And I have no clue what size the sunflowers will be. I guess I'll see when I get to the venue

Be careful with sunflowers. They are usually really large. I had a sunflower wedding and the florist's idea of a small sunflower was a good 5" in diameter. They might be able to get you some minis, but do talk with the florist. And going up to an 18" is fine, but it means that she will have to pay for more cake. And an 18" round is a HEAVY cake all by itself.

Actually the teal or turquoise, with black would be pretty, not quite sure how the sunflowers will fit in, but I would have HER get the smallest ones they have, and do the best you can with the flowers and strawberries.

Does she realize how much cake she is ordering, and 18 inch will serve 127 according to Wilton, the 14" square will serve 98, the 8 " will serve about 24 , and the 5 inch maybe 8 for a grand total of 257. I have no doubt that you will come up with something that will be really pretty. Good luck

Actually the teal or turquoise, with black would be pretty, not quite sure how the sunflowers will fit in, but I would have HER get the smallest ones they have, and do the best you can with the flowers and strawberries.

Does she realize how much cake she is ordering, and 18 inch will serve 127 according to Wilton, the 14" square will serve 98, the 8 " will serve about 24 , and the 5 inch maybe 8 for a grand total of 257. I have no doubt that you will come up with something that will be really pretty. Good luck

I would do a full-color sketch for her (after getting her to commit on a size for the sunflowers -- and yup, you'll need minis or they'll dwarf the cake) and get her to sign off on it. Once she sees it, she might realize that what she's got you doing is NOT an attractive design at all! If she doesn't, well, then you've got her signature okaying the design, so she can't complain later.

I don't go by Wilton's chart, I go by Earlene's

i did a blue and dark brown cake. maybe this will help you see the idea?/

But yeah, lots of cake still. I don't want to have a huge top tier though. Anybody every used a ten inch round as the top? This alternating shapes is kicking my butt as far as making it look balanced and not having way too much or too little cake.

Sad thing is, I showed her a sketch. It's what she wants and she's not changing her mind. I think the strawberries are going to look silly just laying around on a gorgeous cake. I'm just going to take pictures of it before all that crap goes on.

If you ask me, Earlene's chart is too big for weddings. The one cutting the cake is going to cut it by the Wilton chart anyway and you will have a ton left over and look like you sold them too much cake.

By my chart.. if you do a 16" round, 12" square, and an 11-8-5 combo you will have 243 servings. It's way more than she needs. If you do a 15" round, 11" square, and a 9-7-5 you'll have 198 servings... much closer to her needs and much less work for you and it will be proportional. That is what I would do anyway. Another question... is she inviting 180 people or does she know that 180 people are coming? If she's inviting 180 people she won't have them all attend.

She is inviting around 180. There will also be a grooms cake and the catering company is only prepared to serve 150

As a good rule of thumb, about 65% of the invited guests will show to your wedding. So that would be about 120 people. With your first thoughts on the cake sizes she will have double the cake she will need. I would severely downsize the cake. Even 198 servings (like the sizes I said in my previous post) will be a lot more than she needs.

You could do a 14" round, 10" square, and 8-6-4 rounds to give you 160 servings (14" round 75 servings, 10" square 50 servings, 8" round 20 serv, 6" 10 serv, and 4" 5 serv). I use a modified Wilton chart (just rounded down to make nicer numbers for math) and I have never had a problem with not enough cake. I use the same chart for birthdays as well. Earlene's chart takes money out of your pocket and leaves too much cake. I used her chart for a couple cakes and quickly abandoned it.

Thanks Indydebi. I am starting to think that I'll do 16 inch round 12 in. square and 8 in. round. I told the bride that I will box them up a six inch for there anniversary tier because she was hell bent on not getting a fresh one in a year.

To be honest... I was playing with my dummies and I really don't like the set up with a round on the bottom. I think that the best thing to do is to have a square on the bottom and then have three rounds on that. Then the square is more like a platform for the cakes above.

if you start with a 14" square and then have a 6-8-10 round combo on that you will have 160 servings and an asthetically pleasing set up.

Ok, so the bride doesn't care if I think it will look better. She wants the round on bottom because she thinks it will look "DIFFERENT". She doesn't realize that everything about this cake is gonna be that. Right up to the Knocked up bride topper. Not knocking anyone who was a pregnant bride, cause I was. Just trying to stress how "DIFFERENT" this chick is

Well, that's the first smile I've cracked in thinking about this mess! Thanks Debi

Is she open to a hexagon shaped cake rather than the square? Because the hex will allow you to have a bigger tier on top of the round and then allow the top tiers to be bigger.

You can always say, "Honey, my name is not Crap Cakes. I want to make cakes that I am proud to have displayed. You can have a square bottom, or another decorator."

What about alternating round, square, round, square, round? At least gives it a BIT of normalicy!!!!

I take back my earlier post - FREAK AWAY!!!

At this point the only thing that you can do is break out the Crayola's and draw her a picture of exactly what she wants and have her sign it. Make it to match the drawing and deliver it. If she hates it, at least you have her signature on the ugly drawing to prove she ordered an ugly cake!!

Good luck and definately post a picture - I cannot wait to see this one!!

It's so hard to do that though. You have to make the square so much smaller and it looks off. It really has to be 4-5" smaller than the round for it to sit right and not touch the edges of the round it sits on. Nothing looks worse than when the square is hitting the edges of the round tier it sits on.

Is this bride TRYING to have her wedding cake featured on cake wrecks?!?

(Not because it will be decorated badly, but because that is one u-u-ugly design the bride's picked out.)

I'm not sure what she thinks she's doing. She is doing a lot of the decorations for the wedding. She showed me sketches of her ideas. I wanted to say good God that's hideous.

When is the wedding? I can't wait to see the end result. Good luck!!

For all those watching, the wedding is March 21.

your in my thoughts and prayers! Good luck and I can't wait to see the pics. I don't think that there is a gallery for what was she huffing but this cake belongs in it!

square on bottom: http://forum.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1313486

square on top of a round: http://forum.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1310879

Maybe if you got her to put 2-3" ribbon covered pillars in between the layers it would help the cake http://forum.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1312390

Then you could put the strawberries and sunflowers in the gaps a bit so the sunflowers don't overtake the cake...