Miraculous and I have been discussing this, and I was intrigued to know. How many of you guys charge for your wedding cake consultations (tastings) and if you charge, what do you charge?
I offer consultations free of charge. I only bake one 6" cake with french vanilla & buttercream. If you start offering tons of choices, then you loose money on the tasting.
I've never done one, but I think I would charge the price of the ingredients only (I'm a scratch baker), mainly because everything costs so much here!
The idea that I like the best is that you charge a flat rate for the tasting, then if the couple decides to go with you as their cake designer, then you apply that amount to their total. Essentially, they don't pay for the tasting if you end up doing their cake.
Just my .02
Diana
Just want to share some thoughts on this subject. You are offering a service and you are trying to get customers. What would be the incentive to the customer to pay you for a taste when most others offer free tastings?
I am for covering the cost of ingredients and then refunding towards the cake if they like the products. The bakers time and igredients arent free. Then again if you gain a customer, they should have the price applied towards the cake! Everyone wins!
I don't do many tastings and i haven't seen the need to charge yet. I may have to reconsider this if they start getting way out of hand. I only offer one 6in layer, that the customer can take home with her so that she and her family can taste it, but honestly by the time someone works hard enough to find me they are looking to book.
I charge $30 with an option of four flavors. If they book with me, the $30 is applied as a credit to the total charge. This covers my ingredients and time. I think that if people are really interested in what I provide, that they will pay the $30 upfront. I have only had one bridezilla decide not to do a tasting and go elsewhere, so I don't think that I'm too off base here.
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