that the bride wants on her cake??? I think they are so ugly!! They are swags from Walmart. I have used rose swags before but not hanging petunia's. I hope the pics can be viewed so ya'll can see. I'm so unhappy about these flowers. She did want star gazers which would have been beautiful!! Changed her mind this week & wants petunia's. I love petunia's but these are so fake looking & hanging petunia's. The cake is the normal 8",12",16" round wedding cake. With these flowers on it. I can't get creative with these flowers. She wants all the colors mixed. Yellow, pink & purple.

Any ideas????? Any help???????? Should I add something else to them??? Ahhhh!!! This is the first wedding cake that I am NOT looking forward to doing! I don't even think I'll post it on CC. I hope I can pull it off & make the cake pretty. I don't know though... those flowers are ugly!!

Thanks everyone!!!! Tell me I can do this!! I need re-enforcement!!!

I'm thinking I could just mix them up & keep them looking like a swag/hanging. What do ya'll think?

Hey, Tina, do you have to use all of them, or can you just use a few? I have to agree they are pretty bad, but if you can keep them down to a minimum (like maybe one of each color in a little bunch just placed here and there). It does seem like she could have found some nicer ones somewhere besides Walmart, their flowers are a little on the lame side IMO. Janice

I agree with you Janice. I am leaning on the bunch thing too. She also brought me some baby's breath. I might be able to make it look good. I sure wish she would have stuck to the star gazer lillies. Just when I thought this cake was going to be fun! LOL!!

Can you try putting hidden pillars between the cake layers and packing the petunias in between the layers?

Deanna

Nope, TooMuchCake the cake will be stacked~ I wish I didn't have to mess with these flowers. Got any other ideas please let me know~ Thanks though~

Can you find some *nice* greenery to put around the flowers and sort of distract the eye from the obvious Walmartness of the petunias?

Deanna

That's a good idea! I'll try. Thank goodness the wedding isn't till Feb 19th I have time!

Tcturtleshell: I know how you feel. I had to do a wedding cake with flowers I hated. It took me forever to figure out what to do with them. It is the burgundy scroll one with the flowers cascading down the side. I mixed the flowers with a bunch of greens because thats the only way I could get it to look half decent.
Maybe if you mixed the different colors together, mixed them with the greens and either bunched them on top with a few of the flowers placed around each layer or had them cascade down.

Sorry, I wish I had more help for you. I'm sure you will find your groove with this cake & it will be beautiful.

Thanks for the faith ge978!! I hope I'll figure this out or get my groove going like you said~ It sure is hard with these flowers. I just can't see all the stripes looking good together. Thanks for your help!

I wonder if you could pick off the flowers that are less stripey than the others and just use those? In the picture, it looks like some of them are almost a solid color. Maybe using just one or two of the striped ones in a bunch wouldn't look so bad.

Deanna

Wow, it looks like the ugly-cake-bug is going around. (I have to do one with plastic salmon colored ribbon and fake calla lillies. I hope this isn't an omen for wedding season this year!!!

I just had to comment on this one!!

Obviously, I don't think there is anything wrong with Petunias!!!!!!

Those petunias on the other hand. . . . .

Maybe mixing them up would help a bit.
I know how you feel too. I've also had orders for cakes where I just knew that what the customer wanted wouldn't look good. What can you do?? Just try your best to go with what they want and make them happy.
Your excellent skills will make it look great, I'm sure!!
Good luck and don't forget to post a picture when you're done!!

Purple Petunia

ge978 - just took a look at the cake that you referred to ...you did a wonderful job with that! It looked very pulled together in the end...and great work on all those scrolls, etc. on the cake, it's beautiful!!

TC - I think ge978's advice is right on! lol Work in some more greenery and lots of that baby's breath you mentioned the bride brought to you. Then just use as few as possible of the stripey petunia's & I think you'll be ok. lol Please do post a pic & show us what you end up with...sometimes the ones we dread the most turn out just fine with a little creativity & help from everyone here at CC!

Hi!

I just found this picture on the web.

http://www.easyparty.biz/cakepics/Wedding-PetuniaWaterfall-01-Cake.html

To me, it doesn't look to bad, and I'm thinking that maybe it's hard to picture what it would look like unless you maybe played with it a little. If you have cake dummies, can you place and fiddle with the number of each color of flower until it looks okay? Seems to me it too overwhelming just looking at the flowers and no cake to picture it on. The white of the wedding cake might make it look less daunting Just a thought, but I'm sure whatever you come up with will be fabulous!

ge978, Your cake looks great! I love scroll work

Mirjana

mvucic - what a great cake! TCTurtleshell, would she let you make some petunia's? I think I'd make them and throw them in for free before I'd want to put fake ones as garish as the Wal-Mart ones..(...maybe I'll suggest that to my bride instead of the fake calla's - see how we get each other thinking!!!! Love it!

