I have been going back and forth with this goofball bride for the last two weeks before her wedding. Her whole plan has been in place for a while and finalized. Okay, last night late I am finishing deco on her cake and I get a facebook message. Oh that's too pricey, and she said the number of guests is only (40 fewer than the final count as of Nov 9). The cake is baked honey is what I told her. She is pushing back on alot of what I'm telling her. She is obligated per our agreement, but I smell a little conflict coming. Advice?

DO NOT accept a cheque (check) ONLY CASH for the final payment.

Make damn sure you have a friend helping you when you deliver and take pictures after the setting up is done, with a camera with date and time enabled in each picture.

You have an agreement, END OF DISCUSSION.  Send her an email to that effect and cc yourself.  Tell her that somebody will surely be entertaining guests at home for the next few days with the leftover cake.

AEverything the PP said, and now I hope you have all wedding cakes paid for at least 2 weeks in advance, or more.

And be prepared to leave the venue with the cake in hand if you are not paid. It can always go to a homeless shelter (unless you live in New York, where Mayor Bloomburg says he'd rather let the homeless starve than eat too many carbs, sugar or fat. http://m.now.msn.com/hard-to-swallow-bloomberg-bans-food-donations-to-homeless-shelters)

Wow.  Just wow.

OK lessons learned here: 

• Get full payment at least 2 weeks BEFORE the wedding.
• Make sure the signed contract makes it clear there will be no changes past a certain point.
• Refer her to the signed contract to remind her that what she signed is legally binding and you will not be changing the price.
   

No pay...no cake.  Cash only.  And yeah...full payment by two weeks in the future.  Good luck!

This might end badly, but get the payment in cash BEFORE YOU UNLOAD THE CAKE and don't be afraid to walk out if she won't pay you. You might end up watching her start running after the car if she realizes that you're really going to leave.

Take this as a learning experience. Only turn your oven on if everything is paid for in advance. I did a wedding once where the bride hadn't paid three days before the wedding, and I told her that I wasn't going to do the cake unless the payment was to me by that night. Pieces of it started coming in from different people, I think it was three payments through paypal, but she paid me. Then it turned out that the florist, venue  and the planner hadn't been paid either, but they went ahead and did their end of it anyway to "help her out." The wedding ended up being cancelled, and the florist was stuck with $3000 of flowers that she couldn't use, the planner never got paid, and I don't know how much the venue lost. I took the cake to the venue unstacked and let her 150+ guests who had come in from out of town eat it at the non-reception.

Out of the first 10 cakes or so I did for people I was supposed to be paid for, (15 plus years ago, before I heard or health department regulations, and business licenses) I think I got paid for 5 of them, and am still waiting, haha...You NEVER give someone a cake that isn't paid for. EVER! 

A few months ago, I ran into a girl who I made a 3D Bear (from the big blue house) cake for, who decided she couldn't cut it, so I made a sheet cake with figure piped Bear and Tutter 2 hours before the party, and she never paid the $20 I charged (yeah, I was one of them...) Anyway, she wanted a cake for her same daughter's sweet 16, after not paying for her daughter's first birthday cake 15 years earlier, and I designed it, then quoted the price, then tacked the $20 on, and she decided to "just not have a party, since her older son didn't get one that year." (He was actually in juvie)

The night before her wedding, she's FB messaging a vendor about PRICES??  This girl is a whack job.

My PRIVATE FB response to her would have been, "Sorry that you feel this way.  As the cake is finished and ready for delivery, please be aware that I will require a CASH final payment at the reception venue tomorrow.  If this is not possible, PLMK ASAP so that I can arrange to deliver the cake to the local homeless shelter.  I will, under NO circumstances, argue with you about the serving numbers or cost at this late date.  I will also NOT leave the cake at the reception venue unless payment is completed IN FULL, IN CASH."

Yes, payment for custom work MUST be received well in advance of the delivery.  Because a cake is a consumable that can't be re-used or returned, the form(s) of payment accepted should be, ideally, non-reversible. 

Hope things went OK.

Rae

AYes, accept cash on delivery, before setting everything up. I had a $100 check bounce when I took payment by check upon delivery. The cake was for a 15th birthday, and the girl and her parents had met to pick it up.

Called and told the mom about the bounced check, she apologized profusely and promised to call and set up a time to meet and said she will give cash for the invoice plus fees. Never heard back from her, sent emails and left voice messages but no response. Tried to cash the check at their bank but no funds in the account :-/

So now, I either accept payments by mailed checks well in advance or do cash on delivery.

Wow, for someone just starting out these tips are absolutely invaluable. Thanks.

I'm dying to know what happened upon delivery!

Bride stayed in her hotel room and the groom took care of it. He was drunk and a little intimidating, but I knew him in school, he just needed to be reminded how I knew him and he was great after that. I explained that the bride had a question about the number of servings, but never adjusted the number with me. I actually took copies of all correspondence/notes to show them. He said "there will be no discrepancy, don't worry about it. Here's the money." I thanked him and wished them well. I'm told the reception was great. No word on how they liked the cake. Glad it's over!

AAnti-climactic for us, but a win for you! ;-) I'm glad it worked out!!

AOh, and if they hated it, or didn't like one part of it, I'm sure you would hear about it by now.

Wow these are horrible experiences! I think ill be wanting payment first from now on. 

 

Okay, so the night before she wanted to reduce the price by forty servings?

My response would have been,
"No problem, did you want me to hack that off the back or just leave off the 12 round?"

Cause there's no way you're getting the same amount of cake from me for the cost of 40 servings less.

mommachris