefore, when preparing the dessert table, think about including a wide range of flavours and ingredients.

Desserts like fruit and fruity selections, vanilla desserts, or desserts with a variety of flavours are healthier alternatives to an all-chocolate wedding cake.

As vital as the flavours are, the components of your desserts are. Consider whether any of your visitors have dietary sensitivities or allergies, especially to gluten or lactose. Do your best to satisfy everyone's preferences!

Conclusion

When it comes to wedding desserts, you don't have to limit yourself to cake alone. As long as there's space, feel free to set the table with whatever you choose. A large, conventional wedding cake is nice, but the dessert table may be just as impressive. "Doughnut walls" are replacing traditional wedding cakes in a big way. Easy to make on your own, doughnut walls can be found for sale or rent on the internet.

Because guests will feel more comfortable eating more sweets if they only have to commit to one at a time, miniature desserts are perfect for a wedding dessert bar. For a more rustic or outdoor wedding, a dessert table decorated with natural wood accents is a beautiful idea. DIY wooden cake stands, fruit trays, and place card holders are possible if you put in the time and effort. Create a stunning floral arrangement as a table centrepiece.

Possibilities for the wedding dessert table include displaying the couple's favourite treats. To encourage guests to take something sweet home with them, set up a candy bar or doughnut wall and provide them with takeout containers. Whether they're bought or produced, cake pops can be arranged into a beautiful dessert display. Decorating the dessert table with a tower of cake pops or a bouquet of them is a fun way to show off your creative side. If you're having a winter wedding, a hot chocolate bar is a great way to keep your guests toasty and comfortable.