Okay....I don't normally vent or get bent out of shape when it comes to my wedding cakes....but today after having an almost disaster happen with the wedding cake I set up.....I want to SCREAM...COME ON BRIDES!!! Quit going to these specialty shops and picking out heavy glass, REAL STONE, statues....or cut plastic shaped things to use as a wedding cake topper!!!!!! They are not meant to be used as a CAKE TOPPER!!!! I don't know who tells the bride that it could be used on top of a cake....when it takes someone like the HULK to even lift the danged thing in the first place...(I know kind of getting carried away....but I really have had it up to my neck with it!)

The bride told me about 2 months ago that she had found a "little clear heart" to be placed at the top of her cake....and I'm thinking....ok, probably one of the little insert type things. Words were....little??? I get to the reception hall....and here is a box with this CLEAR HEAVY....glass mind you...heart that is cut and etched with their name and date on it...not even a flat edge for it to sit??? I think it must have been a paper weight???? Anywho....I told the lady that was there setting things up....this will not sit on top of the cake.....it's too heavy!! I mean I was holding it and it wasn't light at all. She shrugs her shoulders and said she would go get the "aunt of the bride" who was in charge of all the decor. She comes....and we go through the whole thing again about it being too heavy. Auntie says...let's try it. I showed her as I barely set it on the top layer....AS IT'S TRYING TO SLOWLY SINK INTO THE WHOLE CAKE....that this is not going to work. I can easily take some of the silk flowers that are left and work them on the top....and we can set the heavy glass heart....in front of the cake for all to see. I go to get my camera to take the picture of the cake for my portfolio....and I'll be danged if AUNTIE....didn't decide she could get the heart on the top of the cake.....and as she does....YOU GOT IT....it falls off the front....and hits the bottom tier.....scraping about a 3 inch line of the frosting off....and making a deep dent in the bottom layer. Now...Auntie is screeching....and almost in tears at what she's done!!!! She did catch it before it hit the floor...or she fell into the cake trying to catch it!!! I ended up having to take extra time out and patch the cake.....remove all the flowers that had been added on...and now work in to cover the mess that Auntie had made. She kept on and kept on saying she was so sorry....and I told her it would be ok....but we had to make sure and explain to the bride what happened....because I didn't cause the damage....Auntie did!

I know many of you have had to deal with similar situations....but we decorators know what will work and what will not work....and I always try and make sure I know what kind of cake topper the customer wants....which I thought I had this time....but lesson learned...I'm checking it out before hand from now on better. But if you are a potential bride....don't let someone talk you into using something that is really not a cake topper to be placed on your cake. Those cakes can only hold so much weight....and if you have to get your future husband to rent a crane to lift it....well....use your head!

Okay...I feel much better now!!! (still shaking my head!!!)

I address this on my FAQ and with brides during the consultation. I always use that Weeping Willow statue as the example ... that sucker has a hard time standing up on a table, let alone a cake!

Here's the wording on my FAQ page.....
What do I need to know about the cake when I pick out my topper?
You need to know the size of the top tier of cake. A decorator tells me the story of a couple who picked out an 8" antique car style of topper to put on a 6" cake. Most importantly, you need to tell your cake designer what kind of topper you are planning. Just because a piece is made to go on a cake, doesn't mean that it's MADE to go on a CAKE. Many toppers require some specific engineering structuring to be able to hold a heavy or not-evenly-balanced topper. Many a bride has been forced to place her topper on the table in front of the cake instead of on top of the cake because the decorator was not informed of the style and the cake was not engineered properly to hold the heavy ornament.

LOL!!! It just seems as of lately....some of the brides are going to off the wall places to hunt for a cake topper....LOL

I too have a special section on my cake forms EXPLAINING the fact about the size of the cake topper, etc.....but seems it didn't do any good with this bride....geez!

Had that happen with the White Chocolate Marble Cake in my photos. MOB (who hadn't seen the bride in about a year) brought a HUGE statue (ceramic) to use as a cake topper. I told her that I was very sorry but it wouldn't work on the cake, but, I was more than happy to sit it in front of the cake for all to see.

She didn't like it. I didn't care! Since the cake was MY gift to the couple.....SORRY!

Beth in KY

Had that happen with the White Chocolate Marble Cake in my photos. MOB (who hadn't seen the bride in about a year) brought a HUGE statue (ceramic) to use as a cake topper. I told her that I was very sorry but it wouldn't work on the cake, but, I was more than happy to sit it in front of the cake for all to see.

