I'm making a 4 tiered, square fondant covered cake due tomorrow evening at 6. It's white and the bride wants a black damask pattern on it. She gave me green ribbon she wants put on it but the ribbon is 1.5" and with it there isn't enough room to put the damask stencil on. Should I call her (on her wedding day) and explain the problem and give her the option of no ribbon or a bead border or should I just make an executive decision and put a bead border on it? And if I do that, should the bead border be the same color as her ribbon or should I make it black to match the stencil?

I feel terrible about this whole situation. I've never done a damask covered cake before and I didn't realize the problem with the ribbon. I feel like an idiot.

Thanks for any help!

Can you get to a store to get thinner ribbon in the same colour?

How tall are your tiers? Can you put the pattern on tonight and let it dry then add the ribbon tomorrow? Or go with thinner ribbon.

You say there are 4 tiers. You can combine the tiers so that you do the pattern in one or two of them and the ribbon in one of the others.


http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1351762

http://www.flickr.com/photos/deliciously_decadent/3612815578/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amandascakes/1955795002/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/deliciously_decadent/4369313767/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elegantcakesaz/4706620464/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/deliciously_decadent/4755560119/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29721812@N02/3260757198/in/photostream/

I wouldn't change to the bead border unless you ask her. i would try to find thinner ribbon in her color and if you can't get thinner in black. Then take all the ribbon with you when you set up in case she doesn't like one way you can change it. You might can put the the thicker original ribbon over the stencil and it still look good. HTH

not sure if this is possible, but have you considered maybe cutting the ribbon in half? The bead border would then cover the cut portion of the ribbon. I would also maybe try to get something thinner if this isn't an option...could you do a fondant band in the same color? I would call her regardless and explain it to her...don't want it coming back and biting you on the butt. Another idea is to do maybe two tiers with the ribbon and two with the pattern. Hard to say since I don't really know what the ribbon is going to look like. I would try and cut it that would be my option...hope this helps, good luck!

I wouldn't cut the ribbon--I did that once and it unraveled tons of strings and threads. Have you considered folding it in half so it is thinner? Glue it with a hot glue gun on the inside so you can't see the glue...

If you fold it in half and iron the ribbon it should be secure enough

Dont replace the ribbon if thats what she wanted.. Fold it in half and glue it or somthing?

If it's the full all over Damask with a ribbon at the bottom that might still work. Hard to say w/o know which stencil she chose. I like the pics of the alternating tiers. I would call her in the am, and just calmly let her know what's going on, give her you opinion on what you think would look best. It's not a crisis, just a hiccup.

oh my gosh, thank you! after panicking, I went back and looked at the photo again and realized that there's a bead border on a couple of the tiers and ribbon on a couple of the tiers so I'm going to do a combo. Late nights where I'm working on a cake, exhausted, never seem to go smoothly. Thank God for good husbands and good CC people! Thanks again!

Phew-Glad that got sorted out for you.

But for me, I set it up from the cake consult forward that the bride understands that I will make the executive decisons and do the cake to the best of my ability. I never call the bride the week or two before the wedding unless it's something beyond my control like a tornado took down the shop or something.

Or like I never received the topper so be sure it's at the reception. But even then I'd call the responsible person, her wedding planner, maid of honor, etc. I mean I always get a number of the responsible person so I call them. Brides are the last person on the planet I ever wanna talk to that close to her event. No way.

I capture the other vendors numbers too at the consult or she goes home with 'homework' to get me the numbers. These days people just flip through ttheir phones & they got all that in there.