Please help and give me your opinions. I have baked a 3 tiered wedding cake that I was intending to use for 12 ,10 and 8 inch rich fruit cakes. The cakes are very big and weigh a great deal more than the recommended weight suggested by PME for the middle and top two tiers, due to the fact that they are packed full of fruit and are covered in both marzipan and icing and are roughly 4 inches deep.

I have contacted the bride and told her the dilemma and have covered a 10 inch and 8 inch dummy in icing to combat the problem and intend to put the flower sprays and monogram onto them respectively.

The bride and groom will cut the 12 inch fruit cake that is on the bottom tier as originally intended. The real cakes will be out the back for the caterer to cut. Is this ok or do you think the bride will be angry and stressed out. I did not think at all about the weight of the cakes until i placed the cakes on the stand this morning and it wobbled crazily, I am anxiously waiting for her to get in touch I feel physically sick.Never had anything like this happen to me before. Wedding is next weekend.

AIt sounds very reasonable and doubt it will stress out bride. Better than have it collapse due to weight.

Thanks I have still not heard from the bride yet and I am hoping that this will be her response as well. I guess as well she will have 2 dummy cakes to keep as reminders of her day for free.

I'm sure she'll be delighted with that, I would be. You have done all you can to minimize disruption and went the extra mile.

I hope the bride feels the same way.My fingers are crossed ! 

Did she supply the stand or did you?  For me this would be one of those issues that occasionally comes up when using cake stands, sometimes they are just not strong enough for what we want to do with them.  Stay calm, you and the bride need to negotiate this out.  If she wants that particular stand she has to have the dummy cake, if she is willing to change stands maybe you could find a heavier one.  I would put her options to her and let her make the choice.

Hi thanks for the advice. She picked the stand and paid for the stand's hire and deposit and I have already collected it from the shop and decorated it with trailing ivy,she really wanted to use the stand. I am afraid i did not give the weight of the cakes any thought at all until I placed the cakes onto it for a trial run. I am still waiting to hear back from the bride.I am aware that her wedding is only 1 week away so there is no time to really make any major amendments and as it is the stand has been paid for already.It is something that I will certainly think about in future well in advance if I bake fruit cakes again and intend to use a stand.

One little word..ivy is one of the most poisonous plants out there, if its faux  I apologise, if not dont let that bad boy near edible things, even dewy damp and gorgeous it leaks tannins.

I think you came up with a perfect solution...If she is not Bridezilla she should be fine with you giving her the cake and stand she wants =)

It's ok the ivy is made out out of flowerpaste. Thanks for letting me know about real ivy though I did not know that and will bear that in mind for future reference it's one thing delivering a cake that could collapse and another thing delivering one that may poison the bride and groom.Duly noted 

AI'm in stitches and rolling on the floor laughing at your reply.At least I can now breathe a huge sigh of relief. I finally spoke to the bride this morning and she was totally fine about everything, if anything she found the whole situiation rather funny and had visions of me stewing over the weekend working myslef up into a state about her possible recation as I waited to hear from her. Needless to say she is happy with the solution that I came up with and being a practical person thinks the new arrangement is for the best. As much as I love being asked to help mark someone's wedding day by making their cake the responsibility and extra pressure....... sometimes I ask myself if it is worth it.

Next thing to think about the delivery. Oh boy her we go again lol!