Making your own dessert buffet

YOU CAN DO IT!!! 

All pictures in this post are by my awesome friend Jason!

So, I guess I haven't really explained the flow of my wedding day. We got Married at 2:00 in the afternoon on a lovely fall day, 10/21/12! After our ceremony at the Tucker House, the bridal party took the trolley down to the North Carolina capitol building for pictures. From 2:30 to 5:00 there was a dessert reception at the Tucker House where my 70 guests got to munch on sweet treats and we did our cake cutting. I put together the candy bar and dessert buffet and both seemed like pretty big hits. Making a dessert buffet is fun and easy, also everyone loves dessert! Here are some tips on how to plan and execute your very own dessert buffet.

Our pretty dessert table

• Decide what type of dessert bar you want. For mine I decided that having more bite sized desserts would be easier than having regular sized cakes and pies. Take time to consider this before putting yours together because when you have regular sized desserts (although they are pretty) can be difficult and messy for your guests to try and serve themselves. 

Fruit tarts and mini key lime pie

• Borrow pretty platters from your friends and family members who are willing to loan out their stuff. I used silver platters and china platters from my mom. I also had a few glass cake stands, and I made my own stands with mirrors from a craft store and candle holders from the dollar tree. 

I made this two tiered stand!

• Use variety of textures and flavors. I had cheesecake bites, key lime pie tarts, mini pecan pie, chocolate and raspberry mousse cups, mini cupcakes, red velvet cake pops, chocolate dipped marshmallows, chocolate truffles, mini fruit tarts, cannolis, chocolate tarts, french macarons, and vanilla meringues. I didn't have anything peanut butter or coconut flavored and I should have! Whoops!

Delicious chocolate and raspberry mousse cups

• If you are going to have your wedding cake featured on the table with the rest of the desserts, try to make it the center of attention. We put the cake right smack in the middle of our table and covered it in beautiful flowers left over from after with made our arrangements. We also had a yummy grooms cake, which is totally optional if money is an issue. 

B's groom's cake and cheesecake bites!

• I was lucky enough to have a close family friend make our cake. There is something really special about having a cake made by someone that you are close with, because you can really tell it is made with love. We got to pick our flavors (strawberry cream, lemon with lemon curd, nutella) and have a tasting, it was just awesome! She also made our delicious grooms cake which was a dulce de leche with praline pecans...drool.

Chocolate dipped marshmallows

• I made two of the desserts myself leading up to the wedding. It was almost too much but my sister and awesome cousin helped me with some of the final touches the Friday before the wedding. First I made a treat that is so easy it should be illegal. Marshmallows dipped in melted chocolate and then dipped in graham cracker crumbs or sprinkles. Then I made cake pops! Cake pops can be made in a variety of ways and I will post later how I did it! I will say that they were a huge hit and unfortunately I was so busy I didn't even get to have one!

Pink and lavender cake pops that I made and decorated with my cousin and sister

• I purchased the rest of the desserts from the Whole Foods bakery. Some of the desserts are just 99 cents!!! What?! And, if you order them by the dozen, you save $2.00! $9.99/Dozen is not bad for beautiful pastries! Also, Whole Foods makes beautiful and affordable wedding cakes! I spent less than $300.00 on my entire dessert display!!

Cutting our beautiful cake!

This pretty much wraps up the food and beverage for my formal reception. If you do the math, I spent less than $660.00 on all of the refreshments served at the Tucker House. I realize that I had a very small wedding and I am extremely blessed to have such awesome people in my life that helped me like crazy. Just keep telling yourself that you can do it!