How do you know how much weight a cake stand will hold without putting something really heavy on it & seeing if it breaks?

My friend is thinking of a 4 or 5 tiered cake like the one from Demi & Ashton's wedding (because I showed her a picture of Antonia's version & she LOVED it!!)
But the problem is I don't know if any of the stands I have would support that weight.....

what sort of stand are you thinking about putting it on? I've put a five tiered cheesecake wedding cake on the silver cake plateaus and not had a problem, but those are made to hold the weight. What are you thinking about?

'm not too sure. I have a couple of ceramic pedestal stands that are 12" & 14". But I've only used one of them so far & it was to hold a 2 tier cake....
I've been looking for one of the silver plateau stands but can't find one around here & don't really want to pay for shipping....

Here's another conversation on silver plateaus with some links to websites that sell them. I've found some good deals on plateaus and champagne fountains on eBay .... but you have to really watch for them 'coz the good deals are few and far between......

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopicp-607431-.html#607431