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Hi and congrats by the way. I'm also a bride to be on a budget. My fiance is a chef and his friend (also a chef and has won many awards for his sugarwork) is making our wedding cake. He says the key is to follow your recipe and measure everything accurately. Don't try to cut corners. You need to be patient and time everything well. He also says to be mindful that it is easier to transport a cake un-assembled. This means your result is better if it's assembled on the cake table at the reception but you will need someone to help you. Make sure you have all the correct utensils that you need and you should be fine. He also said he would recommend a practice run but one would be enough. You should test this out about one month in advance and take a photo of the finished product. He says a month because this gives you time to order a cake if all else fails. He isn't saying you are going to fail lol. All he's saying is that you are not a professional so don't expect professional results. You can still make a beautiful wedding cake though. Good luck to you. Hope this helps.

PS you should pick me for 10pts seeings I'm almost the only one who actually answered your question :) lol

Go to your local craft store and sign up for Wilton cake decorating classes. They have an intro class and a fondant class. Since you are getting married in 2010 you have plenty of time to learn everything you need to learn. You can also get these videos which are very helpful. I ordered them after I took the wilton courses but I still learned new things. She has a buttercream, a fondant and a stacking video.

http://www.sugaredproductions.com/

The main thing you need to be concerned with is how to stack and support your cakes so they don't fall over or sink into the cake underneath. Oh and fondant is not easier to decorate with. It can get all sticky and be a nightmare.

http://www.cakecentral.com/ has great tips, recipes, and pictures.

Honestly, if you think you can just wing it and make a wedding cake you will be in for an unfortunate surprise. It is a lot harder than it looks and it is easy to have things go wrong. It is also very time consuming. I have made cakes before an event I have to go to and it is very stressful. One of these cakes can literally take you 8-12 hours or more to complete from start to finish. I made a 3 tiered cake for a christening I was also attending. I finished it on time, but I was completely exhausted. I got very little sleep (3 hrs maybe), worked on it the morning of and delivered it. I then raced home quickly showered and threw on some clothes. I went to church with my hair still wet. I couldn't imagine enjoying my wedding being that tired and I certainly could not get ready for a wedding. Get some instruction, or dare I say it - go to a bakery. After all of the classes, supplies for multiple practice cakes, and the actual cake plus the time, you could have gone to a bakery and ordered one for the same price or less.

My brother's wife made their wedding cake and is going to make the wedding cake for my wedding. It was a four tiered strawberry short cake type wedding cake. She saved coupons up from Michaels (the craft store) and bought the fondant from there. She also used boxed cake but it tasted really good and no one noticed.

What she did was bake two layers (two cakes) for one tier and would flip one side that was the top of the cake and then use the flat part as the top so it made it look really flat. She then used buttercream and frosted the sides and top with it, placed it in the fridge for a few hours to harden and then rolled out the fondant and placed it over the top of the cake.

I'd suggest making smaller cakes to practice on. That way you won't get tired of cake!

Keep the decorations simple - a plain, well done cake looks better than one you don't know how to do. If you've never done a cake before then don't start with this one. Do a couple of practise cakes, and just give them a plain coating. If you want decorations on your wedding cake then buy pre-made sugar ones to put on it.

Doing a bunch of different cakes is easier than doing one tiered cake, but if you have your heart set on a tiered cake, then make it a little drier than the recipe calls for, otherwise it won't have the structural strengh to hold up the upper tiers.

More power to you! I am also planning my wedding and I am trying to cut down on costs by doing as much of it myself as possible. I made the invitations, guest gifts (tea light candles), place cards, etc. you shouldnt have too much trouble doing it yourself. I love the look of the fondant covered cakes, but I heard that it doesnt taste very good. Guests can always peel it off. I would go with the previous suggestion of using tiers, it will make it much easier and wont collapse in on itself. Make sure that you warm the fondant up enough when you are preparing to cover the cake so that it lays perfectly flat and doesnt wrinkle. Stick to simple patterns on the cake. You can try making a white cake with colored fondant diamond shapes with small pearls in between. Or put silk flowers from michaels in a small bouquet at the top and a few at the base of each tear. Hope that helps!

You can do it! I have faith in you girl!

We're going to be doing it ourselves, so I'm going to be signing up for cake decorating classes at the local community center. We're planning on doing a test run once a month so when the big day comes we've got it down. If you or your fiance like cake then I don't see a downside.

Professionals charge so much it's ridiculous! The cheapest I found was $3.50 per slice for basic yellow cake with butter cream icing. PER SLICE! and each slice is like 1/2 an inch thick. The girl at the bakery mouthed the words "run away" to me!

Someone asked about 2 weeks ago if they could use boxed cake mix for their cake, and it was suggested to add a cup of flour to the box mix to make it more sturdy for layering. We're going to be trying that...it never hurts to try, right?

Practice makes perfect.

Have you ever eaten fondant icing? Yuck! I'd stay away from that!

Id be a bit wary about 'making' your own wedding cake, because its easy for it to go wrong. but it is expensive to get one professionally made. Why dont you 'semi-make' it yourself by three ready made plain cakes (diffrent sizes) from m&s or asda. then buy the dowel rods you need and place them ontop of eachother andjust decorate it yourself with a few simple flowers or something? good luck xx

Because the cake has to be made last minute, it is not something you will have time or patience to do. A wedding cake is nothing at all like a birthday cake as far as construction and assembly. Your wedding is not the time to start. In the long run, you will spend as much money, if not more, doing practice runs as you will if you just have a professional do it.

Take a cake decorating class at your local craft store (AC Moore,Micheal's Jo-Ann's etc) That will help you with the basics,It is very hard working with fondant, I work with it everyday almost I'm a cake decorator and it is not as easy as it seems.Hope you have plenty of help..Good Luck