Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
The Duggars may have classic family values, but when they buck tradition, they do it in a big, splashy way. Did you hear about Jessa Duggar's wedding reception dessert? Instead of cutting a big ol' cake, the bride and her groom, Ben Seewald, treated their 1,000 guests to a self-serve ice cream sundae bar. What a fun surprise for everyone!
Why not? People will have plenty of chances to eat wedding cake at other couples' receptions. And anyway, the new Mrs. Jessa Seewald told People magazine, "I don't really like cake." That's as good a reason as any other to skip it in favor of a dessert you like better.
More from The Stir: 7 Fun Food Ideas to Make Your Wedding One-of-a-Kind
The sundae bar offered Ben's favorite flavor, mint chocolate chip ice cream, and Jessa's favorite, chocolate. Toppings included brownies, cookies, fresh strawberries, and chocolate and caramel syrups. Candies like peanut butter cups and M&M's were served in mason jars because how can you have a wedding reception in 2014 without mason jars?!? (We're just teasing -- they're adorable.)
If you love the idea of an ice cream sundae bar at your wedding -- and it's a brilliant one! -- here's a few other ways to make it work.
1. Keep it cold. The big question for me is how do you keep all that ice cream frozen? You can keep pints in a large metal bucket filled with ice. It's also a good idea not to put all the ice cream out at once. Put out smaller quantities at a time and keep the rest in the freezer to bring out little by little.
2. Have a designated scooper. Just to keep things from getting super messy, have someone scoop out the ice cream for your guests. Just the toppings should be self-serve.
3. Label everything. That way guests can distinguish between the rainbow M&M's and the Skittles when they're distracted by everything else going on at the reception. Besides, decorative labels are just plain cute.
4. Match colors. If you're deeply committed to your color scheme, try to coordinate your sundae bar to match -- picking candies, serving dishes, signs, and other details in your colors.
5. Get creative with containers. I've seen wooden office organizer boxes, popcorn cups, candy jars, apothecary jars, punch bowls, vintage dishes, cupcake tins ... just go on Pinterest and you'll see a zillion clever ideas.
6. Keep deliciousness in mind. You can go crazy with ice cream flavors and imaginative toppings. But take a moment to make sure your toppings will truly work with your ice cream flavors, not clash. Also, mini gummy bears are pretty, but they harden into rocks in cold ice cream. Just an FYI.
What do you think about the idea of a wedding reception ice cream sundae bar? How would you swing yours?
Image © Dieter Heinemann/Westend61/Corbis
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
