Our DIY Wedding Revisited #4: Wedding Cake Topper

In the spring of 2009, I “married” my husband three times! First we filed the legal paperwork to be married (it’s a very cut and dry ordeal in S. Korea), then we had a traditional Korean wedding ceremony, and lastly, we had a wedding reception in California. This series is dedicated to the last event, which was truly my DIY masterpiece. Nearly every aspect of our travel-themed wedding was a DIY project that I poured my heart into. With my fourth wedding anniversary around the corner, I’m feeling full of love and generosity! I hope you enjoy this series of DIY wedding projects!

Today’s project: Wedding Cake Topper for a Travel Themed Wedding

For our travel-themed wedding, I knew traditional bride and groom cake toppers would be out of the question. Instead, I wanted a cake topper that featured my husband and me with an old-fashioned propeller plane. However, when I shared my ideas and design sketches with various bakeries, I was APPALLED at the astronomical quotes I received.

Prices ranged from $150 to $300– The instant I heard these quotes, my brain went into to immediate problem-solving mode–> there just had to be an alternative! The answer? Make it myself!

A few options came to mind regarding materials: such as clay, papier mache, or even just finding little toys or models and arranging these together. But I also had an open mind, so I decided to wander the aisles of Michael’s Arts & Crafts to see if there was anything else available. As luck would have it, I stumbled across something I highly recommend:Crayola’s Model Magic.

It’s incredibly lightweight and has this wonderful marshmellow-y/spongy kind of feel which made me feel like I was actually working with gum paste or fondant. The texture and look of it ended up matching the cake very nicely, as you can see below. The sides of the cake were decorated with candy airplanes that my husband and I made ourselves–but that’s for a future post!

It is  SO easy to blend colors with Model Magic–and your hands won’t get tired from constant kneading to get even color consistency because it’s so soft. You can also easily knead it just slightly for beautiful marbled effects. I was able to make all of the colors for my cake topper from the basic 5-color pack (red, yellow, blue, white, black)

In terms of the actual construction, I took a bit of a shortcut. I bought a plain wooden propeller plane from Michaels Arts & Crafts, and basically covered it with a “skin” of Model Magic! Then I made the bride and groom figures and added them to the top.

For all the little details, toothpicks turned out to be my wonder tool for working on such a small scale project. I used them to not only to pick up and put little pieces in place (like the tiny white dots that decorate the top of the plane and the facial features) but also to prick little designs into the clay.

Other details included a tiny piece of white mesh that I cut for a “veil”, as well as a ponytail on the groom to match my husband! I also made a few pieces of luggage–you can see them in the first picture of this post.

Granted, there are many ready-made cake toppers out there, but if you’re looking for something totally customized and affordable, this is certainly the way to go– This whole project cost me only about $5—yup, that’s five bucks!

Plus, I love that even four years later, I still have my wonderful custom cake-topper to hold onto–which is not always feasible with sugar/fondant creations.

Come fly away with us!