Count me in the hating them category!! It seem like we have moved on from leg warmers, ratted hair and neon colored clothes why oh why can't we get away from the fountians and stiars!

This is a cake I did ........ A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO! No kidding. She HAD to have a fountain. OK fine......... But UGH I tried so hard to sway her another direction.

Her florist was supposed to come and put flowers around the base of the fountian. Never showed..... poor girl.

I know there are lovers of Tuk n Ruffle and staircases out there! Don't be afraid to come out of the closet! I will make you a great deal on the 2 big boxes of Tuk n Ruffle and half a dozen staircases that are gathering dust in my cake closet!!

Amy729, thank you! :hug:

Kim_in_CajunCountry, where in cajun country are you located. I grew up and live in cajun country, Lafayette, La.

I love the cakes and styles that everyone is posting and I keep wondering how are you able to post pictures that are not digital? I know, computer challenged here. I have pics in my album, don't have a scanner, so I do not think I can post any so you could get a good laugh. My dress was champagne velvet (homemade). Cake was made from Albertson's Grocery Store. It's not that we were poor, I just did not have much interest in what the cake looked like.

I love to decorate basket weave and cornelli lace.

Had a lady pop in the shop right before I closed today. She wanted to place an application. She currently works for one of the "premier" reception facilities/caterers in town, but her hours have been cut, so she's looking for add'l part time work. Anyway .... she asked if I did cakes with the fountains and stairs 'n such. Told her, "Oh yes, I've done lots of those!" She said, "Yeah.... we get them all the time at (her current employer). Those are real popular."

This is a high-end catering facility. Couldn't wait to get home and share this story with y'all!!

I have to do a cake with a fountain next week. With bright orange bows on it. She was dead set on the idea so what do you do?

A couple of weeks ago I was organizing my cake stuff (it's everywhere) and I came across my old sets of stairs. I was holding them over the trash can thinking I'll never use these again, but maybe I should keep them just in case...you never know.

Kim, my SIL lives in your neighborhood. My DH was born and raised in Scott and now I am a Scott transplant. Not far from Best Stop if you know where that is, just a few miles on the other side of the Interstate. Lunch sounds great, let me know if you get a bunch together.

I have never been big on the fountains either, but I loved this cake that I did in February. She was barely 20 years old, and very fashionable. Here it is:

I love that! Great job of bringing that fountain up to date.

This thread is cracking me up today. I hate the fountains and the stairs. My lip just happens to snarl up everytime I walk by them in Micheals. I do like basketweave on certain cakes though. It all depends how it's done. But I really don't like Martha Stewart's new basketweave. I'm going to have to hide from all you Martha looney's now.

My DH is from Lafayette. He dreams about Prejeans in his sleep. I've been told a thousand times that they have the best seafood that I would ever put into my mouth but yet he's never taken me there! Also everytime we go we have to go to Scott for Herbert's Meat Market but there's one really close to us here in Houston! I guess it's not good enough since it's not actually in LA.

I totally agree, ugliest cakes ever!! And I hate all the dollar store looking flowers & ruffles the put on the cakes too...yuck!!!!!!!!

Michele,
Your fountain cake is absolutely gorgeous, (debi you're right) classy and everything comes together perfectly. I went to your pics and put it in my favorites.
OK, now y'all have me wanting to do a fountain cake (like I could pull that off).
Seriously, it's a beautifully done cake.

Thanks everyone. ShortcakesSweets you could pull off the fountain cake. It wasn't that hard. The fountain is sitting on top of a 15" round cake. Indydebi actually sent me the diagram on how to place the dowels in the cake to support the fountain. Thanks again Indydebi.

Here's a wedding cake I did a few years ago. Oh yeah - check out the lighted fountain. I had to have my daughter go with me to deliver and set up. It was heavy and high and I'm just a short little mama!

McMama - gotta tell ya, I love the illuminated fountain.

I personally love the fountains, if it's tasteful in size, but never the stairs.

I love the fountains and stairs and the little bridesmaids and grooms. Why would you try and talk a bride out of ordering this? If that is what she wants what's it to you?
I love my wedding cake it was very pretty.

I don't think its tacky or stupid as some of you have said.

