New scenario for me... a bride that just paid my retainer has said her dad will be signing my contract because he's paying for the cake. I told her that was unusual, and I put is as nice as possible but basically told her if that was the case my contract is no longer with her, it's with her dad, I won't correspond to her anymore about her cake, I will only correspond with dad about flavors and design from here on out and he will need to approve and sign everything.

Do any of you let parents sign the contract like that or do you put the kibash on it and only sign a contract with bride/groom?

I just see potential problems galore with this, but I might be overreacting?

Thoughts?

You may want to create a rider for this bride's contract indicating that the undersigned is ultimately financially responsible for the order, that way you can have the parents sign the rider while the bride can still sign the main contract.

While unusual, I have done it in the past and no harm came of it.

I would not let one person pay and another person sign the contract. If the father wants to pay then he just needs to give the money to his daughter who has signed the contract and is your client. YES! You are correct that there could be TONS of problems with this later if they decide to have an issue with something or worse, sue. You would ultimately have two people to answer to. Keep it at ONE.

I have a clause in my contract that says all changes have to be cleared in writing with the bride regardless of who signs the contract. It's never been an issue, but I did have one bride who had her mother going around behind her changing everything without her knowledge. So now I clear everything with the bride. Maybe I'll write a blog post about that, it was a horror story.

Who ever gives me the money signs the contract. I also would have told her the same thing, the contract is with the dad and only the dad will get to discuss the cake with me.

I could have swore years ago on here someone had a similiar situation and they did have some issues. It was the bride and MOB both making decisions about the cake. The bride was letting the baker know what she wanted, cause it was for her wedding, but seeing as how the MOB payed and signed for the contract, she was wanting something different even though it was for the bride's wedding. So like you said, I would stress to the bride she is NOT your customer, but her dad is and he has all say so.

Around here, parents pay for the cake all the time. This would not be unusual for me and I have never had a problem. Basically I don't care who pays for the cake as long as it is paid 2 weeks in advance. I work through the Bride and she can go to the Parents if they are not on the ball.....never had that happen though. I was wondering what the problem could be since I do do this all the time. I hope I am not opening a can of worms for myself.

I have had lots of people not pay for their own cake, but I haven't had one that isn't planning on signing the contract too.

Here's where I am being extra cautious... Dad is a District Court Judge. Bride told me he already read my contract and couldn't find anything wrong with it, but he complained it was too long . Anyway, I guess knowing that makes me want to be to-the-letter cautious and legal, because if there is a potential sue-er, it's gonna be this bride!

So now knowing that, does it change any of your answers?

Nope. If the dad signs, he is the one I would be dealing with. The only thing that makes me pause is why she won't sign even if her dad is paying. Lots of people order a cake and have someone else pay for it.

I think you're right to have some concerns. The saying that "too many cooks spoil the soup" obviously came from some real experience.

I would personally explain that playing the game of "telephone"--or nowadays, e-mail tag--between 3 people is dangerous business when trying to make a lot of decisions, meet payment deadlines, etc., and that they would need to work it out so that the same person making ALL of the decisions on the cake would also be the person signing the contract & paying for the cake.

Given that things can get tense between parents and children as the expenses for a wedding rise, you don't need to get caught in that. You have NO idea what the real relationship is between these 2, and that relationship can turn into a LOT of things over the span of planning a wedding.

Rae

I have had this before. I let the bride know that the client is the person that signs the contract. All emails I sent to the bride's mom (person that signed contract) I cc'ed the bride too so she was atleast up-to-date.

I have never had a problem with the arrangement. Just be very clear that the bride basically has no decision making authority with you.

In my little experience, I've had this happen. I made up a contract with the bride who paid very little (the deposit) and added the addendum concerning payment from the parents. On my e-commerce site, I made two invoices that noted the association on both.

All correspondence was with the bride and all signatures were hers. The mother just paid. It's the same as my daughter's car. We paid but the title is in her name. We have no legal claim to the car. If your parents buy you a house, they can't take it back. Payment and ownership can be shown as separate in contracts.

I guess you just need to establish the difference between the client and the payment.