A pair of white doves adorns a traditional wedding cake. Doves are a powerful symbol: To the Chinese they embody faithfulness and longevity; to the ancient Romans, they represented Venus, the goddess of love. Our millinery doves perch on a beaded birdbath; they are framed by an arbor of cotton lily-of-the-valley and silk maidenhair fern, motifs repeated in the royal icing on the cake.

Tools and Materials 
Small Styrofoam birdbath
Foam glue
Scrap of cardboard for spreading the glue
Two hanks of white seed beads
6 stems of cotton lily-of-the-valley
2 branches of silk maidenhair fern
Hot-glue gun
Hank of alabaster-colored seed beads
2 millinery doves.

Dove Topper How-To 
1. Working from base, spread the foam glue in a 1-inch band all the way around the Styrofoam birdbath. Attach the strands of white beads by spiraling them around the birdbath (above left). Continue adding the glue and coiling the beads up the sides and onto the top until you have a 1/4-inch-wide band on top.

2. Arrange the lily-of-the-valley and fern branches into two half-arches (above right); insert their stems into the center of the Styrofoam birdbath and secure them, using the hot-glue gun.

3. Glue on the strands of alabaster beads to fill in the top of the birdbath, spiraling toward the center.

4. Hot-glue doves in place.