Tips for a fabulous dessert table

Dessert tables at weddings are it. They’re the current trend. And I’ve got to say that I’m a fan – making a feature of dessert, the best part of any meal if you’re honest about it, makes for a wonderful way to feast on colour and individuality.

Not only do dessert tables look good enough to, erm, eat, but it also saves you money. The cost of a traditional wedding cake is a major undertaking. Some bakers even charge per slice. And the price usually reflects the fact that it’s a ‘wedding’ cake.

For the same budget, or even less, you can artistically put together an assortment of mouth-watering temptations and knick knacks, candy and a whole barrel of fun, to produce a winning table that adds the perfect finishing touch to your meal.

1. Trawl the web and have a look at what other weddings are doing in terms of dessert tables – you’ll be amazed at the diversity and originality out there.

2. Choose a colour palette for your dessert table – I know this might sound pretentious, but if you narrow it down to a couple of complementary colours – like pastel yellow and pink, or a vintage look with subdued colour and hints of bright red – everything on the dessert table then looks incredible.

3. Play with the setting – ‘dress’ the space for your dessert table with linen, backgrounds, stands, platters, dishes, vintage candlesticks and cake plates.

4. Be careful with balance – it’s all in the details. Balance an elaboratively decorated cake with little cupcakes, cookies and candy. Use cupcake wrappers, truffles, chocolate bars, pillow mints, malted milk balls in gorgeous ice-cream glass containers, jelly beans, petit fours, gelato – anything goes, but it should all be arranged in a way that each cake is offset with something else. You’ll have a ball doing this.

5. Add labels – not everyone will know what everything on your dessert table is – use handwritten signs, chalkboards or create signs to describe (don’t just name them) your desserts.

6. Add height – this tip is a winner if you’re after a table that is aesthetically pleasing. Like wedding flower arrangements, you need something in the middle or off to one side that gives the table height – vases, gift wrapped boxes, cakes on cake-stands etc.

7. Unleash the inner creative – and don’t be scared to go out on a limb.