I think I have this figured out, but want you all to try and poke holes in my plan so I can see potential issues before I deliver.

On 6/19, I have a big wedding cake due and it's an 18/14/10/6. It'll be too heavy for me to carry alone if pre-assembed, and my husband will be home with the kids so he's unavailable. Soooo....I'm going to do my first (partial) assembly on site. I'm actually not that nervous about it, because...I have a plan!

I just rcvd the SPS system I ordered for this cake, and here's what I'm thinking. Here in the kitchen, while following the SPS instructions, I will:

1) Decorate all tiers separately.
2) Install the SPS plates on the 18,14 and 10.
3) Install the 14 onto the 18 and place in wedding dlvry box.
4) Separately box the 10 and 6.
5) Bring ribbon to attach with bc once I'm finished stacking the 10 and 6 on site.

Ok, what do you think? Will this work?

As an aside, what would you use for a base for this baby? Do I have to pull out the power saw to cut a pc of plywood? Or will double layer of foamcore be sturdy enough?

Thanks so much!

I can't help you on the SPS construction, but I just delivered a 4-tier a couple of weeks ago and the base was foamcore, but I used three layers to give it a little depth. The bottom tier was 14" square.

Hmmm. Good point, KSMill. Three layers would allow enough height for ribbon better than just two. Thanks!

Installing the SPS plates and legs ahead of time will work out great! That's what I did for a cake I had to drive 9.5 hours to MN. I got to my friend's kitchen, stacked, added ribbon, flowers, and then delivered to the site.

I had my dad cut a board out of plywood that I decorated for the base. The cake was only three tiers, though.

Oh, and if you haven't thought this far yet...I used the rings from the SPS plates (you'll know what I'm talking about if you've read Leahs instructions) and glued those to the base to give me height to get my fingers under. Worked like a charm.

Good luck!!!

That's exactly how I would do it...
Love the idea of attaching those rings onto the bottom of the baseboards. Thanks for that idea! I have literally hundreds of those sitting in my cake studio. Hardly ever use them.

Just make sure you can lift the 18" and 14" cakes.......those will be heft in and of themselves if they're already stacked!

Definitely plywood, I've had foamcore bow on smaller cakes than that. I just glue foamcore to the plywood, then cover both together. Nice and strong.

You guys rock!! Good point on the safer method of plywood. Thanks!

Many times I'm by myself, unless my 10 y.o. son is available to be my Door-holder. So I first head into the venue and let the coordinator know I'm there, make sure the cake table is done, and then prop open the door(s) for myself for when I come back in with the cake.

Just an update...I delivered this cake last Saturday, and while I was satisfied with the SPS system and it's general purpose, I wish it had gone more smoothly for my first time using it. I read about so many of you having a really great first experience with SPS, so I hope I'll find my mistakes and learn from them.

I baked my cakes and tried to fill and ice them towards the 4" mark, but my WASC that day just wasn't rising as well as usual, and I didn't want to add too much icing on top so I had to cut my SPS legs down. Not a bad thing b/c I have a vise table and hack saw so went fairly quickly. But the PITA was when I installed the plates w/ legs into my tiers and found that I was off with my measuring by about a 1/8-1/4". Not a biggie until you realize that there's a gap between the plate and the tier beneath. I piped icing into the gap and smoothed it. That's where the pearl border would go anyway, with the ribbon above it.

Delivered the cakes, and built on site. Done. The place was nice enough to bag and set aside my SPS for pick up, which I did yesterday. But when I picked up the bag, I could see that two of the plate undersides had a large section of icing stuck on them. It looked like it pulled right off the cake. Does that mean I pressed them in TOO much? And why wouldn't the cake cutter at the country club take a spatula and place the icing back on the cake?

I'll use the system again, but I think it'll be like working on a relationship...it's gonna take some fine tuning.