Creating A Wedding Wheel: Guide To Planning Your Big Day

A wedding wheel is a fun way to add an element of surprise to your wedding reception. There are several types of wedding wheels, from drink wheels to chalkboard wheels with funny challenges, and even a cheese wheel wedding cake. To make a wedding wheel, you'll need to gather the necessary materials, such as a spinning wheel, spray paint, vinyl adhesive, and a printer. You can design your own wheel template or use a pre-made template online. For a cheese wheel wedding cake, you'll need to source a variety of cheeses in different sizes and textures, plan your styling, and stack and assemble the cheeses on a cake stand.

Source your cheese

The first step to making a wedding wheel is to source your cheese. To get the best-quality cheese wheel, you'll want to find a good and reliable supplier. Supporting local cheesemakers is a great option, as it will give your guests a taste of the region. Taste is the first factor to consider—you don't want every layer to taste the same. Source a variety of cheeses in the same way that you might put together a good cheeseboard. A hard cheese, a soft cheese, and a blue cheese are a good place to start, and consider adding a goat's cheese and something crumbly, too, for a balanced offering. It's important to taste the cheese before you buy it, just as you would for a traditional cake.

The look of the cheese is the second most important factor. To get the traditional wedding cake look, you'll want to allow for three to five layers of cheese, graduating from large to small (ideally with a 2 cm difference between the layers). For the lower layers, you'll need cheeses that come in wheels or can be cut into circles by your supplier. Harder cheeses are good bets for these layers, as they're easier to stack than wet or fruit-flavoured cheeses. Small cheeses are great between layers to add height, and cute little heart-shaped ones can double as a topper. And remember, it's not all about size—unique textures, shapes, and colours can also add to the overall effect.

Order in Advance

Experts advise that you order your cheese a few months in advance to ensure that the cheeses you choose will be ripe on the day. Make sure you schedule the delivery for a few days before the wedding—tracking down your 'cake' is the last thing you want to be thinking about! When ordering, allow for 100 g of cheese per guest or a minimum of 4 kg per 50 guests. Hard cheeses are often the most popular (which works out well if they're your bottom layers, as you'll have more of them) but consider ordering a few extra small cheeses to bring out when the cake is served, so more guests can taste them.

Order your cheese in advance

Ordering your cheese in advance is one of the most important steps in creating a wedding wheel. This is because you want to make sure that the cheese will be perfectly ripe on the day of your wedding. It is recommended that you order your cheese a few months in advance, and schedule the delivery for a few days before the wedding. This will give you peace of mind and one less thing to worry about on your big day.

When it comes to the amount of cheese to order, you should allow for approximately 100g of cheese per guest. If the cheese will be the main part of a meal, you should double this quantity. It is also a good idea to order a few extra of the smaller top-tier cheeses, as these will be split between all your guests and you want to ensure everyone gets a taste.

In addition to ordering enough cheese, you should also consider ordering a variety of cheeses to suit different tastes. A good place to start is to include a hard cheese, a soft cheese, and a blue cheese. You can also add a goat's cheese and something crumbly like a Lancashire, Cheshire, or Wensleydale. If you are passionate about cheese, you can also use this as an opportunity to introduce your loved ones to some of your favourites.

Finally, when ordering your cheese, don't forget to consider any accompaniments you may want to serve with it. Crackers, biscuits, chutneys, jams, fruits, nuts, and meats are all popular pairings with cheese and can enhance the overall experience for your guests.

Plan your extras

There are endless ways to style your cheese wheel wedding cake. Flowers, fresh fruit, dried fruit, herbs, mini bunting, cake toppers, greenery, nuts, dripping honey, pretty labels (or chalkboard backdrops) naming the cheeses, ribbons… the list goes on!

If you're going for a rustic look, you could keep soft cheeses like camembert in their boxes and stack them between the harder cheeses. You could also cut a hole in the centre of a wheel of softer cheese and place a stand, votive holder, or egg cup in the gap, so that the layer above balances on that rather than on the soft cheese itself. Just make sure you have harder cheeses above and below the soft layer if you go for this option.

Make sure you have a great cake stand, too. Whether it's a rustic round of wood, or a traditional glass or ceramic piece, it will help bring the whole cheese wheel cake together.

Finally, don't forget to serve your cheese wheel cake with a selection of breads and crackers, and of course, knives!

Stack and style

Now comes the fun part: stacking your cheese wheel wedding cake and making it look good!

You can stack the cheese wheels directly on top of one another or put greaseproof paper cut to size between the layers. If you want to include soft cheeses in the lower layers, there are a couple of tricks you can use to stop them from collapsing under the weight of the upper layers. You could keep the cheese in its box, for example, which can add to the rustic look of your cake. Alternatively, cut a hole in the centre of a wheel of soft cheese and place a stand, votive holder, or egg cup in the gap, so the layer above balances on that rather than the soft cheese. Remember, you'll need harder cheese layers above and below the soft one for this to work.

When it comes to the overall look of your cheese wheel wedding cake, you can get as creative as you like. Flowers, fresh fruit, dried fruit, herbs, mini bunting, cake toppers, greenery, nuts, dripping honey, pretty labels, or a chalkboard backdrop naming the cheeses are all great options. You could even add ribbons to the cake stand! If you're going for a rustic look, a simple round of wood works well as a stand, but you could also use a traditional glass or ceramic piece.

Finally, don't forget to serve your cake with a selection of breads and crackers and provide knives for your guests to cut the cheese!

Design your wheel template

The design of your wheel template is crucial and perhaps the trickiest part of the process. You'll need to consider the size of the wheel, the type of paper you will use, and how the text will appear.

First, decide on the size of your wheel. For a standard 12" x 12" spinning wheel, you will need to print your template on 13" x 19" paper to ensure it fits properly. Most printers print with margins/borders, so it's important to use paper that is slightly larger than your wheel to avoid any issues.

Next, choose the right paper for your template. A sturdy type of paper, such as photo paper, is recommended to ensure durability and a high-quality finish.

Now, you can start designing your template. You can create your own design from scratch using software like Canva or Photoshop, or you can use a pre-made template that you can customise with your own text and colours. Consider the text size and placement to ensure it is easily readable and fits within the segments of your wheel.

Once you are happy with your design, save it as a PNG file and print it out. Make sure to print at 100% width to ensure the template fits your wheel correctly.

Finally, carefully cut out the circle using scissors or a Cricut machine for a more precise cut. And that's it! You now have a custom wheel template ready to be assembled.

Frequently asked questions