I need pictures for my new website and a friend suggested HER friend who was trying to build her portfolio. In other words, I would be doing the friend a favor by letting her do my photography. Great, huh?

LAST NIGHT at 10:00 I get an e-mail from the budding photographer telling me that her best friend was in town to do cake tastings and not only could I do a cake tasting for them THIS MORNING, but since she was doing my pictures for free, could I please do her friend's wedding cake for free.

This is NOT a professional photographer! I AM a professional cake decorator! So why would this be an even trade? And we won't even talk about doing a cake tasting with 12 hours notice (8 of which I would hope to be sleeping!)

I wrote all kinds of snarky things and then settled on a polite response, but for corn's sake - do people think we have wedding cake samples sitting around the house?

And WHY do people always think it's no big deal for you to do a FREE wedding cake??

Sorry I flared.

That just burns me to read that. Why should you do it for free unless it's your daughter or some close relative? I had a whiney bride who complained about the price that I did the flowers on the cake for no cost as I thought she was really poor or something....stupid, stupid me...when I got there to set up her wedding hall was dripping of expensive....never, never will I fall for that one again...I am such a sucker...

Find someone like a relative who is good at photos....and give them a few bucks for it..then you will not feel obligated to anyone.

I also love the brides that advertise that they want free stuff for their wedding because they are poor...well whaa....get married at city hall then....lol!!

Yep, time to end this relationship unless it's within a professional - and by that I mean money exchanged for services - capacity. No more free or bartering.

Yeah, I think the real problem in this situation is the "middle man", (your friend), who is making promises on your behalf. People often overstep their bounds when it comes to things like this.

Just recently, a wealthy bride who wanted a free cake, told me that if I did her cake for free, her sister, who was an artist, would come to my house and give me 20% off a mural painting in my kids room. (huh...) The kicker was that the mural costs $2,000. The cake only costed $275.

Honestly, I don't let my kids paint on the walls for free, why would I pay a cheap bride's sister $1600 to do it?...Some people...

Simple problem here: She has no idea how much time, work and money goes into making a wedding cake.

I realise that there is time, money and work that goes into pictures, but I can totally see how this could end as an unequal trade.

Now if she offered to take pictures of a whole wedding for you in place of a wedding cake, then maybe, but a dozen or so pictures for a wedding cake (which can grow in size and detail.)

I had a friend that likes photography come over and take pictures of my cakes for the ICES convention. He offered, and spent about an hour taking pictures. Then went home and spent another hour or two reducing sizes, adjusting lightly and emailed me atleast a dozen pictures that night. I have also since recieved a disk of all the pictures (as is) he took which were well over 150.

Would I have traded all that for a small cake? Probably, if he had asked. Would I have traded it for a wedding cake? Nope. Espeically not a large one. Maybe I'd discount off the time he spent working on my pictures off the final price, but it is just really hard to compair.

In the end he got cookies for doing me the favor, and he was totally happy with that. I was lucky, he did them because he wanted to, and actually had fun doing it.

I agree with Cathy. Favors and deals don't work when you aren't comparing apples and oranges. It would be best to find someone that knows what they are doing, has their prices set so that you can trade dollar amount for dollar amount, rather than pictures for a cake.

Some thing can happen with anyone else in a different trade. If my hair stylist wanted to trade me a cut/color for a cake, then she'd get a cake that was equal to what I would pay for the cut and color. She certainally wouldn't get a cake to serve 120 people when my cut/color only cost me $150. That wouldn't be a fair trade.

That is ridiculous. The only trade I do is actually with my hairstylist and that is I take the cost of a hair cut, style off the price of the cake. She pays the difference.

I would do the same, write what I really wanted to say, but end up sending the nicer more polite version.

ditto to everyone else that is saying base it off of monetary value. I trade with a photographer for family pics. My BF is in IT so between him and me we offer them cakes, computers, and IT service.

BUT... it's all based off of the monetary value. We have a running log between us of how much we spend on pictures and she gets that in cake/computers/service, but we both figure it off of our normal prices.

Once i type it out it sounds confusing to me, but i think the other said it better.

The nerve of some people! I do barter at times, but not full wedding cakes! that's just too much! People honestly have no idea what goes into cake making!

I trade with an established photographer all the time! I would have been happy with equal value trading (she's AMAZING, and I have 3 kids under 5- we get LOTS of pictures taken), but she offered 2:1 since, in her words, my expenses are greater than hers! BEST TRADE EVER!

I also trade with a photographer, although I think I'm getting the short end of the deal on it as it is now. I make cakes and I crochet and create stationery and photocards. I make cakes for her kids (4 girls) birthdays and I get a photo session with all photos on a CD for each cake she wants. She also gets crochet photo props and I've designed birthday invitations for her. I think it's time to reassess this one, now that I think about it. LOL

I think it would an even trade if she paid cost for the cake and your labor was free (as long as it was a simple cake). She's just starting out, but her time is worth something... and when she gets better and becomes a "real professoinal", you might be glad you have the connection.

the thing that gets me is this isn't even for HER- its for her FRIEND! Favors and bartering can't be applied to whomever they choose! If I were bartering for hair cutting services, I wouldn't call up the stylist with a few hours notice and inform her that she would now be doing my "friend's" hair in exchange for cakes- and for a style or application that is WAAAY more work!
The nerve.

I had the wife of a well known photographer in town ask me to do a 3 tiered bday cake for her daughter and 50 cupcakes as favors. I think I quoted her around $300 and she said that was too much, I go to her husbands website and his prices start at $2000 for 8 hrs. Now I understand time spent editing but still I prob would of spent atleast 8 hrs on her stuff. She did order the cake but did the cupcakes herself and then posted on facebook about being up until 4 am doing them and how much work they were LOL

This just makes me angry reading it...grrrrrrrrrrrrr

I pay you for your services; you pay me for my services. Trading and bartering can only lead to problems. Been there...won't do it again!