For our wedding, Aaron and I decided to ditch the wedding cake and do cupcakes instead — they're easy, they're generally cheaper and it eliminated the "cutting of the wedding cake" moment that neither of us was looking forward to. But before we decided on the kind of cupcakes, I started to research what I wanted as far as the cupcake display.
Here are a few cupcake display options that I found on my search…
The classic round cupcake tower:
Thanks to snarkmeister for submitting this to the Flickr pool.
It's simple and easy to look at. And these are extremely easy to find in all kinds of options from simple, easy to DIY, cardboard towers, from the small and funky to the tall and formal.
I'm also a fan of the more modern square look:
I like the modern lines on this cupcake stand from Darcey's wedding. And that wooden cupcake tower is to DIE for. Wow. I bet if you were pretty handy with a buzz saw you could create something like this.
Or you could just forgo the stand all together:
I loooooooove the idea of using the cupcakes as pixels in a bigger picture. In this 8-bit cake table from Stephanie and Chase's Nerdabilly wedding, the groom's cake is Link, there's a life heart in the middle and the bride's cake is Princess Zelda.
Speaking of a table of cupcakes:
Thanks to kherakamile for submitting this to the Flickr pool.
What about using a bunch of smaller cupcake stands (I'm sure you know several people from whom you could borrow serving stand or two) and laying them out all over a big round table.
We ended up with an asymmetrical design:
This was created by taking apart one of those cardboard cupcake stands and then rearranging the levels using bowls and platters of various shapes and sizes. I loved that it looked like a coral reef or something.
For those who want to have their cupcakes and cut a cake too:
Of course, if you're the kind of couple that's looking forward to the "cutting of the cake" moment you can do that too! This photo, from Jessi and Sean's scooter wedding is a great example of wedding cupcakes with an additional mini "cutting cake" on top of the tower.
There are just SO many different way to display your cupcakes — small round towers, tall square towers, no tower, a lot of towers, etc. Did you have or are you going to have a unique cupcake display at your wedding? Leave your ideas in the comments!
About Megan Finley
Megan Finley is the Managing Editor for Offbeat Bride and the Associate Publisher for the Offbeat Empire. When she's not slaving away for the Empire, she's sharing her dork side on her own blog and on Twitter @meganfinley.
AynSavoy said
We were really lucky that my parents are both designers/engineers and run a business creating things out of metal. So when we couldn't find a cupcake tower we really liked, they designed and made one! They made it exactly the right size for the number of cupcakes we were getting, with a spot on top for our topper, and it coordinated with our art deco venue:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3…230491254/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3…230491254/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3…230491254/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3…230491254/
Stephanie said
OMG, I want a table of cupcakes ALL THE TIME. That would be brilliant.
Offbeat Megan said
Stephanie, I like the way you think.
Karen said
We're planning to put them on all the tables as dessert and centrepiece all in one! Our current idea is to build wooden Tetris blocks to interconnect on the table and pile with cupcakes. The blocks will double as favours, so we'll stamp or paint them with our names and the wedding date. We're planning on having one per person so most people will get to have two at their house to stack together. Hopefully it works out!
Lori Sheridan Federico said
I made mine with a basic cardboard stand, covered it with maps, and lined it with ribbon. Then we topped it off with Star Wars Lego figures
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mingaling/3128536508/
Katie said
We're having cupcakes from the amazing Cupcake Jones in Portland (cupcakejones.net), with wood slices rented from Quince Events (quinceevents.com) – finished product will look like this! http://cupcakejones.net/galler…ges/04.jpg (From the Cupcake Jones website)
farm_girl said
The woman making my cake is going to throw in up to 16 cupcakes free to accent the 3-tier cake,the 2 smaller cakes on the side, and the cookies.
Lydia said
We are having cupcakes too! We have a round tower covered in the material that the bridesmaids are wearing.
