Our Wedding Cake Buffet

The very first thing I thought about when it came time to plan the wedding was cake. I mean, it is the most important part, isn't it? I knew from the start that a five-tiered, fondant covered masterpiece was not for me. I needed color, I needed interest, I needed flavors and by golly, I needed cake stands!

Tyler and I searched all of our favorite antique stores until we found the perfect collection of cake stands (see them in detail here) and we ended up having eight cakes at the wedding, enough for everyone to have at least two pieces, and of course they were all different flavors!

Meet the bakers! Our best friends Jim and Sal. They went above and beyond creating these masterpieces for us. We would have late night ichat video sessions to discuss flavors and decorations, they even made sample cakes and brought them over for taste testing. How we got so lucky is beyond me, but the day wouldn't have been the same without their special touch and I can't thank them enough.

My mom gave us this cute bird topper as a shower gift and I absolutely loved the white chocolate 'nest' that the guys created around it.

I had small birdbaths filled with taffy at either end of the table, along with a vase of flowers and a candle.

The cake buffet was by far the highlight of the evening! We had everyone come up to be served, giving them the chance to see all the cakes and pick the flavors they wanted. Some people even sampled every flavor! I was so pleased with how it all came together and it really added a unique and special touch to the day.

CRAFTING THE FLAVOR CARDS AND STANDS

I knew I wouldn't be able to find the perfect sign holders for the cake flavor cards, so we of course just made some ourselves! I don't have photos of all the steps because things were a little hectic at this point before the wedding, but you can get the idea.

We started with precut wooden bases in different shapes that we picked up at JoAnns. I also found the small wood flowers there, which we glued to the center of each base. We next drilled a hole through the flower into the base to hold a wood dowel and glued them in place.

We figured out the measurement needed for each stand (because they were all different heights) and cut the dowels. I picked up the small wooden beads at my local craft store to use on top of each dowel to hold the flavor card.

The holes in the round wooden beads weren't quite large enough to fit over the dowels so we drilled them a bit larger, glued them in place and sanded them smooth.

We then used a scroll saw to cut a small slit into the center of each one to hold the flavor card.

We painted them with a light base coat of some leftover paint from our living room. After it dried, we painted them with a darker color and them wiped most of it off, just leaving some dark accents.

To make the flavor cards, I started with the shape I created for the candy bar tags and designed seven different complimenting shapes so that each could be different, like the cakes. I colored them to fit with our palette but also with the corresponding cake. I printed them on heavy cardstock on my inkjet printer and cut them out by hand with scissors. I couldn't have been happier with how it all came together.

If you would like to use this art for your own DIY wedding projects (or anything else!), here are some editable files you can download:

Click here to download an EPS file of the flavor cards (You will need a program that can edit EPS files to use this)

Click here to download the font, Honey Script (Which is a personal favorite of mine, regardless of the use!)

It's tough to save the files in a format that everyone can use, but hopefully I'll have some time in the next week to save a few more formats for you. Please feel free to contact me with any requests or questions in the meantime and check back soon for additional downloads. (p.s. If you share this file elsewhere, please give proper credit - thanks!)