Has anybody hosted an open house for sampling cakes and view cake portofollios for brides, planners, etc. How would these be organized?

Sorry I can't help you but I wold love to know too. Thanks for the post.

I havent done a wedding open house,not yet anyway,I have done a holiday open house for two years now and its been a big hit both times.

How did you organize it? How did the guest keep the cake flavors they were testing straight? Did you use a map, was each sample marked, etc.?

Every fall I put out a new holiday menu,so I decided to do a open house to drum up business and get people interested.

What i did last year was this........................I had 20 items on my menu.I made the cake,pie or cheesecake for display only(so people could see what it looked like,when they order it)then I made the dessert again for the sample.I had my entire shop set up so people could come thru and take a sample and see the cake.

When they came thru the door I gave them my menu for a guide line.........my open house was for two hours only.......I had a line outside my door for a solid 2 hours straight it was CRAZY!!

It was so busy I didnt take any orders that nite.....just couldnt.But boy did the orders come in

This year will be my third year doing it..........and there is definately some improvements to be made ,Im in the process of working that out right now..because lets face it we are half way thru the year and the holidays are right around the corner

I'am thinking of doing a wedding open house next year,Jan or Feb not sure how to work that out yet.

I was going to post pictures of my holiday open house but I cant find my disc I'll keep looking.

Hope this helps
Johnnie Sue

What a wonderful idea!!! I would love to attend an open house for a baker/decorator!!! No one where I live has done this, but it sounds fabulous!
Every now and then, when I don't have time to bake for me, I will hire someone for my cravings and an open house would be a fabulous way to be tempted
Good luck on year number 3! And you are so right....the holidays will be here in a flash!

That is just an awesome idea! I would think that you could do a holiday/bridal event all at once...now you have my mind going!

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-253471.html

here is a forum where someone (sorry dont remember who right now) postet her results after a taste test night.
Maybe she can give you some idea of what to do...

Ohhh just remembered... it was CupOfButter that postet it