As it was around the holidays and I had lots of other baking to do, I baked the cakes 2 weeks in advance and placed them in the freezer. This not only helps me be less stressed closer to delivery, but also makes for a moist cake that is easy to carve with less crumbs. I also made the LMF (fondant) about a week in advance and tinted it the colours needed. 
The bottom tier started out with 3 layers of 9" round confetti cake (I doubled this recipe). After a week, I thought that the 3 layers were not tall enough and made another 2 - 9" rounds from cake mix. The middle tier was made out of 4 layers of 6" round chocolate cake (the only change I made to the recipe was adding some instant coffee to the boiling water, to enhance the chocolate flavour). The top tier was rice krispie treats cut into a cube. I filled and stacked both cakes with Italian meringue buttercream (IMBC). With the confetti cake, I alternated the scratch cake with the mix cake. This was important to do as the cakes had very different consistencies and colours, so not alternating would make it look very odd.
Then came the carving...this part was kind of stressful for me, as I was worried about the angles and accidentally cutting off too much, but the cake was very forgiving. I cut on an angle from the top corner down and then took the trianglular piece of cake off, inverted it and stuck it back on with icing to steepen the top angle. I also tappered the sides of the cake slightly to exaggerate the topsy turvy look. For the bottom tier, I made a flat area in the middle to fit the middle tier snugly. I put bubble tea straws vertically in this area to support the weight of the middle tier. (sorry I didn't take the picture after the straws were inserted) 
I then crumb coated the bottom tier with more IMBC and covered the middle tier with chocolate ganache. I realized at this point that both of these tiers were much too tall and removed 2 layers from the confetti cake and 1 layer from the chocolate. I started thinking what was the point of baking the extra 2 mix cakes, but realized I wouldn't have had the same height with just the 3 layers of scratch cake, so it wasn't a complete waste of time :)
It was probably past midnight, into the day of delivery and it was time for fondant :) There are some flaws in the fondant, but most of that was all covered with decorations. :)
A few days before delivery, I made the royal icing snow flakes. I drew snow flakes out on paper, covered it with wax paper and piped over it with a small icing tip. These dried for a few days to made sure they were hard. I made lots of extra snow flakes because they are super fragile and break easily when trying to attach to the cake with royal icing.
The top tier was done 2 days before delivery, I covered it in red fondant and white fondant ribbon. For the bow on the top, I made the small loops separately and let them dry over night before sticking it all together with royal icing. The 'tissue paper' for inside the box was rolled fondant, left to dry on an uneven surface. This tier was stuck to the middle tier with more royal icing.
The cake drum was covered in a thin layer of fondant (I did this last minute, but if I was to do it again, I'd do it in advance so the fondant wouldn't be so soft when putting the cake on). I cut out various sizes of red fondant circles and attached them to the middle tier with water. The snowman was made out of a 50:50 mix of fondant and gumpaste. I used tappits to make all of the letters.
After many many hours in the kitchen, the cake was ready for the box :)
They had a really nice set up and I think the cake fit nicely in it :) Happy First Birthday Zac!
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