updated 2:06 p.m. ET, Tues., June 2, 2009

Weddings often are costly affairs, but with enough advance planning and a little homegrown ingenuity, you can make things instead of shelling out for them.

Wedding magazines and Web sites help, too.

“There’s nothing you can’t craft for your wedding,” says Darcy Miller, editorial director of “Martha Stewart Weddings” magazine. Among other items, she mentions gifts, decorations, flowers and the cake.

Ah, the cake.

The Knot Inc., which runs two wedding-related Web sites, surveyed the spending habits of 18,000 couples who got married last year, and found that on average couples spent more than $500 on a professionally decorated cake. There are ways to limit that cost, Miller and other experts say.

For starters, craft your own cake topper, and end up as well with a keepsake.

A recent “Martha Stewart Weddings” favorite, for example, was clustering colorful, craft-store butterflies along one side of a fondant cake, Miller says. Another: Top the cake with a tea cup, either from grandmother’s inherited china or from your own, registered china.

Another lively topper comes from “Real Simple Weddings,” an annual guide published by Real Simple magazine: Deputy Editor Jaimee Zanzinger suggests placing tiny images of the bride and groom in elegant frames on top of the cake. She’s also seen small cornhusk dolls adorn a cake’s top, and notes that many of these craftsy items can be commissioned.

Teri Bellman Garvin, 38, of Golden, Colo., ordered a simple fondant cake from a baker for her April wedding, then personalized it herself with a mountain-biking theme. Instead of paying the baker nearly $100 for chocolate-covered strawberries that were supposed to mimic boulders, she and her husband, John Garvin, substituted chocolate truffles from their local Whole Foods Market.

Garvin says the design represented the couple’s passion for cycling on trails near their home and the force with which they fell in love. The cake had two trails running up either side and meeting at the top. It was crowned with two, iron-crafted figurines — hair-tousled caricatures flying off their bikes — that Garvin purchased from an online shop.

“That’s how life is,” Garvin says, explaining her cake. “You’re fooling around on your own path and then crash! You meet someone who changes your life. Luckily, we weren’t on our bikes falling head over heels when we met.”

Both Miller and Zanzinger note that wedding cakes are getting smaller: Brides are straying from the traditional three tiers and supplementing cake with other desserts.

Cakes also are getting more colorful as brides shun the traditional white or ecru in favor of something more daring. Sugared flowers, which pop up the cost of a cake, are losing favor. And cupcakes or mini-cakes — one per seated table — are gaining in popularity.

“Couples today are wanting everything personalized in their wedding, especially something like the wedding cake,” says Miller.

The following directions are for a dove topper — “a beautiful, classic topper that’s something you’ll hold on to,” says Miller. For other ideas and crafting techniques, consult the new “Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Crafts.”

Dove Topper (adapted from MarthaStewart.com)

Supplies:
Small block of Styrofoam
Foam glue
Scrap of cardboard for spreading the glue
Two hanks of white seed beads
6 stems of cotton lily-of-the-valley
2 branches of silk maidenhair fern
Hot-glue gun
Hank of alabaster-colored seed beads
2 millinery doves

Assembly:
1. Carve the Styrofoam into the shape of a birdbath, trying to keep edges rounded and smooth.

2. Working from the base, spread the foam glue in a 1-inch band completely around the Styrofoam birdbath. Attach the strands of white beads by spiraling them around the birdbath. Continue adding the glue and coiling the beads up the sides and onto the top until you have a 1/4-inch-wide band on top.

3. Arrange the lily-of-the-valley and fern branches into two half-arches; insert their stems into the center of the Styrofoam birdbath and secure them, using the hot-glue gun.

