Wedding cakes and desserts

Here’s the thing: I’m not doing a buffet. Everything will be plated and served directly to the tables, so they shouldn't have any trouble moving around the room because of it... Honestly, at every wedding I've attended, those cheap, dry little cookies just sit there drying out. People barely eat four or five all night. Since I decided to skip the standard dry wedding cookies, I had to rethink the whole spread. I'm planning on having one single station with more upscale options—things like macarons and a few other fancy treats I can't quite name, but they're delicious. Still, 30 pounds feels like a massive amount...

restlessheron51 said:😉

Personally, I was left feeling completely let down; the selection we picked up during our initial tasting was flawless, offering such a wide variety of flavors and textures.
On Friday, just a day before the wedding, I sent my husband and his friend to pick up the pastry boxes for the guests...
When the delivery actually arrived, I honestly felt like sitting down and crying; out of six boxes of assorted treats, four of them were nothing but pies. They technically provided the volume we ordered, but once we started assembling the individual gift boxes, I had to cram half a pound into each one just to make it look presentable. All those wonderful rolls, peach pastries, and specialty sweets meant to fill the variety were dumped into a single box, with only a couple pieces of each kind. What stung the most was finding that they had included the crust scraps from every single type of pastry; how exactly am I supposed to plate a leftover edge of a nut tart? There was also a significantly smaller variety than what we had originally purchased by the pound. While the quality of the pastries themselves was fine—each having its own distinct flavor—it doesn't change the outcome. In the end, I found myself driving to Monica 🙏 to buy three pounds of dry cookies just so those boxes wouldn't look pathetic. Forgive the long vent, but that was my experience, and I highly doubt I will be placing another order with them.

🤷 I feel terrible hearing that! Our experience was the complete opposite—everything we got was spot on. Every single piece was high quality, whether we were serving them at home or at the restaurant. No cheap leftovers or scraps. My husband even went to pick up our order this past Friday and watched how they packed everything—he said they have them all lined up, then they go through and pack them box by box, sorting them by type until they hit the weight limit.
So, look, maybe you just caught them on a bad day. It sucks that you had that experience, but ours were absolutely flawless. 🙂

I think I’ll just need about 265 pounds of cake myself.🤣

Nancy Stewart38 said:🤷 I feel terrible hearing that! Our experience was the complete opposite—everything we got was spot on. Every single piece was high quality, whether we were serving them at home or at the restaurant. No cheap leftovers or scraps. My husband even went to pick up our order this past Friday and watched how they packed everything—he said they have them all lined up, then they go through and pack them box by box, sorting them by type until they hit the weight limit.
So, look, maybe you just caught them on a bad day. It sucks that you had that experience, but ours were absolutely flawless. 🙂

We just had the worst luck, didn't we? As a pastry chef myself, I know exactly how cakes and desserts are supposed to be assembled, and it never even crossed my mind to give out random scraps or anything like that... But they tasted good enough, so we made do. I just wanted to share this so if anyone else finds themselves in this situation, they know to speak up immediately.

Hey everyone,
I need some advice—since I honestly don't have the time to dig through all the old threads, can someone tell me roughly how many pounds of dessert I should order for about 150 guests? (I’m talking about catering at a restaurant).
Also, what’s the better way to handle the service? Is it standard practice to have the desserts already set out on the tables so people can grab something sweet as soon as they walk in, or is it better to wait and serve them later, maybe after the appetizers or the main course?
Thanks in advance!

I’m planning on hosting about 170 guests, and I’ve decided to go with round tables for the layout. My idea is to place 1 kg of dessert on each table—so, with 17 tables total, that works out to roughly 10 people per table.

I’ll be going with round tables myself.
So, we're looking at roughly two pounds per table?
Got it.
Now I just need to figure out the timing for the dessert—should I set everything out before people arrive, or wait until after dinner is over?

Arthur Thompson11 said:I’m planning on hosting about 170 guests, and I’ve decided to go with round tables for the layout. My idea is to place 1 kg of dessert on each table—so, with 17 tables total, that works out to roughly 10 people per table.

Benjamin Fox682 said:I’ll be going with round tables myself.
So, we're looking at roughly two pounds per table?
Got it.
Now I just need to figure out the timing for the dessert—should I set everything out before people arrive, or wait until after dinner is over?

