So why more people choose to serve individual desserts than having a traditional tiered wedding cake? What are the benefits of serving dessert buffet over traditional wedding cake?

Cost Less Than A Traditional Stacked Wedding Cake
In the United States, it is a tradition that the newlywed will reserve the top tier of their wedding cake for a year and eat the reserved cake during their first anniversary. In reality, I wonder if people would still eat the frozen cake that has been keeping in the fridge for a year? I personally will not do that (I will instead reserve the spot in my freezer for a cup of yummy fresh frozen yogurt). How about you? Will you feed your husband with the frozen cake or make him one from fresh ingredients you got from farmers market?

My point is: Why not serve your guests a variety of desserts everyone loves, if both of you have no intention to eat the frozen cake after a year? Furthermore, creating a dessert table (having a table full of delicious homemade or store bought cakes and cookies) usually cost less than a tiered wedding cake. Most wedding cake designers charge their clients at least $5 per slice of cake. With $5 price tag, we probably will be able to buy half a tray, if not whole tray of cookies from Walmart or Costco. If you are not a 'cake person', why not make full use of your $5 to buy favorite comfort food such as chocolate chip cookies? I realized that anything wedding-related items cost more due to customization, uniqueness, and delicacy reasons.

Eliminate The Cake Cutting/Serving Fee
Secondly, having a dessert table could help you bring down the wedding cost even more, not from the wedding cake, but the cutting/serving fee charged by most reception venues.

I remember once where my friends and I were going to celebrate our friend's birthday at a New York restaurant and we thought of bringing in a cake. However, after knowing the expensive cake cutting fee ($6 per person; we have about 12 persons at our party), it is not persuasive enough for us to bring in a birthday cake. (How nice if we were in Malaysia where cake cutting fee is not a common charge at most restaurants.)

Like I mentioned earlier, most wedding-related items always cost more than ordinary one. Therefore, 6USD could be a minimum cutting fee charged by your reception venue. If you have a wedding with 120 guests, can you imagine paying 720USD just for cutting the cake service? (It might cost more than your wedding cake alone.) On the contrary, dessert table gives you the sweetness you just crave for, without asking a big check from your bank. In most circumstances, guests help themselves with unlimited pieces of chocolate truffles from the dessert table. Since no server is needed, the cake cutting/serving fee can be eliminated. Isn't it a good way to enjoy the sweetness on one of your most important days in life? I think so.

Extra Desserts Doubled As Wedding Favors
Last but not least, I am sure you want to keep the sweetness till the end of the night and beyond.

Got extras? Let's prepare some customized favor bags/boxes for your guests to bring home their favorite grandma's homemade pie or chocolate-y cupcakes. Now that the desserts have doubled as your wedding favors; you may rest assure on thinking of what special item to give your happy guests. And spend more time with your husband-to-be and enjoy your engagement before the big day!

Planning wedding is a happy and sweet process. Be careful (potential) bridezillas, please do not ruin the happy moment in life. Relax and give credit to everything you have done so far and keep up with your wonderful planning!

Next week (after the memorial weekend), I am going to share with you a think-out-of-the-box dessert table display to show you. Stay tune and I hope you have a great memorial weekend. For those who travel, I hope you have a safe trip and have fun!

Instead of traditional stacked wedding cakes, there are more couples opt for a table full of their favorite childhood candies, cookies, and cakes.

For those of you who follow wedding websites or blogs regularly or even just happened to flip through the wedding magazines in the market, sure you have seen tons of de.li.cious dessert buffets everywhere (bridal shower, baby shower, birthday party, engagement party, and wedding). They are not just delicious in taste; they are also exceed our expectation on its aesthetic value report card. Delicious miniature cupcakes, traditional brownies, decorated/frosted cookies, fruit tarts, citrus-y lemon bars, and many more favorite bakeries and candies; are artfully arranged in varies types of containers/vessels to meet the theme of any event. (Some who think outside of the box brought surprises to us...you will see it tomorrow.)

For those who are new to the term dessert buffet, I welcome you to the yum-mi-licious sweet spot! It requires a simple 3-step: bringing all your favorite candies and cakes together, arrange them on the cutest and nicest serving trays/plates you have, and lastly, place them beautifully on a table. Your guests can help themselves with a few pieces of tasty red velvet cupcakes you prepared for them [HOMEMADE]. However, some experts like Amy Atlas and Shauna Younge working to bring the dessert table to the next level - more complicated (for not-so-artistic persons where designing a dessert table can be hard for them) and packed with meticulous details (work with different parties to create unique design for each event).

Oh...I would love to have one at our wedding party back home in Malaysia (long overdue...hopefully it will happen next year ^.*)

Here we have a couple dessert tables as seen on Amy Atlas and Savvy Chic Weddings blogs:

Photo Credit: Amy Atlas Events, Shauna Younge Dessert Tables, and Savvy Chic Weddings

We have seen wedding monogram as cake topper and decor on the dance floor. But have you ever seen oversized couple monogram as the backdrop of reception space?

I personally think that it is creative and fun. For budget-concern bride and groom, oversized monogram is definitely a way to cut down cost of wedding. Instead of incorporating more fresh flowers (which is usually more costly), enlist help from your family and friends to build the monogram sculpture over the weekends leading up to the wedding day.

Photo courtesy of Next Exit Photography via The Knot

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