I finally did it, several years of decorating for friends and family, never had the occasion to try, no one ever wanted fondant. It was so much easier than I thought it would be. I used Jennifer Dontz's fondant recipe, along with great advice from her, it was a breeze. The bride saw Rylans birds nest cake and wanted a design like it. I was scared to death. His cake is so perfect. Rylan was such help too, Jennifer & Rylan are special people who love to help.
This cake had it problems. I used a butter recipe cake mix, and it did not work well with the doctored recipe I used. The cakes sunk, pulled away from the sides of the pan, and the edges crumbled. So needless to say I had alot of work on my hands to get the cake sides to line up. I used cake spackle, and it worked great. I filled in the sunken hole on top of the cake, and put it around the sides, to fill in all of the craters. It worked. I put a thin layer of buttercream over the top and it looked smooth, you couldn't tell at all. I used Jennifer's white chocolate fondant, and it rolled out so nice, did not tear, I rolled it to 1/8" no problems at all. I was so scared that I wouldn't get the wrinkles out when I put it on the cakes. I have seen experts stress on t.v. shows, so wondered how it could be done by a beginner. I stayed calm and slowly pulled out each pleat, and smoothed, it turned out perfect. I loved the look of fondant. I served the cake, and it cut really nice too, I figured I'd have a sloppy looking slice, but it worked great.
I was actually really proud of this cake, not usually the case, I will always want to do fondant from now on. Also I used stamps, and stamped the fondant and hand cut each of them out, and applied the applicades to the cake, it was a really cheap way to get lots of designs, they have sheets of stamps, with several designs for 5.00. I did all of the applicades weeks ahead of time and kept them in a sealed zip lock bag, they got a little firm, but the worked great. Sorry so long, but thought some beginner with fondant, (like me) would like to know its alot easier than they think.
The cake is in my photos, if you want to take a peek.
They loved the cake, my husband made the tree stump pedistal, it was so much fun.

Your wedding cake is really lovely - very professionally finished!

wow your cake is beautiful what size pans didyou use and how many layers is each tier? I have been hearing alot about Jennifer Dontz does sh sell her fondant or sell any DVD's? I have my first large cake this next month and am looking for a nice fondant recipe

I saw that cake in the gallery today & never would have guessed it was your first fondant covered cake or that you had any problems with the cakes baking- congrats! Thanks for the tips on using stamps to make appliques, that is much more reasonable than the pricey silicone lace molds.

Thanks everyone. The pan sizes were 12"9"6" and the cake tiers were probably 5" high. I used the 3" pans, but like I said, by the time I leveled and spackled, it ended up to be about 5 inches. I just thought 4" wasn't quite tall enough. But you could definitely just do 3 layers for each tier.
I would definitely buy her video, she explains how to make the fondant, she uses pettinice fondant and adds white chocolate candy clay to the mixture. It makes it taste so good and it was definitely easy to work with. Believe me I was really stressing about it. I had never tried her fondant, never covered a cake with fondant. I should have practiced, but I didn't and it worked great, didn't have a bit of problems laying on the fondant and working out each pleat, she explains how to do it, and its so easy. Its all I want to do now.
And yes, the stamps are so cheap, and many designs to choose from. I couldn't see spending 30 dollars on a silicone mold for one design, when you could get 10 of the clear stamps for less than 10 dollars, and it worked. You do have to cut them out, but it wasn't hard at all.