I've got 17 kg for 100 guests... but I'm using tiered stands where the cakes are on top and truffles are on the bottom. I'll probably wait until after dinner to put them on the table since there isn't enough room otherwise.😁

I have a feeling I’m going to end up with quite a few pounds from all these sweets—we’ll just set them out on the table once it’s time for coffee..

The way we do things here—we’ll have a full kilo of food sitting out on the table from the jump. Appetizers stay outside, then once we head into the hall, the dancing starts right away and soup doesn't show up for another hour. We'll probably end up with a few extra pounds for the servers to top off if needed—plus some leftovers to split up, per my mother-in-law's request.

I did the exact same thing. I had a few extra pounds of dessert sitting on the table just in case, though we didn't end up needing them. For a crowd of 160 people, 50 pounds of sweets was plenty enough.

Benjamin Fox682 said:Hey everyone,
I need some advice—since I honestly don't have the time to dig through all the old threads, can someone tell me roughly how many pounds of dessert I should order for about 150 guests? (I’m talking about catering at a restaurant).
Also, what’s the better way to handle the service? Is it standard practice to have the desserts already set out on the tables so people can grab something sweet as soon as they walk in, or is it better to wait and serve them later, maybe after the appetizers or the main course?
Thanks in advance!

You're looking at about 50 lbs of dessert. 🙂 Better to just put them on the tables right away—that's what most people expect. Plus, if dinner runs long, some folks might head out early and miss the dessert course entirely if you wait.

I just had one major gripe with that bistro over in Chicago—they cleared away all the desserts at 7:30... I spent half the night begging my neighbors to share some since I’m obsessed with sweets...👎 They should just have them on the table from the start so they're ready whenever people head into the hall.😉

rowdyjackal922 said:You're looking at about 50 lbs of dessert. 🙂 Better to just put them on the tables right away—that's what most people expect. Plus, if dinner runs long, some folks might head out early and miss the dessert course entirely if you wait.

We'll likely end up with closer to 55 pounds of dessert; I’d rather have too much than run out mid-party.
Personally, I think we should put them on the tables immediately so when everyone walks into the hall, they can grab something sweet right off the bat.

I think that amount of dessert will be plenty. We'll just bring them out once coffee service starts...

Isn't it cutting it a bit close to wait until coffee service just to put them on the table?

I think it’s already too late to change things—it’s just silly trying to dictate exactly when people should have their dessert. We served them buffet-style so everyone can grab one whenever they actually feel like it, rather than waiting for someone else to give them permission... just my two cents. I know from experience, too. I don't even touch coffee, but I always crave something sweet after a meal. We told the staff in the hall to serve coffee only when guests actually ask for it, not because it's "coffee time"—some people want it early, some later. It’s ridiculous, really. It would be like saying you can only drink beer from 10 to 11, then switch to wine at 11, then coffee at noon, followed by pastries... 🤣

The pastries sat out on the tables all night long, and the coffee kept flowing until morning.

Bryan Gomez90 said:The pastries sat out on the tables all night long, and the coffee kept flowing until morning.

Same thing happened at our place. We ended up with a massive surplus of cookies because there was just way too much other food on the table... So, we just grabbed them all and handed them out to family and coworkers the next day. We had budgeted for about half a pound per person—so for 64 people, that’s 10 kg total—but clearly, we overshot it.

Around here, I guess we usually serve the little pastries right after the main course but before the big cake, though we typically have coffee alongside those sweets before dinner even starts

So that’s how they decide? Tradition?

We ended up ordering 65 pounds of dessert for our 130 guests... because once we brought everything home for a taste test, we realized the hotel’s standard package was a joke. They were suggesting basically two slices per person, which just isn't going to cut it. We’re planning to have the full spread sitting out on the table from the very start.

Mostly, we just went with some local bakery favorites like Entenmann's$18/lb. Sure, you can find fancier stuff if you want to blow a hole in your wallet, but honestly, I couldn't care less about being fancy. My grandmother had a big celebration recently and picked up those classic wedding treats of theirs, and it wasn't until we tried them that we realized how good they actually were. They're surprisingly delicious—super soft and moist.

Since we’re doing a buffet-style setup, we'll have plenty of different cakes and creamy pastries on hand, so nobody's going home hungry. And whatever doesn't get eaten? We'll just split it among ourselves at the end.