Wedding cakes are not just dessert  to be served to guests during reception.  The wedding cake is cut together by the couple during the wedding reception.  Then the husband and wife exchange bites of the cake.  This is the first act the couple does together as husband and wife.

The sweet wedding cake symbolizes caring and nurturance between the couple.  Wedding cakes are also usually white, to symbolize purity.  In ancient Rome, the wedding cake is a loaf of bread.  This cake is broken over the bride's head.  The guests would then scramble for the crumbs.

There are also numerous superstitions about good luck for those who can bring home the crumbs of the wedding cake.  Putting crumbs of a wedding cake under one's pillow will make a guest dream of the future spouse. Crumbs are also believed to enhance fertility.  

Wedding cakes nowadays have a variety of designs, layers and flavors.  Besides choosing a cake in one's favorite flavor, couples also have to choose the cake according to practical reasons.