Here are a few fun wedding cake topper pictures I've run across that may be of interest...

 

Yes, I'm sentimental!  I wonder about my parent's wedding cake. 

Before I got into really making these wedding cake toppers, my mother had passed away.  So, like so many things you wished you'd asked your parents, I couldn't ask about theirs.

Here are some of their wedding pictures....no figural topper...look like flowers? May 14, 1947.
And let me ask you this question...do you remember your parents wedding anniversary date? We knew my parents birthdays and their anniversary date...my kids have no idea.....

I'm sentimental.  Guess you ought to be when you're connected to the wedding business.  Let me re-phrase that....you'd better be if you're involved in the wedding business.  Same applies if you're in anyway connected to Christmas!  These are heart and soul occaisions first, commercial opportunities second.

So...I have our original wedding cake topper from 1974.  Despite my sentimentality, I did not offer or strongly hint that my daughter put ours at the top of her cake.  I make wedding cake toppers.  I wanted to make her one. 

When I create these, I gather important information...type of wedding cake, wedding colors, wedding flowers, wedding theme.  Being father of the bride on this wedding, I had most of the info already...pink ribboned banded cake, faint pink peonies, classy and fun wedding theme.


When I asked kate what she was hoping for...she said..."Make me something classy and fun...like my wedding!" 

 

Wedding Cake Figures....

I became enthralled with antique wedding cake figures as I researched weddings as a new "holiday" season to create and sell in the early 1990's.  As I've said in previous posts - the German examples from the 1920's and '30's are, in my opinion, the finest.  However, there are hundreds of fascinating examples made in pre and post war Japan, the USA and Hong Kong and China,

Figures at the top of a cake...let's look at mine!  It's very ironic that one who now makes custom wedding cake toppers could have paid little attention to his own wedding cake.  We were getting married on August 24, 1974.  But, like a typical groom, I don't think, at the time, I thought much about our wedding cake.  But someone made sure we had an unique topper at the top of that cake.

My step grandmother, who loved social gatherings and weddings, was going to have to miss our wedding.  You see, our family has island in Canada.  My Grandparents would spend the summer there and my Grandfather Gould had refused to return for our wedding.  So, she wanted to do something special for our wedding....and purchased a revolving wedding cake topper from the premier florist shop in Indianapolis. 

The topper figure is a molded plastic figure made in Hong Kong.  It features silver roping and white velvet wedding flowers.  The revolving music box plays "The Anniversary Waltz."

The music box is an unusual idea that I have considered for my toppers.  One small, tricky glitch...winding it up and placing it on the cake!  Today, I have heard from my brides that caterers that have difficulty placing my stationary toppers on their wedding cakes...let alone a moving one...but, I distinctly remember, when the time came to cut the cake...there it was....revolving at the top of the cake!

OK, I'm going to share two more royal wedding cakes with you.   Sadly, don't think there are figures at the top...but they are interesting.  After taking them in, we will check out cakes with figures at the top!

Cake one - King George VI and Queen Elizabeth...the 'queen mum...1923.

Cake two - Queen Elizabeth's and Prince Philip's in 1947

 

Let's check out a few other royal wedding cakes....

Of most recent memory....Kate and Will's 

 

No figure at the top....but I created one below that could have been!

 

 

The Royal Wedding cake was designed and made by Fiona Cairns. There were 900 handmade flowers on the cake in 17 varieties that Kate selected based on the "Language of Flowers."  Some of the swags and detail work of the cake are reminiscent of the architectural details of Buckingham Palace.

 

The Language of Flowers

Rose (white) :: national symbol of England

Daffodil :: national symbol of Wales, new beginnings

Shamrock - national symbol of Ireland
Thistle :: national symbol of Scotland
Acorns, oak leaf :: strength, endurance

Myrtle :: love
Ivy :: wedded love, marriage
Lily of the valley :: sweetness, humility
Rose (bridal) :: happiness, love
Sweet William :: grant me one smile
Honeysuckle :: the bond of love
Apple blossom :: preference, good fortune
White heather :: protection, wishes will come true
Jasmine (white) :: amiability
Daisy - innocence, beauty, simplicity
Orange blossom :: marriage, eternal love, fruitfulness
Lavender :: ardent attachment, devotion, success, and luck.

 

 

 

 

Queen Victoria's Wedding cake - and her royal cake topper!  Victorians not only copied her fashion of a white wedding dress...but also a custom of figural wedding cake toppers! 

 The royal cake weighed nearly 300 pounds and was three yards in circumference. It was was about fourteen inches in depth or thickness. It was showcased upon an elegant “superstructure” and cost more than £100.

It was covered with pure white sugar and the top featured the figure of Britannia in the act of blessing the illustrious Bride and Bridegroom, who were dressed in the costume of ancient Greece. These figures were not quite a foot in height. At the feet of HRH Prince Albert was the effigy of a dog, said to denote fidelity; and at the feet of Queen Victoria were a pair of turtle doves, denoting the felicities of the marriage state

A cupid sat writing in a volume expanded on his knees the date of the day of the marriage, with various other cupids bearing emblems of the United Kingdom. On the top surface of the cake were numerous bouquets of Orange Blossoms and Myrtle entwined; similar sprigs were placed loose as presents to the guests at the nuptial breakfast. The elegant Royal Wedding Cake, a symbol of the celebrations of marriage, was placed on the breakfast table of the queen at Buckingham palace following the ceremonies in the chapel royal.