The Cupcake Tower

I finally made the cupcake tower. I hope that it'll work out as well when there are actually cupcakes on it!

I used the tutorial here as a guide for making the foam core tiers. I did make each tier shorter so that it wouldn't seem so overwhelming (mine are only 2" each instead of 6" tall).

Then I had to figure out how to stack them/what to use to separate them. I was inspired by round gift boxes used for my mom's mothers' day gift. They were just about the right height, and it seemed like we could attach the lid to one box and the base to the other so that they could be taken apart, but would fit nicely together. There was a little evolution from there, and I ended up with these foam core tubes made from the scraps left over from making the tiers.

There are cross supports that fit snugly in each tube attached to the tiers so that the tubes slide onto the cross on the top of one tier and the bottom of the next. The result is a tower that collapses to a relatively small pile but should be pretty stable when assembled (and should be super-simple to assemble). I think. I even labeled the support tubes on the inside so that it'll be easy to see which one fits best where (because I'm only so exact, and each is a little different from the next).

Finally, I covered it all in pretty striped fabric from etsy.

The fabric (with enough left over that I think I may be able to use it to recover the seats of my dining room chairs), incl shipping, etc.: $16
The glue gun, tons more glue than I'll ever use, and foamboard (with about 3 boards left): $12.22

total cost of project: $28.22

Cupcake presentation

Generally, I've been pretty laid-back about wedding stuff lately. I feel like the pressure is off.

I've finalized or near-finalized:

catering,

locations (ceremony and reception),

flowers,

hotel,

invitations (and sent out the StDs),

flowers,

bought my dress, and

decided on rings! (more to come on many of these things soon)

I feel good. I feel like I've got the major stuff taken care of. What's left seems manageable, and doesn't seem too urgent. And the stuff that I know I was procrastinating on because I didn't want to deal with it, I've delegated to my mom. Perfect.

So now, I feel like I should be tackling the stuff that isn't urgent, but can be done ahead of time. Since I'll be baking cookies (more on this to comme, too) and cupcakes for the wedding, I would like to only have to worry about those two things (and the unexpected things that I'm sure will come up) for the last couple of weeks before the wedding. So I've been trying to figure out what I can go ahead and take care of.

And so began the cupcake tower project. I found a great tutorial online for making a tower out of foamcore. Sounded prefectly budget-friendly, and like something that my limited craft skills could handle. Right? Well, it actually is. However, after building two of the levels, I'm not sure that it's really the scale that I had in mind. I mean, it's GIANT. I guess that's OK. It just isn't what I was expecting. I read the directions and didn't think anything of 6" high sides on each level - but in person... that's really high! So, I guess I could just cut the sides shorter. I can figure that out, right?

And the way it's designed, so that the sides of each level are the supports, doesn't actually leave a lot of area for the cupcakes. But I'm sure I could modify that too, right? Maybe do an x-shaped support that leaves the whole bottom open for cupcakes, like a friend of mine did. Or just move the sides in, so that there is a partial overhang above each level. Or use regular wedding cake pillars for support at each corner. There are definitely options.

Maybe some pillars like these guys?

But then I started thinking about other options, and came across an old copy of Martha Stewart Weddings.

How cute would the cupcakes be in their own little boxes, just stacked into a tower shape? And even though it would mean that I'd have to individually box them, it would also mean that I wouldn't have to build a tower. Not a bad trade-off. But then the questions becomes whether to use clear boxes and show off the cupcakes, or cute boxes like Martha's favor boxes, that are their own display, and have the pretty cupcakes as a nice surprise when people open them? Or round boxes? And will boxes discourage people from digging in? Or make it too hard to tell what kind of cupcake is in each (I plan to have 3 different flavors)?

So many choices.