Average Cost of a Dessert Table

[Clairitek]

We are considering a dessert table instead of a traditional wedding cake. Neither of us really like cake that much but we do love a variety of desserts!

About how much do you think we could expect to pay per person for this sort of thing? How many pieces per person would you order?

 

[Italiahaircolor]

I think it can vary a lot depending on the type of desserts you''re going to serve...

My friend had one at her very small, quant wedding and it was around $11.00 pp--she served cookies and pastries. I had one for my wedding, at it was 25.00 pp--we served higher end desserts, like mini chocolate coffee cups filled with mousse, and individual creme brulee. For my wedding it broke down to 3 pieces per guests...of course some had way more, and others had none at all.

 

[Clairitek]

Thanks for the information. I was figuring 3 pieces a person and I suppose I might have underestimated at $15/person. I figure in an average restaurant desserts cost $6 or a little more but this would be a catered/mass produced thing.

Ugh... I just looked at the dessert menu for the restaurant I am considering and they charge a minimum of $12 a plate for their desserts but they are extremely decadent. I''ll have to wait to hear back what they charge for their events.

 

[Italiahaircolor]

maybe you could choose a signature dessert from your favorite place ($12.00 is within your budget, right)...and then have a "take out" table...where you put Chinese food take out containers and tons of apothecary urns fills to the brim with candies in your color scheme? Guests get to calm their sweet tooth twice, and you get the best of both worlds...your favorite desserts, and a sweets table.

 

[Clairitek]

I <3 you Italia!! You always have great ideas for this sort of stuff. I do love color coordinated candy bars! This is certainly a very cost effective and neat looking idea.

 

[havernell]

When we inquired about doing a dessert table, I do recall it was quite a bit more than a wedding cake per person (I don''t recall the exact cost, and it will vary regionally anyway). We''re not big cake fans either but our budget wouldn''t accommodate the dessert table. So, we''re going with a multi-tiered display of assorted pies instead! That was closer to the cake cost (way less than the dessert table) but can still be displayed like a cake to make a visual impact. So, that''s something you may want to consider.

I''ve also seen people do sundae bars instead of a cake. You could really pick any one dessert (i.e. strawberry shortcake, cheesecake, etc) to serve to your guests. I think dessert tables with multiple choices gets expensive because the caterer has to make so many different pastries that are often time consuming (i.e. piping the filling into hundreds of mini-cannolis), whereas just making large quantities of one dessert is easier and therefore less costly.

Good luck with your decision!

 

[Clairitek]

Ooh the pies are a nice idea too as is the sundae bar. I do want something that has a nice impact so having many of the same thing out on display could do that. So will a candy bar. I just hope that the venue would let me put up a candy bar and not make me pay for that through them.

I asked the contact at this venue about this stuff and her response was "We can talk about it when you visit us on the 23rd."

Darn... but I want information NOW!!!

 

[neatfreak]

My good friend had pie instead of cake and it was really reasonable. Looked nice too. But I do remember that one catering company she was looking at wanted something like $20/pp for a dessert table. Granted it was fairly decadent, but still, it seemed like a lot when the other food was only like $60/pp for dinner!

 

[emeraldlover1]

It probably depends on the venue/caterer. Our catering fee includes the cake. If we wanted to do a desert table it would have be $2pp extra. I thought that was fairly resonable. Some other places it was a lot more. We are spending extra money on other things so we skipped the desert table but we are having a smores bar. Since our wedding venue is in the mountains we have a fire pit and will have a large assortment of smores options. We are also doing a sunday bar at our rehersal dinner. Seems to be another good option.