Cheap People Make Me Mad!

Decorating By dholdenrn Updated 9 Sep 2010 , 2:19am by HelloCheesecake

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dholdenrn Posted 8 Sep 2010 , 9:11pm
post #1 of 29

I was contacted this week about doing a cake for next week for a kids first birthday. The mother wanted it to be two tiers, blue and green, with a handmade monkey topper, first tier stripes, second tier dots, pearl border around top and bottom tiers, with his name and a number 1. It needed to feed 40 people. I quoted her a price of $110. She emailed me back today and asked if I could do it for around $60-75 because she had just had to have tires put on her car!!!!!!!! She did say I could "adjust it a little if I needed to" in order to get it in that price range! What do you do when people are cheap?? I told her to go to Wal-Mart and buy a sheet cake and go to the toy dept. and get a toy monkey to put on top.

28 replies
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sechrestloans Posted 8 Sep 2010 , 9:23pm
post #2 of 29

that is exactly what you tell her. If you give one away cheap word will get out and they will be like bees to honey LOL

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Aces Posted 8 Sep 2010 , 9:34pm
post #3 of 29

i was going to make a cake for my friends engagement party to feed about 70 people. Was going to be two large square tiers (ring boxes) with gourmet flavors and even though the cake design was going to be VERY elaborate, i offered to charge her for ingredients ONLY. I told her for everything it would most likely $150, $200 tops and she said that it was too expensive and was thinking she would only pay $100 (a $50 to $100 difference)... really?

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HelloCheesecake Posted 8 Sep 2010 , 9:40pm
post #4 of 29

I've had several people who try to pull that whole "I've got an issue" thing so they can't pay full price for a cake. Sometimes they play the pity card on you just to see how much they can get out of you and you're right, you shouldn't buy it. However, that doesn't mean its always right to give them the bird and say "go to walmart and get your $16.99 cake". You could've fit her price range by offering her other options such as butter cream instead of fondant, a plastic figurine instead of a handmade one, one layer instead of two? Sechrestloans is right, once one person thinks you'll do a fancy cake for them for cheap, they'll tell the world, but if you're rude to them, they'll tell the world too and I don't think you'd want that right?

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bobwonderbuns Posted 8 Sep 2010 , 9:49pm
post #5 of 29

Oh honey, they ain't cheap until you're sitting in the oversized kitchen of their 10,000 square foot mansion and little miss muffet tells you (with a straight face no less) "But you don't understand, I want a 6 foot tall wedding cake and I DON'T want to pay for it!" icon_eek.gif

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dholdenrn Posted 8 Sep 2010 , 9:53pm
post #6 of 29

I said it in a way so as not to appear upset about the whole thing. I told her, "In order to stay within your price range and still stay with your monkey theme, maybe you could get a sheet cake from Wal-Mart and put a toy monkey on top." I don't think that was rude. I cannot do a cake for 40 people for $60, even if I did buttercream instead of fondant.

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dholdenrn Posted 8 Sep 2010 , 9:56pm
post #7 of 29

bobwonderbuns: You have got to be kidding???!!!! What are people thinking!?

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bobwonderbuns Posted 8 Sep 2010 , 9:58pm
post #8 of 29
Quote:
Originally Posted by dholdenrn

bobwonderbuns: You have got to be kidding???!!!! What are people thinking!?



Nope, I'm not kidding! (I've been complaining about her for years!) It's not the bridezillas, it's the Momzilla's that worry me! icon_rolleyes.gif Anyway, she got laughed out of every bakery in town and came back to me (who added a hefty PITA charge!) icon_twisted.gificon_lol.gif It's the towering inferno cake in my pix.

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dholdenrn Posted 8 Sep 2010 , 10:02pm
post #9 of 29

bobwonderbuns: BEAUTIFUL! I have to ask...how much did you charge...you don't have to answer, lol!

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bobwonderbuns Posted 8 Sep 2010 , 10:06pm
post #10 of 29

Four figures! icon_twisted.gif And quite frankly I should have doubled it, but I figure with all I learned on that cake I call what I didn't charge a "tuition fee." Makes me feel better anyway. icon_biggrin.gif What made me so darned mad was not only her cheapness, and this falsehood "champagne taste on a (so called) beer budget" but if you look at the topper and the flowers on the table -- those are orchids flown in from BOGOTA, COLUMBIA!!!! Like I'm in the midwest! So she can afford to fly flowers around the world and she can't pay for the cake to put them on??? icon_mad.gif (Okay now my blood pressure is up again... breathe deep, in and out... in and out...) okay I'm better now! icon_lol.gif

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Kitagrl Posted 8 Sep 2010 , 10:32pm
post #11 of 29

Well when I have to put tires on the car, or whatever else, I cut back the budget in other areas to make it work! I can't just go to the grocery store and say "I need all these groceries but I can only pay you $50 because my kid had to go to the ER this week."

