I am in desperate need of help!!! I am making my first alternating shape wedding cake. It doesnt matter if it starts with square or circle but it needs to be 5 tiers and to feed 350 ppl. what sizes while work and fit together right??? Help please!!!

i have discovered that i do it either way not both for example -- they can choose a silhouette or that can choose how many servings -- so in this case they are choosing both and that would make me ever more insane -- 

however there is a cakulator that could really help you but a 350 serving is a vahhhst amount of cake --i'll find it for you brb...

and by alternating you round square and repeat or round square hexagon scallop oval heart -- and i understand it's in any order

http://capitalconfectioners.com/cakulator/cakulator.html

not to mention if you mean all various shapes then you have to sure they all fit well onto each other too :)

see what i mean by only allowing one way to order either by servings or by silhouette

and i mean if they go with silhouette you still have to provide the 350 in servings but you might have to make up some of the servings with a 'kitchen cake' because you just can't always do both --

and what you do is either use dummies to stack up to see how it will look -- or just use flat pieces of paper cut out in that size & shape set between upside down cake pans -- each pan underneath a little smaller than the shape/size of the piece of paper aka 'the tier' -- then just use your imagination a bit to 'see' how you like the look

The paper idea is exactly what I had in mind. Wish me luck!! Thank you so much for your help!

you're welcome -- best to you -- you got this!

I got this... First of all, you need to know the right angle (corner to corner) measurements for square cakes:

 4" =   5.66

 5" =   7.07

 6" =   8.49

 7" =   9.9

 8" = 11.31

 9" = 12.73

10"= 14.14

11"= 15.56

12"= 16.97

13"= 18.38

14"= 19.8

15"= 21.21

16"= 22.63

17"= 24.04

18"= 25.46

Now you can see what size round is required for a square to fit on top.

Here are some combination examples (and serving amounts)...

5" sq (12) x 8" r (24) x 9" sq (40) x 14" r (78) x 16" sq (192) = 346

(The 16" sq would be 6" tall w/board in the middle and served as two 3" tall tiers)

(For 10 extra servings, change the 14" r to a 15" r).

(For 51 extra servings, change the 16" sq to an 18" sq 6" tall w/board in the middle...)

6" r (12) x 7" sq (24) x 10" r (38) x 12" sq (72) x 18" sq (254) = 400

(The 18" sq would be 6" tall w/board in the middle and served as two 3" tall tiers)

cwr41 -- that is brilliant and amazing