Topper Trends

Mama asked me this weekend, “What are you doing about the cake topper?” And I said, “OhmygoshI’msoexcitedaboutthecaketopper!” Mama replied, “Uh oh.” You see, whenever I’m sooo excited about a creative wedding idea, it has about a 20% chance of being crazy.

Mama admitted she wasn’t up on the current world of cake toppers, so here are three of my favorite trends:

First off, you’ve got the handmade, creative cake topper, which includes these clothespin darlings from thesmallobject:

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And these birdies from Ann Wood:
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And the bride, groom, and their dog from Miss Shortcake on weddingbee:
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The problem with these toppers is that the first two are exorbitantly expensive ($135 and $280, respectively), and the third requires mad papier mache skillz that I do not have. Besides, half the fun of the wedding is coming up with a creative, reasonably-priced solution to each problem using the skillz I do have.

Next trend: Vintage toppers!
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I love vintage toppers, but they are a bit small for the huge, beautiful cake Momma Mac got us.

The third trend I love is the use of letters and words. Both the Mister and I love books and reading. And we’ve decided to decorate the cake with the words of our vows, rather than flowers or other decorations.

The first idea we ‘stormed up was this paperweight based on the artwork of Robert Indiana. I love the simplicity (and the sentiment!), but I’m a bit worried that the paperweight will be too heavy on top of the cake. It costs $65. We’re still thinkin’ about it.
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We could incorporate our initials, which is a huge trend in the wedding industry right now. I love the simplicity of this design too! And they’re very affordable at around $20 to $30 each.
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Our final idea is to use the words of our vows on top of the cake, so that folks wouldn’t have to circle the cake to read them in their entirety. I can make a vow topper any size we like, so it would be in proportion to the cake. I also adore that this idea focuses on the most important part of the wedding – the promises we make to each other. Shouldn’t they be the centerpiece of the wedding?

If we choose this option, I would print out the vows on lovely white paper. To coordinate with the black ribbon on the cake, and to echo the design of our invitations and programs, I would adhere the white paper to black cardstock, so the vows are framed and emphasized. I would do two copies of the vows, and stick them back to back with a skewer in the middle, which could be inserted in the cake to make the vows stand up straight.

Spoiler alert: Our vows are written on this sample cake topper, so if you’d rather be surprised at the wedding, read no further.


I told Mama about the vow topper, and she was initially dismayed that it would be two-dimensional. But now she is beginning to like the idea (or so she says!). Which idea is your favorite?

Having Cake and Eating It Too

When the Mister and I began planning the wedding, we decided we wanted to have a responsible, adult wedding. (No, this does not mean an x-rated wedding with contraceptive favors. It means that we would set a reasonable budget that is not the GNP of a small nation, and we would stick to it.) We have very generous parents, and we combined their contributions, and plugged the budget into a wedding calculator thingy, which promptly told us the exact dollar amount we should spend on every item from the petals tossed by the flower girl to the last drop of alcohol consumed at the reception. In the planning, we picked our must-haves. Every time we happened upon a line item that was over budget (e.g., the reception’s monopoly of a caterer), we started to look for another that we could whittle down a bit (the cake).

Oh, the cake! We wanted to have cake. But we weren’t so worried about its provenance or, for lack of a better word, height. But some people feel that the cake is that one thing that makes a wedding. My little sister, for example, nearly fainted when I said that we were going to have sheet cakes from Costco as our wedding cake. (She tried to hide her horror, but I recognized it! She’s my little sis, after all.) First, let me say that Costco cake is really, really yummy. And cheap! A white cake with white frosting with a ton of cheesecake filling that feeds 50 people costs $18. I lugged some into work, and everyone who tried it could not believe it was from Costco. Tasty! Cheap! But not so pretty.

Other people who heard about the Costco Cake Plan (or the CCP, as I will now call it) hated it for other reasons. My future inlaws, Momma Mac and Mac Daddy, were dead set against it, because: (1) Someone will have to pick the danged cakes up from a superstore on the day of the wedding, and drive them to the reception. I think the Macs had a vision of me with the train of my wedding dress hanging out the driver’s side door of a car, dragging along the highway with the cakes spilling out the trunk. And they’re not far off – that’s something I would totally do.

(2) When I said that we prioritized elements other than the cake, they heard that I would not have the wedding cake of my dreams. And that would not do, no sir! They are loving and wonderful, and they wanted me to not have a single regret on my wedding day. Not if they could help it! Down with the CCP!

So, they offered to buy the cake. And we picked one out this weekend! Apparently, the cake was a bit more of a priority to us than we had thought. The Mister got excited about the flavors of each tier. He was surprisingly involved in the decoration decisions. He debated the number of layers and their proportionality. He picked out a groom’s cake. He was in absolute heaven. (It may have just been a sugar high, but it was so much fun to see.)

And even though I had resigned myself to a tasty-but-not-pretty cake for the sake of responsible frugality, I caught the sugar wave and ended up loving every sweet decision we made. But how can I enjoy a cake that doesn’t fit into our fiscally responsible budget, you ask? Will I be calculating the cost of each mouthful? Will I have the uneaten slices bronzed to justify the expense?

Nope. The baker blacked out the price on my copy of the contract. So I get to have my cake and actually enjoy eating it too. Thank you Momma Mac.