Nontraditional dessert ideas?

The least stressful approach would be to have a dessert table catered by a third party that can make all the desserts and store and serve them appropriately.

Regarding how long things can be out should you have family make dessert for you, it will really depend on things such as what the actual items are, how they are served and the weather. For example, I make lemon meringue tart and it cannot be finished nor served too far ahead of time in summer because the meringue will weep, whereas in winter this is less of a problem. By comparison, a cake covered in ganache with all dairy pre-boiled can sit out of a fridge overnight providing it isn't too hot.

We had a variety of donuts and pies and the coordinator put them out just before time for dessert. However, they weren't refrigerated/didn't need to be refrigerated, so if we had wanted to, we could have displayed them on the table.

I agree with JA, you should definitely check with your venue about guests bringing food because of liability issues.

We are doing a chocolate covered strawberry tower and I have also seen a donut tower!

Hope this helps!

I'd echo mrswinteriscoming that the easiest choice would be to hire a caterer or local bakery to make a few desserts as they'd be able to discern what would be able to be left out and what steps would have to be taken with anything else to keep them fresh.

I'd avoid anything that would need to be refrigerated since those kinds of desserts would probably need to be taken over early to be kept at the reception location, couldn't be displayed very long, etc. Cookies, doughnuts, a lot of pastries, brownies, and cake pops are all pretty easy to make/ order in bulk and display.

Can your caterer do a dessert table? Cookies, brownies, and fresh fruit are some options I'm going with.

My sister-in-law and her (sadly, now soon-to-be-ex) husband were in a similar situation. Neither of them was big cake fans, plus it was my SIL's third marriage, so they instead had a tower of mini cannolis. I'm not even a big fan of cannoli in general, but these were great! I'm not sure of your own thoughts on cannoli, but it's an option. I had another friend who he and his husband had a donut tower.

Try pies, cobblers, or something from where your families are from. I have had friends do ice cream, doughnuts, and even funnel cake.

Sorry to hear about your fiancé's aunt, hope she is on the mend. As for dessert there are so many options, you can still do cheesecakes, Costco makes delicious ones pretty big too. A cookie or donut bar is fun or how about an ice cream truck? Good luck to you!