I'm gonna say this... By the way your post sounds I know you are truly sorry for this mistake.. and that is what it was. I don't know what to tell you because they did serve the cake and DID NOT contact you....

Am I missing whether the cakes looked alike?

I feel so bad for you!!!!! All I can say is I'M SOOO SORRY !!!


You will do what you know is right.. then just go on with it.. they ate it.. they weren't without a cake...

and I promise you... YOU DID NOT RUIN THEIR DAY!!! SO chin up my friend and no worries it is behind you

(((((Hugs))))

I have to agree with someone in this thread that 100% refund is due to both brides. Even the one who is not asking for a refund. You did not live up to your contract, and therefore should give all the $ back to each bride.

Oh Wow!!! That is a horrible mistake for everyone concerned. I'm sure we can all feel for you in this situation and you are right to hope that you have learned from your mistake and will take better care not to go thru this again. However, I'm sure from the brides view, she feels she had a contract with you in which you did not meet and I'm sure she feels justified in asking for the refund.

I'm not trying to bash you. I feel like the others that this warrents a full 100% refund. She may tell others about this, but she will also be left with the fact that you as an honest, straight forward business person corrected your mistake.

I'm sooo sorry to hear you had what turned out to be a bad weekend, but things will get better.

I honestly believe you should refund 100% to both brides. I would send each refund in a beautiful card with an apology.

I feel bad that they got mixed up also.. I am sorry that happened. But if I was you I wouldnt not refund the whole amount back because they still served the cake I would refund them everything but a portion of the material cost that way you can still get some of the amount back from them eating the cake. I mean they still got cake to eat and like my husband said part of the value of a cake is for the looks and elegance of it on the table, SO if their designs were not mixed up then I would only refund some of it back.

Hope you are able to figure everything out..

I feel the same as the other members, it's unfortunate that it happened to you, but I would give a full refund to both the brides.
Remember that you've worked so hard to build up your reputation, something like this will travel far and wide, and once it's lost, there is no way that you can gain back that trust of customers again.
It may be money out of your pocket but it's something you'll have to do to protect your good name.
You learn something everyday! Remember- afterall tomorrow is another day!

I feel so bad for you ((((((hugs))))))

Hope this helps.

~Vicky.

Yep, I'm with those who said you should refund 100% to both brides. I know that really hurts, especially when you consider all the costs for ingredients and supplies and time spent, but hopefully you won't lose future clients if you do right by these two and might even gains some extra ones when they hear how you rectified the situation.

Oh, and some one else (DebBTX) also mentioned the apology card; I think that is a great idea. You obviously feel terrible about this, let them know. Inserting into the cards a gift certificate for 10% off future cakes is not a bad idea neither as it will encourage them to return and recommend you to relatives and friends in spite of the mistake (most likely). It shows you care.

(((((Hugs))))) to you!

Thankfully I can ONLY do 1 wedding per week. Sorry to hear about your problems.

well i feel you should give something to her some money or another cake....you spent time and money into supplies... i would write a nice letter to her or talk to her and let her know....i would not give back the whole refund.... making cakes are not cheap and not free....what would a upscale bakery do like....... charm city cakes what would they do......hmmmm

I agree to both 100% refund. I am a bit confused though - Did you deliver the wrong cake to each party or did you make the right design but with the wrong flavors?

Were they both the same number of servings? Same number of tiers? Same color? Same general design? Was the only difference that one bride also had a sheet cake for serving purposes?

What I'm getting at - is obviously each bride ordered a specific design and neither got what they were invisioning. Yes, they both served a beautiful and yummy cake - but not what they invisioned. I know at my wedding, I didn't see the cake until I entered the hall with my new husband for dinner. Even if I had seen it prior to, I would be too busy with other things to find a cell phone, find my cake lady's phone number and deal with it.

It sounds like you have a full on cake business and you are not just doing it as a side hobby. I am glad you have a contract in place, but this situation was one you never dreamed about. I agree that your reputation is on the line - you can make it a win win for everyone. Do you have pictures you are willing to post to this user ID so we can see them?

Keep us posted as to their responses. Then let it be water under the bridge.

i am so sorry this happened to you.

I understand you must feel aweful. The blessing in this situation is that atl east there were no mix ups regarding food alergies. It's not nice to get the wrong flavor of cake but is certainly devastating to get a cake you are alergic to.

your pride might be hurt but it sounds like you will recover your reputation by offering an appropriate refund.

Oh, I am so sorry this happened!!! I would agree (and thought this from reading the first responses) that you should refund 100% to both brides! I know that is a lot, but like others said, even the bride who said she didn't want a refund will be telling this story...and you don't want the public to hear what happened without her telling the "happy ending". As for the bride who wants the refund, I would certainly give her ALL of her money back, and a free anniversary (or other party cake). It seems like a lot, but depending on where you are, and how big your business is, news travels FAST! If this is your livelihood, you have to go over and beyond what you think you should do.

I appreciate your honesty in telling us about this situation! You have helped us all by making sure we are all careful the next time we deliver multiple orders!

