I'm NERVOUS! Yikes!

[2010]

Someone has referred me to a bride to make her wedding cake. Gawd I'm nervous! It's one thing to make wedding cakes (or other cakes) for friends and family but boy it's a whole other ball game when you make one for a complete stranger. Technically, I have made wedding cakes before (4 so far including my own) and I always swore the last one I make will be MY LAST ONE! But now I'm on the verge of a 5th one.

This "someone" happens to be the bride's caterer and knows about me through another wedding he catered. I happended to make the cake for that wedding because the bride is friend of mine. Her cake was all chocolate and this bride wants an all chocolate cake as well in place of the traditional English fruit cake, (I'm currently living in the UK) hence the referral to me.

I've never gone through the official routine of ordering a wedding cake. I made my own. People I've baked for just tell me what they want or don't want and let me do it. I never made anyone sign a contract.

I've talked to the bride's mother and set up a meeting. (Like I really know what I'm doing) I know the date and how many people are attending. I also know the cake is going to be the main dessert. Could any experienced eG wedding cake makers, even brides who have gone through this process give me any advice. What I should know to ask the bride, how much to charge etc. Would really appreciate it.

We're meeting in early March.

Thanks

[Sunny Simmons Steincamp]

Ooh! Excitement! Congrats and good luck. No words of wisdom from me, as I'm in the same place you were until this gig came up... do 'em a lot for friends & family, but have never done one "for hire." Hope all goes well... I'll be interested in hearing everyone's responses here!

[SushiCat]

I have only done wedding cakes informally as well. SOME bakeries here do something interesting, they make sheet cakes which are cut / served and the display wedding cake is just a display. Seems odd, but saves stress and money (perhaps).

The other thing I can offer is to decide what your role is e.g. are you just deliverying the cake and someone else is cutting / serving etc., if so, does that person know what they are doing - you know because of the whole serving wedding cake thing.

Also it is normal to charge by the serving. Do not sell yourself short. In fact you might want to take the time to call a few bakeries to find out how they charge for wedding cakes etc.

Anyway, not much help am I. Best of luck with this and let us know what you make and how it all turns out!

[lorinda]

Ask the bride for any fabric swatches / what flowers are in the bouquets, what if any theme of the wedding, theme colour; doing this you can gauge how 'bridezilla' the bride is.

Ask for 30% deposit to secure the day, plus the balance payable at least 2 weeks prior.

Ask for any (refundable) deposit to cover any cake plates etc that you want returned.

Provide an instruction/cutting sheet to venue informing them where and how many dowels etc, need to be removed prior to cutting.

[Melanger]

OK, so I might know a thing or two about cake, but then I had to fed-ex the sisterin-laws wedding cake to Nashville Tn, from Las Vegas, NV. Trust me - I screwed up in a way, mainly in that the internal structure, i.e., the doweling was way insufficeint for the size and temperature zone, but fortunately everyone was tipsy enough before it was realised, plus the catering manager had no friggin' clue. I think................Nevertheless I was introduced at the wedding for my efforts and had the benefit of drunk passengering past Johhny Cash's old house in Hendersonville, Tn (where the wedding really was) before careening home to Bellemeade. The whole thing was great - my whole screwed up methodlolgy of building ALL cakes upside down payed off

(sis-in-law thrilled!!!) I got to have a fabby night of experiencing old Nashville from hubby who grew up there and thrilling the local belles in the process. Not bad for a chain smoking amazon from the West!!!!

[Melanger]

The point was....YOU can DO it!!!!!!!!

[JeanneCake]

I usually start off by filling out a form with the bride and groom's name/addr/phone and email. You want to know the event location (address). Whether the ceremony is held there as well as the reception (for delivery time) and what time the ceremony and reception start. How many guests will be served? Is the cake going to be the only dessert or part of a larger selection? (And if the custom in your area is to provide the top tier for later, keep that in mind.)

Ask about colors in the wedding - what are the attendants wearing? What sort of florals are being used (are there just bouquets or floral centerpieces for the guest tables as well)? What color flowers? What does the invitation look like? They may even bring dress pictures to the meeting, which will help. Since inspiration for design can come from any element (floral, the design on the invite or embroidery on a dress) it helps to see all of this.

Find out if they have pictures of cakes they like; if you don't have a portfolio of your work, get magazines for them to look at during the meeting.

Find out what they'd like to sample for flavors during their meeting. Once you have all the design info, and they are looking at pictures, bring out the samples. Sometimes people send out a "take away box" of samples, but I don't like this since you don't know what they'll do with it (leave it in the car for hours while shopping?) and you want your cakes presented in the best possible way! Offer a glass of water, it is always appreciated.