I had to dig out my wedding pictures because I couldn't remember if I had a fountain-which I did. I got married in 1993-big dresses and big cakes. We had a large wedding-about 400 people. It was a big party and lots of fun. The cake was great, but the only piece eaten out of the tiered cake was the one my husband and I had. I think we had to much food and beer at our reception My mom froze the cake and dug it out at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter(we got married in November). After that we said no more wedding cake and the rest was thrown away.

LOL, I think I got married in that dress!!! Puffy sleeves, big bow on butt....yep, that's the one!

this thread cracks me up..

I must admit, and this is just my opinion, I find the stairs and fountains tacky, even when put in perspective of the generation and time period.

I think since i was born in 1980, I just don't understand the fountains... what was the point? How did it come about? Why did the fashion start and why do (did) people find them beautiful and appropriate?

When I see these pictures, all I see are gorgeous cakes for the time period with a piddly little fountain underneath ~ it looks out of place. In my eyes it just doesn't fit... but then again I really really don't understand it. There is this large beautiful tall centerpeice cake with a tacky tiny fountain underneath that to me... just doesn't belong to me. I really don't get it!
The stairs.. maybe.. as a way to connect satellite cakes together...but the fountain... hmmm....

Out of all the fountain ones I've seen, the only one I've liked was the one Michele01 posted.. but that is probably because the fountain blends in and you can't tell it is there. lol.

I should find my mothers wedding cake photo from the 70s....

OMG ...those things still around! My mom have pictures of her cakes with fountain and stairs and they are from the 80's. I remember brides asking to put a a tiny goldfish inside the fountain!

Well there was the trend then i spose of your fountains or stairs and look today the in hot thing is cupcakes with a single to 2 tier cake on top... and each time the brides say i want cupcakes coz its different and looks so cool i think hmmm have you not seen all the mags with loads of them not so different..

ok so not alot of people like the fountains and the stairs, but you guys have to admit that back then they were a big hit, yes yes I had the fountain and the stairs in my wedding is that why I am defending its existence I will post my pic later. at the time I thought my cake was cute, one of the ladies from my chruch offered to give us our cake can not get any better than that.

I have to admit I can't get with the fountain and staircase. I had it for my wedding and it was my mother who picked out our wedding cake and I look back at that picture and I say to myself what was I thinking of. I hate it and when someone ask me to do one I refer them somebody else. It's not my style of work that I want represented. I maybe wrong but I can't do something I really dislike.

Wow! I just finished reading all 14 pages and have had more fun reading your stories and especially seeing your pics than I have had in ages! My mom made cakes (fountains, stairs, oh yeah!) and my dad was a wedding photographer who worked out of our home. So believe me, I love looking at wedding pics! Iâve always said that I could never get married because I could never choose just one cake/dress/ring, etc. (umm . . . yeah, thatâs why. Uh-huh.)

Some comments after all those pages . . .

Doug â you never cease to amaze me. Your sketches and suggestions to help figure out a daunting cake are always right on the money. And now you show me how to type a degree (as in 325°)? You are my HERO!

Iâm pretty good at the Guess the Year Game. It's fun, try it. Look at the pic, decide on a year (or range of years) and then look at the story to find out the year of the wedding. Iâm usually pretty close!

I canât arbitrarily say that I hate stairs, fountains, basketweave, etc. Sometimes they can look dated, but as weâve seen ample evidence on this thread, given the right execution anything can be beautiful â even dare I say it â Tuk-N-Ruffle! I think topsy-turvy cakes are fun for kids birthdays, but I really donât like them for weddings. Maybe Iâm old-fashioned. Nah!

Justgale â BOTH of those attendant dresses were worn by my High School Homecoming Royalty. I was so jealous that I hated them both (okay it was High School and they were popular, I already hated them!) It really annoys me when people look at old pics and say, âwhat were they thinking???â You have to take the times into account. We thought (and so did everyone else) we looked great!

Everything comes back around, just wait awhile. My friend (who is 10 years younger) told me that hip-huggers and bell-bottoms came back because they are so cool looking and retro. But that could never happen to the â80âs style because that was just so weird and ugly. Have you seen the celebrity pics lately? Give it 2-5 more years and my High School pictures with the high-waist/peg-leg jeans will look cool and retro! I can't wait!