I hope you are ok, and don't fret...we all make mistakes!

Thanks for sharing, you are strong! Don't let this get you down!

Oh my goodness. I am so sorry this happened to you. I would have to agree about the refunding. If the one bride doesn't want a refund, then tell her you'll give her so much off of her next cake. Perhaps you could keep this in mind a year from now and make them each a nice anniversary cake--maybe give them a gift certificate for them.

I just can't imagine how badly you must feel. Just keep your chin up and know that all of your CC friends are sympathizing with you.

Diane

I can understand how bad you must feel. So sorry. However, I agree. The bride should not pay anything at all.

I'm also sorry this happened. But, I agree with your decision to refund the money. And understand, the day of the wedding, the bride is too busy to look at the cake and may not know about the cake to call. They have so much going on, the cake is not their first priority. But, hopefully, you can move on and some of us can learn from your oops.

I'm very confused. Were the designs, colors, sizes the SAME, or different?

ITA with posters about giving a full refund less the correct sheet cake, unless the ONLY difference between the two cakes was flavor. If all they got was the wrong flavor but they did get the design they asked for then I'd be more apt to give partial refunds.

Re: not contacting you sooner - like PP, on my own wedding day I didn't see the cake until I walked into the reception hall after the ceremony. It never occurred to me that anything would go wrong with it. And if something had, I would have called the cake lady after the reception, or probably even the next day. Why interrupt everything to call the cake lady?

Also, I find it so strange when bakers say that they will give less of a refund because the cake was served. What are you supposed to do at a wedding (or even just a regular party) with the wrong cake? Just have no dessert? IMHO that would be far worse for business than the refund would be, because word would spread throug hthe reception that the reason there is no cake is that the wrong one was delivered. Guests would say think that was weird that it wasn't just being served anyway, and what would you tell them? My cake lady won't give me a refund if you eat this cake? If I was a guest at a wedding and the bride said that, I would ask who the cake lady was and let it the word spread. Delivering the wrong cake (or having it collapse, or whatever) is bad enough, but then to expect a bride to just not serve any cake at all - have no pics of a cake cutting! - is just adding insult to injury.

By the way, I'm not saying all of this to be harsh to the OP!!! I really am sorry that this happened. Everyone makes mistakes - just make the best of it and move on! It will be okay. My comments above are just generically about the idea that if they served the cake they somehow deserve less of a refund.

I just want to say, I am sorry this happened to you and thank you for sharing so that we can all learn from this situation. I know it will all turn out well for you!

I see that everyone is already in agreement as far as opinions are concerned so I won't throw mine out there. I just wanted to say that I'm SO sorry that this happened. I think that you should just take comfort in the fact that this is the kind of mistake that will NEVER happen again. That is really the only thing that you can do at this point. I hope all goes well for you.

I agree that a full refund should be given to both brides. From your original post it sounds like each bride got the other one's cake. If that's the case then they both received the completely wrong order. Someone wondered what a big bakery would do. I can tell you. My friend got married a couple of years ago (before I started doing cakes) and she ordered her wedding cake from a large chain store. She ordered a three tiered cake with purple flowers. When she picked it up the day of her wedding the cake had bunches of purple grapes on it instead of purple flowers. The cake was beautiful, but it wasn't what she had ordered. Of course, they didn't have time to fix it as it was her wedding day and she had to have cake to serve to 200 guests so they refunded all of her money and let her take the cake they made for her anyways. I think that was a very nice thing of them to do, but I still insisted I would never order a cake for something important from them because they messed hers up. Word travels fast and something like giving someone the wrong wedding cake can really ruin your reputation so you might want to consider going above and beyond to make the situation right.

Please give the brides their money back and let them move on as well as yourself. At my daughters recent wedding I was unhappy when I saw her cake because it was leaning, not horrible but being a baker we notice. My daughter didn't see her cake until after the ceremony. Everyone there said the cake tasted GREAT. I never mentioned the leaning to my daughter until after her honeymoon, why stress over something you can do nothing about at the time. However when I asked my daughter weeks later if she called the bakery to complain, she said no, she was done with the wedding and that a little lean in the cake didn't stop her wedding from being perfect to her, so just let it go. That's what you need to do and the brides as well. Give them their money back if they want it and let go so it doesn't become a bad memory of a beautiful day

I just saw this thread and wanted to throw my opinion out there. I think a refund is in order to both brides, BUT I don't think you should refund 100%. They each got a cake and it was edible. I think you should deduct the cost of ingredients and give the rest back as a refund and offer to make a free anniversary tier.

Either way you do it, I think a refund is appropriate. I'm sure you've already chosen what you are going to do, but I just wanted to throw my opinion out there. Sorry this happened to you though.

I would refund the entire amount as well. Word of mouth is a powerful thing. Hopefully the upset bride will will share her experience and be sure to tell everyone how well you handled the situation. Good luck with this. Don't be so hard on yourself - this could happen to anyone with two brides with the same first name on the same weekend.