Wedding Cake Trial Number 1!

So my Mom is pretty freakin' crafty.  She's always made us beautiful birthday cakes and cakes for other occasions.  She created the most awesome beach cake for their luau anniversary party a few years ago.  Not to brag or anything, but she's awesome!  Here's the cake she did for the luau:

Pretty gorgeous! 

Those shells are actually made out of white chocolate, with a little bit of pink in them.  And it tasted SO good!

Anyway, when we started wedding planning, Mom asked how I felt about her trying out the cake.  OF COURSE! It was going to be a great way to cut back on some expenses, and I can already trust she will make it exactly how I want it.  So I started researching, and I couldn't believe how elaborate and extravagant a lot of wedding cakes are.  They really are beautiful! But I decided that I wanted something a little more simple.  And of course, 

unique.  Most of you know that if it goes with what "most people" are doing, you can bet I'm going to find something different to do instead.  So I decided that I wanted a chocolate cake, since I hate white cake anyway, and that I didn't want the basic, symmetrical, circular cake.  As beautiful as those are, they just weren't quite us.  An added bonus is that our colors are pool blue, brown, copper and ivory, so chocolate icing would flow with the color scheme too!  So we started plotting and discussing, and tonight she went all out and put it all together!  

Now, these pictures aren't 100% what we are doing.  The monogram topper did not work out exactly how we wanted it.  The beads began to fall off, so Jason is going to find the same blue in a sparkly paint and take care of that.  Plus, there will be white flower petals scattered on the layers for an extra dimension and just enough detail.

Take a look!