wedding tastings

[sugarseattle]

I am curious all you wedding cake providors how you handle your tastings with brides and such.

I am considering revamping how we do our tastings to make them closer to our vision of flavor being the most important component.

[chefpeon]

In my last shop, the "tastings" were separate from an actual wedding cake consultation.

Once a month or once a week, depending on what time of season it was, we advertised a "tasting party" where anyone could come and taste all our flavors of cakes and fillings. We would bake up a layer or two of each flavor cake we did, cut each layer into little cubes, put all our fillings in little bowls, including our buttercreams, and even samples of fondant, cut into flower shapes.

This way people could take any cake cube, sample it with any flavor filling and come up with their own favorites. Also on hand we had our portfolios for customers to browse through to see cake designs and pricing tiers for different styles.

We had a person on hand to answer basic questions and make appointments for the actual consultation for the wedding cake design.

At the consultation, the whole choice of flavors was pretty much in the bag, since the couple had come to the tasting and already knew what they wanted. Then in the consultation, we could hash over the other stuff like the design, number of servings, reception venue, delivery time....etc etc.

It was a very efficient way to do things. This so far, has been my favorite way of doing it.

Regarding the actual consultation, it was complimentary with a $50 deposit to reserve your wedding date. The $50 was included in the final price of the cake. If they didn't want to put any money down, then their date was not guaranteed. Also, additional consultations were charged at an hourly rate, since there's no reason you can't nail down a cake flavor and design in one consultation. Believe me, we had people that would change their minds all the time, and we charged them every time they came in to change something. This was a great incentive to get people to make their decision in one appt. only.

[chefpeon]

*bump*

Doesn't anyone else have anything to offer Stephanie about how they handle wedding cake sampling and consultations?

[beacheschef]

My wedding cake business is much smaller, not the main focus of my work, so I handle tastings in a different way. I don't have my own shop, so I meet my customers at their house (or the bride's parent's house).

I'll meet with the customers - usually the Mother and bride-to-be - to discuss what they want the wedding cake to look like and taste like. This is more of a first meeting / brainstorming session. During that time I narrow down flavors that the bride and groom really like and talk about ways I can incorporate their flavors into wedding cake. We sketch cake designs and narrow down what the cake will look like.

Sometimes they'll reserve me for their wedding at this meeting with an estimated 50% deposit. I do let them know that their date isn't reserved until they pay the deposit.

At this point we often schedule a tasting in the near future. I'll take their suggested flavors and describe cakes I would make from these ideas, using cake, syrups, fillings, ganaches, etc..... The customer lets me know if this sounds good and we pick a date for the tasting.

I'll take my notes from the meeting, type up a contract with as much detail as I have, including proposed cake flavors and other details, sketches (I'll often do a sketch in color, scan it and send it with the e-mail). I e-mail it to the customer.

Via e-mail we can narrow down cake flavor choices and cake exterior if we didn't do it earlier. Delivery info, contact phone numbers, cake stand choices, etc. are obtained at the meeting and added to the contract.

At the tasting I'll have 2-3 small cake samples with fillings, syrup, etc. We talk as they taste and finalize flavors. If I haven't gotten the downpayment yet, this is the time to get it.

This method takes much more time, but by the time I get to the tasting the customer is pretty qualified. I'm planning to start charging a fee for the tastings, which is applied to the cost of the wedding cake if I get the business.

Feedback from customers has been really positive - because the bride and groom really get a "custom" wedding cake - they choose all of the components and feel that this cake is their own creation. (Yeah - I help that thought process along!) They really like the ability to choose - that alone has gotten me quite a number of referrals.

[JeanneCake]

I have clients taste cake when we meet for a consultation, but sometimes I make cupcakes for them to pick up if they are from out of town and have a limited amount of time on a weekend and we can't meet because of that schedule.

What works for me is to have the client choose from a list of flavors or provide some ideas for things they want to try that aren't on the menu. I used to assemble square cakes, cut them into individual pieces and freeze the slices so they'd be ready at a moment's notice but it got to a point where I couldn't have one of everything available and if someone didn't want a particular flavor it might go to waste.

So now I do it more like Annie's; I have the client choose what they want to taste, and like Sylvia Weinstock, I give them a plate with scoops of flavored buttercreams and circles of cake so they can mix and match and put together a flavor they like and will work as their dessert.

I have a sheet that gets filled out at the meeting with date/ceremony start/reception start/guest count/venue name & contact/florist name $ contact as well as the photographer. There's space for me to write notes about colors, style, etc and on the back of the sheet I sketch the design ideas we come up with. I make a copy of the front sheet for the client which includes a description of what we've come up with (e.g., 3 tier round, white fondant, embroidery design, fresh flower top), an estimated price, delivery charge and utility cake price. There's a paragraph describing the policy (dates are held at no obligation for 30 days but no date is secure without a deposit, payment must be received 5 days in advance, when to confirm count/flavor/details, etc.) and the reason I don't give them a copy of the sketch is because I've had clients take my sketch to a competitor and there's always someone who will do it cheaper. Once I get a deposit, I make a copy of the entire sheet and send it to them as confirmation.