this is to those of you who are in europe, and anyone else who may know! where do you get your supplies from? the shipping cost from the u.s.a. is killing my wallet!! 
is there somewhere in europe that has a variety of supplies and is easy on the wallet?
Good morning,
there is a Wilton Europe Distibuter in the Uk called Knightsbridge ..., but they do the US$ prices in UK pound sterling and the postel cost from the Uk are also very high. As far as I know all other distibutors in Europe get there items from the Uk, so "Städter" here in Germany has the Uk prices only in Euro and for some items there delivery period takes up to 6 weeks 
. If your looking for Fondant, Royal Icing powder there is the company called "Jacobi" here in Germany. there products are from Backery craft, but I don´t know if they deliver to Italy (is that right?). All other products like paste colors, tools etc. I buy in the UK. There are several shops, but all have the same disadvantage: prices in Pound Sterling and high postel costs...
The problem in Europe is that, beside the UK, cake decorating isn´t that popular or better to say: the people dosn´t know it. I´m doing cake decorating since 11 years now and the only food colors you can get in Germany, until today, are blue, red, green and yellow. The icing sugar isn´t good for piping or color flow as it is too grainy and for Fondant you have to buy at a backery supply and only get 5 Kg at a minimum.
So welcome to the "cake decorating no man´s land" 
AMEN Tuggy! I hear you on the prices. I would rather pay the shipping cost from the US than the Pound. I believe the exchange rate is $1.97 today...and beinga military wife (we don't make that much) so I do what I can with the Bx, Skill center, and family/friends back home but other than that I order straight from Wilton. GOOD luck and like Tuggy said welcome to Cake Decorators No-Man's Land!
I order from Wilton for the most part. I also have gotten stuff from sugarcraft.com. But mainly I have to work with BX and Wilton. But I dont see much of a shipping difference, but that may be because we order so much online that it doesnt matter. How do you guys put your address on shipping info??? I have seen it you put apo ae its higher in some places then if you just put apo NY.... Its still a state shipping address.....I have the same problem with EBAY sellers who want to charge the international shipping.... I refuse to let them....as I do with walmart.com and so on. If they insist I cancel order or I will have it sent to my mom and she includes it in her boxes that she always sends here.
But I know what you mean by "no man's land" Stores look at me like i am an alien when I ask if they have stuff to decorate cakes.... they always show me the cake mixes and frostings.... ahh duh!!!!!!!!!!!
i didn't know that an apo is consider (state) shipping. 
i have been putting apo,ae. why would that be higher? if you put apo, ny, and the zip, will it be sent to the correct place? do you know what apo,ae stands for, cause i don't? one more thing, i do a lot of shopping on ebay, the ones that will only ship to u.s. i have been avoiding, because i thought were i am is considered overseas!!! 
Hi. I am in Eschenbach Germany. And I have found it so much easier just to order from Wilton. I just type in my address, just like I write it on a regular letter. The shipping seems reasonable, to me anyway. We just got here in July 04 and I thought I was going to freak out without decorating items. I did ship quite a bit from the States with me. And I am so glad that I did. The whole ordering from the UK was a turn off because of the exchange rates. I am glad that I am not the only one who was having such a huge problem. Do you all think that there is anyway that we could go to our respective PX/BX and request that they carry more of these products? I mean, I even went to Wurzburg and hardly found anything! Thanks for letting me vent. Good luck!
Tanya 
Hi, I always put APO AE as my address and I tell them that we are military and it is NOT considered international...for the most part I haven't had to much problem. As far as requesting the BX/PX carry more I know that you can put in a request for cases of things and they will order it and put it on hold for you and if you don't get it they put it out on the shelves. Does any of you know where I can order cake boxes for cheap with shipping...getting kind of tired of using the meat boxes from the commissary and it doesn't look professional at all. I also don't like using my rubbermaid totes...they are great if I am going to go and drop off the cake but most part people come to me pick up and go and I have had some returned back damaged....maybe I should charge a fee for the use of them and then when they return it they can have their money back...hmmm...somthing to think about.
Though WE overseaers know its not international some people think it is and will charge international. I usually put apo ae but every now and then the people freak so I change it to apo ny and its fine then. why I dont know..... you cant tell them anything really......
as for what it stands for Area Post Office, Armed Forces EUROPE is AE AP is armed forces pacific....so on and so on......
why apo ny??? because New York is where the Europes mail goes to to be shipped.....I worked postal before.....it's confusing, but what can you do...
as for asking the commissary/BX/PX to carry something.... they will only carry it if its on their overseas authorized products, and if their product limits havent been met. And THEN it has to be a pretty popular item to get them to do so....I have been through that too, being from Rhein Main... the base is closing so they wont carry more then they are, tried to get them to carry more and it didnt happen... "NOT BEFORE RAMSTEIN DOES, so on and so forth... so we are pretty screwed here.... 
And yes they will order a case of what you want IF ITS ON THE BUYING LIST. I wanted certain female things.... had to buy a whole case..... how many sprays can one person use????
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