Then the cupcakes have silver patty-pans with hard white icing and little black bows on top. then we're having a cutting cake, like Jessie and Seans wedding above, and that has a black bow around the middle and then its topped with Superman Red Son Action Figure of Green Lantern and Wonderwoman.
Kelsey said
I wish i had pictures of my sister's wedding cake display. They had a pirate-themed reception so they had a main cake for the wedding party that was a pirate-ship cake (complete with little edible figurines of everyone in the wedding party… I believe mine was walking the plank!) and then for the guests there were cupcakes covered in blue frosting, and each one had a little topper… squids, shark fins, palm trees, sea turtles, barrels/treasure chests, shells, little shipwrecked people……. The cupcakes were different flavors based on the little figurine on top. (The shark fin ones had raspberry jelly inside LOL)
definitely the best cake I've ever seen, and I believe it was made for them by a friend in the business either for free or at a huge discount. She made about a hundred extra cupcakes because she was having so much fun!
schmassani said
haven't gotten around to putting the wedding porn together yet, but yeah… frankenstein topper, some records, and a TV later…
http://smg.photobucket.com/alb…C01093.jpg
Alex Arnott said
Wow, incredible!!!
nikki626 said
oh holy wow!
50ftqueenie said
We love books so we are stacking books randomly and sitting the cupcakes on these and we have had a cake topper made from etsy of a silver and a purple bookworm with a smaller silver and purple striped bookworm representing our 3 year old son
Nikki said
I like that idea!
Alex Arnott said
My mother-in-law made the cupcakes and we had a custom Doctor Who themed cake topper made to go on top!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/a…987289203/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/a…631442398/
Jill said
I REEEALLY want to know where they got the bride & groom Legos! I would love something like that! Any idea where we can find the pieces?
Darcey said
I;m not sure where they got their legos, but I know there are so many bride and groom legos available on ebay for pretty good prices, or you can improvise with your own lego collection! We bought a pair that aren't nearly as cute as the one on this page, but added our own touches with stuff my husband had in his own childhood collection. i just regret that my photographer didn't get a good picture of them that night!
http://farm5.static.flickr.com…2642_o.jpg
MzFitz said
My fella's a drummer, so I'll be cleaning up and decorating his old drums. We'll probably just have the snare, tom, and floor tom for varying heights and diameters. Because they won't fit all 200, we'll also use a round tower.
Darcey said
Hey! Thanks for featuring my Groom's cupcakes! We also had a really ridiculously tall one for our wedding cupcakes, http://offbeatbride.ning.com/profile/darcey
I just realized that neither picture was tagged with my profile, so I went back and added it, and if you want to change it on here, too, my profile is:
http://offbeatbride.ning.com/profile/darcey
Darcey said
By the way, LOVE everyone else's cupcake towers! They are such a wonderful idea, and so fun! I can't wait to eat the two we have saved in the fridge for our one year aniversary!! <3
Darcey said
We'll eat the two cupcakes, not the two towers, LOL! I just realized how ambiguous that sentence is.
nikki626 said
EAT! THE! TOWERS!
Bonnie said
I'm kind of thinking donuts, because the fiance is a bit obsessed with them. I'm not sure how to go about it though. Little tiny donuts making a picture? Normal donuts on a stand? ONE BIG GIANT CHOCOLATEY DONUT?
Leah said
Not sure where you are Bonnie, but Voodoo Donuts in Portland has pretty much hands down the most amazing donuts, and i'm betting they could pull something super spectacular off in any of these formats if you're nearby.
Bonnie said
I am actually from Oregon so I don't know why I didn't think of this! GENIUS!
There would be a problem shipping said giant chocolatey donut two hours to wedding site, but it should work. Voodoo is indeed epic.
nikki626 said
I was going to suggest if you're in Northern Cali, you could go to Psycho Donuts. Cuz that is totally what I'd do…
Chelsea said
We're having mini-cheesecake cupcakes. We haven't figured out exactly what it will look like yet. It's a pool party 1950's theme.