wedding cupcakes- the good, the bad, the yummy

I've decided to ditch the traditional wedding cake and do cupcakes instead! They're easy, they're cheap & it eliminates the awkward "cutting of the wedding cake" moment.

Now that I have all the basic details pinned down I'm starting to research what I want as far as the cupcake display. I figured it would be easy to order a cupcake tower/display/tree/whatever you call it thingy and be done with it. But nooooooo, they're apparently pretty hard to track down. And the ones I have been able to find are cheap and made of cardboard, or if they look halfway decent they cost over $200!

I like the look of this one:

It's simple and easy to look at. The tiers are nice and close together and the size is perfect for a small wedding.

but I'm kind of a fan of the more modern square look:

This is the best example I could find. It's a little too DIY-ish (because it was) but I like the modern lines. However, I do not like the hideous way these babies were frosted- what is written on those???

If I wanted to get really non-traditional I could go for this asymmetrical design:

Not sure what I think about this exactly. It's sorta ugly, but I'm digging the "out of the box"-ness of it all.

Or I could just forgo the stand all together:

I really dig this. I like the idea of using fondant or another icing alternative so that the cupcakes can be stacked on top of each other. And besides- I've never been a fan of icing anyway! And using fondant means you can create some cool and funky designs...

I've also noticed a trend of having an actual small cake on top of the cupcake stand. This example was by far my favorite of all the displays I've seen so far:

This awesome cake has already been blogged about here. 

Of course there have also been some awful cupcake monstrosities.  For example these unappetizing babies:

"perfect for a beach themed wedding" because everyone wants to think about eating sand, grass(?) & flip-flops.

Speaking of monstrosities:

seriously? I'm a little scared for that girls safety. I guess there are worse things in life than the threat of being crushed to death by a giant cupcake tower.

Along with the saddest wedding cake I've ever seen, you can file this one under the saddest wedding cupcake display I've ever seen:

Anyway... this is what happens when you're bored in Delaware. 

But I have to give a shout out to my Maid of Honor and little sister Morgan who graduated from the University of Delaware today!!!! Happy graduation little sis- you deserve a cupcake! :)

CLICK HERE if you wan to see the cupcake tree I finally went with.