More DIY wedding cake info. Underneath all that frosting was this. The bottom cake was 16". I think the others were 14" or 10" and 6". I borrowed the cake pans from a friend. The bottom cake took 3 1/2 cake mixes. The toothpicks were there to give me an idea where I was going to put the roses.

Glazed "dirty" layer to catch all the crumbs.

You can see the plywood base that I had the Boyfriend cut out for under the cake. It also had 1/4" holes drilled into it so I could use some 5" dowels to stabilize the cake. I slid the dowels up through the bottom of the cake. It worked pretty well.

Here it is @ 4:30 am the day of the wedding. And there's the frosting maker, the look on her face says this is serious business. We were relieved to have it done and looking decent.