Trending Now: Floating Wedding Cake Tables

By Sarah Schreiber
September 04, 2018
Alexandra Vonk

This presentation style (literally) takes your confection to new heights.

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Alexandra Vonk

Your wedding cake is easily one of the most anticipated parts of your reception. While your confection's taste certainly has something to do with its appeal, your guests will also be paying attention to its aesthetics—namely its presentation. There's just something about a perfectly-curated dessert table that makes everything on top of it somehow taste better. If a pretty cake display is high up on your priority list, you'll want to bookmark the latest in big-day décor trends. Enter suspended wedding cake tables, which display your confection mid-air.

The best part? There are multiple ways to achieve this floating effect. While some of the following tables are attached to your venue's rafters with sturdy ribbon (so dramatic!), others are much more contained. If achieving a hanging installation doesn't work with your reception location's architecture or layout, consider building a swing set-style table and hang your cake from the highest pole. Getting hitched outside? Loop rope around a secure tree branch to safely suspend a slab of reclaimed wood in the middle of the grounds.

Where and how you choose to integrate your suspended wedding cake table into your party's landscape isn't the only element of customizable facet of this trend. Get creative with how you decorate the table once it's up. Transform it into a floral display by disguising supportive ropes with lush floral vines or get creative with the type of textiles you use to actually hang it (we're loving macramé!). Click through to discover all of the ways to make this dessert table style your own.

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Rustic

Matrimoni All'Italiana – Matteo Coltro
More Rustic Wedding Ideas

Make like White Cat Wedding and Events and give an old door or piece of farm wood a sheer wash of white—don't go opaque!—for a table that strikes the right balance between distressed and rustic. Celebrating outdoors? Use rope to hang your perch from a tree or pergola for another country-inspired touch.

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Suspended

Jeni Smith

Not all of these cake displays involve a supportive base. Take this completely suspended iteration, for example. A Couture Cakes confection was (somehow!) hung by its top tier. Trailing greens and richly-hued blooms only added to the mystery.

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Copper and Macramé

Monika Gauthier
Discover More Macramé Wedding Ideas

This air plant-themed confection by A Piece of Cake received an added dose of the bohemian thanks to a macramé hanger, which was accented with copper-colored knobs.

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Ceremony Structure

Erin Saldana

Give your ceremony structure a second life during your reception by transforming it into a makeshift dessert table. Simply Sera Events did just that when repurposing this backdrop come party time, which supported not one, but three Elise Cakes confections.

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Dessert Tee-Pee

Caroline Opacic

We love how Vintage Garden Weddings painted the legs of this dessert tee-pee rose gold to match the Lucky & Co. confection, which hung from the top of the structure.

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All the Sweets

The Hendricks Photography
Check Out Our Favorite Dessert Tables

Welcome to the candy shop! While much of this trend revolves around actual cakes (this one here was created by Anna Cakes), a big enough table can accommodate all types of treats. Ring Around Rose Events kept this in mind when designing the reclaimed wood shelf, which held mini-cakes and donuts.

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A Cut Above the Rest

L'Estelle Photography

A smaller suspended cake table doesn't necessarily make a smaller statement than its larger-than-life counterparts. The Hello Sunshine Cake Studio cake on this little ledge hovered above the rest of the dessert table and also served as its focal point.

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Drama

Teresa C Photography

Looking for a cake display that doubles as a major floral moment? You've found it. This epic floating floral cake table was suspended by chains from an equally-dramatic flower arch. With lilac, hydrangea, and andromeda bushels around the base of The Frostery's confection, the setup felt like more of an art display than a dessert table.

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Secret Garden

Jessica Blex
More Romantic Wedding Cakes

Cascading greenery vines (like the ones seen here on this table by Lovestruck Events) easily disguise supportive wire or twine and added serious romance to these types of displays. Cupcake Island added to the garden-theme by adorning a naked cake with roses, blue thistles, and berries.

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Natural Meets Glam

Michael and Carina Photography

Take notes from C&D Events, who added natural elements to a glam city venue by hanging a rich oak dessert table from rope you'd find on a boat.

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Cohesive

Alexandra Vonk

A cake swing is pretty all on its own, but that doesn't mean that décor should be an afterthought. Notice all of the cohesive details in this display, which was put together by Mullers Floral Art—the hand-painted flowers on the Sugar Lips confection perfectly matched the peonies that were fastened to the ribbon.

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Multiple Trends

Susan Elizabeth Photography
Trending Now: Drip Cakes

Who says your dessert table is limited to one trend and one trend only? In addition to the suspended cake table by Bogath Weddings and Events, the Jenni Cakes confection featured the coolest metallic drip.

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Statement

Rebecca Theresa

If you're really looking to make a statement with one of these floating details, consider placing it in an isolated section of your venue. This swing suspension from Oaktree Wedding Rentals dominated the center of a patio, which both filled the unused space and helped the blue and gold Plumeria Cake Studio wedding cake stand out.

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Silky

Di Luce e d'Ombra

Though you'll find that cake swings are typically held up by rope or ribbon (typically bolstered by wire!), a gauzy, unexpected fabric is also an option, as evidenced by this romantic table, which was engineered by planner Greta Betton (she also designed the bloom-covered three tier!).

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Feminine

Wisteria Photography

We love all of the details on this contemporary, but feminine dessert table, from the wooden bowl and macramé cake shelf by Forrest and J (featuring a masterpiece by Frost It Cakery!), to the crystal objects, and cluster floral arrangements.

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Circular

When He Found Her

Notice the circular theme Shaw Events created in this cohesive display? A circular wooden shelf, round tiers of the Sweet Celebrations wedding cake, and a modern greenery "wreath" all came together seamlessly. 

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Tree-Inspired

Renae Johannes for City Savvy Imaging
Check Out These Birch Tree-Inspired Wedding Cakes

Really commit to the faux bois cake trend by suspending your treat (this birch tree-inspired option is from Christina Banner Cakes) on a tree stump.

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Rooted

Heledd Roberts

Love this cake display idea but are worried that a not-so-gentle breeze will knock over your wedding dessert? Weigh it down with plenty of goodies, like a robust three-tier (like this Hayley's Piped Dreams creation), single-serving cakes, and bowls of macarons.

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Figs

Jo Bradbury
Fall Wedding Cakes You'll Love

A fig-accented cake (Where The Ribbon Ends was responsible for this treat), a woven hanger, and a green ribbon accent make for the ultimate fall display.

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By Sarah Schreiber