Well, the bride and I had our sit down yesterday and after about 2 1/2 hrs of discussing diff. possibilities......she finally caved!! Once I quoted her the price of the 2nd cake, which was only $50 less than the other.....she finally decided to purchase premade gumpaste flowers and NOT do the topper!! So she is getting her really tall cake that she's always dreamed about. She is still about $50 over her budget....but she was happy!! But it was that or some other cake she didn't really want!!!
So we decided on her 2nd choice, I will have to make the leaves, but she is purchasing the premade gumpaste roses and stehpanotis....which helped bring the price down some. Not sure how anyone else prices a cake when they purchase the premade flowers....but I charged her the purchase price plus shipping & $15 for arranging them on the cake. I thought that sounded reasonable!! And since all the tiers will be dummy cakes except the bottom two w/the leaves....I will be able to get them done ahead of time!! She said she may decide to purchase the topper later...but right now she's just going w/o it!!
anyway, here is her final cake....contract signed!!
aww that is georgous!! i love it and congrats on the order!! <3
I'm so glad you got everything all straightened out. Good Luck with the cake - you'll do great!
She does realize she will need to order extras for probable breakage, right? I'd hate to have that situation come up close to the wedding...
yeah, we ordered from wholesaleflowers....and they come in boxes w/a certain # in them. We ordered two boxes of each...to allow for some breakage. I think one box of each that we ordered will be enough...but wanted to make sure we have enough!! So I told her if we end up not using the other boxes (as in unopened)...I wouldn't even charge her for those b/c I would keep them and would use them on other cakes at some point. She said that was fine!!
But the important thing is we are both happy!!! I can't wait to make this cake!!
And her mother works in the same building w/me and we walked up together today.....and she Thanked me for being so understanding w/her daughter and working w/her to try and get as close to what she wanted as possible!! She said noone else was willing to work w/her and tried to get her to do what THEY wanted...not what she wanted. She said her daughter is sooo happy and all she talked about this weekend was her cake!!! So that made me feel good!! 
So guess all the extra time I spent trying to price the cakes and offer other solutions...even though they didn't pan out....was worth it in the end. So far...I have a happy bride!!
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