OK so I guess I'm asking for suggestions but really just venting.....

What is it about these wedding venues (ESPECIALLY hotels) that make them set up a HUGE table suitable for seating 8-10 guests to put a cake on? Just how big do they think the cake is going to be, anyway?

Big tables make normal cakes look really small

Any suggestions on how to make the gigantic table seem less of a monster? I'm especially interested in the opinions of catering folks like Indydebi, for example.....if for no other reason than to maybe EXPLAIN this phenomenon...

usually after i set up the wedding cake (on a huge table) the caterers come along and arrange the plates, candles, champagne, cake cutters, etc. i've seen the table afterwards and it usually looks better.

what elizw said.

My concern is more about NOT placing the cake in the center without making it look off-center. I've seen these poor brides and grooms really leaning in over this huge table to try to do their cake cutting photo and it's just not very comfortable for them. So I try to sit the cake in the center of the table, but toward the back of the table, so they can at least get close enough to cut it.

As a person who cuts the cake, it is MUCH better to have a larger table, when you're trying to disassemble 3 or 4 tiers and spread them out on the table (because if they ordered 3 or 4 flavors, you HAVE to cut all tiers at the same time); plus a place to spread the plates out to put the pieces of cake so the guests can come up and get their cake. You need some work room on that table.

(My cakes are not taken to the kitchen to cut, nor do we pass the cake out to the guests, since we do our food and staffing on a buffet ("serve yourself") basis. That's why the space is important.)

It's also a good point in why I talk to brides about the cake being the Grand Centerpiece of their Reception. A cake should be grand and should tower over the reception. It should have lots of height and exalt a grand presence to all who enter the room (she said in her totally biased opinion!). When you have a Grand Centerpiece of a cake, the table size doesn't matter anymore.

(Edited to add last paragraph ... somehow hit "submit" too soon, before I was done!)

Just noticed I made a funny!

I said (table) size doesn't matter! (man, I just crack me up sometimes!)

I always ask the venue for extra tablecloths so I can place a riser under the cake (usually a large cake dummy or two). Then, I cover the riser with the extra tablecloth.

The last time I delivered a cake it was the other way around. The cake was on a 20x20 board (grooms cake) and I think the table must have been a 18 inch round because the points from the board were sticking over the sides.