Hi, I've been asked to do my brothers wedding cake for him in August this year, but I've never done a wedding cake before!  I've done a few birthday cakes now, and one of them was 2 tier and I know how to tier the cakes, I just want to be able to practise the decorating bit before I do the actual cake.  I was thinking of just decorating the cake dummies you can get, so I can get better at it and find a design and perfect it lol...... mad I know but i'm so worried of the cake looking a mess for the day if I don't practice!   Does anybody else use these cake dummies??   do you have to put something between the icing and dummy so it sticks or will it stick itself?  and also, is the icing easy to get off once i'm finished decorating it??    I'm trying to find away of practising without the expense of having to actually make the cakes too, because I'm not concerned about the recipe - that's fine  :)

Thanks in advance for any help and tips

You can definitely practice on cake dummies, or even cake tins. If you are using fondant, just peel it away and throw it out. If it has been on the dummy/tin a while, soak in hot water and pry away with a spatula, then throw it out. To stick the fondant to the dummy, just brush the dummy with water.
 

Ah thank you very much :)   i'll shall be going out buying some dummies now then!

I was going to use fondant decorations, as i'm not to good at buttercream flowers yet lol!  i'm still trying to master them, which is going slow, but i'll get there!  I just need to teach myself how to use the embossers and other stuff that can be used for different occasion cakes like stencils too! 

but might sound a silly question, but what is the practise butter cream??

You can practice icing on an upside down cake pan.  Or a dummy if you prefer.  I don't see a need to buy multiple dummies, one will do.  You can make up a batch of your preferred icing but don't waste the flavorings.  Then you can practice with a portion of it, scrape it off and re-use it over and over again.  You won't want to eat it since you have abused it but you are only out part of a batch of icing so is a small cost.