SO, I have an order for a wedding cake May 22. A 450.00 order at that. Should have been paid any time now. She calls me this last sunday... oh by the way I've had to reschedule my wedding for AUGUST!!.
......AND she wants another consultation with more cake samples because the whole style fo the wedding has changed and she wants to see other options.
I told her the cake has not changed any, it's still good. But I could sit down and go over other design ideas.
At the time of her order I did not have a note in the contract about rescheduling like I do now. Can I charge her for the rescheduling? Should I charge for rescheduling?? I could offer her the samples to go along with that.
I don't want to lose the order but this kind of ticks me off.
What do you all suggest??
I've had brides come in a couple of times for design issues, but I dont' do cake samples the second time .... they've tasted my cake and they know what it tastes like. Like you said, it hasn't changed.
And I don't view a sampling as the time to "Let's taste everything on the menu so I can decide what I want to buy." (yeah....try THAT at Pizza Hut!). It's a time for them to see if they like my style of baking. My lemon cake will taste just as good as my white cake except it will taste like lemon.
If it was me ......... I'd do another appt for design changes, but no sampling. If she wants cake AGAIN (and I'd be SURE to make the very same flavors she had before, because I can be a b*tch like that!), I'd charge her $25 or $50 for it. 
I would charge her.
She's already wasted your time. You've been rolling merrily along, planning a wedding cake due in two WEEKS, and she springs this on you now? The wedding date is no longer valid? did she ever for one second think that you most likely had turned down other orders because hers has been on the books for a while now?
Your contract is for the May date. Even if you don't have a note in there about rescheduling, the fact remains that she's asking for you to cancel the contract 2 weeks prior to the date. What's your usual policy for last minute cancellations?
I curently have a contract that says that if it cancles with in 10 days it is 100% mine. No refunds. I'm thinking I'm going to change that to 20 days.
I could say the 75.00 dep is not transfersble to the new date and just start over with that. Woulden't that be the same as with any vendor like a catering or a reception place??
I have turned down a lot of orders in anticipation of doing her order.
I can see that I need to add some more detials to my contract. Anyone have a sections about all this that they can share.
If it was in your contract, you should be able to keep the deposit. I know I changed my date, but I also gave my cake person8 months notice, so she was cool with transfering my deposit. If I had given her 2 weeks notice I would have had to give her another deposit, cause like you said, she could have lost business saving my date for me. That is also my policy. 2 months notice or you lose your deposit. Of course if I can find someone else for that date, I'll transfer your deposit. @ weeks is just not enough time when it comes to cakes!
If she wants samples, you definitely need to charge her for them. This isn't free cake world! Second, you need to keep her deposit for the wedding she cancelled in May and get more money from her for the August wedding. That's not fair that she is leaving you high and dry on that Saturday when you could have been making a lot more money! Let us know what happens!
I have turned down a lot of orders in anticipation of doing her order.
There's the reason you should keep the deposit and ask for another. You lost business because you had planned on making the cake for May. You had to turn away customers.
Bottom line, you lost money. Simple as that.
And I think I would approach her like that: because this is very short notice and you have turned away business, you have to treat this as a cancellation. Therefore the deposit is forfeited. Also, because it is a cancellation, she will have to sign your NEW contract if she wants to book for August, and that new contract will have the stuff about cancellation AND about being paid MORE THAN TWO WEEKS IN ADVANCE!
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