Do you want to push the boat out for your big day? Maybe you want to add something a little different to your reception? Whatever the case, here are some awesome alternatives to the traditional wedding cake that will be sure to get your guests talking for all the right reasons.

Naked Cakes

This is all the fun of a cake without the frosting. They are perfect for rustic or vintage-themed weddings – and can be a lot cheaper, too. Simply decorate it as much or as little as you like!

Cupcakes

Cupcakes mean that your guests still get a slice of the sweet stuff without having a traditional cake. Plus, it can be easier to make lots of different flavors to keep your guests happy.

Favorite Desserts

Perhaps you and your partner have a favorite dessert? There’s no reason that you can’t serve up a dish of the good stuff instead of opting for a traditional cake to cut.

Chocolate Fountain

Mmm, chocolate. This is sure to be a hit with pretty much everyone. Strawberries, marshmallows, pretzels – it seems there’s no end to the possibilities of things to dip.

Cake Pops

Cake pops have become a massive trend in the last few years, and they can be a great addition to a wedding. They come in a host of flavors and can easily be decorated to match your theme.

Donuts

Of course, if there’s a dessert that’s bound to get people’s mouths watering, it’s donuts. If you want to take things to the next level, why not stack them high with your cake toppers taking prime place?

There are so many awesome alternatives to the traditional wedding cake that it might be hard to choose just one. Who says we have to? After all, it’s our big day, and we’ll eat dessert if we want to.

How far would you go if you knew that you could receive a happy ending? This bride thought that nobody would find out if she stole a poor woman’s bridal gown. Little did she know that karma would come for her. Here is the story of 48-year-old Pat, and her unbearable arrogance that led to her imminent doom.

Pat, a 48-year-old master-manipulator had spent her entire life fixated on one dream and one dream only — living happily ever after behind a white picket fence with her husband and five kids.

According to an acquaintance of hers, Pat has always been conniving and manipulative, which is why she slowly began cutting ties in college. Through self-pity and tears, Pat has always managed to get things done her way. Years after this friend moved on with her life, Pat managed to find her on Facebook, and that’s where the story begins.

The OP and her husband run a community center that aims to help the homeless. They prefer to dedicate their time to the underprivileged who have little to no means of survival, instead of wasting their time on narcissistic friends whose sole concern is, well, themselves.

Although the center is an informal initiative, it provides aid to those that need it. And while the woman and her husband never hesitate to lend a helping hand, they have encountered their fair share of truly dishonest choosing beggars.

The center provides different services including one that helps women get their wedding and prom dresses for free. The center’s “headquarters” is located on a farm that’s owned by an elderly couple.

The barn is also known for its exquisite green field and its complementary artificial lake, as well as its fowl. While the barn is mainly rented as a venue for weddings and services, the space is usually available for community-based projects.

There has been one person who has always been there to take advantage of social services and that is Pat. The minute she got back in touch with the OP, she latched onto the community center and never missed an activity.

Sure — she was very active as an event organizer. Still, the OP hated having Pat over to her house but what could she do? The activities are an open invitation for all. Pat’s kids didn’t make things any easier. Not only did they behave poorly but they’d also make their way into the OP’s bedroom even though there was a designated area for guests to hang out.

Stories about Pat and her kids began to spread to the point that no one really liked having them around. The elderly couple despised her so much that they decided to keep the gates locked unless they had events or guests. Why? Because Pat got in the habit of driving in whenever she pleased.

The guests of the barn would then often find her children screaming and disturbing ongoing weddings, throwing rocks at the koi in the pond, and harassing the geese in the yard. She wasn’t a social pariah just because of her kids, though. She would also pull the ‘struggling financially’ card and leave others with the lunch bill, not to mention that she always created unnecessary hostile competition.

A mutual friend, Lenah, runs the wedding/prom dress initiative that we mentioned earlier. Basically, dresses are sourced from donations, eBay, trunk shows, and more. In some cases, a bride-to-be will pay $50 for the dress, but for the most part, the dresses are donated to the bride free of charge.

Because Pat has to stick her nose in every single thing, she was also involved with this initiative. Lenah didn’t mind, though, as the two never had any issues. Plus, Pat’s responsibilities were limited to just shipping the dresses out.

