To top it all off...

...our cake that is.

When we first got engaged my original idea for a cake topper was something like this:

Image via Etsy/ seller Garden4Arts

I love turtles. I have been collecting turtles since I was about 10. A lot of family, friends, teachers, etc, now associate me with turtles. I knew they had to be involved in our wedding in someway. I thought this would be a good option, but I was overruled by my other half. I mean I get it, we're planning this vintage, old theater themed wedding and we have random turtle cake toppers? It doesn't really fit.

Then I thought it would be cute to incorporate our kitties into our cake topper with something like this:

Image via Etsy/ Seller Urastarhouse

I was loving this idea, but it was a little pricey. It was also too modern for our overall feel. Back to the drawing board.

I then thought about using my Mom and Dad's cake topper from their wedding.

Personal photo. I took this in my childhood bedroom. Yes, the walls are still orange.

It was classic, but a little too 80s classic... My Mom said I could take it apart if I wanted. I thought about taking off the lace heart background. But I still didn't love the little bride and groom as much as I hoped I would. I also felt a little weird using their cake topper because they are no longer married...

So I was searching Etsy for ideas and I suddenly remembered something we had seen while visiting our venue. They had shown us a huge book of cakes to try and help us decide on a design. One of the cakes had a really cute cake topper that I recognized instantly because one: I knew I owned part of it at some point in my life. And two: it was a lady I was very familiar with.

Image via findwallpaper.info

I loved Barbies growing up! I'm not ashamed to admit it! And I loved the vintage barbies. I never would have thought of this as a cake topper if I had not seem it in that photo first. This bride and groom used Christmas ornaments that were the vintage wedding Barbie and Ken. I totally had the Barbie wedding ornament, but I have no idea what happened to it.  I didn't know how Mr. Castle would react to Barbie cake toppers but when I showed him a photo he loved them and added, "We can put them on our Christmas tree every year!" And with that we were both sold. We found them on Ebay for $12! Seven days later the mailman brought us our cake topper!

 In their cute box

Personal Photos / So cute and romantic

We are thinking about painting Ken's bow tie and cummerbund orange to tie it in to our color scheme. We're pretty happy with our choice. Especially when I think about how much some of my previous ideas cost compared to this one. We scored!

What are you using for your cake topper?