5 Alternative Wedding Desserts Your Guests Will Love

Traditions like the wedding cake and saving the top tier to devour on your first anniversary will never go out of style.

And while we love a tall, towering cake of buttercream-goodness, alternative wedding desserts are making a big splash, which is ideal for couples on a tight budget or for those of you who just don’t like cake.

Some of our East Lynn Farm newlyweds have come up with really fun options for alternative wedding desserts, so we thought we’d list our top five favorites that aren’t the traditional wedding cake.

Pies of Every Kind

Who doesn’t love an apple pie a la mode?! No one.

Not only are there a ton of pie varieties to choose from and include for your wedding celebration, but pie also has a homey, rustic charm that makes it perfect for countryside and barn weddings.

This pie spread was from Liz and Nate’s wedding at East Lynn Farm, and as you can see, there was plenty of options to suit every preference!

Bundt cakes 

Although it’s still a cake, bundt cakes are arguably more understated, simple and act as a piece of an ensemble dessert (with fruit and whipped cream, of course), which why we love them.

Using a decorative mold alone is all you need to give a bundt cake some flair, but we also love a dusting of powdered sugar and small fruit embellishments like the bundt cake at Daphne and Shane’s big day shown above.

You can also use a bundt cake almost like a centerpiece and individual dessert for each table at your reception.

Dessert Parfaits

Moving on to individually portioned desserts, dessert parfaits are perfect for summer weddings when you might want a lighter, cooler dessert, but not have to worry about melted ice cream or popsicle juice getting over everything.

Because although an ice-cream bar sounds fun and yummy, when you’re having your reception outside or in a barn, it can be tough to keep everything from turning into a soup bar when the weather gets warm.

Whether you layer cake with pudding, pudding with cookie crumbles, fruit with whipped cream, the options are endless for creating individual dessert parfaits your guests are sure to love.

Cupcakes 

You didn’t think we’d forget cupcakes did you?!

For couples who want the cake, but can’t afford the price tag that comes with a multitiered cake or you want to have multiple flavors for your guests to indulge in, cupcakes are the way to go.

At this East Lynn Farm wedding, the newlyweds did one larger tier for their top layer to keep for the first-anniversary tradition and then had all their bottom layers filled with cupcakes so their guests could come up and grab what they wanted. We also can’t get enough of that tree slice cupcake stand they used too, talk about perfect elegant rustic decor!

Mix and Match! 

Finally, for the ultimate in alternative wedding dessert ideas, put all the above on one table!

Whether you choose to have a potluck-style dessert table like Daphne and Shane did, or you want to provide just two or three alternative dessert options, mix and matching will ensure you’ll have something for everyone’s taste, and you definitely won’t have any left over!

Have you been to a wedding with an alternative dessert you loved? Share it with us! We’re always eager to suggest fun ideas for our engaged couples who want to put a twist on their reception or find a few ways to cut back on spending.