I have a co-worker who is having a fairly informal reception/open house at the end of October. I am doing their wedding cake. It will be a round, stacked cake (6", 10" 14"). Bottom layer will be chocolate icing with white swiss dots (clusters of 3), middle layer will be white icing with chocolate swiss dots and top layer will be chocolate icing with white swiss dots.

The bride is also having me do a groom's cake to replicate the firetruck that he drives. The body of the truck will be yellow with some red, white and black accents.

Now, she is decorating the tables the guests are at with some fall garland and there will be some fall colored balloons around in the room.

They have asked if they give me about $25.00, can I decorate the cake table. It will be round with only the wedding cake and groom's cake. The groom had mentioned something about some silk while lilie's on the top of their wedding cake, but they gave me no other direction.

My first thought was to decorate the trim of the table in a white ribbon with bow in front and maybe a tall glass candle holders with a fall colored candles on either side of the wedding cake. Then, maybe grab some of the fall foilage off of their garland and spread around on the table (not too much of it though)........just not sure what it will look like in combination with a chocolate and white cake?!?!?!?!

Any advice from fellow CC decorators is greatly appreciated.

I like your idea. I would definately cover the table w/ some type of cloth, then maybe even have some extra to kind of bunch up around the bases of the cakes. I think the ribbon sounds pretty (even a chocolate brown satin, to match the cakes), and some candles... Keep it simple, not to detract from the cakes!

I love decorating with fall colors! I would run to WalMart and grab a bit of fabric in a deep fall shade--even a chocolate color to match the cake. Just bunch that up under the cake . . . perhaps set the cake on a mirror . . . . and you can get bags of silk fall leaves (in darker colors) at WalMart to scatter around the table. It would be beautiful!

You could also get some colored Tulle and place it around the table. then you could put some of the leaves on the tulle...greenery etc..I put my son's cake on a glass round that sat on 5 glass candle holders. In the holders I put purple flowers to pull in the color of the flowers on the cake. Unfortunatly in my pics you can't see them very well because I was a bit overzealous with the tulle and the lights that it covered them up. It was a night wedding and I wanted it to look beautiful. I should have draped the tulle in front of the table with the lights in that.

Tulle with Christmas lights under it is always really pretty. You can also use the fall colors and look for some colored tulle - Hobby Lobby has it in all sort of colors.

Depending on yourself. In my opinion the cake is on show and you don't want anything to detrack from it so the simple the better. I would go with a table cloth similar to the ones that are on the tables and maybe some of the garland that is also adorning the other tables of the main one anyway.

Thanks everyone for your recommendations.

I actually just took a run to Michael's with my co-worker (the groom)....they are still set on very basic. I threw out a lot of ideas, along with some that are posted here on this thread, and they are wanting VERY basic.

So, we ended up with a very tasteful, small bunch of off-white silk lilies (that have brown speckles and stamens....perfect) to cluster on the top of the cake. Then, he decided that he just wanted to have some leaves from the fall garland be placed around on the table to accent it. Nothing trimming the table.

Since they are really not wanting anything too fancy, I think it will look very tasteful. Especially since the firetruck will be on the table too. It will blend well with the fall colors.

Thanks again everyone.