Okay, after the day I had, I had to share with my fellow cakers. I got home from work at midnight Friday night and had to finish a wedding cake to be delivered at 8 am Saturday. Looked beautiful! On the way there the top two tiers slide off the back of the 14 inch cake and it fell apart. I was able to fix it enough, thank goodness for extra roses! The groom was there but didn't see the disaster, but when it was fixed he was gone before I could talk to him. I talk to the coordinator and she offered to explain what happened. I also wrote a check for a partial refund and asked her to explain to them that the refund was because it wasn't the exact cake they ordered because it fell apart. Have not heard anything yet, the grooms mother and my mother are friends....so I am waiting to hear something.
Needless to say I was devistated and cried all the way home!
Here are some of the before, during and after pics!!! Thanks for all the support.
Oh and the cake is inspired by one of you out there and I am sorry I can't remember which to give credit for, but thanks so much!
Wow, you did a great job of fixing the cake. You can't even see the damage that is shown on the other pics. Your cake is very beautiful! You are extremely talented! 
Amy
What a beautiful cake!! You poor thing! I don't know how you did it, but you certainly must be part Houdini! The before and after photos both look great!
I'm sorry for your devastation, but it seems as if you did an amazing repair job and with the partial refund, I'm sure the bride and groom will be satisfied.
Wow, you did a wonderful save!!! You must carry a good repair/emergency kit with you for set-ups. I know I always do. I would never have guessed you had a near catastrophy (sp) with this cake. It's a beautiful cake!
You did good, before, during and after!
you did good! it looks beautiful still. now give yourself a nice big hug. you deserve it for working so hard.
I could only hope that one day my best cake looks just like this!!!! You did a great job!!!!!!
Awsome recovery. I would have died if that happened to me! And i know my day is coming. I am gearing up to do cakes full time soon. Transport is really scary.
You are so talented and repaired this cake so no one would even notice. Chef hats off to you!!!
Carol 
I'm sure I'm not gonna be very popular, but . . . in the before picture, the cake is already shifting to the front and right. The front right corner is already down, and there's a break starting across the front, right at where the top layer is.
That said, the design is absolutely beautiful. And you did a masterful save. Fixing disasters is how we all learn. And we all have at least one disaster in our history.
Sorry to hear about this disaster!! But you did a great job in saving it!! I personally loath transporting tier'd cakes. I usually bring my materials with me, transport unstacked, then stack and finish once I'm at the venue. It takes longer to set up, but it reduces the chances of something like this happening!!
I will transport a 2-tier'd cake fully assembled. What I do is a take a wooden dowl rod, run it through a pencil sharpener, then drive it straight down the center of my tiers, through all the boards, and into the base of the cake. One or two of these central supports and your cake ain't goin' nowhere!!
I'm sure I'm not gonna be very popular, but . . . in the before picture, the cake is already shifting to the front and right. The front right corner is already down, and there's a break starting across the front, right at where the top layer is.
I can see what Leahs means. I noticed that earlier. too. What kind of supports did you use for this cake? You never mentioned.
gorgeous!!! you would have NEVER known.........how did you rebuild that side of the cake AT the venue?? I gotta learn from ya! I was freaking out when I delivered my first wedding cake a few weeks ago because I saw a piece of fuzz on the cake when I put it on the table (it was in a box and the fuzz must have flew on there when I was taking it out of the box and putting it on the cake table) I couldn't even imagine having the whole corner fall off like that......I would have sat down and cried and wrote out a check for the whole amount.........judging by your after photo, I'm not sure you owed them anything back! Looks EXACTLLY the same as the before photo....great save!!!!!!
You did an awesome save and were very fortunate that you could conceal it with flowers!
Most of my cakes don't have flowers because lately my brides just want simple fondant/faux fondant with maybe a fondant ribbon or bow, so I would be screwed if that happened to me!!
With that said, what support system did you use? Both Leahs and I use the Bakery Craft SPS system, no dowels to cut and no risk of the layers being uneven AT ALL. And as long as you center your support plates, your cake will also be exactly centered. There's a peg in the plate to keep the cake board in place.
I'm sure I'm not gonna be very popular, but . . . in the before picture, the cake is already shifting to the front and right. The front right corner is already down, and there's a break starting across the front, right at where the top layer is.
I can see what Leahs means. I noticed that earlier. too. What kind of supports did you use for this cake? You never mentioned.
I am sure, absolutely so, that criticising this your work unneccesarily doesn't feel very supportive and is likely adding insult to injury, even with a backhanded compliment on the "design." I certainly would be upset and hurt by that. I would not be likely to respond or gain anything from conversation. I hope you haven't been sent into hiding, since I noticed you don't post often here
THAT said, it is amazing that you redid the piping and everything on site. How did you rebuild that side? Truly impressive. How much time did you have?? That is some mental fortitude right there that I know I don't have.
