i havea question for all you that are experienced in wedding cakes.... my daughter will be getting married and i really want to make her cake . the thing is i have never done a cake with pillars or stacked really so i am thinking a stand would be easiest??? but my question is which one??? as you can tell i am at a loss... i would love all input on this! and yes i have about a year and a half to work on it thankfully . i am going to practice ALOT!!! lol

both of these stands would be easy to work with. It really comes down to what look you want.

to me the garden one is more "sturdy"? i would freak out if the cake fell over lol

I really like the garden stand. It is strong and sturdy and there are a lot of things you can do to dress it up or dress it down.
One thing though, if you are making super high or deep cakes, be really careful to measure them out, particularly if you put flowers and such on top of the layers. There is more depth in parts than in others, so measure out the most narrow part and figure out that you still have to be able to place the plated cake on top of each ring of support. The wire arms that support the stands at the sides at each layer, dip down slightly.
Like Peg said, it depends on the look you are after, but I would say that the garden stand is the stronger of the two, most definitely.
I rented it a few times before purchasing it.
Hugs Squirrelly

I've heard the floating tiers stand can tip over, so I'd go with the garden one. I think it's prettier too!

Well, just make sure if you purchase the garden stand, that it sits level. I have rented one that did not, it was sort of rocky, obviously not made right. However the one I bought is level. Haha, no, you don't have to worry about it going anywhere, in fact, once, we transported it fully loaded with cakes. Not something I would recommend, but we had special circumstances. Anyway, fully loaded it weighed a ton, haha. Also didn't have to worry about it going anywhere while it was in the van.
It is a nice stand to have if you get into teas or special luncheons or appetizers and such, as you can use it for many things and it holds one heck of a lot!
It also looks nice loaded with cupcakes or special desserts.
Hugs Squirrelly

I prefer the look of the Garden Cake stand. The floating cake stand looks scary to me. Practice on both if you can to see which you like better. Good Luck!!! MC

i am so glad i found this forum... you all have really helped me without even knowing it! my family think i am losing my marbles.. i dont have a lot of time to bake let alone decorate but i just "love" doing it. i just wish we had wilton courses around here unfortunatly we dont so i am basically teaching myself. reading all these posts in here also teach me so i guess in all actuality i have SEVERAL teachers thanks a bunch everyone

Here is a cake I did about 4 or 5 years ago. It was for a navy couple. Anyway, I thought you might like to see the stand dressed up.
Hugs Squirrelly

very very pretty.... i may go with this one thanks again

You are most welcome, I tend to recommend this stand to folks that are not too experienced with wedding cakes because it is virtually worry free, you don't have to worry about dowels and things. I think easy is a good thing when you have other things to worry about, haha! Good luck!
Hugs Squirrelly

thank you that is exactly what i was thinking... ill have ALOT going at that time so i would like the cake to be as stress free as possible

Here is a cake stand that my friend tcrema got me for an early bday present. I used it on July 2 for a wedding. It comes apart. You can use it in different ways. I love it! I was worried about it not holding up but it sure did! Just thought I'd share it w/ you. I haven't uploaded the pic of the cake yet because my scanner is dead!

darn... thats pretty too ( i am SO GLAD i have another year and a half to figure this out LMAO

Yes that is a pretty stand, I really like it too!
Hugs Squirrelly

It's plastic! Tcrema got it for me for $49 from ebay! I just love it!! I took it apart for the wedding cake I just did. I used it as a satalite style. You know the 3 cakes w/ each one little taller then the other?

Oh, Squirrelly your cake is pretty~ Is it basket weave? That's my fav technique~

I agree with everyone about the garden stand. However, that last one is pretty, too. Is it plastic? Just wondering about its sturdiness.

Yep, plastic. But it is very sturdy when the weight of the cakes are on it. I was worried about that too. It's fine though~

I have owned the floating tier and the garden stand for many years. In fact I got the floating tier stand to do my very first wedding cake 18 1/2 years ago for my sister. I have used it numerous times and have NEVER had any trouble with it. I have only had two wedding cakes where someone chose the Garden Stand. It is very sturdy and pretty much stress free, however I would never transport a cake on it. I would definately set it up at the reception hall. Squirrelly I really like the cake you did on the Garden Stand, it is very pretty!!

~Luraleigh~

I have owned the floating tier and the garden stand for many years. In fact I got the floating tier stand to do my very first wedding cake 18 1/2 years ago for my sister. I have used it numerous times and have NEVER had any trouble with it. I have only had two wedding cakes where someone chose the Garden Stand. It is very sturdy and pretty much stress free, however I would never transport a cake on it. I would definately set it up at the reception hall. Squirrelly I really like the cake you did on the Garden Stand, it is very pretty!!

~Luraleigh~

WOW Squirrelly!!!

I can't imaging the horror of delivering that cake already set up!!! It must have weighed 3 tons!!! Narrow stairway, of course!!! It always seems like you run into something like that!! HA HA!! I tell you over the years I have run into the worst conditions to get a cake into a reception hall!!! There is one in my home town where a lot of people have there reception there are 5 stairs a landing and then 20 more stairs, NO elevator!! It does have a chair lift on a track on the stairway, but it just gets in the way!! It is a very old building and I just hate delivering there!!! It takes forever to get all the tiers up plus everything else and then to set it up, YUCK!!! Anyway your cake was beautiful!!

~Luraleigh~

P.S. There should be an emotional suffering or hazardous duty charge!!

Oh goodness, Luraleigh, I think they do it on purpose, haha! Too bad the cakes can't be set on the lift, haha!
Funny thing was, it was about 45 minutes away. We took a ferry to take a shortcut, the kind of ferry you drive up a ramp too. So it was down a steep hill, then up a ramp, I thought I would have a heart attack, haha! My hubby will not normally carry any cakes, in case he drops them and I kill him, haha. But this one, he carried. He was so nervous.
I had done up bowls with the royal flower and ribbons way ahead of time. But when I inserted an additional bowl in the centre to put the fresh roses in, well the lip of it sat at just the wrong place and made it difficult to remove without breaking the icing flowers. So once it was assembled in "the dry run" ahead of the wedding, I had to leave it like that or I would have damaged the arrangements. Haha, and I had been so careful measuring to make sure it would all work out.
Learned a great lesson from that one though, you always need to allow an extra inch or two of play room to manouever.
It must have weighed a ton because the cakes were 6 inches deep and filled. And it was the hottest day of the year, of course, haha!
Remind me once again why we do this, haha!
Hugs Squirrelly