Couples have been choosing to adorn their wedding cakes with florals for over 100 years - and for good reasons. Depending on the variety, color, type, and quantity, florals can simply accent a wedding cake design as supplementary to the other cake elements or they can stand entirely on their own to create a stunning floral wedding cake.
When it comes to choosing florals, partners have a lot of options and they mostly fall into one of three categories: fresh, artificial (such as silk), and sugar. While many couples choose fresh florals for their wedding cakes, because their florist and cake designer can coordinate on the process of supplying, prepping, and placing fresh flowers, here are four big reasons that many couples are choosing sugar flowers for their wedding cakes.
1. Toxicity
Did you know that a significant variety of flowers and their associated greenery are toxic and pose a danger to humans if ingested? Many of the most popular flowers added to wedding cakes (such as hydrangea, tulips, baby’s breath, peonies, and ranunculus, for example) can cause a host of problems, from gastrointestinal distress to mouth blisters and even death. Furthermore, most are grown with pesticides, which should never come into contact with a wedding cake. Many couples are choosing to make their dream wedding cake florals a reality without the health risks to themselves and their guests by opting for edible sugar florals, but fresh florals for wedding cakes should always be organic and edible (non-toxic).
2. Customization
Your wedding cake designer will create a cake that is perfectly tailored to your day, your colors, and your style. A show-stopping cake design on the sketch pad may include florals in colors or characteristics that either do not exist in reality or are difficult or cost-prohibitive to source. Often, a florist for a wedding has limited advance notice of the specific flowers that will be available on the day of the wedding. If fresh
flowers will be placed on the wedding cake, this unknown will impact the ability of the couple and the cake designer to create a truly customized cake. Alternatively, couples choosing sugar flowers for their wedding cakes are presented with inspiring and limitless options for colors and features. Bonus: They stay “fresh” for the entire duration of your ceremony and reception, ensuring your wedding photography captures your cake at its most beautiful, no matter when photos are captured.
3. Seasonality and Supply Issues
Many of our favorite edible florals and greens are only available during certain seasons of the year, resulting in a slightly more limited selection of choices for couples choosing fresh florals for their wedding cakes. In addition, outside factors such as weather, climate impacts, and supply shortages can complicate the process of sourcing the perfect florals for your wedding cake. To illustrate just one of these complications, last year in 2020 the world entered a global pandemic that caused a sharp drop in consumer demand for fresh flowers. As a result, many growers, florists, and distributers were forced to close down their operations. The industry is still feeling these impacts and the flower shortage continues to this day. Many couples considering their choices between sugar flowers and fresh flowers are opting for the guaranteed availability and endless supply that comes with choosing sugar flowers for their wedding cakes.
4. Artistic Value and Keepsakes
Every sugar flower artist has a unique style. Many of them spend days, weeks, or even months to create perfect buds, blooms, and greenery that look so realistic, a casual observer might not realize they aren’t fresh! For my clients, I focus on creating sugar flowers that are as true to nature as possible. While I love to experiment with color, I maintain as much realism as possible during the design process. It is truly an artistic process that many couples appreciate and they want to keep the sugar flowers from their wedding day as uniquely handmade keepsakes from one of the most important days in their lives.
Are you planning a wedding and trying to decide between fresh flowers and sugar flowers? What are the biggest factors driving your decision?