Choosing a monogram cake topper that matches your reception's ambiance and theme.

Lighting

First and foremost, determine if your lighting in the area of the cake will be dimly or brightly lit for most of the reception. Outdoor daytime receptions at the beach look a lot different than dimly lit hotel reception rooms.

Choosing a monogram cake topper that fits the lighting of your room will make decision making easier and will make your cake look better. We’ll get into which cake toppers look best for given lighting situations in another paragraph or so. But first, one more thing…

Will just the front side or both sides be visible? This matters. Some monogram cake toppers look one way on one side and completely different on the other. There is a reason for this. When you get into features that cost more money (custom fonts, the use of crystals, and so on), you can minimize cost by decorating only one side.

This is wise (and quite typical by the way) if your wedding cake will be in a corner of the room or if servers will be on one side with guests on the other. There are arrangements where the wedding cake is in the center of the guests’ reception tables. For that scenario, choosing a monogram cake topper with an identical appearance on both sides will be important.

Materials

Okay, here is where the lighting of your room matters. For a dimly lit room, you’ll want a shiny monogram cake topper. For a bright room, you can use either a shiny or matte finish. A good compromise for a bright room is a matte finish with crystals for some added shine.

For a shiny appearance, consider choosing a monogram cake topper made of acrylic mirror (transparent acrylic with a mirror reflective backing), gold plating, silver plating, or any topper partially or fully covered with crystals.

For a matte finish, there are great options in brushed aluminum and polished stainless steel. Again, you can add a little shine with partial crystal coverage.

Speaking of crystals…

Crystals

Choosing a monogram cake topper with different crystal sizes, colors, and quality will be important for creating the effect you want as well. We’ve seen a little bit of everything. Some brides complement the colors of their wedding cake, some complement their wedding colors, and some mix several colors on the same topper.

If you don’t want to pay the premium to have someone else decorate your topper with crystals, it’s not hard to decorate a monogram cake topper as a do it yourself project.

Size of crystals is subjective and may be limited by the width of certain portions of your topper. Again, mixing sizes on the same topper is common, too.

Tip: if you’re sticking with clear crystals, consider choosing a monogram cake topper with higher quality AB Swarovski crystals for the shine you’re trying to achieve. Clarity doesn’t seem to matter quite as much with colored crystals, but it does seem to matter with clear crystals.

Sizes – Length, Width, and Height

Much is made about this, but only extremes really get noticed. Find out how tall and wide the top tier of your cake is. Draw that out on a piece of paper. Use another piece of paper to draw approximations of your monogram cake topper. See how it looks – that is what matters more than any formula or rule of thumb.

Before choosing a monogram cake topper, you can request emailed black and white versions of any font. We can stretch it in any direction or size until you feel like it’s the way you want it. Likewise, for script letters that are especially wide, we can condense their width so that you still have the height without an excessively wide letter.

Logos

Choosing a monogram cake topper that includes a blended logo is increasingly popular. Simple monograms fuse with a symbol or a symbol takes the place of a monogram entirely. A perfect example is a beach theme wedding that incorporates a palm tree or starfish custom cake topper.

You can have it cut in the shape that represents your theme and accent it with crystals, flowers, shells, or starfish picks. These same picks can be used as bouquet accents for a little extra matching flair. Leaf and snowflake designs have also been popular during fall and winter respectively.

Fonts

Here’s where a custom monogram cake topper really makes a difference. The fonts available for the “off the shelf” cake toppers out there are largely “block” style letters. However, script fonts are by far the most popular among our custom cake topper orders. The great advantage in choosing a monogram cake topper with a custom font is that you can easily match it to other items in your wedding. All you need is the font’s name or picture and it can be matched.

Budget

You can get some variation of these things no matter what your budget. Prices are incredibly affordable now – if you can afford a cake topper at all, you can afford a custom cake topper. You can use the chart on this page for reference. By simply varying the materials used, you can make customization much more affordable.

There are a few other little things that may or may not make a difference for you. Our brushed metal monogram toppers feature removable prongs so you can continue to use the topper as a display piece. There are also special stands that allow you to display a topper with or without removable prongs.

Other cake decorations that go with the toppers – you can incorporate the same kind of picks that accent floral bouquets with your monogram cake topper. Flowers look great on the sides of toppers and add extra color if your topper’s surface is reflective. Icing is another way couples complement the design or font of their cake topper. Simple monogram icing designs or borders are the most common uses, though we’ve started to see letters made of chocolate and other edible treats as well.

Other reception items that go with the topper. Because you’re in control of your font with a custom monogram cake topper, you can inexpensively blend it with other items. We offer a whole line of products that do just that, allowing you to blend your monogram design from your cake topper with self inking stamp, favor label, and place card designs as well.

Once you've got an idea of what you're looking for, check out the chart below. It organizes the products we offer at the store in terms of the things we discussed above. From there, you can begin choosing a monogram cake topper that fits your needs at the Wedding Ideas and Details Store.