Sugar flowers: Do we love them or hate them?

The pros and cons of this exquisite decor

If you follow my work it doesn’t take long to notice how much I LOVE working with fresh flowers. I use them on multiple cakes a week and I cannot get enough. When I start putting them on I have to pull myself away before the whole cake is COVERED. 

 BUT Have. You. Heard. Of. Sugar. Flowers?

If not, I would love to introduce you to them! They are bright, beautiful and hand made by our cake artist. They can be made out of fondant, gumpaste, modeling chocolate, or other types of edible moldable sweet stuff and they are stunning! 

Sugar Flowers: Photo by Kristi Caccippio
Sugar Flowers: Photos by Brit

Sugar Flowers: Photos by Brit

I want to showcase to you what I feel are the pros and cons to using each type of medium- fresh flowers and sugar flowers. I’ll let YOU make the final call on what you would choose. Enjoy! 

Fresh flowers 

Pros 

1) True to nature and more organic looking

2) Match the rest of your décor – especially for weddings

3) Less expensive than sugar flowers 

Cons

1) Might not want certain flowers in your food- must cover in floral tape

2) Certain flowers and colors may be out of season

3) Might be harder to find based on what florists are in your area

Sugar flowers 

Pros

1)    Flowers can be created to color match even the craziest colors! Metallic rose? You got it! All white? Done. Rainbow? Obviously.

2)    Sugar flower structures can create shapes and movement that will lend itself nicely to your cake design. Flowers can be true to size, huge, or tiny! Fun items can be incorporated into the “bouquet” that normally wouldn’t be there- think incorporating fruits/sticks/crystals.

3)    They make for a VERY impressive display that can be saved and last much longer than fresh flowers.

Cons

1) Arrangements are very hard and time consuming to make- takes a lot of skill and there for are much more expensive 

2) Can’t eat them due to their wire based infrastructure 

3) When the sugar flower dries it is much more fragile than fresh flowers and has the potential to break in transit

Sugar Flowers

Sugar Flowers

So what do you think? Fresh or sugar flowers? Can we all agree to LOVE them both?

Sugar Flowers

Sugar Flowers

Sugar Flowers

Sugar Flowers

Kelly Etz

Kelly Etz is a graphic designer, writer, and fisherman sweater enthusiast based in Chicago. She gets her best work done after 1am and spends too much money on fancy shampoo.

https://www.instagram.com/ketzdesign/
Previous
Previous

Our favorite way to bring personality into your wedding day

Next
Next

Our Latest Feature: Modern, Luxurious, ECBG