The poster who said your cake was shifting, I think, is mistaken, though I respect her work. The second and third tiers are level and centered, so that's not likely. I don't see the "break". What you DO have is a BIT of buttercream sag, which is a common problem for me too! Do you ever get the dreaded bulge between layers? I hate that! Though customers never seem to notice, I bought Sugarshack's dvd, which is indispensable to me and is helping these problems a LOT. You would love it!
I started traveling with a dowel in the center a while ago, when I read it somehere here. Do you do that?
I'm sure I'm not gonna be very popular, but . . . in the before picture, the cake is already shifting to the front and right. The front right corner is already down, and there's a break starting across the front, right at where the top layer is.
I can see what Leahs means. I noticed that earlier. too. What kind of supports did you use for this cake? You never mentioned.
I am sure, absolutely so, that criticising this your work unneccesarily doesn't feel very supportive and is likely adding insult to injury, even with a backhanded compliment on the "design." I certainly would be upset and hurt by that. I would not be likely to respond or gain anything from conversation. I hope you haven't been sent into hiding, since I noticed you don't post often here
THAT said, it is amazing that you redid the piping and everything on site. How did you rebuild that side? Truly impressive. How much time did you have?? That is some mental fortitude right there that I know I don't have.
The poster who said your cake was shifting, I think, is mistaken, though I respect her work. The second and third tiers are level and centered, so that's not likely. I don't see the "break". What you DO have is a BIT of buttercream sag, which is a common problem for me too! Do you ever get the dreaded bulge between layers? I hate that! Though customers never seem to notice, I bought Sugarshack's dvd, which is indispensable to me and is helping these problems a LOT. You would love it!
I started traveling with a dowel in the center a while ago, when I read it somehere here. Do you do that?
I am sure that the intention of the other posters, Leah and CarolAnn, was to possibly find out how and why this happened and help the original poster to figure out what happened and how to prevent it in the future. I'm sure there's no malice involved as both of these ladies have always lent support on this board and have shared and offered personal experience and knowledge to others.
Mistakes are meant to be learned from and getting to the bottom of why this happened might prevent such a thing from occuring again to anybody who reads this post.
I did not question the original poster's intentions. Unless proven otherwise, the best of intentions must always be assumed. Clearly I assessed that if the intention was to help and support, the technique was not successful or thoughtful. If such was her goal, the poster did not reach it and in fact, might have done a bit of harm. It happens to everyone, and we all learn from it, right? whether we screwed up and hurt a person or a cake? I hope so I saw a situation in which I think it is obvious someone might have been unduly insulted and hurt (intentionally or not) and I wanted to let her know that someone else recognized those feelings as justifiable. That's all. I bear no ill will to the person who I think made a mistake.
I did not mean to quote either the first or second poster in my response, indicating the post was direct to them. Truly, it was not. It was directed at the one who started the thread. My apologies.
Thanks
I wholeheartedly disagree and think youâre really reaching there woodthi. There was nothing even the least bit insensitive in either of the posts you quoted and subsequently chastised. I read two completely benign and tremendously helpful posts. Youâre reading too much into it plain and simple.
With THAT being saidâ¦
You did do an amazing job repairing the damage on that cake. It was beautiful to begin with but it looked just as amazing once you were done fixing it. Making the cake is tricky sure, and requires a certain level of skill to pull it off flawlessly. But to repair a cake that was pretty much destroyed and make it look just as flawless as before, THAT takes a superior level of skill. You should be proud of yourself! Iâm sure your couple was quite pleased with the results; I know I would have been. I am eager to find out what they said about it.
" I am sure, absolutely so, that criticising this your work unneccesarily doesn't feel very supportive and is likely adding insult to injury, even with a backhanded compliment on the "design." I certainly would be upset and hurt by that. I would not be likely to respond or gain anything from conversation. I hope you haven't been sent into hiding, since I noticed you don't post often here "
The gals that responded with HELP, are PROS in my book, and if they gave me any suggestions as how to prevent this disaster in the future, I would LOVE it...... if you have ever looked at any of their other posts you would know they are wonderful people and go out of their way to help their fellow CCers.... Thank God we HAVE people like Shirley and Leah 
I for one value everything Leah has to say, after all I think she is a pastry chef right? I did see what she was talking about and I don't think she was giving advise just to hurt someone's feelings. If someone doesn't help you and tell you what they think happened then how can you fix it so it doesn't happen again. I think that is what Leah was trying to say. Enough about that...
I do think you did a amazing job fixing the cake. The scrollwork on the cake was beautiful and the roses just added to the beauty of the cake. I would gladly have you do my wedding cake if I weren't already married. Great job!
Faye
Thanks everyone for the support and all the replies. Nothing would send me into hiding...i havent had a computer all week. It was actually a butter cream sag where it looks like it cracked. It was my first square cake and had a heck of a time with the frosting on the corners and edges.
I havent heard from the couple but they did cash my check the other day. We will see though. I am taking a break for a while.
I think the cake is beautiful before and after and you should be very proud of the job you did.
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