She didn't like it. I didn't care! Since the cake was MY gift to the couple.....SORRY!

Beth in KY

Had that happen with the White Chocolate Marble Cake in my photos. MOB (who hadn't seen the bride in about a year) brought a HUGE statue (ceramic) to use as a cake topper. I told her that I was very sorry but it wouldn't work on the cake, but, I was more than happy to sit it in front of the cake for all to see.

She didn't like it. I didn't care! Since the cake was MY gift to the couple.....SORRY!

Beth in KY

boy do I agree with this!!!! I just did a topsy turvy cake for a wedding today. The Bride made the bride and groom at a pottery shop to put on top of the cake.

Now while I can understand her wanting a special topper, let's see, we have a slanted cake top to begin with, then add 2 very heavy pieces...they went on the cake but not without some enginering from me along with my trusty bag of toothpicks. Now did I mention.................hang onto your hats everyone, THEY HAD NO HEADS.................my cake looked something out of Tim Burton's Nightmare before Christmas

This makes me laugh. I think folks think we are miracle workers sometimes!!

Pictures or it didn't happen, southernbelle!
We want to see the headless topper!

They must at least give the topper to me ahead of time to see if I can make it work, extra support,, if not then I explain it must be sat on the table instead

I learned my lesson on this subject the hard way! Bride said she had the topper for the cake and would leave it at the reception site. It was a Western theme and I had several ideas for the topper but she had one SHE wanted and I didn't question it. When I saw the topper at the reception, I just wanted to cry - it ruined the entire look of the cake and I was embarrassed to put the thing on top of the cake. Now it is one of the very first questions I ask the bride and I want to see the topper before the wedding day! As you can see from the pic, the cake is an ivory color and the white topper is not! YIKES!

christeena, maybe I have beer-and-pork-rinds taste, but I dont' think it detracted from the cake at all. It looks great! I doubt that any guest went home talking about the "...tacky white topper on the ivory cake! Gawd!!"

Oh, but Indy, I thought mini hay bales with a fondant bride and groom sitting on them would have been cute or a wrought iron monogram with barb wire wrapped loosely would have been neat, too! I guess I was just taken aback by the ivory/white clash of colors!!

i haven't had that problem with an auntie like you describe, but i haven't sold any and the ones i made were for family and friends. i just hope if i ever do go through that, that i am as patient as you and smile, cuz that sounds beyond frustrating when you told a grown woman it wouldn't work and when you turn your back she thinks she knows better and tries it on her own! yeah.... i would strangle her, hehehe

Yikes, that seems like a mess, sorry.

For me, I tell my brides I can put a bowling ball up there if they want, but I have to have EVERY topper in my hands by the week of the wedding so that I can put support or whatever in the cake to hold it. Hindsight is 20/20, but you probably could have nabbed a couple of drinking straws or whatever to support it.

Just yesterday I had a quickie wedding where the topper didn't make it to me on time... sure enough I get there and its the (tacky) 6" wide bride dragging the groom... to go on top of the 4" wide cake. Another one for the tables.

I make the bride drop off the topper before the wedding, and its a good thing too, bridzilla just dropped of a 6 inch wide topper to go on top of her 4 inch wide top tier. (sigh) she is going to drive me to drink, this one...

I have never done a wedding cake and probably will never be good enough to do one but I am so glad you vented on this because it really made me laugh not at decorators but at the brides.

They pick the cake, they choose the design they know all about the cake and what it's made of and then their brains desert them!

How easily their brains are distracted by all that glitters! Speaks volumes!

But thanks for highlighting this I would have never really paid much consideration to it before now, my inexperience!

I would probably have said "fine go ahead it's your cake now not mine, stick that bowling ball right on there if you think it's a good idea"

I understand, I always tell the bride that I need the topper when they order so that we can work out how it will sit. I had a bride who wanted a huge ceramic castle on top of, you will not belive itl, but cupcakes! Yep, she asked for a cupcake tower with the castle on top. I had to to tell her sorry, but honestly the topper really CANNOT be bigger than the cake. Brides seem to think that toppers just float on the top layer.

I would have thought the castle would be on the top tier of a big structure the cupcakes were also on. Why would it not work, as it isn't directly on the cupcakes? I see cakes on the top of towers all the time.