My husband came home from work a few days ago and said his boss wanted to know if I wanted to do his daughter's wedding cake in February.  My first thought was "Heck yea!" because I'm new to the area and it would be a great opportunity to get some local business and word of mouth.  My next thought was that I'm scared to death to do it, haha.  To date, I have only done one wedding cake and it was for my brother's small, casual wedding and as a gift to them, so I basically only charged what it cost me.  It turned out as they wanted it and they loved it.  I'm just "afraid" to do it for someone I don't know at this point, haha.  I feel kind of silly even saying that.

I've always been intimated by wedding cakes and I'm just not sure I'm ready to take that on.  There are so many areas that I would like to (and need to) improve on and with it being a coworker/boss, I just am afraid that it'll turn into a stressful nightmare.  

I just told hubby that if he mentions it again to have his daughter email me with the details and I would go from there.  So far, I haven't heard any more.  I guess I'll just wait and see what happens and what they are looking for.  :/

AIf you don't feel ready I think you made the right choice. A wedding is not the time "to get the feel" if you know what I mean. Although you did your brothers cake so you have some experience.

At some point you do have to make the jump. But I think you were right in not doing it for the boss lol. Unless it turns out the design is really simple and you feel comfortable executing it

Hi Shandicakes ,I did my brothers wedding cake last year(its my avatar pic),a girl who saw it and had ordered a cake previously asked me to do her wedding cake and I will admit I was a bit daunted and terrified in case I ruined their day with a horrible cake.I spent a lot of time and effort into making the cake for them,and was rewarded with the hugest hug and thanks when I delivered their cake. Only then did I TELL HER that this was only my 2nd wedding cake.  I have since done another wedding cake which the bride and groom were delighted with, I have just today gotten a lovely thank you card from them. My point is we all have to do a first wedding cake and we probably are terrified first and then happy that someone trusts you enough going on your previous cakes even though they are not wedding cakes to want you to do their wedding cake on such a special day. I think you should grab the bull by the horns and go ahead if they get back to you,nothing ventured nothing gained is the old saying. HTH. ps my other 2 wedding cakes are in my pics if you want to take a look

I understand your concern completely. I have made many many birthday cakes but have refused to do wedding cakes because I do not want that much stress of being responsible for a huge part of their special day. I did one sort of wedding cake that was one tier with tons of gum paste roses and that was stressful enough. Good luck to you though, I am sure you will do awesome if you choose to do it.

i think morganchampagne said it great--

i did my boss's wedding cake--she was not a friendly boss--i had many years cake experience at that time--i was sh*tting my pants the whole time--the experience bordered precariously on being mortally intimidating--but i fought it off and somehow i survived ;)

do you tell the boss that hates you where to go..er agh where to go to get her cake elsewhere i mean 

i had one employee there on my team that was a single mom of two who was going to college no less and working full time--she needed less than 30 minutes wiggle room in her schedule to make it to work on time to get from a certain class she needed for one semester--boss said no--i did the department scheduling--it would have been nothing to make this accommodation--just slide her schedule 30 mins over--still pissed about that--i should let it go huh...

don't do the cake--the stress can be crushing and is not worth it

geez i'm all crabby now  

but seriously you don't want to experiment with your husband's relationship with his boss--just politely say no imo--

Thank you everyone for your replies!  I'm just at that torn stage ya know?  I am very comfortable doing birthday cakes and love it, but add the word WEDDING and it just freaks me out.  I have done several two-tiered cakes with no problem and the customers have always loved them.  One of the areas I need more practice with is FLOWERS.  

I will wait and see if I even hear anything back from them before I allow myself to stress over it, if I hear nothing I'll just consider it a blessing haha.  If they do and it's simple in design, I'll go for it.  If it sounds ridiculous or they are looking for a "freebie" I'll just be on mandatory OT at my real job, hahahaha.  Thanks again!

you are very welcome, shandikakes

i thought of another work related story--my pastor's wife sashayed into my bookstore one day and asked for way too much from me for their daughter's wedding--including cupcake samples which this became the second time in history i did samples--even though i clearly said no i don't do samples--she wanted pricing for receptions at two different locations this like this and that like that--delivery here delivery there--how much would that be? 

oh no i was too expensive  because i do not cut deals on orders like that--broke my little baking heart--not--huge pia order and people--

seriously heart breakingly though--two days before the wedding--the groom backed out--omg--

in my cake consult spiel i say that the cake being delivered is not dependent on the wedding taking place--that they will receive the cake on sucha day & time-- that they have to take delivery--no do-overs--everybody goes oh yeah sure--but this time it would have really been messy--if you get my drift--some clergy think they are 'entitled'--

so this would have created an even more very uncomfortable circumstance for me because and i say this as gently as i can because what happened to the daughter is more tragic and awful than a dumb cake order--but i would have been on the spot to refund--i would have been on the spot to extend a credit for future and i am too old & crabby for all that--would not happen--and even through the awful cancellation their whole family had to endure at the late date and all that that encompassed--part of that humiliation would a had my face on it because i don't give refunds nor credits for future-yeah they got the dang cupcakes out of me but i can draw the line if i need to. (like 350 servings)

so there is so much at stake when lines get crossed and cakes get ordered, canceled, delivered, paid for or not paid for--when those other really important potentially touchy relationships get involved it can get nuclearly complicated crazy fast and permanent.

good luck to you!

AWow. Dodged a bullet there! Yea, friends, friends of family and family can certainly be the worst!

no sense in worrying about this order until you get the details. It is quite possible that the bride wants something that you can totally pull off. Maybe she is having one of those trendy barn weddings and wants a simple "messy" frosted cake with a few strands of hay stuck in there. Just kidding. But seriously, you will know if it is beyond your abilities when you hear the details. If they come back with wanting a cake for 250 people with a Sylvia Weinstock design then you will know you will have to decline. I know the anticipation can be so hard! Wanting to do the cake and being afraid at the same time! I have only done one wedding cake and the only reason I did it was because it was a dear friend, it was a casual backyard reception, and the bride just wanted fancy cupcakes. I ended up doing a top cake and cupcakes and I must say, it turned out good enough for a " real" wedding. It boosted my confidence and now I am open to doing an actual wedding cake for a customer as long as it is something I know I can do. Good Luck!

HAHA.  You're so right.  It could absolutely turn out to be something I can totally handle, and I hope it is!  Thanks so much for your reply.  It's nice to have people to "talk" to about this stuff.  Being new to the area and no family nearby makes it kind of tough sometimes to have anyone to talk to about anything.  ;) Happy Friday!

AIt could also turn out that the bride and her mother have no idea that her father is trying to arrange for a baker, and the FOB generally isn't the decision-maker in these situations. So I agree with having the bride email if she's interested in talking to you and deal with it if she does. I personally don't mind doing cakes for my husband's work, but I also don't cry if they don't hire me. I think it puts more pressure on him than it does on me.

I had the same thought, that it was unusual to have the FOB arranging for the cake.  HAHA.  That's kind of where I'm at with it, if I hear from HER then I'll go from there, but if I don't hear any more about it, that's more than fine too.