AHi all, I have been asked (just this week) to make a wedding cake for some friends for march 2. I am also a guest at this wedding yay!! as far as decorating it goes they have left it up to me, as long as it is all-white, square and 3 tier. Naturally I have up blank :( I have flicked through my collection of wedding cake mags and struggled to even find some inspiration. originally I was thinking stencilling a pattern on the side of the fondant in royal, but then I thought the white on white might disguise the detail a little too much my next thought was a GP bow on top, with long ribbons to the bottom tier, I was going to give this a blast with some pearl sheen make it look a bit satin-y, put a matching fondant ribbon around the base of each tier, and maybe some swiss dots on the middle tier. do swiss dots work on square cakes? I have been unable to find many pics. I want to keep it pretty simple, as this will be the third wedding cake of the weekend, however they are paying for it same as everyone else so it has to look awesome! Does anyone else have some ideas or example pics to help me out? Ash

Look at the traditional wedding cake pictures given in the thread with "replecated" [sic] in the title.

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I've personally never been in a position to bake and decorate a wedding cake, and am never likely to be in that position, but in a novel that I've been writing, off and on, for over a decade, I postulated and described a wedding cake for my protagonist:

The protagonist in question is a classically-trained organist, a former child prodigy who started at only three years old, and plays everything from Bach to rock, all on real pipes. Her beloved is a fellow musician, a classically trained trumpeter whom she met when her high school was designated a music magnet school. So one tier is her personal favorite, strawberry marble (which is what inspired my own experiments in developing a strawberry marble recipe), another is spice, and the very top tier is described only as "guaranteed to keep for a full year in the freezer." One tier is decorated in a score motif (and not just random notes; an actual, playable score for a tune that would be recognized by anybody who reads music), while another has repeating "badges" or "escutcheons," I suppose you could call them, all hand piped, of a trumpet in front of a rank of organ pipes, while another has a keyboard motif. And the custom made topper has the bride seated at a small organ, and the groom holding a trumpet at his lips.

What all this means is that I'd suggest starting with a traditional design, and then overlaying it with something that picks up any strong interests the bride and groom have, in a way that anybody who knew them would instantly recognize.

You may want to do a lace design, like here: http://www.bellethemagazine.com/2012/02/wedding-trends-lace-cakes-part-3.html

Do they want modern or more traditional? If they are okay with more traditional I think some cream/ivory colored piping or brush embroidery on the side might look nice. Or if they want more a modern look: You could also go plain white tiers with cream colored roses at the corners and ribbon borders maybe with pearls or something to give some nice texture variation.

I think your idea of a gumpaste bow with streamers and ribbons around the bottom of each tier is lovely. The picture posted by uberathlete is actually done with stencils. It looks like royal icing over fondant, and works very well because the fondant and the RI are slightly different shades. It's a very classy look that would work well with your ribbon idea.

Athank you all for the help, I am just looking at stencils and I think that will be the way to go, with the fondant ribbons and bow :)

Here is a lovely 3 tier cake with cornelli lace.  I just saw this a moment before I read your post:

http://www.ideasinicing.com.au/Cakes.aspx?Category=Wedding%20Cakes&ID=308&CatName=Wedding%20Cakes

Athat is a lovely cake Apti. have you ever done cornelli lace before? I am curious to ask someone who has done it about the best technique to use :)

I like this one, although he calls it Chantilly Lace 

Athank you all soo much. I have given my bride a little list with all the different ideas for the middle tier and she is going to have a look and choose one.