Not sure if y'all can see this pic or not.  If so, the fondant strips would overlap on the  top of the cake, would you just trim that extra fondant off?  I really like the cake they have pick out and it looks pretty simple to make.  As fro the stripes on the side, that looks like thin strips of fondant, does it to you?

Also, she wants red rose, would you suggest the thin stripes in black?  I don't know that all red would look that great, not to me anyway.

Hope you can see the pic, it's a lovely cake...If not, then I don't know how to get the picture on here...

Here's the picture...

I would say its chocolate, just because of how the brown has that 'melted in' look to it. If you did it in fondant Im with you on the color.. I would do the stripes black also (as long as she is ok with that). I am no expert by any means but i would cut the strips of fondant off around the top where the next tier is going to cover it ( I dont really see what other choice you would have? So thats my 2 cents ! lol

Thanks Cubbycakes, I didn't even consider it being chocolate,... The only thing I do with chocolate is eat it...LOL..

The color combination will definately be the decission of the bride, I am only going to make a suggestion about the black.... I love white with black & red...it just looks so classy together!

I agree with trimming of the fondant...thanks alot!!!

You would be trimming the strips away to allow a level surface for the upper tiers to sit on.

The stripes appear to be part of the surface itself rather than an add on.  If you look closely at the exposed edges the stripes go through the strips and are not just on the surface.

I don't see why it wouldn't look good with red stripes and red roses, after all the photo doesn't appear to be too much chocolate, but red roses with black stripes would look good too.  The final decision would be up to your client.

Finally, are you sure that is fondant and not chocolate clay of some kind?

Now that I look at it more closely, it does appear to be chocolate of some sort...

I have done that version a couple of times, I did it with chocolate paste mixed with fondant 50/50. The chocolate paste makes the strips easier to work with, but the pure paste would crack where it bends over the cake. This was solved by adding the fondant. I cut a long strip and placed brown stripes on in (pure chocolate paste) and then gave it a good roll to embed it into the white paste. Then I cut strips and lay them on the cake, slightly overlapping each strip. Very easy to do.

HTH