Do any of you experienced wedding cake bakers have any kind of "formula" or rule of thumb about the height of the cake topper compared to the height of the cake itself?? A bride just showed me her topper (Waterford crystal) which is 7 inches high. She only wants the cake to be 2 tiers; I'm afraid the topper will look too big for the cake itself. Thanks for your thoughts.

I usually tell the brides that it should be no taller than the top tier, so about 4 inches. I had this exact same experience today. The bride wanted to place a cross on the top (6-7 inches) it looked ok, but made the cake look top heavy(it was a smaller cake). I try to stick to the 4-5 inch limit policy. With the bigger heavier toppers you can also run the risk of them toppling over with the slightest table bump, cake cutting etc. hth

Right - that's the other one of my fears - toppling in addition to top-heaviness. There's no way this topper can be changed at this point...heirloom...special piece, etc., so I think I'm just going to have to make it a 3 tier rather than 2 to balance it out a little bit. The bride won't care; she's leaving it all up to me EXCEPT this topper; it's non-negotiable! Thanks for your help - I'd love to hear from more people, too.