Should I have Sugar Flowers or Fresh Flowers on my Wedding Cake?
Flowers often play such a big part of a wedding, with the beautiful textures, colour tones and fragrance they add to the day. Using the same flowers and colours throughout your entire wedding gives the whole day a cohesive, well planned elegance. And the flowers you use for your wedding help create a lasting memory, when you see them or smell them years down the line you are reminded of your wedding day. I adore flowers and often have a fresh vase of them in my home.
In the blog today I wanted to talk about using wedding flowers on your wedding cake, looking at the impact flowers have on your Wedding Cake design and the options available to you.
Split wedding cake with silk flowers at Shottle Hall
Using Fresh Flowers to dress your Wedding Cake
Using fresh flowers on your Wedding Cake allows your Florist and Cake Designer to work as a team, making sure that all flowers match perfectly.
Bouquets to buttonholes, table centre to floral arrangements or cascades for your cake, the same shades and shapes create a polished, cohesive finish and this adds to the flow of your day.
There are some things to consider when using fresh flowers on your cake.
As a lot of flowers aren’t edible, with some even being poisonous, so you have to be very careful with your floral decorations when it comes to them coming into contact with the cake itself.
There is specialist equipment that cake designers can use to make sure no sap or petals touch any part of the cake surface, without affecting the scrummy taste of the cake, so ask your cake maker how they’d resolve the problem, keeping your Wedding Cake 100% safe. We have used this with couples where they are set on the flowers they want on the cake.
Semi Naked wedding cake with fresh flower cascade at The Nottinghamshire
From my many years (I am not revealing my age here…) of experience, florists can be a little nervous of dressing wedding cakes for fear that they will dislodge a tier or have some minor (or major) disaster! So when I work with a couple who do want to use fresh flowers, I will always try to position the flowers myself, with the style that the couple are looking for in mind. This makes everyone less nervous (me included!).
I know how the cake is constructed, the correct items to use to prevent contamination, but most importantly, I’ve worked on the cake design with that couple and know exactly what they have envisaged their dream Wedding Cake to look like.
Close up of sugar roses & foliage at The Nottinghamshire
Let’s talk about sugar flowers – my love language!
Sugar Flowers are my passion. Even after 25 years of making them, I’m still learning new techniques and ways to make them look as realistic as possible. The results are just amazing!
By their nature, they’re edible, although sugar flowers can have some wires or hidden centre to create the correct dimensions and shapes, but there’s never any poisonous sap to worry about.
Sugar flowers can take hours to make and a lot of skill.
From cutting, shaping and drying the petals, to dusting them to create depth and textures of the real thing, the intricacies of a flower are time consuming, but so worth the effort. I can really get lost in my sugar flower world when I am making them. It is intense work!
4 tier wedding cake with sugar flower cascade & fresh flower cushion at Osmaston Park
If I’m making sugar flowers to match real flowers used elsewhere in your wedding, I like to liaise with your Florist, so I can get a comprehensive list of all of the flowers, foliage and colours they plan to use and make sure that the edible versions match those in your bouquet and other major parts of your Bridal flowers as much as possible. This little bit of extra effort from me, really adds extra wow to your day.
If there are any last minute hitches with getting the fresh flowers originally planned, having sugar flowers that would have matched your ideal flower means that you still get to have them at your wedding – just edible instead!
Everything in your wedding can be planned like a military operation, but every now and then the fresh flowers arrive and aren’t the shade expected.
It’s no one’s fault. Flowers are a natural thing and although a specific shade is asked for, the flowers may not develop the expected intensity or size.
There has also been the odd occasion where a particular bloom isn’t even available on the date they’re ordered for, due to problems with growers, the weather or not arriving with your Florist in tip top condition.
Cupcake tower with fresh & sugar flowers at Swancar Farm
As a Sugar Artist, I know the delicacy of the flowers I make, so I often leave their construction until a few days before the wedding, during the final stages of the Wedding Cake’s creation.
This allows me to position the flowers while their petals are still slightly pliable, avoiding breakages as the petals are thin and fragile. It also allows the arrangement to dry naturally in place, creating a realisticflow.
But the main benefit of my working in this way means that it allows me to touch base with your Florist to check that the planned flowers and shades are still on track, or if any little changes need to be made as a flower has had to be swapped to an alternative at the eleventh hour. Only if you want it to be of course.
Top Tips from a Wedding Cake designer
If fresh flowers are the direction you want to use for your wedding cake, I’d always recommend giving your Florist the image that your cake design is based around. That way they know exactly what your end goal is and how many flowers they need to quote you for and have available for your cake designer on the day, so your cake vision is waiting for you as you enter your Wedding Breakfast room.
Asking for ‘Some flowers for the cake’ won’t give you what you are looking for and your florist will be unsure as to how many you need. Flowers for a cake that will serve 30 people will be much different to a cake that serves 90.
I know from experience that having three flowers and a couple of sprigs of leaves isn’t going to create the dramatic cascade you may have in your vision.
Blush Pink ruffle wedding cake, with sugar flower cascade at Swancar Farm
Your cake designer will have their own portfolio of images to wow you with, giving you options they have worked on in the past for real flowers and sugar flowers so have that conversation with them to get what works for you. or
As a sugar artist, I will admit that I do a happy dance each time a couple ask me to create the flowers for their wedding cake in sugar.
But I’m also very happy to work with silk or fresh flowers too, as it’s your cake and your style I’m here to create for you.
Naked wedding cake with fresh flowers at Shottle Hall
Naked wedding cake with sugar flowers at Swancar Farm
So, if you have any questions you’d like to ask or want to find out more about what I do and how I can help you create your dream wedding, please feel free to ask
Get in touch and let’s have a chat >>> http://www.icedandspliced.com/contact/
