Our (Literally!) Biggest Project, Part 3: A 6 Foot Tall Tower Of Cupcake Goodness!

Alright, alright, I know I've made you wait long enough. Without further ado, here is the fully assembled cupcake stand!


Isn't it about the most awesome thing you've ever seen? Can you just imagine all the yummy cupcakes that will adorn the stand (9 dozen regular and 18 dozen minis, plus a jumbo one on the top shelf, as laid out in this post), and the flowers at each corner, plus the pretty lavender satin ribbon I will add later to the edge of each shelf? I think with some flowers on each of the four corners of each shelf and the lavender ribbon it will be decorated enough, since I don't want to detract from the pretty cupcake designs (we'll have brightly colored, intricate frosting designs from Sibby's Cupcakery, but more on those details later).

Must needed shots taken from lying on the floor and then standing on the bed:


So, now that you've seen it, here are some more details on how we made this bad boy. Let's start with the dimensions. Here is the breakdown, with the top shelf being 6" x 6" and the bottom shelf being 38" x 38". There's 6" between each of the shelves, but we cut the center support boxes to 6.5", to allow for the quarter inch high tabs on each end that fit into the 'L' notch in the shelves, which holds it all together.


Now, for the price tag. Here are the supplies we bought and the cost of each.

6 sheets of 4' x 8' MDF wood: $131.70
Cutting charges to fit it in our car: $8.00
3 1/4" x 3' dowels for pegs: $1.17
3 Drydex putty/spackling: $11.07
17 Semi-Gloss white spray paint: $58.72
Wood glue, large: $8.29
Hand sandpaper holder: $4.95
Sand paper: $3.58
Sand paper for electric sander: $2.69
10' x 12' painting tarp: $8.49

Grand total: $238.66 before tax

All in all, we spent about 9 hours each day of our three day Labor Day weekend, plus about 8 hours on the following Saturday to build this. And it was totally worth it!

I was so sad to have to take the stand down, carefully wrap it in garbage bags, and store the shelves safely under the bed in our 3rd bedroom. We'll take it out and set it up again about a month before the wedding, just to make sure nothing has warped, and I'll put the lavender ribbon around the edge of the shelves with double sided tape then.


Would you consider building a cupcake stand for yourself, or would you opt to go with the cardboard versions, or maybe just use what your baker provides?