I delivered a wedding cake to a small wedding chapel here on Thursday and the owner came out to speak to me. She said she would love to use me and promote me as their decorator and wanted me to get her a portfolio and cards. I was excited but nervous because I am not licensed yet. She knows this.
TOday her wedding coordinator called me to ask if I would be interested in attending a meeting with 4 local bridal consultants to promote myself. She said my business would sky rocket.
The meeting is Monday. How can I get a portfolio together with cakes, serving sizes and price. I have pics in a book but I thought I should give them each something to walk away with. Should I make samples- some for each or just a few cakes they could all slice and eat during the meeting. I am so nervous. Not sure if I can handle this just yet but don't want to let it slip thru my fingers- Should I tell all of them that I am not licensed up front or just speak to them individually if they seem interested. I wish I had more time to figure this all out.
Any advice????

wow, sounds great. I would be worried that I wasen't licensed because you can get fined. Can you apply to be licensed???

I would just let them know up front, maybe they will help you (by paying licensing fees???)

Good luck with that, that's a great opp to get your name out there!!!

Do you have a printer at home or hard copy photos of all your cakes? I just got hired on PT at a sushi bar - when I handed in my resume on my own letterhead, I also printed up a couple sushi platters I've done for parties, and all my cakes (even though my cakes are nothing resembling professional lol- just to show creativity though), and I got the job (pretty much the next day lol).
Point being, well if you dont have a printer but you have your cakes all on hard copy photo, get yourself a little photo album (or a big one since you have quite an impressive collection). And then maybe make something simple (seems like petit fours or decorated cupcakes would be good 'bite-sized' sample pieces)- for the meeting.

As for pricing, what do you charge now? Seems from the posts here that I've read there is a price range per serving. And then you add onto that for extra fondant/gumpaste type decorations and delivery/setup, right? Maybe go with a range, but not fixed- since you're not licenced you said-

the key is if you don't go, it will slip through your fingers- if you go, you dont miss the opportunity, and you can always turn down gigs/start slow at first if you dont feel ready

ok I am reading what your saying but I can't take my eyes off the baby- what a beautiful little baby- sweet, sweet , sweet!!! I have a 7 month old who is a terror right now!!! they don't stay sweet like that forever!!!

If you decide to do this, you need to tell them up front that you are not licensed. If they use you without a license, it could void their insurance policies. Also, some venues require proof of insurance before you can bring any product in. You would not want to get to the wedding day and find out they can't serve your cake.

In the meantime, do whatever you can to get to be legal.

Ok I tossed and turned all night thinking about what to do. I appreciate all of your comments and hope I make the right decision. I am just really nervous -questioning my skills-time commitment and ability to do this on such a large scale from home. I am already doing 9-11 cakes a week.
My prayer is that God will make it very clear to me what to do and fast!!!
I know I need to get liscensed I just haven't taken the time to do it because none of my customers seem to care that I am not- this wedding coordinator made it seem like it was no big deal.
Don't know how to put a portfolio together UGGH!!!!!

Is there a kitchen you could use?Does the wedding chapel have one? This would help you alot. I too would be nervous. If there was a kitchen to cook out of I would go for it. The last thing you want is to be selling a cake to one of the health inspectors. I freaked about that all the time. This is why I am going for a permit to bake out of my home. Good luck. What a wonderful oppertunity!!!

My portfolio is a photo album with pictures. No pricing, no serving size charts. Anything technical goes into my "workbook", which is in a binder. There I have serving charts, price lists, flavor lists, and order forms. That's just for me, and I'll give out handouts if people ask.
My advice is go...the worst that can happen is that you'll get more orders than you can handle. You will, however, feel extremely professional and pretty dang proud of yourself afterward.

I agree with oceanspitfire. If you have a printer, you could just print out the basics (i.e. sizes, servings, starting price etc.) If you don't have a printer, you could use one of the photo albums that have the space beside each picture slot. It would be more work this way, but at least you could give some idea of what you can do and the approximate cost.