Despite not being part of the disadvantaged population, Pat took this opportunity to renew her wedding vows. She was getting everything at a discounted rate. That wasn’t all, though. She needed her ceremony to be held on her wedding anniversary, so she bullied a couple that had already booked the venue into giving up their date. They were so put off that they ended up choosing a different venue.

In exchange for a price cut, Pat offered to repay the elderly couple by doing maintenance work around the venue. Do you think she kept her word? No, of course not!

Rolling Stones said it first — “you can’t always get what you want.” In Pat’s case, unfortunately, she will do whatever she can to get what she wants, even if she hurts someone else in the process. If you saw something that you liked but it wasn’t yours, what would you do? Walk away! It was evident that there was a dress Pat was attached to.

The OP bought it for 40 bucks at a garage sale, which was Lenah’s money, to begin with. The dress was a beautiful vintage, ankle-length gown adorned with delicate lacing. The dress was a huge bargain and was worth a true fighter. Pat, of course, wasn’t.

Lenah had no idea what kind of levels Pat could stoop down to. The gown that Pat had her eye on was already assigned to another bride, who was even willing to pay for the dress! Unsurprisingly, Pat didn’t take this well.

So, with a cool head, she did the old switcheroo and shipped a different gown to the bride. Despite all the notes written on Lenah’s agenda, Pat insisted that she shipped the right dress. Although the bride in need was understandably disappointed, she never made a scene about it.

It was frustrating for the OP to see as the bride was a true fighter. She was out there in the real world working so hard that she was able to pull herself out of welfare. She wanted to change her life, so she earned her high school diploma and began working towards a certificate as an acrylic nail technician.

And her reward for all of this was to have her wedding dress stole from her. Of course, Pat never admitted to her mistake and brushed the matter under the rug.

Despite the fact that Pat never owned up to her mess-up, the OP and Lenah knew that she had taken the dress. As a result, Lenah never allowed her in the warehouse again. The two women had a fight over the phone that ended with Pat saying, “This conversation is over. It’s my dress and you are mistaken.”

She even had the audacity to accuse the other bride of making false claims. Pat was officially caught in her lie the night before her re-wedding. Lenah uncovered the entire mystery when she peeked into Pat’s garment bag.

Lenah called the OP as soon as she peeked into Pat’s garment bag. It was the same vintage dress that was supposed to have been shipped out to the other bride. The two decided that Pat shouldn’t have her happily ever after. After all, she had gotten her way her whole life and enough was enough! The two strong-headed women concluded that they would ruin the dress.

If this led to legal action, Pat had more to lose since she would need to require proof of ownership — and being that the dress technically belonged to Lenah, she would have a hard time providing proof of her ownership. Unsurprisingly, the dress in the garment bag was indeed the one that was supposed to go to the other bride, made clear from the tags and marks. It might have been altered and dyed but it still wasn’t Pat’s.

All brides are given a small bedroom in the venue in exchange for a small fee so that they don’t have to drive in on the day of their wedding. According to the OP, the makeshift chapel was absolutely gorgeous — so gorgeous, in fact, that it was a little questionable how Pat even paid for it.

As Pat slept in the venue, the two took the opportunity to sneak in and do their deed. The OP naïvely brought some ink along to destroy the dress, but Lenah had something different in mind.

The ladies quickly realized that ink would be too obvious a choice. After all, if Pat saw the dress ahead of time, she may be able to snag another gown from somewhere. They wanted to make sure that Pat would trust that the dress was fine. So, Lenah locked herself in a bathroom stall and got to work. She completely cut out the back panel of the dress.

After the deed was done, she carefully put it back on the hanger and zipped the garment bag. The two ran through the emergency exit with Pat’s back panel stuffed inside Lenah’s purse. It’s a piece of support that Pat doesn’t have the right to.

The wedding was set to start at nine in the morning, and the OP received a call from Pat at seven, which she rightfully ignored. She finally answers Pat’s call at eight. Pat was absolutely frantic.

Pat then asks if she can borrow the OP’s wedding dress. Hard pass. Can she get Pat a wedding dress then? Girl, it’s Sunday and the barn is an hour away from town! Quit whining!

