My sister and I have the pleasure of making a 50th wedding anniversary for our aunt and uncle. 50 years together and many memories to capture. So I had an idea to do several cakes and instead of just staking them on top of each other we would set them up as seperate cakes on different stands. The top cake would be a traditional cake with the 50 in gold and some flowers the other two cakes would reflect something about the two of them and their 50 years together. They used to own a small italian market so one cake would be that and they also love to travel and frequently visit AC so the other cake would reflect that....does this sound like too much??? There will also be some edible images which show them on their wedding day and at the old store, kind of tying things togther..

It doesn't have to be too much; you could still do a tiered cake and make it cohesive. I like your idea of making them seperate . On a white cake:

You could do black and white edible images.

On the top of the store cake you could do a topper that represents the store; like the picture of the outside of the store on a gumpaste plaque trimmed in gold. Pictures of them, and them with family, friends and customers inside the store around the sides of cake.

On the top of the AC cake you could do an Atlantic City logo or their favorite hotel logo on gumpaste plaque trimmed in gold. With pictures of them having fun in AC around the sides of cake.

On the top of the traditional cake you could do the gold #50 with white flowers around the base of the number and put only one wedding day picture in the front center (on side)of the cake.

All borders in gold ribbon, gold fondant ribbon or gold fondant balls (small or medium to keep it elegant).

It would be nice if you could trim the edible images in gold; maybe one white flower somewhere (on top on side of topper or at the border on the side) on the store and AC cakes.

I depends on how many people will be eating cake. I would still have it be cohesive somehow. There are those stands that have the tiers separated like stair steps, but are still 1 stand, kwim?