I just googled petunias to refresh my memory, and I guess these are not so far off from real, but there are just so many of them! I think if you add more greenery and keep the actual flowers down to a minimum they will look okay.

There just isn't any accounting for people's taste, so I guess we just have to do the best we can to please the customer. I know it will turn out fine, Tina, you always do really pretty cakes! Janice

JennT & Mirjana: Thanks for the compliments on my cake..never thought I would be done with that one
Tcturtleshell: It really helped me to practice on my dummy cake..I played with it every day & night for almost 2 weeks & I couldn't figure out how to get it to look right. I finally took a break for about a day & sat down with it and arranged the flowers in 5 minutes. Sometimes it helps to step back from it and it will come to you. Good luck & keep us posted

Thanks you guys for the pics! ge978 your cake is pretty! I'm sorry I didn't mention that last night! I will practice on some cake dummies I have. Thanks!

Janice you are always soo sweet! Thanks for the compliment!

Marjana, you wouldn't believe this but the pic you added was how the cake was going to look in the 1st place but with daisies! Isn't that funny! Bride went from Daisies, to Star Gazers, to those Petunia's! The 1st bride that can't make up her mind. I would have loved to do the daisies!


JennT Thanks!

Oh, Purple Petunia.. Petunia's are one of my favorite flowers too!! First pick being Verbania. These silk ones do petunia's no justice~ I'll try & stay away from the striped ones.

I sure hope it isn't ugly cake season!! I have 3 more possible cakes to do in the future. I don't know if I could handle another one like this~ LOL~~

THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP!!!! I'm feeling calmer now!! LOL!!!

Tcturtleshell: You are so sweet...I wasn't expecting a compliment on my cake..I just wanted to let you know that you are not alone with the ugly flowers If you do practice the flowers on the dummy, I felt it helped to post the picture in the forum to get suggestions.
Glad you feel better.

Well I worked with the flowers. It about drove me nuts! I got them done ya! Here is a pic of all of the flowers. I'll make clusters/bouquets to decorate the cake with them. I still don't like them but I think they will work now.

Let me know if this is better ok~ I think it is~

WOW!! That's a MAJOR improvement! Good job!

Maybe instead of using the silk leaves make different sizes out of fondant or mmf might break up the silk alittle that way you only have to use the flower. Good luck

Thanks! They do look better but I still don't like them. Once I place them on the cake I think they will look fine.

Hi... Just joined this forum tonight. Floral arranging is my first love. Been doing cakes for 19 years and the most fun is doing floral arranging on them. (Especially as the DJ is setting up and testing some of the tunes.) The cake is the canvas and the flowers~the paint. Been studying your Wal-Mart petunias' photo. Too bad the colors are so bright. But... you can downplay the size of some of the flowers. Using the 'clear' mini, pony tail rubberbands (like Martha Stewart uses for holding flower stem clusters) you can pull the band up towards the bell of the petunia, making some of the blossoms look like buds. Hence, a small amount of color showing, but still are using the flower. I agree... use some foliage to break up the color. I would ask the bride if I could use some 1/2" satin ribbon (matching the color of the icing) to make loops, and maybe some cascading tails; to work in among the flowers. By setting the board of the stacked constructed cake up on voltive candle holders you can put some of those petunias under the cake and then just a few little clusters of the petunias, ribbons, foliage, etc. stratigeticly (sp?) placed on the different tiers. Well, you have several options. Just because the bride gave you all those flowers doesn't mean they 'all' have to be used. I find that I have to tell myself in cases like these... "It's my job to make their selections look good. That's why they entrusted me with this order, in the first place." (Then I say a prayer and ask for help in making this cake, one that will bring joy to this bride and groom, on such a special day.) Good luck and just let 'the force' lead you... afterall ~ cake decorators are creative people!

WAAAAAYYYYYY BETTER!!! You're a genius! If you have time, maybe you could try cakesondemand's idea of the gum paste leaves instead, I think the shininess and darkness of the fake ones is the only thing that would bother me now! But even the way you have them is fabulous!!!

Great ideas ya'll. I'm not using all those flowers. I'm just using a few for each layer. LOL~ I would have rather done royal icing or fondant flowers to begin with. Bride just kept changing her mind. I'm ok with what I came up with. It's brides choice, brides colors so I will just have to grit my teeth & decorate it the best I know how. It will look good
I'm sure of that~ I have a week till the wedding. I'll post pics (if they look good) soon after~
Oh, NightIcer, welcome to CC~
Thanks everyone for your help & great suggestions!!

You improved the look of the flowers greatly! I can't wait to see the finished product..based on your other cakes it will look beautiful. Good Luck.

You are so sweet!