If you’ve talked to anyone planning a wedding in 2026, you already know:
The mood has changed.
Gone are the “blowout or bust” wedding plans.
Gone are the 200-person seating charts that feel like hostage negotiations.
Gone is the pressure to throw the kind of event your great-aunt still calls “a proper wedding.”
Couples want something else now — something smaller, sweeter, more them.
And according to The New York Times, they’re not just trimming around the edges. They’re redesigning the whole experience. Reception-free weddings are up 200 percent. That’s from a survey of 315 engaged or married couples, reported by the NYT (page 2) .
Two. Hundred. Percent.
This isn’t a trend.
It’s a tidal shift.
Couples are choosing intimate ceremonies with only their nearest and dearest — sometimes as few as seven guests (page 1) . Then they’re heading to places that feel personal:
The bar where they first met.
Their favorite neighborhood restaurant.
A cozy backyard.
Or straight home to watch TV together (page 3) .
City Hall weddings?
Officially cool again, according to Manhattan event planner Jocelyn Voo (page 3) .
And honestly… we get it.
Brooklyn has always been good at stripping away the noise and keeping the heart.
And this year, our brides have been telling us exactly the same thing — in the most Brooklyn way possible:
“We only have 20 guests.”
“We want something small but still beautiful.”
“We don’t need a giant wedding cake anymore.”
“We’re going to dinner after — it has to travel.”
“We just want it to feel like us.”
So we did what we always do: we listened. Then we rolled up our sleeves and created something that fits the new shape of weddings — the intimate, meaningful ones with the right people, the right place, and the right amount of sweetness.
What came out of our kitchen is a petite, three-tiered dessert set made just for small weddings. Not a traditional cake and not a full dessert table — something in between, something softer and more personal. At the top is a small white cake, clean and elegant, just big enough for the ceremonial slice and finished with “Just Married.” The next tier holds a mix of mini desserts — macarons, panna cotta, or little fruit tartlets — twelve perfect bites chosen by the couple. And the bottom tier carries twenty-four cookies and bars, all the favorites: Salted Nutella, chocolate chunk, PB bars. Enough for 20–25 guests, just like so many couples are choosing now.
The price is simple and transparent: starting at $275 for the full set. A thoughtful, handmade, beautiful alternative to the $1,000 wedding cakes that don’t make sense for this new era.
Because this shift toward smaller weddings isn’t about doing less. It’s about doing what matters. It’s about the bar where your story began instead of a ballroom where it didn’t. It’s about being surrounded by the people who know you best, not the people you feel obligated to invite. It’s about walking out of City Hall with your partner, your people, and a little tiered dessert set under your arm, heading off to wherever feels most like home.
It’s small. It’s thoughtful. It’s beautiful. It’s Brooklyn.And like everything we make, it rises from the same thing:
a little grit, a little grace, and a whole lot of heart.