4. Glue on the strands of alabaster beads to fill in the top of the birdbath, spiraling toward the center.

5. Hot-glue doves in place.

SMOOSH
By
Jan Christensen

Crystal was pretty sure the marriage wouldn’t go well when
Roger mashed the slice of wedding cake into her face and ground it all over, even covering her eyes.
She’d known several weeks ago that marrying Roger was a bad idea, but she didn’t know how to call it off. Her mother had planned this event for almost a year. She’d spent tens of thousands of dollars to make this a perfect day for Crystal.
And here she was, despair filling her heart instead of joy. She wiped the cake from her face and tried to smile at her groom. He wore a self-satisfied smirk, and all his friends were laughing, except Brad. Crystal looked at her mother, but Ingrid wouldn’t meet her eyes.
It was her turn to feed the groom a piece of cake. Should she rise above his crudeness or do what she really felt like doing–smash it into his face and grind it into his eyes and ears, all over his head? His buddies would howl with laughter. Except for Brad.
She’d only realized a week ago how kind Brad was, how different from the rest of Roger’s friends. She’d figured out the only reason Brad stuck around was a feeling of loyalty to Roger–they’d been friends since kindergarten.
But they were so different now. Roger was flamboyant, loud, with a cutting sense of humor. His exuberance was what had attracted her, she who generally felt mouse-like. Brad was quiet, almost somber, and his humor was self-deprecating, never unkind.
Crystal picked up a piece of cake, and pretended to weigh it in her hand. Roger’s friends began to clap and chant, “Feed it to him! Feed it to him!”
Roger was smiling, but with a wary look in his eye.
Crystal glanced at Brad, and then she gently guided the piece of cake to Roger’s mouth and let him take a bite. He had the grace to look abashed. His friends stopped laughing. Roger licked his lips with an exaggerated swipe and laughed softly. Then he took Crystal’s hand and guided it to his face, slamming the cake into himself, roaring.
The room erupted into screams and laughter. Roger wiped his face, staring at Crystal. She shivered, cold all over. Somehow she knew that when they were alone, Roger would get back at her. He’d saved himself, but she’d pay.
Roger never hit her, never did anything outwardly aggressive again, but the two years their marriage lasted was an agony of psychological abuse. Looking back, Crystal could see all the signs she’d missed until the few weeks before the ceremony.
The divorce was messy and painful, and she got out with little
money, and even less self-esteem.Three months after the divorce became final, Brad called.
“How are you?” he asked.
She knew he really wanted to know. “I’m all right. Or I’ll be
all right. Given time.” She hoped that was true.
“I thought you might enjoy a show. I happen to have here two
tickets to ‘Oklahoma,’showing at your local, neighborhood theatre,
spelled with an ‘re.’”
“Ah, I know that place! Haven’t been there in years.”
Left unsaid was that Roger didn’t really like that type of
entertainment. As soon as the honeymoon was over, they never went to
another play.
When Brad picked her up, he said, “I want to take you on a
little detour before we go to the show.”
Crystal was intrigued. “Sure.”
He surprised her even further when he said, “You drive.”
They took some back roads and were out in the country in less
than fifteen minutes. Brad had her make several turns, and soon they
were climbing a hill on a road marked, “Private.”
“What is this place? I’ve never been here.”
Brad smiled. “I bought it a few months ago–plan to tear down
the old barn, the only thing left standing, and build a house.”
As they rounded a corner, Crystal slammed on the brakes and
squinted at something in the road. “What is that? Is that what I
think it is?”
“Probably,” Brad said. “Want to go take a closer look? Then
you can run it over. After you do, I bet you’ll be finished with
Roger for good.”
They stepped out of the car and walked to the three-tiered
classical wedding cake, Crystal laughing all the way. It had only a
lone groom on top. When they reached the cake, she turned to Brad
and threw her arms around him, squeezing him tight.
“Let’s go!” she said, and ran back to the car. “Buckle
up–this is going to be quite a ride.”
She lined up the car so that the left wheel would go over the
cake, then she hit the gas.
“Whoopee,” she shouted as white frosting flew up and hit the
windshield. “Brad, You sure know how to show a gal a good time!”
THE END

This was at Mill Falls/Chase house. It was for 90 people and Kelly’s colors were teal and brown. They wanted something eclectic and unique. Missing from the picture was the topper that was put on the top cake  and was bride and groom kangaroos that the sister of the bride had brought back from Australia.

This was at the Common Man Inn in Plymouth and served 130. She had a hot pink and black color combination. Each cupcake had a royal icing flower on it for decoration. 

This was something I did for a Mother’s Day table on the MS Mount Washington. Their colors were lilac and I went with a butterfly theme.

http://www.uglyweddingcake.com/index.html