elopement cake styling
We love a cake table moment here at Ever After. We create a cake table for each of our elopement weddings and they’re all different. Yep every.single.one. We’ve got a stack of different cake stands, table linen, candle holders and other decor items to make sure your cake table is unique to your wedding.
You can scroll through our real elopement weddings and see for yourself. Every wedding features its own cake, cake setting and styling. And we make sure it fits together with the rest of your wedding styling to give you a moment that’s just yours.
Whether your style is classically traditional, rustic or elegant minimalist, we’ll style it to fit perfectly. Some couples know exactly how they want things to look, others are more ‘just do your thing’ (which we love but either is good with us), so you can pick what works for you.
The same principles we use to style a cake table can be transferred into setting up beautifully styled spaces in your own home. I think of it as ‘elevating the everyday’. If you have a space, why not make it as beautiful as it can be. Not everyone’s into that but if you’re reading this blog post, chances are making beautiful spaces is your thing too so I thought it might be helpful to focus on one cake table set up and get right into the deets of it so you can see the principles we use and transfer them into your own space.
autumn photo shoot
I’ve been posting some autumn pics up on our Insta grid and FB page this week and it got me thinking about autumn styling in general and what it is that tells us we’re looking at autumn. I remembered a photo shoot we did a couple of years ago (pre-Covid coz isn’t that how we’re measuring time these days?) that was an Autumn shoot. Of course doing a photo shoot for publication in Autumn means we did the actual shoot in August but that’s another story…
The shoot covered various things including dress, flowers, drinks, invites etc a load of the usual wedding photo shoot stuff. But I want to focus on the cake set up because a) that’s directly transferable to elopement weddings and b) you can take ideas and use them at home to elevate your own everyday.
So let’s crack on. First off the cake supplier for the shoot was the lovely Queen Bee Cakes and the photographer was Emma Barrow Nikki of Knots & Kisses helped with the shoot story, styling and props. The whole shoot was featured by Ruffled Blog and you can see the full feature here.
Here’s a first shot of the cake outdoors. This is an August playing Autumn shot…
See how little space the cake table takes up? It’s on a small antique table and we’ve raised the cake up further by placing the cake stand on an upturned dresser drawer. So your eye is drawn up by the table, then further by the upturned drawer and further still by the cake stand so you’ve got a nice vertical display which doesn’t take up much space but still makes an impact.
The backdrop to any setting is important. As we’re outside for this shoot, the backdrop are the ferns and the acer tree. Think about the backdrop you’re creating in your set up. How does it speak to your main display? Here the main set up is the cake table and the ferns provide the outdoor rustic feel we were looking for.
Can you see how the draped fabric connects the table to the outdoor setting by puddling on the ground? It also adds the perfect rich autumn purple colour, texture (softness) and movement so just that once piece of fabric is bringing several different elements to the display.
Autumn colours
What tells us more than an abundance of richly coloured fruits that we’re in Autumn? So you’re looking for blacks, reds, plummy colours – mouth wateringly Autumn. We used pomegranates, black grapes, blackberries, figs, cape gooseberries and pears – all say autumn…
This is super easy to do at home in your kitchen with a bowl of fruit. Pick a suitable bowl or basket to elevate your display. We used a small gold footed bowl and a cranberry red and gold glass footed bowl. Using footed bowls lifts the display off the horizontal and brings added height and impact to your display without taking up more room.
Cutting the fruit also brings in extra texture and colour and is perfect for a table setting at home.
Something extra
If it’s a special occasion and you’re looking for something even more extra, try gilding a piece of fruit which will add sparkle under evening candlelight – can you imagine how lovely that will look?
Link items together with colours or textures so they hang together naturally. Here the gold played throughout the set up from the gilded fruit, through to the gold leaf on the cake, the gold edging on the champagne coupes, the brass handle on the upturned drawer and the gold footed bowls. Go for a coherent thread running through your various items.
See how in the pic below we’ve been able to use the different heights to create more levels for the display. So the fruit and fabric can tumble off a number of different elevations, creating a feeling of abundance which is so important in an autumn display.
If you don’t have an outdoor backdrop like our ferns here, you can add a living plant or extra greenery. Can you see tendrils of fresh jasmine have been cut and added to the set up? Adding greenery always adds movement and life to a display. Adding a live plant in a gold pot would bring that living aspect if you’re doing this indoors at home.
And finally we cut the cake! Which added more richness of colour and texture to the picture and yes, it was definitely yummy cake so it’s not all about the looks…
Autumn tablescape
I’ll be back to this shoot again shortly to talk you through the tablescape and how you can borrow elements from it for your own table settings at home. Here’s a taster of the table set up for you…
If you’re after more autumn cake table set ups, check out our Autumn real elopement gallery.
Tag us on social media with any of your autumn styling – I’d love to see your creations. We’re @weddevon on Insta and @everafterdartmoor on Facebook.
If you’re new here – hello! We’re elopement wedding specialists and if you’re looking for an elopement wedding venue, let me help you get started. First off, download our elopement brochure. If you’ve got any questions not covered by the brochure, hit me up. You’ll reach me at [email protected] – come on over and tell me your plans…