Right.

I had someone want me to make them a tiered cake for $100, even though the first page of my website clearly gives my minimum order as $200...plus, what she wanted would be that much anyway...for between 35 and 50 people.

Oh well.

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Kaytecake Posted 8 Sep 2010 , 10:41pm
post #12 of 29
Quote:
Originally Posted by bobwonderbuns

Four figures! icon_twisted.gif And quite frankly I should have doubled it, but I figure with all I learned on that cake I call what I didn't charge a "tuition fee." Makes me feel better anyway. icon_biggrin.gif What made me so darned mad was not only her cheapness, and this falsehood "champagne taste on a (so called) beer budget" but if you look at the topper and the flowers on the table -- those are orchids flown in from BOGOTA, COLUMBIA!!!! Like I'm in the midwest! So she can afford to fly flowers around the world and she can't pay for the cake to put them on??? icon_mad.gif (Okay now my blood pressure is up again... breathe deep, in and out... in and out...) okay I'm better now! icon_lol.gif




Good for you! You managed to turn an aggravating situation into a lucrative learning experience. I saw the picture and the cake was stunning! I hope that she appreciated it.

If it won't upset you, do you mind my asking how on earth she approached you about this? I mean, I can't imagine going to you (or anyone else) and telling you that I don't want to pay you for your work but I want something great. icon_eek.gif

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HelloCheesecake Posted 8 Sep 2010 , 10:47pm
post #13 of 29

Well here's my worst "momzilla" customer story:

For about 4 months I had this young mother bug me over a Ni Hao Kai Lan cake (which is in my albums btw). I mean, ask me every single day about the cake for FOUR whole months. She wanted me to make her a "sample" cake to test my skills and evaluate whether I can do the cake or not. I found that kind of insulting in the way, but I brushed it off and let her know in the kindest way that I know what I'm doing, I have made several cakes of this style. I let her know that if she wanted a sample cake, she'd have to pay for it because that would mean I would have to use gumpaste, fondant, and make a red velvet cake (which mind you, my cakes are from scratch). Well, she forgot about the sample cake and then the pricing for the actual birthday cake begins....

We're talking a three tier, fondant covered, 2 gumpaste handmade figurines, red velvet, completely decorated from head to toe cake for about 100 people. Because she was an old high school friend, I charged her for supplies...$175. She said it was too expensive so we brought it down to $150, whatever.

She showed up to pick up the cake way earlier than expected and I wasn't even done with one of the figures!!! She brought her whole family to sit there and watch, acting nonchalant about the whole thing and talking to me about the bakery down the street which would have charged her about $400 for the same cake.

Can you believe that I have yet to recieve payment for this cake? Its been 3 months and nothing. She keeps saying she has no money, yadda yadda, yet I see her post pictures on FB of her and her family going to Disney World! Seriously?

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bobwonderbuns Posted 8 Sep 2010 , 10:57pm
post #14 of 29
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaytecake

Quote:
Originally Posted by bobwonderbuns

Four figures! icon_twisted.gif And quite frankly I should have doubled it, but I figure with all I learned on that cake I call what I didn't charge a "tuition fee." Makes me feel better anyway. icon_biggrin.gif What made me so darned mad was not only her cheapness, and this falsehood "champagne taste on a (so called) beer budget" but if you look at the topper and the flowers on the table -- those are orchids flown in from BOGOTA, COLUMBIA!!!! Like I'm in the midwest! So she can afford to fly flowers around the world and she can't pay for the cake to put them on??? icon_mad.gif (Okay now my blood pressure is up again... breathe deep, in and out... in and out...) okay I'm better now! icon_lol.gif



Good for you! You managed to turn an aggravating situation into a lucrative learning experience. I saw the picture and the cake was stunning! I hope that she appreciated it.

