How to Make a Cupcake Stand for your Grandmother's Wedding

So my 80 year old grandmother got married on Saturday.  Crazy right?   Long story short Lolo (her real name is Lois Lane- seriously.  And she refused to be any variation of grandmother, so she is Lolo.  And she is nuts) and the groom, went to high school together, although he was a few years older.  They reconnected through the internets.  A few visits here, a few visits there, a New Years Day proposal, a few frantic months of planning, and there you have it.  Well, not really, but lets pretend.  So Saturday came, and it was hot, but they said their "I Dos" and everyone had a fine time and nothing major went wrong.  Check out ASB photography over on facebook for a beautiful picture of the bride and groom (fun side note: Amber did Seth's and my wedding too!  I feel like she is quickly becoming out family photographer).  I will certainly share more once I have them.

But really, the wedding isn't the purpose of this little post.  Lolo decided she didn't want anything "wedding-y" (this is funny because she made many choices that were rather traditionally wedding-y, like not seeing the groom before the ceremony), which meant cupcakes instead of cake.  And lets face it, in this day and age of pinterest and crafty ladies, it is unheard of to have cupcakes and not have a fantastic homemade cupcake stand.  So I made a damn cupcake stand.  And it turned out pretty damn good.

 

I don't have pictures of the actual building process, but I promise this is a super easy project.

In trying to figure out how to execute this little project, I came across a lot of stands that were made using cardboard cake thingies.  That just didn't seem stable enough to me, so I opted to go wood.  I ran by Lowes and got a 2'x4' piece of 1//4" plywood.  And then I panicked that 1/4" would be too flimsy (because you know cupcakes are really heavy).  So I measured around and realized that I had enough wood that I could double up each layer, making it a 1/2" thick.  So I cut my pieces  For references, the bottom is 14"x14", the middle is 11"x11" and the top is 8"x8".  This held roughly 40 cupcakes. 

Once my pieces were cut, I sanded them down pretty good.  Then I glued them together using regular old wood clue.  Clamps and heavy objects were used to mush the pieces together.  Once they were nice and secure, I sanded them again, just to make sure they were smooth. 

Each layer got two coats of white paint I had laying around, followed by two coats of polyurethane.  I opted for the coats of poly for shine and easy clean up. 

And the last part was to assemble it all.  The bottom supports are tea light holders from the dollar store.  The middle supports are candle holders, also from the dollar store.  Initially, I tried to hot glue everything, but it just wasn't holding.  So, I went gorilla glue and it held perfectly, even in 90 degree heat. 

So there you have it.  I told you it was simple.  And cheap- I think the total cost was less than $20.  Embellishments could certainly be added, but I like it simple.  And I like that I will be able to reuse this for years to come.  Happy crafting!