I've got my first Wedding Cake July 8. Bride wants buttercream (in July in the South 
) The topper is a tall porcelain topper with no base and it is not hollow on the bottom. HOW do I attach it to the cake? Top tier will be 6" on pedestal. Thanks in advance for you help!
I live in the south too. I do them all the time. I put it on the cake when I deliver it. I bring my bag of frosting w/a tip to make the border. I place a glob of icing on the top of the cake, place the topper on, press down. Then I pipe a border around it. & place some of the flowers or sea shells or whatever decorations the rest of the cake has.
I'd be even more concerned about it falling off a hard surface. How would I attach it to a small plastic disc? I looked at topper bases and couldn't figure out how I could attach it to one of those either. Even if I tried to hot glue it, I wouldn't trust the porcelain to stay attached to plastic.
So, if I dowel under it and use a mound of buttercream and attach fondant flowers (that have dried) around the base, will that hold okay? I had thought about using a piece of fondant, rolled out like a "drape" at the base. But wasn't sure how that would look.
Have the surface of your top tier level (flat), dowel the cake, using 4 equally spaced and all cut the same length, just below the icing, put the flat base on top of cake over the dowels, take a small level to check and be sure that it is level, then place the topper directly on your base. Then you can add your flowers around the topper to "hide" the base, no mound of buttercream is needed. I would not use any glue to attach the topper to the base, I would be afraid of damage to the porcelain. I hope this helps.
You could discuss this with the reception site when you deliver the cake. Instruct them to remove the topper before taking off the top tier. Generally the person cutting the cake knows to remove the topper first. If it would make you feel more at ease, leave a reminder note next to the cake when you leave it.
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