Wedding cake decorations

[Shopaholic100]

I’m looking for ways to jazz up a plain 3 tier Waitrose wedding cake. My friend is getting married next month, the wedding budget won’t really stretch to £500 + the local bakers are charging so suggested she gets a Waitrose one but now need ideas on how to jazz it up. Any suggestions? This is the cake

Has anyone tried the Waitrose wedding cakes?

I love a project like this. Is there a wedding theme? You could paint the cake with edible paint or food colouring, stencils or a drip effect or actually art work. You could get photos printed on edible icing and add them around the sides. You could have little springs of fresh flowers around the side. So many possibilities!

I’m not very artistic so would probably opt for fresh flowers.

Fresh flowers! Roses would look fantastic. But see what flowers she is having for the wedding. A beautiful ribbon would also work with flowers on the top.

You can get sugar decorations from hobby craft if you have an artistic eye (I don't and if I attempted this it would look terrible!!) or the doctor perked wafer decs that you can get in the supermarket?
We had a couple of playmobil people on our cake that had similar colouring to us.
Apologies, I don't know why I am even replying to this, I have zero artistic capabilities!!!

We had a bought cake like this and just got our florist to do fresh flowers as a topper for it.

We had the M&S equivalent of that. Swapped the ribbons for ones which matched our colour scheme, and put Lego bride and groom on top!

It's a Victorian idea but I've used it for a wedding cake, small silver/silver coloured trumpet vase on top tier with flowers and greenery spilling out down the sides, more flowers on lower tiers.

Fresh flowers lovely of course but if it is going to be in any way hot or the cake will be left for a long time, very good quality artificial are worth considering.

Hydrangeas would be a good bet as they are big cheap come in a range of colours and are one of the flowers where you can buy a realistic looking fake it you don't want to use fresh ones. Lots of good ideas here for how to dress a cake with them https://www.brides.com/hydrangea-wedding-cake-ideas-7496559

Just check each flower and leaf you use that they are safe to use.

But, yes, flowers and pretty ribbon will be your friend.

Some great ideas. If I use fresh flowers do I need to do anything to them first?

Are there any that can’t be used?

@MrsFionaCharming that sounds so cute did you make the Lego characters yourself?

@ehb102 Great ideas thanks. Not sure I’m artistic enough to paint, but great suggestion for others who can. Love the idea of printing photos on icing, that’s brilliant.

Lots of people have suggested fresh/artificial flowers, are there any tips on how to place them?

Will your friends florist do something? If not I'd personally just do small bunches of babys breath (literally from the supermarket, cheap as chips), get a sprig of eucalyptus and just place it on the tiers. Maybe get a nice colour ribbon to go with the theme to do a bow or two or for around the tiers. On Etsy you can get toppers that have words (eg Just married) or similar that could be a feature on top!

Yes, you can get specific wedding sets from Lego, but my husband found an unofficial site where you can pick each piece so we were able to make them look like us.

You can buy a topper from Etsy or similar, use edible flowers and I'm making "grass"

Please check with a florist as to what real plants/flowers can safely be used to decorate cakes. I believe that both eucalyptus and gypsophila aren’t.

There are many flowers that cannot be used fresh on a cake, even with safe ones you cannot stick a bare stem in the cake, there are 'posy picks' you can buy to put the stem in and then insert that into the cake. To be honest when you are not well up on all this I'd either get a florist to make up a topper for the cake on it's own base that you can pop on or use artificial flowers/foliage.

Why would eucalyptus be a problem? We have long made tea out of it. It’s part of Australia’s history.

Dunno but it is! https://www.floristrytradeclub.co.uk/post/new-guidelines-for-floral-material-on-cakes

You can buy sugar flowers. Just a few can be a real showstopper if you choose wisely.

Hi I’ve done this for an 80th cake decorated with fresh roses. You buy little tubes on Amazon to put the stems in before you stick into the cake so the stems do not come into contact with the cake.

An alternative to flowers would be to make a load of chocolate shards and stick them on with buttercream. They are surprisingly easy. I made 200 in less then an hour. You just need some film or flat grease proof paper and decent chocolate. Melt it very gently until it's almost liquid then stir until liquid. Spoon onto the paper and smear with a tool. I've used a spoon or offset spatula. They dry in minutes and look spectacular. They are also called chocolate feathers if you Google. You can do them with white or blond chocolate or in dark, milk, blond/caramel and white for a gradient effect.