C.A.M - Looking Back at the January Cake

Ok, so now that I've finished making the January cake and also eaten part of it I can start going over some of the mistakes I think I made and things I will do differently first time around.
So in my post from yesterday I showed pictures of the cake once I had finished decorating it. After writing that post I went out to see a movie with DH for his birthday and do some shopping, and when we came home 5 hours later disaster had struck. Once again my cake was afflicted with the battle of the bulge. This time was far worse than last months episode, the flowers had sunk down into the cake, it was bulging and rippling all over the sides, it basically looked like it had melted :(

Unfortunately I didn't take any photos (well I avoided taking any photos because I'm too embarrassed!) but I think I know where I went wrong and what to do next time. For starters, I don't think I'll use lemon curd in my fondant covered cakes again. I think it's just too wet, the very middle of the cake got soggy from soaking up the lemon curd which I think is the reason that the top of the cake sank. I think the cake's sinking let too much air escape which caused a lot of the rippling and bulging. It didn't seem to be so much from the dam not being stiff enough as that looks like one of the few areas where the cake actually held up. (Although next time around I'm still going to try an even stiffer dam!!)
I also don't think that I'll freeze my cakes before filling and stacking them again, next time I think I'll let them cool, put them in the fridge overnight, then level, fill and stack them the next day. Once that's all done I can put it in the freezer, but not before. From what I've read, this somehow has to do with the bulge occuring.
Another thing I'll do next time is compress each layer as I stack them. I've read online from other bakers who press a cake board down on each layer before placing the next layer on top, so they compress the cake and squeeze out the air as they go.
I don't know what more to say, I'm very disappointed by the cake bulging (again!), although I know I should be really proud of what I achieved considering it's only my 2nd fondant covered cake. I think I would feel a lot better about it if my in-laws hadn't seen it! They're pretty much like the perfect family so I always feel very inadequate compared to them; my whole life lately seems to revolve around being who I think they want me to be and constantly feeling like a failure. *Sigh* But that's a whole other post for another day!!! Lol!