I've begun planning for our 50th anniversary and have a couple questions about a cake. The last thing I want is an old peoples golden clad sheet cake. I'm thinking two stacked cakes with smoothe bc icing, and instead of making a clean edge at the top leaving it rough and applying gold luster dust. I don't want white icing but a nice antique white/off white with real and very pale pink and creamy white roses off set on top and on the edge of the base cake. My questions are what do I use for the antique/creamy white and gold along the rough edges? I'm keeping this very simple if I make it. I'm going to have enough going on without getting frantic over the cake. The grooms cake is another story. Ohhh........I think I'm getting a headache.

Congratulations, CarolAnn, to you and your husband!  Wonderful achievement!

To achieve the creamy, off-white color, you just need to use real butter (instead of shortening) in your buttercream.  The butter adds a very soft, pale golden hue.  Roxy and Rich makes a nice, edible gold that you could use to paint the top edges.   There are lots of  gold  dusts, but most are not approved for consumption in the USA.  Roxy and Rich is approved.

https://www.globalsugarart.com/edible-hybrid-luster-dust-soft-gold-2-5-grams-by-roxy-rich.html

You can make your roses in advance and kept them stored in a shoe box to prevent fading.

Besides using butter also use regular/brown vanilla extract — 2 tablespoons worth per batch of buttercream that uses 2# Of sugar or make a emoltion Of 2 teaspoons vanilla, 1 teaspoon butter extract & 1/2 teaspoon almond  extract.   That combination can be made using larger amounts- like tablespoons or cups as long as there is 1 part van, 1/2 part butter & 1/4 part butter   

Thank you for responding. I'll be using real flowers for this one. 

Good choice!  That gives you more time to concentrate on other details.