If you’re thinking, “Oh, poor Pat,” you should know that she had it coming. Pat needs to find a wedding dress and quick. Will she? Renting a dress would mean having to try it on and steaming it. Even if the dress is ready to wear, it would easily take over two hours to rent it and get back to the venue in time.

Knowing this, Pat asks the OP to pick a dress up for her. Excuse us! Who’s paying? Anyway, no shop owner in their right mind opens their shop before 9:30 or 10 in the morning on a Sunday.

By the time she even finds a dress and makes it back to the chapel, Pat would be looking at somewhere around noon — which is right when the venue would need to be cleared for the next event. Pat continues to break down and hangs up on the OP only to turn to Lenah for help.

She asks her to bring “anything she had available.” Lenah and the OP come to the rescue and deliver Pat the smelliest, most outdated and oversized dress they could find.

Pat tries alternatives at first such as her bridal slip, which just looks tacky. She asks her daughter to lend her own dress but she refused and proceeded to ask the same question that we’re all thinking — is she supposed to go naked? Unfortunately, her only option was the dress that the OP and Lenah brought. The dress really needed a petticoat to plump up the skirt, but that wasn’t available.

That meant Pat had to drag the dress down the aisle, unlike a gown train. She had the bouquet in one hand and the dress in her other. The gown looked limp, and the arrangement of puns caused the sleeves and neckline to pucker.

The reception was lavish, with all sorts of pricey decorations and a fabulous cake. Just one sad bridezilla who’d look better in a burlap sack. Not many people attended, mostly because everyone was sickened by her entitled attitude. There was no dance, and no speech of some sort.

The bride was so uncomfortable that she had to change into a shirt and leggings. The guests were befuddled when she wandered around in her flip-flops and ordered the ushers to start folding up the chairs within an hour after the reception. In other words, she essentially kicked everyone out before the cake was even cut.

While most people don’t give two cents about vow renewals, there are some who think it’s the most important thing in the world. So did Pat. After the most depressing reception to ever exist — which she brought on herself — Pat wasn’t okay. She wasn’t okay. She was no longer as loud as she once was, and she began shutting people out.

Perhaps it was because no one came to her rescue — not even her own family, who traveled miles to celebrate with their daughter, who then kicked out all the guests within an hour of the reception. Pat couldn’t take it. Even her husband was starting to crack.

Pat’s husband, Hank, was working a full-time job and taking care of the kids when he got home. He cleaned and took care of their kids’ homework because Pat apparently didn’t have the time or the patience.

Pat didn’t even have the energy to commit to a part-time job, which meant that their kids couldn’t attend after-school activities or get gear for school. Meanwhile, Pat continued to splurge on herself and used her kids as an excuse to spend like crazy.

Hank wasn’t simply worried or upset. There was something more that he couldn’t put his finger on. He began therapy, which seemed to help. From the looks of it, Hank was more relaxed — even when Pat left with kids, which is something that happened fairly often.

After Pat returned with the kids, Hank maintained his routine and was interested in going out to do things for himself.

The family changed. Pat was frequently seen alone. On the other hand, everyone including the OP began to see less and less of Hank. Eventually, he moved in with his parents.

He filed for separation later on, on the grounds of emotional cruelty. Although he didn’t win, there was some sort of settlement that Pat would not be permitted to meet with Hank unless it was for the sole purpose of interaction was the kids.

Very few people still have contact with Pat. The OP doesn’t really know if Pat ever found out about the culprits behind the wedding gown mishap. All she mentions is that Pat slowly pulled away from the community center.

After some time, she became less active in social gatherings. She then removed the OP — along with everyone else from school and the center — from her Facebook and began to lead a quiet profile on social media.

It was evident that Pat was upset. Her vow renewal ceremony didn’t go as planned. What she thought would be a moment of happiness — whether or not she was wearing someone else’s wedding dress — was actually just a bitter day that ultimately led to a bitter separation.

Little did she realize that a small change could destroy her mood, and gradually her entire life. She somehow didn’t feel the same when she and her kids used to destroy other people’s weddings. Tragic or deserved? It’s up to you to decide.