When you were young and blessedly far from being wedded, you laughed at the videos of wedding cakes melting, falling down, trampled upon by nature, thrown by guests, and just simply ruined. Now that you are planning your own wedding, you definitely do not want these disasters to happen at your special day, not when your wedding cake is the main highlight of your reception. Not to mention, you spent a good deal of the food budget on it!

The best way to avoid wedding cakes disasters is to hire professional bakers with the right equipment to safeguard your wedding cake. You can choose from among a wide array of cake designs and flavors and they can answer your questions about your cake.

We are not talking about wedding cakes made of organic ingredients and fresh flowers. We are talking about cakes ruined by Mother Nature's creatures like insects, birds, cats, dogs, and other undesirable natural elements.

You have insects landing on your cake and adding in a natural color; you have birds pooping on your cake and adding in a natural flavor; you have pets that literally put their stamp of approval; you have leaves adding crunch; you have wind that thinks your cake is its birthday cake. The list goes on and on.

You can avoid these wedding cakes disasters by:

* Renting or investing in a screened tent for your wedding cake

* Erecting a fence to surround the cake with an umbrella poised above it

* Instructing someone to stand guard over the cake to shoo away undesirables

* Conducting your reception inside even when you have an outdoor wedding.

This is one disaster you laughed at the hardest since this is the most obvious. For your wedding day, this is no laughing matter and one that you can avoid by following a few common sense tips:

* Make sure your wedding cake is placed away from high traffic areas like the dance floor and the entrance and exits.

* Ensure that it is far from the loudspeakers as the inevitable shaking is bad for your cake's stability especially when it is of the three-tiered variety.

* Check the stability of the cake table especially when you have multiple wedding cakes; remember that it will be on display for hours and wobbly tables are disasters waiting to happen.

Sure, you want a melt-in-your mouth cake that will be the rave of your guests. What you do not want is literally melting cakes with icing flowing down like gooey make-up on a very hot summer's day, colors running into each other like a painter's canvass gone bad, and flowery designs turning into Goth symbols.

This disaster usually happens on a spring or summer wedding when the heat and humidity can wreak havoc on your wedding cake. You can avoid this by:

* Ensuring your baker stores the cake in a carefully-controlled environment during the decorating stage and the transport to the reception venue

* Covering the cake with a tent if you are having an outdoor reception

* Keeping the cake away from heat sources and windows if you are having an indoor reception.

If you want to be surer, then you can always have cupcakes as your wedding cakes. It is practical and it is becoming more fashionable.