If it won't upset you, do you mind my asking how on earth she approached you about this? I mean, I can't imagine going to you (or anyone else) and telling you that I don't want to pay you for your work but I want something great. icon_eek.gif



You're okay. Well she worked with one of my students and my student started telling me "I have a friend who wants one of your cakes..." and so on, but I had to tell her "tell your friend to call me directly because I don't do third party negotiations." So eventually she calls, we arrange to meet and I met her at her house. I brought books and charts and all kinds of stuff but she kept saying "I want simple and elegant" yet didn't like ANY ideas of mine and provided one picture of (honestly it was the ugliest cake I have ever seen in my life and it's HARD to screw up a cake that bad!) I won't say anything about the cake because it was a celebrity wedding cake. Anyway, her daughter lives in another state so I never got to meet with her. It was all about mom! icon_confused.gif Anyway, the cake she showed me she wanted out of buttercream but it was a style that could not have been done from buttercream, it had to be fondant. Well that costs more. (Yep, it does!) Anyway, after an hour and a half of this nonsense, from her not liking anything and not wanting to pay for it either, I packed up my stuff and told her "You and your daughter need to make some decisions. First, remember that this is NOT a job interview, you came to me. These are your options. If you choose to go with me you must sign by such and such a date. Good day." And I left. I called my cake teacher and told her the story and she said "oh yeah, she'll be back!" Sure enough, by that signing date I gave her she was back and I found out from other sources she shopped around. Good! I like someone who appreciates quality!! Anyway, long story short, I told her twice in the months that followed to get herself another cake decorator. Once was over that Gawd-awful cake style that I refused to put my name to and the other time was over those stupid flowers from Bogota. I told her I would not take responsibility for poisoning her wedding party because I didn't know what was sprayed on those flowers. I convinced her to do a dummy cake on the top for safety reasons and she b*tched about that too! icon_mad.gif Anyway, to this day some of her friends call for cakes but if they give me ANY grief on the first meeting then I'm booked. Deal with it!! icon_twisted.gificon_lol.gif Thankfully that was my one and only Momzilla story. I hope it's the last one!! icon_biggrin.gif

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bobwonderbuns Posted 8 Sep 2010 , 11:00pm
post #15 of 29
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kitagrl

Well when I have to put tires on the car, or whatever else, I cut back the budget in other areas to make it work! I can't just go to the grocery store and say "I need all these groceries but I can only pay you $50 because my kid had to go to the ER this week."

Right.

I had someone want me to make them a tiered cake for $100, even though the first page of my website clearly gives my minimum order as $200...plus, what she wanted would be that much anyway...for between 35 and 50 people.

Oh well.




You know it's funny, this isn't even cake related but I think you'll appreciate it -- I had a woman try to sell me a fox fur coat once upon a time (I don't even like fur coats) and the transmission in my car had just died earlier that week and I told her thank you but I need to spend that money on my car or I cannot drive it -- she gave me such a time over it that I never went back! icon_rolleyes.gificon_cool.gif

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bobwonderbuns Posted 8 Sep 2010 , 11:03pm
post #16 of 29
Quote:
Originally Posted by HelloCheesecake

Well here's my worst "momzilla" customer story:

For about 4 months I had this young mother bug me over a Ni Hao Kai Lan cake (which is in my albums btw). I mean, ask me every single day about the cake for FOUR whole months. She wanted me to make her a "sample" cake to test my skills and evaluate whether I can do the cake or not. I found that kind of insulting in the way, but I brushed it off and let her know in the kindest way that I know what I'm doing, I have made several cakes of this style. I let her know that if she wanted a sample cake, she'd have to pay for it because that would mean I would have to use gumpaste, fondant, and make a red velvet cake (which mind you, my cakes are from scratch). Well, she forgot about the sample cake and then the pricing for the actual birthday cake begins....

We're talking a three tier, fondant covered, 2 gumpaste handmade figurines, red velvet, completely decorated from head to toe cake for about 100 people. Because she was an old high school friend, I charged her for supplies...$175. She said it was too expensive so we brought it down to $150, whatever.

She showed up to pick up the cake way earlier than expected and I wasn't even done with one of the figures!!! She brought her whole family to sit there and watch, acting nonchalant about the whole thing and talking to me about the bakery down the street which would have charged her about $400 for the same cake.

Can you believe that I have yet to recieve payment for this cake? Its been 3 months and nothing. She keeps saying she has no money, yadda yadda, yet I see her post pictures on FB of her and her family going to Disney World! Seriously?




She never paid you??? icon_eek.gificon_eek.gif Oh yeah, I'd definitely be making a few FB comments on her site!! icon_twisted.gif

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Kitagrl Posted 8 Sep 2010 , 11:03pm
post #17 of 29
Quote:
Originally Posted by bobwonderbuns

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kitagrl

Well when I have to put tires on the car, or whatever else, I cut back the budget in other areas to make it work! I can't just go to the grocery store and say "I need all these groceries but I can only pay you $50 because my kid had to go to the ER this week."

Right.

I had someone want me to make them a tiered cake for $100, even though the first page of my website clearly gives my minimum order as $200...plus, what she wanted would be that much anyway...for between 35 and 50 people.

