We're building our cake concept from the bottom up, literally.
We started with the idea of using M's grandmother's antique Fenton milkglass cake stand in the Spanish Lace pattern...
And quickly realized that the cake would have to have taller than normal proportions to feed 100-120 guests using a 12" diameter stand, similar to the cakes below (I love this look, actually):
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As much as I love the smooth look of the cakes shown above, I also really despise the taste and texture of fondant, especially after taking an introductory cake decorating class a couple of years ago. So we're doing a buttercream cake with simple "bubbles" pattern banded with kermit mums, and maybe topped with big spider mums on top. It's a bit of a combination of the two inspirations below:
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We interviewed with 3 bakers and ended up going with Panini Cakes. We just loved how airy and light her cakes were. We're trying to decide between almond cake with strawberry mousse or chocolate cake with cappuccino mousse. Heck, we might just get both (in the different layers) since they're both so good.
We also loved the the champagne cake with crushed white chocolate filling from Elena's Cakes. Elena does beautiful gumpaste flower work. She was a close second choice. We also tasted with Sweet Art Bakery but found her cakes to be denser and her icings were too sweet for my taste.