Once you have a design worked out/agreed on, you can either give them a range for price and then follow it up a few days later with a firm proposal; or give them the proposal at that time. Decide on what you want for a deposit and is this refundable or not (if they change their mind)? When do you reconfirm all the details (one month prior?) and then when the balance is due. If they are using items (stands, pillars, etc) are you going to require a deposit on them? You need to spell out how those items should be returned - will you go to collect them (charging for your time) or does the family need to return them within a week of the wedding. You want to make sure that you're covering your costs and ingredients, so don't sell yourself short!

Good luck! You'll do great!

[Tweety69bird]

Congratulations! You will get loads of great advice on here, there's many people who have done wedding cakes.

I've done a few, so here's what I would offer as advice:

-Don't feel pressure to agree to something you are uncomfortable doing.

-Ask all the questions you want to ask.

-Take notes on everything the bride says so you're not guessing later on.

-Be confident when you're asking the questions (that's what I did and it WORKS!), remember they've probably never ordered a wedding cake before...

-Do a search on the net for wedding cake forms to get an idea of what information others look for.

-Make up your contract so that it has all of the info on there that you think is critical. Have 2 copies to sign, one for you and one for them.

-As others said, have books and/or portfolio ready with ideas

-Get contact names where you will be delivering the cake and find out what time you should be there.

-Have all the non edible parts ready as soon as you can so they're done and you don't have to worry about it.

-Make a timeline for everything that has to be done.

-Definately don't sell yourself short. Charge accordingly. Do your homework before you meet with them so you have a good idea of what the competition charges. You should be charging more because it's dessert servings.

-I provide a small tasting cake once all the details have been worked out and I try to do a mini version of the actual cake. This goes over very well, but it is more work, and I include it in the cost of the main cake.

-You said you know how many people are coming, so have it figured out what your tier sizes should be. If it's a lot of people you can do a smaller cake and have other sheet cakes sent right to the kitchen as SushiCat said. This would be more economical for them.

-Have an emergency kit ready to bring with you on delivery. Mine had royal icing, buttercream in the colour I used on the cake, scissors, gloves, a small spatula, a camera(!!)

-Absolutely have a deposit for the non edible parts of the cake that you want returned to you. Otherwise you might as well kiss them goodbye.

-Bring a friend with you to help with opening doors etc... and keeping you calm.

Good luck!!!! Keep us posted!!

[2010]

Wow! Thanks for all your advice and encouragement everyone! You're starting to put my mind at ease but I'm still nervous. One advice I keep reading is to not sell myself short. I'll keep that in mind as I meet my "clients" face to face. Will let you know how things pan out. Stay tuned....

[K8memphis]

Some ideas for you.

You decide when to deliver the cake and it's generally two hours before the wedding if the reception immediately follows. OR generally two hours before the reception. I mean unless there's some extenuating circumstance. Like it's in a home and no one will be there or something.

I give a soft delivery time so no one stresses out especially me. Delivering cakes can be stressful enough without factoring in an exact delivery appointment time. You want enough wiggle room to be able to make possible repairs etc. Forgot the topper, forgot the plateau, the bride was only kidding about chocolate icing (hahaha yeah that's real funny!)

I always get the phone numbers of mob and who is decorating the reception and when they will be there. Get groom's phone # too. I like to get the florist's phone number and other available vendors.

I make sure that the cake table is decorated first. That if it's a 7PM wedding, the cake table must be ready for set up by 5. I get names & numbers of whosoever is in charge of the tables and when they will be there. Sometimes, decorating is done the day before and the place can be locked until the wedding guests start arriving for the reception.

Always take a picture at the venue. Go buy a disposable camera if you need to. This is your irrefutable 'receipt' that the cake was positioned thus and thus in the room and it was not leaning and blablabla.

If you take checks for deposits on equipment, cash them. Checking accounts close and people move when they get married.

Whatever you do, do not undercut the local wedding cake sellers prices. That's not nice.

Now the deal about dessert size portion or traditional size portion is up to you also. I have been to functions where they milked 50 servings out of a 25 serving cake. If someone wants to serve a larger serving than the traditional size, then they order more servings. If someone has Aunt Louise's twin 15 year old girl's cutting their cake they need extra servings. Who cuts the cake is very important in determining the servings.

Boxes are our friend. Keep the cake out of the sunlight during delivery so nothing fades/melts on the way. Make your boxes and any other peripherals well in advance of the event. The less you have to do last minute the better. Plan where each box will go in the vehicle. Get some of that nubbly shelf liner to put under cakes and under the boxes so they don't slide in transit.

For a first cake like this, I would do everything at least one day ahead of when I normally would have done it. I can advise that handily because I sure wish I had backed everything up a full day when I did do my first cakes

You'll do great.