One thing I’ve learned in preparing for a wedding is that there’s no shortage of choices: wardrobe, venue, vibe, colors (colors? What is this, a prom? OK, so we did finally pick some colors). Another lesson: many of these choices are both cheesy and expensive.
WanderMan and I have made the big choices (we hope!) and are now on the smaller to-dos like wedding cake toppers. Our first thought was to buy a couple of plastic dinosaurs and decorate them with a top hat and veil. But then we started cruising the interwebs, scoping out other options.
We found many variations on the traditional bride and groom topper: a passed-out bride and groom hanging onto the edge of the cake; a groom carrying a bride, kicking and screaming, over his shoulder; the bride holding the groom’s pantleg as he tries to flee (let’s not get derailed by the misogyny underpinning some of these cake toppers, eh?).
If you want Precious Moments, or Disney royalty, or you and your spouse’s visages on giant bobble heads, shoes, burlap birds, your school’s mascot, corgis, or superheroes, you’re in good company on the internets.
WanderMan and I chose a topper from etsy seller MelaboWed. New Hampshire-based artist Megan Bogonovich creates separate molds for the bodies, animal heads, and tails. We had a hard time choosing from among the gallery of sweetly bizarre figures. Owls, foxes, deer, loons, stallions: the forest teems with formal fauna. It’s a progressive place, too (two unicorn brides! two stallion grooms!).
The ceramic figures are tall. Her site claims that it’s 5 inches from the base to the shoulders, and then you’ve got the animal heads with their attending antlers or antennae or whatnot. WanderMan and I will have a 6-inch cake atop tiers of cupcakes (from Sweet Frostings, which you should visit if you find yourself in Spokane). WanderMan cautioned that our topper might have what he calls a Statue of Liberty effect on our tiny cake. Once it’s flanked by dozens and dozens of cupcakes, though, we think our stallion and cat will look just right. Plus we’ll have a special memento to add to our knickknackery ecosystem.
We also considered these more rustic doe and buck toppers (above) from MorganTheCreator . I love the echo of tulle behind the doe (she needs more clearance than does my wedding day look).
And I adore these birds from etsy seller SkyeArt. She also does great things with pears.
Image Credits
First two photos from MelaboWed
from Morgan The Creator
and from SkyeArt