In April of 2024, two of my closest friends got married, and I designed a custom wedding cake topper for them. Nikki and I met when I began working at West Marine in 2018, and Eric quickly became a good friend as well after they started dating.
As part of their wedding planning, they commissioned me to design and 3D print a cake topper for the reception. They’d chosen a rich forest green and white as their wedding colors, and Nikki drew a lot of artistic inspiration from Alphonse Mucha for the aesthetic. She sent me several mood boards with color palettes and images she liked, to use as reference.
They sent me pictures of the suits Eric’s side of the wedding party would wear, and of Nikki’s dress during the final fitting. Her test styling with the makeup and hair artist also provided good reference for the silhouette.
I asked whether they wanted their adorable orange cat included, and they loved the idea! Cue the barrage of reference pictures… not that I was complaining.
Photography by Brandon Scott Photo Co.
The artwork
I debated for a while whether to use a pre-made acrylic topper base, or build the mounting spike into the artwork itself. Most of my concerns were around food safety, since Nikki and Eric told me they wanted to keep and possibly reuse the topper. After realizing that I couldn’t buy just one pre-made acrylic base online, and no stores near me carried them, I chose to go with a built-in spike.
Alphonse Mucha’s artwork features flowing lines, flowers, and bold outlines around figures on delicately textured backgrounds. I chose to mimic this with my own design by making the topper airy and open in the background. A lovely flowery border from the Adobe Stock library was such a perfect fit that I couldn’t resist using it.
Nikki and Eric’s silhouettes were important to get right; I wanted them to be recognizable even as featureless silhouettes. I matched their hairstyles to the pictures from their tests, and added outlines and details from the suit and dress to help give the silhouettes more shape. Next, a picture of Eric holding their cat under the arms gave me the perfect look for their little goofball.
For the final touch, I added their new shared last name at the bottom. I used the font Nikki chose for their invitations, menus, programs, and other printed materials, to tie it in with the rest of the wedding’s theme.
The finished cake topper
When I sent them the final digital artwork, they both loved it. We confirmed their color selections with swatch cards of my regular stock of 3D printing filament, just in case I had to order any new colors. Then, I used HueForge to help me with setting the depths of each color and blending the edges together slightly for a less blocky look, and sent it to my 3D printer.
Not only did Nikki bake their delicious wedding cake herself, the fresh flowers and other decorations were absolutely stunning as well. And during the reception, the wedding photographer captured a picture that I feel really shows off the cake and topper beautifully.
An important note about food safety
While PLA plastic is chemically food-safe, the nooks and crannies and layer lines are perfect at catching food particles and breeding lots of bacteria. It’s nearly impossible to fully clean and sanitize PLA 3D prints, so for any cake toppers or other food accessories, I always recommend erring on the side of caution. Using press-and-seal plastic wrap to fully surround the topper spikes is the best way to ensure the cake topper stays clean and safe for years to come.
Photography by Brandon Scott Photo Co.