Oh well.



You know it's funny, this isn't even cake related but I think you'll appreciate it -- I had a woman try to sell me a fox fur coat once upon a time (I don't even like fur coats) and the transmission in my car had just died earlier that week and I told her thank you but I need to spend that money on my car or I cannot drive it -- she gave me such a time over it that I never went back! icon_rolleyes.gificon_cool.gif




I'd have been like "Gee if you really want me to have it THAT bad, I'll give you $25 for it!"

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bobwonderbuns Posted 8 Sep 2010 , 11:05pm
post #18 of 29
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kitagrl

Quote:
Originally Posted by bobwonderbuns

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kitagrl

Well when I have to put tires on the car, or whatever else, I cut back the budget in other areas to make it work! I can't just go to the grocery store and say "I need all these groceries but I can only pay you $50 because my kid had to go to the ER this week."

Right.

I had someone want me to make them a tiered cake for $100, even though the first page of my website clearly gives my minimum order as $200...plus, what she wanted would be that much anyway...for between 35 and 50 people.

Oh well.



You know it's funny, this isn't even cake related but I think you'll appreciate it -- I had a woman try to sell me a fox fur coat once upon a time (I don't even like fur coats) and the transmission in my car had just died earlier that week and I told her thank you but I need to spend that money on my car or I cannot drive it -- she gave me such a time over it that I never went back! icon_rolleyes.gificon_cool.gif



I'd have been like "Gee if you really want me to have it THAT bad, I'll give you $25 for it!"




icon_lol.gif Thanks a lot, now I know that pop burns when spewed through the nose! icon_rolleyes.gificon_lol.gif

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Kaytecake Posted 8 Sep 2010 , 11:13pm
post #19 of 29

Thanks for sharing your story. From what the OP wrote and other stories shared here- some people seem to have entitlement issues. Let's hope that all of you get only reasonable, fun clients who pay up front from now on.
icon_biggrin.gificon_biggrin.gificon_biggrin.gif

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dholdenrn Posted 8 Sep 2010 , 11:26pm
post #20 of 29

amen!

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HelloCheesecake Posted 9 Sep 2010 , 12:22am
post #21 of 29

bobwonderbuns oh I've been giving her a pretty bad reputation. All of her friends who ask me about her cake get a response such as "Oh, you mean the one she never paid for?". You know, just in case she decides to get nasty about why I'm nagging her to pay me.

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bobwonderbuns Posted 9 Sep 2010 , 12:26am
post #22 of 29

Wait until she uses the "why pay you -- the cake is gone!" crap!! honestly some people! icon_mad.gif

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GGx1 Posted 9 Sep 2010 , 12:52am
post #23 of 29

Hellocheesecake.........I would tell her that the price of that cake goes up everyday she has not paid, maybe she will finally pay.

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HelloCheesecake Posted 9 Sep 2010 , 1:03am
post #24 of 29

Or I can just report her to the bank, which is becoming my choice right about now. People are jerks.

I asked her what is she going to tell her daughter when she looks back at her first birthday pictures in 10 years and says "wow mom where'd you get that cake from?!?! it must've been expensive!" I mean is she supposed to say "honey I stole that cake!". lol!!!

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thin4life Posted 9 Sep 2010 , 1:17am
post #25 of 29
Quote:
Originally Posted by HelloCheesecake

Well here's my worst "momzilla" customer story:

For about 4 months I had this young mother bug me over a Ni Hao Kai Lan cake (which is in my albums btw). I mean, ask me every single day about the cake for FOUR whole months. She wanted me to make her a "sample" cake to test my skills and evaluate whether I can do the cake or not. I found that kind of insulting in the way, but I brushed it off and let her know in the kindest way that I know what I'm doing, I have made several cakes of this style. I let her know that if she wanted a sample cake, she'd have to pay for it because that would mean I would have to use gumpaste, fondant, and make a red velvet cake (which mind you, my cakes are from scratch). Well, she forgot about the sample cake and then the pricing for the actual birthday cake begins....

We're talking a three tier, fondant covered, 2 gumpaste handmade figurines, red velvet, completely decorated from head to toe cake for about 100 people. Because she was an old high school friend, I charged her for supplies...$175. She said it was too expensive so we brought it down to $150, whatever.

She showed up to pick up the cake way earlier than expected and I wasn't even done with one of the figures!!! She brought her whole family to sit there and watch, acting nonchalant about the whole thing and talking to me about the bakery down the street which would have charged her about $400 for the same cake.

Can you believe that I have yet to recieve payment for this cake? Its been 3 months and nothing. She keeps saying she has no money, yadda yadda, yet I see her post pictures on FB of her and her family going to Disney World! Seriously?




