This is somewhat of a vent and also to find out if anyone else has had this issue and how they would handle it. Sorry if this is a bit long...
I booked a wedding cake over a year ago with a terrific couple. They paid timely and were a dream come true to work with. I made my sketches up and they approved them all was a go.. I had to drive the cake 6+ hours to get to their venue... which was a beautiful B&B right off the ocean in Newport Oregon. I made certain I left early so that I could get there on time and set up and out of the way. I had a 3 tier cake with sugar shells and sugar driftwood and some sugar floral edible sand etc. (in my pictures.. or should be .. uploading now) I packed my shells and sand and floral all seperate to make the trip down there and planned to add them when I set up the cake. I arrived and entered the b&b dressed in my chef jacket and apron with my business name on it clearly there to make a delivery. I waited for several minutes as I was being deliberately ignored by staff who just did not want to deal with me. I finally get to speak to whom I can only assume is the owner as she never introduced herself. I explain I am there to set up the " " family wedding cake and she says ok.. and so I proceed to ask her where I should begin to set it up. She then points me to a marble bar that measures maybe a foot and 1/2 by 4 foot long, that has a wedding license and some other very important paper work. As the rest of my staff and helpers come in with various parts .. stand, cakes etc. I begin to set the cakes and the stand to one end away from the paperwork and she (owner lady) runs up to me and says.. "you know what?!.. we make wedding cakes here too... just give me the stuff and I will finish the cake!" Then she sets this poodle she has been carrying down and reaches into my supplies box and grabs a handful of my sugar shells and says.. "What are these?.. chocolate?" and drops them all back into the box! I looked a little something like this So.. even though I was trying to keep my cool I turned to my helper and said.. I do not believe the lack of professionalism here. I know I should have probably kept my mouth shut but I was sooo angry! I chased her down across the room and told her that if she was not ready for the cake I would be more than happy to bring it back when she had the table ready and was more prepared for me and packed everything up and came back an hour later to set up again.. all the while being scowled at by herself and her staff. Has anyone ever had such a thing happen? I was truly shocked and am still burning over this one. I would have glady came back at a later time if she was needing more time and would have said so from the start.. This is my first one of these and I am curious if I am going to run into more of these scenarios in the future.

not sure I clarified... I did NOT yell at this woman or behave nasty towards her at all and I did politely tell her I would come back later to set up the cake and I did... I just wished that she had told me from the start that she was not ready instead of telling me to set up on the bar and also wish that she had not touched my clients sugar pieces without hand washing or gloves and was really amazed that she would think she could take over putting my cake together when the only thing she had to go by was 3 coronelli iced cakes and boxes of sugar pieces.... just set me off a bit.

I haven't had anything like that happen, but I did have a security guard at a venue tell me he thought my cascading cakes would look better positioned differently. I politely thanked him for his input and informed him that I was setting them up the way the couple asked for them and he left me alone. He was the only person there though so I made sure I took a picture of the cakes in case he decided to move them where he thought they looked best after I left They watch one episode of Ace of Cakes and everyone is a cake decorator I would say in the future that if this happens I would probably just respond that you are responsible for all of your cakes until they are finished so you can't allow someone else to set them up as that isn't part of your contract with the bride.

Her: (touching shells)
Me: "What the hell are you doing?????!!!!!!!!"

I have used phrases such as "Touch that and die" and "I have a knife in my hand .... I wouldn't enter my space right now".

I mean, geesh, it's "just a cake"!

I would have had a very hard time controlling my foot just itching to kick her in the shin for touching the shells!!!!

The fact that she touched them AFTER holding a dog is SO GROSS! I would have been very professionally BLUNT. Sounds like she was mad, cause she didn't get to do the wedding cake. I think I would let the bride know after the event.