Whether you're getting married outdoors in the spring or summer, at a barn during the fall, or up in the mountains this winter, complement the vibe of your celebration by adding a rustic touch to your wedding cake. Even city venues can benefit from the look, which is sure to warm up any space. The style draws inspiration from the natural world, and will give your dessert table a homey, welcoming vibe.
A rustic design can be achieved in a number of pretty ways. Your baker can create a nature-inspired look with naked layers or imperfect frosting. Or, you can opt for an organic feel, made using earthy colors (like brown and green) or botanical accents (we love leaves and berries). Simple, modest cakes are also considered rustic—their humble style evokes visions of peaceful country life. And supplements to the dessert itself (think: wooden cake stands and animal toppers) only add to the appeal. Whatever the case, rustic-chic is an adjective for a reason—your cake is bound to look good.
The following confections are great examples of all you can do with a rustic theme for your wedding cake. Whether they were served at a rural venue or baked in contrast to a more industrial setting, they're charming, wedding-worthy, and tasty, too. Traditional treats, seasonal sweets, and alternative pies are just some of what you'll see, so rest assures that this inspiration is as lovely as it is diverse. Click through for our favorite ideas—your mouth will be watering and your creative wheels will be turning after viewing these delicious picks.
Naked Wedding Cake
This lemon-chiffon cake with Swiss buttercream had a natural look, which fit the wedding's Montana mountain setting.
Scenic Wedding Cake
This sweet dessert was pretty as a picture—and baked by DeClare Cakes. The scene featured a bird on branches and 3D butterflies.
Traditional Wedding Cake
As a nod to the bride's Southern roots, guests at this wedding were served apple stack cake, a traditional Appalachian dessert. It was topped with powdered sugar.
Berry Wedding Pie
This wedding featured pies, rather than cakes, which have more of a country feel.
Chocolate Wedding Cake
This simple chocolate cake had a tree-trunk stand. The dog toppers added to the rustic appeal.
Leafy Wedding Cake
Goyas made this confection for a wedding on a small Irish island. The yellow cake had raspberry icing inside.
Apple Wedding Cake
A juicy red apple topped this naked cake.
Simple Wedding Cake
This beautiful cake was charmingly simple, and it looked as though it was in bloom.
Dusty-Rose Wedding Cake
Lush, dusty-hued roses and other flowers topped this one-tiered cake from Whole Foods Market.
Wedding Cake with Greenery
The Sticky Spatula baked the cake for this wedding, which was decorated with foliage.
Succulent Wedding Cake
This cake's light coating of icing gave it a wood-like design. Fresh blooms and succulents made for interesting décor.
Textured Wedding Cake
A faux-bois exterior proved that this Blue Plate cake was nature-inspired.
Bird Cake Topper
This dessert, from Momofuku Milk Bar, was apple pie-flavored. Plush birds topped it off.
Small Wedding Cake
To reference the California desert-locale of their wedding, this couple topped their small wedding cake, by BabyCakes, with an air plant and small sticks wrapped in embroidery floss as a nod to Navajo walking sticks.
Canoe Cake Topper
To reference their summer camp wedding venue, this couple decorated their lemon-ricotta pound cake with fresh greenery and wildflowers and a tiny hand-carved canoe topper.
Faux-Bois Wedding Cake
Sam Godfrey, the owner of California's Perfect Endings bakery, gave the frosting of this genoise wedding cake a faux-bois finish to look like wood.
Carrot Wedding Cake
To add to the rustic Americana charm of this barn wedding, this carrot cake, by Scootabaker, was glazed with caramel, layered with caramel buttercream, and adorned with cherries and garden roses.
Fall Wedding Cake
This small, square wedding cake was frosted in buttercream and topped with pistachio foliage and dahlias for a Texas wedding.
Scrabble-Tile Cake Topper
To top off his three-tiered lemon chiffon cake, the groom fashioned a "Just Hitched" garland out of Scrabble tiles, twine, a drill with a tiny bit, and sticks.
Wintry Wedding Cake
This couple brought the outdoors inside at this winter wedding in Utah, by topping their dulce de leche cake with pinecones.
Swiss-Dot Wedding Cake
Placed on an old stove-turned cake stand, this carrot cake was frosted in a Swiss dot pattern and finished with a rustic bird topper.
Coconut Wedding Cake
The cream cheese–frosted coconut cake was topped by dancing bears that baker Robin Redding gilded with 18-karat gold leaf. It was placed on a "cake stand" (now a side table in the newlyweds' home) that the baker's boyfriend fashioned from a fallen Monterey Pine.
Fern Wedding Cake
Keeping with the verdant décor of a coastal wedding in California, this carrot cake was finished with cream cheese frosting and coconut shavings—and decorated with three types of ferns.
Monogrammed Wedding Cake
The wedding cake at this rustic formal wedding in Georgia featured four tiers, faux bois-printed fondant, and a gold monogram.
Rosemary Wedding Cake
Sprigs of sugared rosemary decorated this five-tiered wedding cake by The Caketeria at a rustic barn wedding in Pennsylvania.
Basic Wedding Cake
With a homemade look, the cake by Dessert Designs at this farm wedding was covered in rustic swoops of fluffy cream cheese frosting.
Macaron-Topped Wedding Cake
This olive oil cake with fresh strawberries and French macarons was part of a trio of small cakes from Beach Plum Bakery Café served at an easy-going backyard wedding in Massachusetts.
White Wedding Cake
Sundance Resort's chef re-created a recipe for this couple's favorite coconut cake from the Peninsula Grill in Charleston, South Carolina, where the groom's parents live.
Lavender Wedding Cake
Crisp Bakeshop decorated four tiers of coconut and chocolate-bourbon wedding cake with rustic swirls of vanilla-bean buttercream and lavender sprigs for this garden-party wedding.