As far as licensing, let them know up front. Tell them that you have not "grown" enough to need a license, but if they are indeed intersted, you would be happy to pursue a license. It would be a lot better to be up front about it, then to have them find out when it is too late.

Have faith, your answers will come. Good luck!

I would not worry about samples. I would print you some simple cards to hand out, bring your portfolio and answer their questions. I would let them know that as of right now you do not have a shop, however that it may be coming in the future. If the lady at the church has a kitchen, she may let you operate from there, and perhaps you could work out a price or perhaps barter a little. If they ask you about pricing, just tell them that each cake is custom and the pricing may vary, based on design, flavor, types of icing etc, and that you'd be happy to give them a price when a bride requests their services. That might help you on such short notice. The money is in weddings. You may have to turn down some of those other orders, but one wedding a week, is better then 10 birthday cakes.

I'm not licensed (yet...in the middle of the process) but I found most places are more concerned with the liability insurance than the licensing. I actually survived a heart attack when one venue called the day before the wedding asking for a copy of my license! I reminded him that I TOLD him I worked out of my home way back when. He went into panic attack and I said, "Look....you can't call me the day before this girl's wedding and set up this barrier. Now how are we going to work around this?" He was still in minor panic attack, but mentioned how dangerous it was if someone sued his facility. I latched onto that and said, "Are you looking for insurance? Because I have liability insurance and I can get a certificate of liability insurance faxed to you today." I called my agent, who took care of it, and everything was fine. The venue actually didnt' care if I was licensed or not ..... they just wanted to be sure they were protected from a lawsuit!!

Go to the meeting .... be up front with them. There will be venues that you can't get into without a license or liability insurance (mine is only about $500 a year) and they need to know that up front. There are lots of venues that don't care and they can refer you for those sites.

I would try to give them a price range to work with. Tell them your basic cost per serving and let them know that extra items (gumpaste, etc) will have add'l charges. I don't think a price of "I quote each one separately" will work very well. They need to know at least a range to tell their brides. Brides have told me that when they are internet shopping, when they come across a website that doesn't post pricing, they just keep moving. They need some idea of how much money is going to be involved.

marci---you HAVE a portfolio...
you showed it to me....@ Books-a-Million...remember!?

now of course, if you also like to do scrapbooking...well, that could "kick it up notches unknown" by taking all those pics and putting them on all kinds of pretty paper backgrounds.

and, considering how easy NC makes it to get licensed....and how inexpensively you can get liabliity insurance (remember--we talked about mine)

GO FOR IT!

Well I wen t to the meeting and here's the deal.- It is actually a networking group. A bunch of people who took the wedding planners class at the college here, get together and network their business. It was really interesting there were wedding planners, dj's, caterers, seamstresses, a pastor, florist and two cake decorators.
It is free to join and they meet monthly. Best part was they were a Christian group! Awesome to see them promoting their businesses and the Lord.
Doug- I didn't think my pics in a photo album made for a portfolio- but I did take them and they understood. Everyone loved my work and my web site got over 40 hits yesterday- I had been getting 4 or so a day.
I didn't get any orders but even this cake lady, who teaches at Hobby LObby said " wow your really good" That made me feel a little better cause I went in there feeling like a big dodoo
But the wedding chapel who hosted it would like to use me exclusivley for their bride so I need to make a portfolio and leave it with them.
It did make me realize the urgency in getting a license so I have to make that happen soon. Sadly here in NC you can't have any pets in your home so does anyone want a Jack Russell????LOL
Thanks for all who gave me ideas and calmed my fears- It wasn't as bad as I thought . I guess I just had this fear of putting myself out there and having people say your work isn't good enough. I learned that is why there are other decorators and you can support each other w/o competing. Good Expirience

Good luck in your venture! I"m sure that you will do well.
Leslie