Hey all!
I have a 200 wedding cupcakes order coming up in 2 weeks and just got a call from the bride that she wants to add 100 cupcakes to her order. The cupcakes are all filled and some even have cream cheese icing. Being that the bride is a friend of mine, I did not charge her to fill them or for the cream cheese icing, so she is already getting a deal.
I am doing these cupcakes entirely by myself and adding 100 cupcakes would really make it a VERY tedious task. How do I go about doing this for her and not giving myself a ton more work to do? Tell her I can do them, but not fill any of them? Charge a fee for changing the order so close to the wedding? HELP!

I would either charge her for the extra. Let her know that you were doing it as a gift but adding more is a lot of work for one person and if she could pay you for the extra

She needs to pay for the additional servings. The ONLY way I'd do it for free is if I told her the WHOLE cake/cupcake setup was free.

Lesson here...use a contract that addresses these kinds of issues, even with friends and family...even if you don't want to have them sign one, give them one to read so they know how things should go. A contract sets what you've agreed to. Any changes to that mean you have to come to a new agreement. A bride cannot just add, unless you agree that you can/will do it. It's not a given that just because she wants to add, or her numbers change that you have to accommodate it. A contract implies that you have to come to a new agreement.

In the meantime, if you're willing to add the 100, tell her that at this point you can sell her an additional 100 if she is willing to pay for you to hire someone to help you get it done.

Thats a lot of extra cupcakes for less than what you usually charge, not to mention a lot of extra work. If you feel its too much, tell her sorry but 200 is enough for you to handle. If you're okay with making the extra cupcakes, charge her for the full cost. Deals are great but its not so great when the person that getting the deal takes advantage of the person giving it.

Let's break this down a little.

If you can get 2 pans of 12-cavity in your oven at once, you can bake 24 cupcakes at one time, which means you will do approximately 4 baking batches (+1 for the extra). At about 15 minutes a batch, that's only one hour baking time.

Using the long tip for filling, you can have these filled in about 15 minutes. Not sure how you are icing them (detailed or swirled) but if it's a simple swirl, put them in the box/carrier, then pipe the big swirl on them. If it takes you 30 minutes to do this, I'll be surprised.

Add an hour or so for mixing and clean up, and you're only looking at less than 3 hours worth of work. If you can only bake one 12-cavity pan at a time, then it's under 4 hours work.

Don't panic ..... I'm confident you can do it.

You mentioned that you are not charging her for the filling and cream cheese icing, so I assume this means you ARE charging her for the cupcakes.

WHY does she suddenly need an additional 100 cupcakes? Has someone convinced her to serve more than one per guest or something? Surely she knew how many people she invited?

It sounds like she is unsure about her original decision for some reason. Two weeks before the event is no time to suddenly invite 100 more people. I'm guessing she doesn't need those extra 100. I'd talk to her to find out why.

Oh, cheatize, that is an excellent observation!

Wonder if it's the old "just in case" thinking? When I was a kid, I'd hear the women ALWAYS telling brides to order extra cake "just in case". Over the years, I figured out they meant "just in case more people showed up than you planned." I always thought it was funny that they didn't get extra chicken salad sandwiches "just in case", or extra chicken "just in case". Nope ..... all of these extra people were evidently going to show up JUST for the cake!

This won't help you this time but maybe in the future. There was a similar thread a week or so ago. Someone said she gives family/friends, etc. a gift certificate for $200, $500 what ever it is she wants to "gift" to the person. Then charges them the usual amount minus the gift certificate. That way you don't get taken advantage. That way the person can order a cake up to the value of the gift certificate or choose to order a more expensive cake and know they are going to have to pay the difference. Sounded like a really great way to eliminate a lot of problems.

Yes, it is 50% more than she originally ordered. Yes, it is 50% more work for you. So, it should be 50% more payment too.
However, since she is a friend, you can do as you say and don't charge her more for the filling/cream cheese frosting, or a last minute change (although 2 weeks notice is not soooo last minute), but DO make sure she pays for the extra 100 cupcakes.
If you bake them and freeze them (could you also fill and freeze? I don't fill mine so I am unsure about this part) this will take out some of the stress for you. The day before delivery (or same day if delivery is not early), remove from freezer and decorate in the delivery boxes. You can do this while they are still frozen.
All this, assuming you are doing a fairly simple swirled icing decoration, not 300 intricate rounds of fondant with various flowers and embossing details on each...

I would suggest that you tell her that you've discounted the first 200 but for the extra 100 you would have to charge full price. She shouldn't expect anything less. You should have ample time though to do 100 if you have 2 weeks. Provided that they are just basic cupcakes (or even filled) but not fondant or extravagantly decorated.