Those of you who think she should put this stranger's feelings over her business-- would you say the same thing if it were your husband (or father, when you were a kid) being asked to donate a week's work to a stranger?
Not sure if this has been said or if I want to risk being mean but I am gonna say it anyway...
I just feel that giving him the cake he ordered for his now off wedding is like shoving the fact that she left him in his face. Its like saying 'haha, shes gone and now you have a big cake and nobody to share it with'
I vote for making him something else like he suggested or doing credit to save him a little bit of the depression he is likely going to be going through because of the whole wedding thing.
People in the wedding business deal with canceled weddings from time to time. That's always sad, isn't it? But that is why you make a contract you think is fair and both parties agree to it.
Sure, this groom sounds like a nice guy. Sure, this is a sad situation. But, how would this "nice" guy respond if the tables were turned. If you fell ill two weeks before the wedding and couldn't deliver the cake they contracted for, would you have any expectation that they should pay you anyway because they feel bad for your situation?
Do you think even the nicest couple in the world would say: "Poor cake lady, we'll pay her for the cake anyway because she's so nice and we'll just buy another cake from someone else."
I'm not trying to be heartless, but a contract works both ways. I bet you wouldn't expect them to pay for something they didn't get, and they shouldn't expect you to return their money on such short notice. As many others have noted, you did give up lots of other business to book their cake.
I just think you need to do what you are comfortable with doing.
I had a wedding with MOB and wedding planner--no bride, no groom. This meeting was exactly one month until the wedding. Nobody thought to order the wedding cake 
. Told MOB cake had to be paid for at this time since I was being contacted so late. MOB got the money to me 2 days later.
Started making gumpaste boot. 12 days before wedding...MOB calls and tells me the bride decided she didn't love her fiance and the wedding was cancelled. What could be done? I told her normally I do not refund anything if wedding is cancelled less than 2 weeks before wedding. However, I did refund a portion of it.
MOB called me 2 weeks later to tell me that reception venue would not refund her money--$3400. And she wanted to let me know the kind of business he was running. I told MOB that business owner was within his contractual right, as he had turned down other weddings for her daughter's. She just wanted to give me the heads-up about his business practices in case, I wanted to rethink doing any business with him. Thank you very much MOB. I think she was just wanting to try to hurt his business.
Sorry, didn't mean to hi-jack this thread but I have kept this one to myself for a couple of months...DANG, feels good to share that with other cakers.
LOL! thanks for sharing. I had to teach my last night of Fondant and Gum Paste tonight at Michael's and gave myself all day to think. I have emailed the groom and basically offered to do an a birthday cake for the ex-bride, and the ex-groom OR deliver a wedding cake on Saturday. I agree with ctucker, while I truly am a hard a-- about stuff, especially business! I can't bring myself to further sadden this guy, so the choise in ultimately his..I will post his reply and show a pic if indeed I do end up making a 4 tier cake, serving 1.
Do you have a picture of the cake you're supposed to make? I'm very curious to see what it looks like considering how fancy this wedding sounds.
It is a round four tier gold & ivory, 2 quilted tiers and 2 gold leaf draping tiers covered in fresh cymbidium orchids. (I would post the pic, but I don't want to upset the original decorator who is also from Kansas City, I of course got her permission to recreate as they made alot of modifications to the original design, just not to post her pic 
). Haven't heard back from him yet, this weekend is SO chaotic, and I have another wedding that same day, so if he DOES end up using it for a birthday cake, then that is fine, as I am working night and day getting all of my other orders done.
Not sure if this was mentioned or not above, but what about this:
Maybe you could tell him that you would give him some of the cake and then send the rest to a fire dept. or something. have someone there sign and he could write it off as a donation. At least help with taxes a bit i guess. I once went to a wedding that had stated on all the programs that all flowers would be donated to the Ronald McDonald foundation. *shurgs* Just a thought.
~Alicia
Edited: Just to clarify, give him the cake and have him take it over to somewhere, you just take it to him.
I've read all 9 pages and was wondering are there any new updates? Did you ever get ahold of the ex-bride or talk to the ex-groom again, and are you still making the original cake for tomorrow?
No, I got a really nice email from the groom, he has opted for a great birthday cake for himself, and a small cake for his parents anniversary, and I am great with that. I read a post on here from ctucker and it kind of solidified my feeling that I am a cake decorator, and I own my business, I have really great customers, and if this guy is facing some kind of hardship and being very gracious about it, I am going to help him out, and am justified to do so. It is not a terrible loss to me, I would rather not feel like I am going to take a person who is having a life crisis and deliver a huge wedding cake. So MY decision is to do a birthday and anniversary cake and I am really good with that! THanks everyone for chiming in on what you would do, I am SO glad I have a good contract and am not refunding $ but I am taking a loss, and that is something that I am willing to do in this case. THANKS GUYS! You guys are so great and helpful, even the one's who play devil's advocate!
I'm happy to hear you were able to come to a decision that you were comfortable with. Hopefully it helped lift some of the stress off you on your busy weekend. And hopefully it helped the groom as well. I can't imagine looking at a huge wedding cake all by myself and seeing/thinking what was "supposed to be". I think you made a good decision. All my best to the groom. Hopefully things will work out for him, however that may be. He seems like a really great guy.
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