Dessert other than cake

I think you can do whatever you want for dessert, but, personally, I think whatever you have should be available to all of your guests. I think it's rude to have something just for the two of you that is not an option for your guests. From that perspective, I think I can see why your family doesn't see you and FH having a cake as a better plan than no cake at all, if they really want cake. An analogy often used on this forum is that it would be like serving your guests hamburgers, but serving yourselves filet mignon.... That's just not polite. Hamburgers are fine, but the B&G should eat them, too! I think dessert is the same. If you don't want cake, you certainly don't have to serve it, but whatever you have should be an option for your guests as well.

Admittedly I am a cake person. I love seeing the wedding cake and so often these days there isn’t one. However, I agree that it’s your day and you can do what you want, but I also agree with MOB So Cal that it would be rude to not offer cake to your guests if you do a small cutting cake. Your family is coming for the perspective that back in the day most receptions were cake and punch, so the cake was the highlight. Obviously that has changed. If you decide on donuts, you could still do the “cake cutting” photo to maybe appease the family, but just do it with a donut. In the end, it’s really up to you what you want to serve at your wedding. I wouldn’t do the cake thing just to please others.

Inspo pic

You can do donuts, cupcakes, macaroons! I know you said no cakes but how about cheesecakes? Those are a few options!!

We didn’t have a wedding cake, just had several desserts instead. Some family members were upset and said we needed to cut a cake but it wasn’t a priority for us so we skipped it. No one could give us a better reason than we needed a picture of us cutting a cake so we saved a couple grand!

We are doing a small 2 tier cake for the bridal party and for the guests we have cake pops, cookies and bars. Do what makes you happy! Your guests will still eat & enjoy the donuts even if they were expecting traditional cake.

We skipped cake and had cupcakes and an ice cream sundae bar. All we said was we aren’t into cake - I’d rather have things I’m excited about at the wedding than a something I don’t usually eat at others. I’d stick to your original plan!

We’re doing chipwiches and macaron ice cream sandwiches for our main dessert. We wanted something to cut into and also realized we have a number of guests with dairy allergies, so we got an allergen free groomsmen cake we’ll cut into and be available for guests. It’s actually really delicious and still serves a purpose. If you really don’t want cake, don’t do cake.

I think doing a small cake to cut and having donuts is a good idea actually.

You arent alone! My FH is not a cake fan, so we are planning on having a small nothing bundt cake for ourselves to cut, then we are having apple cider donuts and cookies for guests. Honestly cakes can be expensive, not everyone eats them, and some places even charge you to cut the cake and for them to serve it.
Its your wedding!! Do you what you and your fh want and what makes you happy

Also forgot to write, i do not believe what others are saying about if you have cake for yourself that guests need cake as well. Nooo. Its my wedding. Ive been to multiple weddings recently that had a small cake for themselves for cake cutting photos and then a different dessert for guests. From what i heard, nobody missed the cake

We're doing a small cake for us and cupcakes for everyone else.

We had a cutting cake (traditional & cute for pictures), then brownies, cookies, mini peach pies, and cupcakes!

They may change their tune if they knew that a recent article I read said that as much as 60% of the "traditional" wedding cake gets thrown in the trash!! It just doesn't get eaten, for a variety of reasons. This is one of the reasons that alternate "desserts" at weddings are becoming more and more popular.

For me, FH isn't a big cake person. So, we decided it was a waste of money to have a traditional cake. They are really expensive!! We are going with a dessert table, which will have a variety of small desserts, like fruit tarts, mini cupcakes, brownie bites, chocolate mousse, s'mores tarts, and maybe some mini fruit pies. We haven't finalized the dessert menu yet, but these are the things we'd like to have. We will have a small cake for the cutting ceremony. But that's not costing us anything, as we have a good friend who is an amazing amateur baker, and she has offered to make it for us.

I've just recently started reaching out to bakeries/patisseries and am finding that the cost of my dessert table is going to be roughly half the cost of a traditional cake. So we're getting something that is much more our style, for way cheaper than going with tradition. Win-win as far as I'm concerned.

If you want donuts you should do donuts. FH and I are actually doing a donut bar there will be 9 different toppings, 3 frostings and 3 sauces. We did decide to do a small cake to cut, but mostly for the pictures to be honest. Lol. We will have cupcakes as well in cake flavor.