“I was so glad that we decided to do a cake cutting! I wasn’t really planning on doing it because I wasn’t super into it, but that little moment in the corner— just the two of us kind of flirting?That moment was so intimate and so romantic, but still so classy and beautiful.”- Tiff & Eric

I’m sure this will come as no secret to you, but just in case you’re under any dangerous misconceptions: getting married comes with more decisions than you ever thought a human could reasonably be asked to make at one time.

To first look or not to first look. To have a wedding party or not to have a wedding party. To invite your second cousin twice removed or risk hearing about it until 2047. Whether or not to care about a charger plate, despite not knowing that a plate needed charging in the first place.

Not to add another decision to your (charger) plate, but spoiler: whether or not to do wedding cake pictures is coming for you soon, if it hasn’t already. 

And while I’m fully in favor of you doing what feels truest-of-true to you, I would be neglecting my civic duties as a wedding photographer with an elegant and eclectic touch if I didn’t at least try to sway you in the direction of keeping the cake-cutting moment— if only for the frosting-on-the-nose, crowd-cheering, nostalgic little joy of it all. 

Beneath the buttercream and low-grade public attention of it all, wedding cake pictures are actually one of those deceptively iconic moments that makes your final gallery go so hard. 

Allow me to present my case:

1. Doing wedding cake pictures is one of the single easiest ways to bring your personality into your wedding day. 

The cake for your wedding cake pictures doesn’t have to be some stiff, generic, all-white wedding cake.. It can be playful. Or romantic. Or quirky in a chic way. Or nostalgic in a way that will make me whisper, ‘Oh, that’s darling’ from behind my lens.

It can be whatever you want it to be. 

Think: vintage-piped frosting. A heart shape. Cherries on top or bows on the sides. A vintage wedding topper. Chunky 80s/90s style icing (be still, my Nancy Meyers loving heart). A little camp, a lot of charm, or even a bit of drama. 

(Pro tip: Custom Cakes by Megan makes the kind of cakes I listed above and more—all that make me want to make dessert tables with emotional depth a requirement. They feel fun, romantic, and like they belong at an heirloom occasion with some serious taste—which your wedding will, obviously, have).

While so many wedding choices can be practical and low-key overwhelming, the cake cutting at your wedding gets to just be… cute. And sometimes, we need that. 

2. I’m sorry to report, but wedding cake pictures are aggressively photogenic.

Two people dressed the best they’ve ever dressed, standing nose to nose, feeding each other cake and missing each other’s mouths?

Now that’s a lay-up, if I’ve ever seen one. 

Especially in black white. Especially with a little direct flash. Especially when one of you gets a little *flirty* and the other acts scandalized for the bit. 

Some wedding moments are intimate. Some are vulnerable. Some are romantic. 

Your wedding cake pictures are all of the above… and just plain FUN. 

3. Cake cutting at your wedding is your first task as husband and wife.

All day long, people are doing things for you—steaming dresses, pinning boutonnieres, fluffing veils, handing you drinks, telling you where to stand. 

And then (finally!), you’re given one tiny, completely manageable task: cut the cake and feed it to your cutie person. 

It might sound silly, but hear me out here: marriage is rarely made up of sweeping gestures and speeches that went twenty minutes over time). Marriage—like, real, mundane, in it marriage—consists of little shared tasks and tiny teamwork moments. 

Doing a cake cutting at your wedding is such a sweet place to start. There you are, shoulder to shoulder, figuring out something small together, laughing in formalwear, up to your elbows in frosting.

A pretty good opening scene for a marriage, if you ask me.

4. It only feels cringe if you do it in the cringiest way possible.

A lot of couples skip wedding cake pictures entirely because the thought of being put on display while a DJ whose real name you don’t even know yells for everyone to gather around makes them want to throw up a little bit. 

Which, like, fair. And same. 

But that’s the conventional way a cake–cutting is done. And you know how I feel about ditching the traditions and doing things your own way…

There are so many vintage wedding cake ideas that are far more understated and very-much-less public: 

You can sneak over to the cake while everyone’s occupied with the buffet line. You can literally leave your reception for a different room altogether and enjoy a private moment as husband and wife. You can make it candlelit and romantic like some Nancy Meyers side plot. 

Wedding cake pictures don’t have to feel like a forced tradition. 

It can literally just be two cute married people taking five minutes to have fun together. And personally, I’m pro anything that gives us another excuse for that. 

5. If styled well, it becomes part of the heirloom energy.

Please oh please do not exile your gorgeous cake to a wobbly table by the bathrooms. 

She deserves better—especially if she’s a Custom Cakes by Megan masterpiece. 

Throw your back into the DIY-ness of it and make her a moment. 

Lay her on draped linen surrounded by hand-dipped taper candles. Place her on a gorgeous antique piece you found on Facebook Marketplace after a mildly unhinged late night search (the best kind). Thrift the most darling vintage wedding topper and antique silverplate cake server you’ll use now and hand down to your grandkids later.

I mean, heck— pull a Jordan and Jackson and make your multi-tiered cake a multi-tasking icon: the focal point of the whole dang reception and doubling as décor. 

Whatever you do, give your cake the justice she deserves and let the girl LIVE because, when styled with intention, it becomes more than dessert.

It becomes part of the atmosphere. A conversation piece. A detail people remember long after the last slice is gone. And the moment you lose your nostalgia-loving mind over when those wedding cake pictures arrive in your final gallery. 

6. You can do the moment your own way, cake or no cake.

Traditional cake cutting not speaking to you? Totally fine. You are not legally obligated to do the version of it that feels awkward or uncomfortable to you.

Vintage Wedding Cake Ideas

Here are a ridiculous amount of vintage wedding cake (or cake-adjacent) ideas that still get you the romantic little moment… just in a way that feels most like you:

Sneak off after sunset and cut it with nothing but taper candlelight illuminating the two of you.

Cover your entire candle in candles and blow them out together. (It’s giving The Parent Trap; it’s giving chic).

Go full elegance and pop champagne in front of it.

Cut the cake during dinner service as staff plates slices for the guests. Efficient and adorable.

Make it a golden hour thing and bring a smaller cake outside for a few soul-tied, sunset chasing moments. 

Disappear from the reception for five minutes and feed it to each other somewhere you can be low-key sexy and high-key flirty about it. 

Have your baker recreate a beloved family recipe (Grandma is going to lose it when she finds out!!)

Go full retro direct flash on the moment so it feels like a scene from a family photo album straight out of Father of the Bride.

Borrow a page from Alyssa and Kennedy’s art deco wedding and feed the cake to your guests.

Wait until the dance floor is open and everyone’s loosened up a little. Less spotlight, arguably more fun.

Skip the cake and cut into cannoli, pie, mille-feuille, or whatever dessert feels true to your little heart (and sweet tooth).

Do a champagne tower pour for the same ceremonial energy, just with a different medium.

The point is celebration, delight, and doing something together in the middle of the madness. 

How you choose to do it matters far less than choosing the moment at all. 

Final Thoughts from a Wedding Photographer Who Will Die on the Wedding Cake Pictures Hill

Will your marriage survive if you skip the cake-cutting moment? Debateable. (I’m kidding.)

It will, in fact, withstand that decision. 

But when done with intention and artistry, the cake cutting at your wedding can become one of those unexpectedly memorable parts of the day that also happens to give you wedding photos that still hit in 20 (and 30 and 40 and 50) years.

Playful. Romantic. Nostalgic. Just plain old cute.

And if your wedding day offers you one more chance to stand unnecessarily close, flirt a little, laugh a lot, and eat cake in formalwear… I say take it.