Icing on the Cake Table (DIY Photo Tablecloth for your Big Day, or Special Event)

DIY wedding cake table…

This year will mark ten years since I walked down the aisle and married one heck-of-a-guy.

Perhaps the anticipation of this special anniversary has me feeling a bit nostalgic.

When most people look back on their wedding, some favorite snippets of that day probably come to mind. I’m no different.

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This was our cake.

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It was a riff off one I had seen in a Martha Stewart wedding cake article…

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We made some modifications, adding our monogram…

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The magazine design was inspired by fabric, calico, to be exact. I think our cake designer did an awesome job.

You can see the Martha inspiration cake in this segment from her show shared on YouTube (the part about this specific cake starts around 4:18):

But, sugar aside (and who doesn’t love sugar?!), and giving the cake all the delicious props it deserved, what I REALLY loved was the tablecloth UNDER the cake…

DIY Wedding Cake Table Cloth

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I filled it with family wedding pictures of our parents, grandparents, sisters, and brothers. I’ve taken a couple of recent snaps of it since I didn’t have too many from our wedding day…

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It wasn’t a hard project to do. Nor was it expensive to create.

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How to Create a DIY Cake Table Photo Tablecloth

1. Determine size needed for tablecloth.

These tablecloths could be used for all kinds of events. Birthdays, showers, anniversaries, etc. We just decided to use ours for our cake table, which we knew was going to be small, and round. Decide on what size table you’ll need to cover, and purchase your tablecloth accordingly.

You do NOT need an expensive tablecloth. In fact, quite the opposite. I’ve done many of these over the years, and the ones that seem to take transfers the best are the most inexpensive, polyester tablecloths.

2. Print images.

Once you have your tablecloth, use your home computer to print out your desired images onto the transfer paper.

3. Arrange images on tablecloth.

I’ve found the easiest method is to lay out your cloth, and lightly tape your images down where you want them. It may take a little time to space them out and arrange them exactly as you’d like.

If you’re doing one for a cake table try and find out how big the cake platter that your baker is using will be. That way, you can arrange the images around that area so that none of your images will be hidden by the cake plate.

4. Iron photos.

Following the directions on your particular brand of photo transfer paper, simply iron your images into place.

These transfers can be a little finicky, so do the first couple cautiously, and in what will be the most hidden/inconspicuous spots first just in case the first few don’t turn out perfectly.

5. Display at your special event!

And that’s it! It’s done! Truly a very easy project, and our guests loved it. It was wonderful for our family to get to see their own wedding images displayed, front and center.

After all, a wedding is about family, and we wanted them to be a central feature of the day.

What better way to include our loved ones than to make them an actual centerpiece?!

Though we used ours for a cake table, I can totally see this being done for a gift table, actual dinner tables, etc…could include fun pictures of the couple growing up, lots of images of friends, etc.

So many ways to use this fun DIY wedding idea for other events as well.

Above is our groom’s “cake” displayed at left, in an outdoor lounge area, while just inside, sits our wedding cake, proudly displayed on our photographic tablecloth.

They say the “devil” is in the details. Personally, when it comes to weddings, I believe “delight” is in the details. All the little things you can do to put your own personality into the day, the more people will remember it.

When I’m a guest at a wedding, it’s the little things I remember most…anything the couple does to really express who they are

I hope this post inspires someone to use this idea and run with it…then shoot me a line and let me know how it went. Or better yet, how about an invite to your special day? Sure, what’s one more head in your already expensive headcount, right? I know, trust me, I know.

Images in this post that were not taken by me were taken by our wonderful wedding photographer, Steve Canning, who at the time, worked with Robert Isacson of Isacson Studios.

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