I have my very first wedding cake due in a couple of weeks. The bride is having real flowers put on the top of the cake. It will be covered in fondant. Will I need to put anything under the flowers or is it ok for the flowers to just sit on top of the fondant?

The flowers should be in a container. Have the florist put them in an "igloo". The florist will understand.

I just did a wedding with two cakes that were to be decorated with fresh flowers. They were a gift to the bride and her family who I have known since before she was born. I had the bride check with the florist to be sure she could get organic flowers so there would be no pesticide issues. We also discussed which flowers would be used so there would be no issues with poisonous flowers. The bride had a meeting with the florist which I attended, so I could show the florist what the cakes would look like and what kind of flower arrangements the client wanted. I thought it was clear that the flowers would sit on, but not in the cake and that they would be safe, organic flowers. Sounds like all the bases were covered, doesn't it?

Day of the wedding, the florist is about 3 hours late. Has her regular flowers to add to the cake--forget organic and non poisonous. Though I initially attempted to take her flowers and carefully lay them on or next to the cake to limit exposure, in the end I went to attend the wedding and the florist shoved cala lillies (poisonous) and roses and several other flowers directly into the cake, smooshed alstromeria directly into the buttercream, etc. The cakes were actually gorgeous, but needless to say I was not pleased. I did mention it to the bride's Mom afterward, but as non-cakers, no one but me saw an issue.

Not sure why I'm relating this experience except to say that if fresh flowers are going on your cake, you may not have control. Do what you can, but in the end, there may not be anything you can do. This is not the first time this has happened to me with fresh flowers.

To add insult to injury, the caterer at this wedding was not interested in instructions for taking the tiers apart or in a cutting diagram. I was assured they've done 100's of cakes. My husband actually got a piece of plastic from the SPS in the piece of cake served to him. and the leftovers which were left to us to box were hacked, rather than cut.

Just saying that we can plan all we want, but in the end it is no longer our cake, but the customer's.

If it's just for the topper, you could just use a piece of wax or parchment paper in between the flowers and cake. If they are to "stick" in the cake on various layers I use flower picks.

Put a simple barrier between the cake and flowers. It can be as simple as plastic wrap, wax paper, ect.

Jen