My husband and I both love the outdoors, so for our summer wedding, we had our reception outside at a vineyard. The biggest concern I had about the outdoor reception was protecting the wedding cake from leaves and bugs (not to mention prying fingers from curious children!). I wanted the cake to be featured in the beautiful gardens, but I couldn’t just leave it under the trees without some sort of protective cover. But how do you cover a cake? Then I came up with the perfect solution.

I got an inexpensive round-hoop bed canopy (available in many colors) and I sewed a few dozen tiny little white bows to it randomly. As a finishing touch, I put a large tulle bow at the top with some silk flowers.

I then got a very tall shepherd’s hook that I could hang the canopy from. With the cake on a small table in the garden, we put the shepherd’s hook right next to the table, so that the hook was centered over the cake. We hung the canopy and carefully draped it around the cake.

The effect was quite beautiful and everyone commented on how pretty the cake was. When it was time to serve the cake, we simply moved the canopy to the side and enjoyed the completely bug-free and leaf-free cake!