- Decide whether you are aiming to replicate a 1950s wedding cake, or if instead you prefer to pay homage to the decade's overall style. You can find photographs of 1950s wedding cakes in libraries and archives (many are searchable online), or ask your older friends or relatives to share photographs from their own 1950s wedding cake. Perhaps one of your grandmothers was married in the 1950s; it would be a nice personal touch to bring a photo of her wedding cake to your modern wedding cake designer as a model. The designer may copy the cake, or instead choose to copy some of the design features, like the look of piped frosting or the sugar decorations. Ask if a relative has a vintage cake topper you may borrow to give your cake the perfect finishing touch; these toppers can also be found online or in antique stores, and some modern companies offer retro-inspired new toppers.
- 1950s brides and grooms didn't have wedding cakes covered with brightly colored fondant or embellished with iconic images from the time, but modern couples are buying elaborate, colorful, and sometimes sculptural wedding cakes. These styles offer the opportunity to take inspiration from the past while updating it for a very modern and memorable look. Your inspiration can come from 1950s cocktail dresses, movie stars like Katharine Hepburn, or from the colors popular in the 1950s; pink, seafoam green, even bold black and white. If your 1950s theme leans towards the kitschy-but-fun, consider a pink cake embellished with black poodles.
- You want it to both look and taste good, of course, and may opt for the flavors popular in the 1950s. While brides and grooms opted for a variety of flavors and styles, many opted for a marzipan-frosted fruitcake. Selecting a fruitcake for your modern wedding will bring back happy memories for many of your older guests while providing younger guests with a delicious taste of history.