Why would you even give her the cake without getting payment? I think you need to take part of the blame.

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DitzyDame Posted 9 Sep 2010 , 1:44am
post #26 of 29

This isn't "momzilla" related, but I really hate doing cakes for extended family sometimes. For birthdays, baby showers etc... If it's family I tend to make the cake my gift for the person. I really hate when I start getting all the extra requests. People just don't get how expensive everything is. All the gumpaste work and special order materials add up.

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WykdGud Posted 9 Sep 2010 , 1:46am
post #27 of 29
Quote:
Originally Posted by dholdenrn

I was contacted this week about doing a cake for next week for a kids first birthday. The mother wanted it to be two tiers, blue and green, with a handmade monkey topper, first tier stripes, second tier dots, pearl border around top and bottom tiers, with his name and a number 1. It needed to feed 40 people. I quoted her a price of $110. She emailed me back today and asked if I could do it for around $60-75 because she had just had to have tires put on her car!!!!!!!! She did say I could "adjust it a little if I needed to" in order to get it in that price range! What do you do when people are cheap?? I told her to go to Wal-Mart and buy a sheet cake and go to the toy dept. and get a toy monkey to put on top.




I guess I missed where she was being cheap. She told you the basic of what she wanted and you gave her a price. She said she couldn't afford it and what her budget was - and asked that you adjust the cake to fit her budget. I guess I don't see where she wanted the original cake for the lesser price - she was asking what you could give her within her budget range and similar to what she wants.

I am not cheap by any means, but I do have a budget that I have to live within. Living within one's means doesn't make you cheap. Perhaps she should live beyond her means to avoid having people slander her online, eh?

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HelloCheesecake Posted 9 Sep 2010 , 2:10am
post #28 of 29
Quote:
Originally Posted by thin4life

Quote:
Originally Posted by HelloCheesecake

Well here's my worst "momzilla" customer story:

For about 4 months I had this young mother bug me over a Ni Hao Kai Lan cake (which is in my albums btw). I mean, ask me every single day about the cake for FOUR whole months. She wanted me to make her a "sample" cake to test my skills and evaluate whether I can do the cake or not. I found that kind of insulting in the way, but I brushed it off and let her know in the kindest way that I know what I'm doing, I have made several cakes of this style. I let her know that if she wanted a sample cake, she'd have to pay for it because that would mean I would have to use gumpaste, fondant, and make a red velvet cake (which mind you, my cakes are from scratch). Well, she forgot about the sample cake and then the pricing for the actual birthday cake begins....

We're talking a three tier, fondant covered, 2 gumpaste handmade figurines, red velvet, completely decorated from head to toe cake for about 100 people. Because she was an old high school friend, I charged her for supplies...$175. She said it was too expensive so we brought it down to $150, whatever.

She showed up to pick up the cake way earlier than expected and I wasn't even done with one of the figures!!! She brought her whole family to sit there and watch, acting nonchalant about the whole thing and talking to me about the bakery down the street which would have charged her about $400 for the same cake.

Can you believe that I have yet to recieve payment for this cake? Its been 3 months and nothing. She keeps saying she has no money, yadda yadda, yet I see her post pictures on FB of her and her family going to Disney World! Seriously?



Why would you even give her the cake without getting payment? I think you need to take part of the blame.




You know what, you're right and I did take part of the blame. I made that cake when I first started and I did mention that she was one of my old high school friends. I wasn't expecting her to NEVER pay me, especially since I personally knew her. You live and you learn right? Since then I've been requiring deposits and I stated on my site that if you don't pay the other half by the time the cake is being picked up, the cake is a no go.

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HelloCheesecake Posted 9 Sep 2010 , 2:19am
post #29 of 29
Quote:
Originally Posted by WykdGud



I guess I missed where she was being cheap. She told you the basic of what she wanted and you gave her a price. She said she couldn't afford it and what her budget was - and asked that you adjust the cake to fit her budget. I guess I don't see where she wanted the original cake for the lesser price - she was asking what you could give her within her budget range and similar to what she wants.

I am not cheap by any means, but I do have a budget that I have to live within. Living within one's means doesn't make you cheap. Perhaps she should live beyond her means to avoid having people slander her online, eh?




Yeah, I totally agree. I always try to work within someones budget. Just because you can't afford to get a HUGE "Ace of Cakes" style cake, doesn't mean you can't have one at all. I totally understand that its for a lot of people and the budget is kind of small but, what about doing a small cake and some plain cupcakes on the side? Its cost effective and she's still somewhat getting what she wants.

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