Hi everyone, I have a friend who wants butterflies (not alive) both sitting on her wedding cake, as well as attached to wire of some form hovering above her cake.

Does anyone know where i can purchase butterflies, or should i make them out of gumpaste, and then how do i attach them to something that will create the flying effect over this cake? Any help / suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

You could use wafer paper ones:

http://www.fancyflours.com/category/s?keyword=butterflies

https://www.google.com/search?q=wafer+paper+butterflies&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Don't stick the wires directly into the cake. Plug the end of a tiny straw (like a coffee stirer) with fondant or melted chocolate and put the wire in that.

Best of luck!

AI hand-cut a butterfly from fondant once and left it to dry in the wings-up position by cradling it in paper that I folded up accordion style. Just be sure you WAIT FOR IT TO DRY! I didn't wait long enough (about 8 hours) and I broke the dang thing where the wing joined the body and then had to jimmy rig it back together.

i just bought some from Cal Java Online for a pretty low price.  I am going to try my hand at making some, but I like to have a back up plan 

I have seen some incredibly realistic looking butterflies made from unbreakable gel. 
 

AUnbreakable gel? I'm intrigued.

AOh! Gelatin! I've played with it a little bit... Not much. Thanks for the great links!

Unbreakable gel is not gelatin.  Google Adele's unbreakable gel.  It was developed by a cake decorator.