What Does a Cake Stand Do For Your Wedding Cake?
An often overlooked component of your wedding cake selection is the cake stand that it will sit on when perched on the table at your reception. Many cakes are designed to utilize elaborate cake stands that compliment the overall cake design while others are simple and fit nicely on a plain serving platter or plate. Whatever you choose, make sure that it compliments your cake rather than detracting from it or making the cutting process too difficult.
Those who love flair and show will undoubtedly have wedding cakes designed to take over the whole table and really draw attention to it. These elaborate cake constructions often utilize fancy multi-tiered cake stands that match the cake decoration in color and design. There are cake setups that have multiple connected platforms and some even utilize a small fountain or other extravagance in the overall presentation. While these layouts can be incredibly impressive, they are often expensive and cumbersome.
The majority of modern wedding cakes utilize much simpler presentation methods and the cake stands they use are often as simple as a basic serving platter or cake plate. This may seem dull compared to the multi-tiered city that some more elaborate cakes can become, however it is often a nice thing when your cake stand doesn’t detract from the well-designed wedding cake. If the cake itself is beautiful and artfully constructed, sometimes the simpler cake stands are better.
If your cake has multiple tiers, you’ll want cake stands to go in between the layers. These range from simple plastic prop-up sticks to much larger stands with carved legs and designs on the side.
What you use to display and prop up your wedding cake is a personal choice in the process so take some time to decide how much the presentation should focus on the stand. Perhaps you leave it up to the bakery but either way, there are various ways a wedding cake stand can affect the look and feel of wedding cakes.
Selecting a Wedding Cake Topper
One of the most popular and important components of the perfect wedding cake is the cake topper. I’ve known couples who’ve spent months deliberating over the kind of cake topper they want on their beautiful wedding cake and other just know exactly what they want and go for it. The point is that it’s your decision and it should reflect your wedding theme, the sentiments you and your partner feel are important for the occasion, and a sense of personal style. Let’s look at some options.
The more traditional wedding cake topper depicts a simple bride and groom standing together at the altar, all dressed up and smiling. These are usually full-color and can represent the bride and groom both ethnically and in dress. It isn’t difficult to get a custom cake topper made to resemble the wedding couple, hair styles and all. These can add a nice personal touch to wedding cakes.
Another option is the more elegant, classical cake topper that is stylized and designed to be artistic and classy. Some are all white, others a mixture of colors but they are often more than just two little figures standing together. They can be a sweeping dance pose, where the bodies are connected by a swirl at the base or based more on a shape, like a heart, than on the human figurines. These are beautiful choices and add a sense of class and taste to the wedding cake design.
Many good-natured couples go with a humorous cake topper option, often playing on classic Western stereotypes like the Bride dragging the reluctant Groom to the altar or a Fisherman Groom hooking his Bride with a fishing line. These can provoke a nice laugh at the Reception and offer the guests a personal taste of the couple’s sense of humor. For those who love a laugh and want their wedding to reflect humor and laughter, a humorous cake topper could be the best option.
There are countless wedding cake toppers out there from Hollywood red carpet figures to non-human figurines like deer or cars. You cake topper should reflect the mood and theme of your overall wedding day as well as your personal tastes and style.
Choosing Your Wedding Cake
When planning your wedding, deciding on what you want your wedding cake to be can be a tough decision. Should it be large or small? What shape? How many tiers? What flavors of cake? Do you even want cake or would cheesecake be better? Do you go with a traditional cake or do you go with something non-traditional to show your personality?
The very first thing you should do when deciding on your cake is to figure out how many guests you’re going to need to feed. Take your guest list and cut it in half. That’s the amount of people who will actually show up at your wedding. And about 2/3 of them will eat the cake. From there, you can decide if you want a wedding cake with 2 tiers or one with 8.
Now should be when you start looking into your bakeries and checking your costs. Would it make more sense in your budget to have one little cake for the bride and groom to cut and then get a larger sheet cake to feed everyone else? And while checking your costs, you should check on the price difference on using fondant versus not using fondant. Fondant can be pretty but can put a large dent in your budget. One other big thing you’ll want to look into with your bakery is if there is an additional charge for set up on the big day. Some places charge to come out and set it up, some places don’t.
When you talk to your bakery, they’re going to want to know how you want to decorate the wedding cake. Are you going to want to use real flowers or fondant flowers? What kind of cake topper do you want? Do you have a serving set or do you need them to provide them?
Deciding on your wedding cake can be a time consuming and frustrating task. Or it can be a fun and enjoyable task. It’s all what you make it. I recommend putting the wedding cake decisions at the top of your list so that you can wrap it up quickly and mark one thing off your list. It’s remarkable how quickly time passes and how overwhelming those last few months before the wedding can be. Don’t procrastinate….do your research now and as it comes down to the wire, you’ll only have small decisions to make about your wedding cake!