I had a wedding this last saturday and I am so happy it is finally done. Over the course of the last month I have seen and heard from mom of bride about 3 dozen times. They ordered my wedding package (which includes food, cake, punch, servers, etc.) to serve 150 guests and they upgraded their cake up to serve 200, boy it was a monster and so heavy. Anyways, so we get there and start setting up, finish the cake and have a little bit of rest time and then the guests start showing up, and then more and more and more and OH MY GOSH i could see that we were going to have a problem. Friends of the mom come running in (about 20 minutes in to the reception now and food is almost gone and bride/groom/wedding party/close family have still not made it yet due to pictures) and tell me that they were only expecting 100 guests at the wedding and 210 signed in the guest book and there were people showing up to the reception that did not even attend the wedding. Well, what am I suppose to do? I brought food for the 150 they paid for and then I always bring a complimentary extra 30 servings for those little piggies that always show up. So the friends hauled it to the grocery store, bought crap loads of stuff and we were just throwing things together behind the table, I was exhausted. We ended up being at this reception for almost 6 hours, I thought it would never end. Anyways, thankfully it finally did and we just poured ourselves into bed that night. So that is my nightmare wedding for this weekend. Here are some pictures of the evening hope you all like.

excellent job on the cake and fixing on the fly!

i hope that they will be paying you for all the extra food and time.

Fantastic job on everything, especially the cake. I agree with Doug they should pay for the extra food and such.

What Doug said and it sounds to me like someone tried to get by as cheaply as possible, gambling on a lot of people NOT showing up! Don't short change yourself one bit! Charge extra for the hours and I'd really sock it to them for the running to the store and extra food!

Your cake and set up is very pretty!!

great job,love the cake

Gorgeous cake! I can't believe all the extra people! You must be exhausted.


Angie

Beautiful cakes and presentation. Don't hesitate to give her another bill for the balance of the work and effort.

well, she did pay for us to stay until midnight and we left about 12:30 so not that much extra time, it just felt like an eternity

Lovely cake.

Glad you made it through! Your cake is gorgeous!

I agree with the paying for the extra time and such! Sounds like you were running around like a chicken with your head cut off! Wow! Great pull through!

Beauty of a cake!! And definitely charge them for your time.

I agree--beautiful cake and set up.

Agree,too, that you should send another bill for all the extra food.
You went above and beyond on this one!!

thanks everyone for all the great comments

It sounds like you held it together so well! I would have been a mess probably. Your cake is beautiful. I love the design.

As a fellow caterer, I salute you!!!! I had one about as bad ..... but you reign as the champ with this story! (In my story, one of the mothers was wanting a refund because we ran out of one food item. There were 3 moms in this story ..... and she was the mother who hadn't paid for any part of it!)

My husband calls it "tryin' to do it on the cheap!"

The tables are a beautiful set-up! Looks like you did a great job!

Your cake is perfect! Sorry you had such a bad day.

Wow ! I salute you . My father always said "improvise, adapt and overcome" and that's what you did. Excellent . Your cake is stunning and your presentation beautiful.

Looks like everything was great. You did a wonderful job.

Interesting what people do isn't it?? You did a fantastic job. Hope you were reimbursed for all the time and extra effort you put into that one. Hopefully your next one will be a breeze...............

Your cake is beautiful and I am glad you got through the reception. I cater small weddings here at the church where I work and I am always terrified that they will run out of food. How anyone does it on a full-time basis is beyond me! I applaud you all.

How can you NOT know that many people are coming to the wedding?? Now we had less people show up then we thought - and so we offered food to the DJs and other people that probably weren't expecting to be fed.....

Still I feel they probably stole some food from us b/c they didn't box up ANYTHING for us at all and I know there had to be food left considering not everyone showed up.... they also didn't box any extra cake and I know there was a LOT of that left over too.... hmm still makes me a bit mad. Too late now though.

Unless they were tyring to do it cheap and hoping some people wouldn't come to the reception... or maybe they invited people to the wedding and not to the reception (u know b/c they can't afford everyone at the reception but still want them to be a part of the wedding ceremony).... i dunno. If the guests just "showed up" without RSVPing or anything then the guests were incredibly rude.

All in all good for you though and congrats - it all looks beautiful!

Wow, beautiful cake!

Everything was picture perfect, AND you lived to tell about it. Have a blessed day.

Beautiful set up, Beautiful cake!!!!


I sure hope you got more then just a THANKS out of that one. If not, at least be proud you were able to keep it together w/o going nuts, at least where no one could see you!

Beautiful cake and set up! And congrats on coming out on top!

My parents, myself, and my sister, all catered my brother and ex sil's wedding reception. We were making food for 2 days prior (things that were ok to be kept in the fridge like that) and the day of, we went to the reception site 4 hours before the wedding was to begin (they had the wedding and reception in the same room so alot of furniture moving after the ceremony lol) we set up crock pots in the kitchen with meatballs and other things and had the meat platters ready in the fridge, cheese trays etc... all ready to go. We didn't run out of food and didn't have much left over. I don't remember her cake at all lol (was before I started decorating) but I do know it was a guestimate on the number of people coming and being fed because they didn't do much of anything right lol. They ended up feeding people that weren't supposed to be fed because they did it up buffet style (which every wedding I've been to has been like this).

Other weddings I've been to, the reception has ended and there are loads of food being brought back out from the back one in particular, my best friends wedding, not as many showed as RSVP'ed and they had 2 platters of meat (lunch meat) left over, rolls out the ying yang, and cheese gallore!!! lol. Made for a great week afterwards lol. Her entire bottom tier of cake got thrown out by some idiot at the hall..

Anyway reason for stories... as long as it's been placed in the fridge afterwads, our local places will pack it up for you to take your left overs home

The cake is beautiful as well as the presentation! I am sure you are glad that one is over!

Beautiful cake!

Your cake is one of the coolest ones I have ever seen.....the design and color combo really works and the tulle/mesh swag with little lights is spot-on.

thanks everyone - well, when it is all over you think you are done with them but I got a call from the mom today to settle up on the bill for the extra (last minute) table skirts she had me bring and I very subtlely went over everything we had to go thru while they were not there with the food problems and all she said was well I am so glad that it turned out can you please email me any pictures of the food tables that you have so I can see what they looked like and then authorized me to charge the $30 for the extra skirts. HAHA so much for some little tip I thought we deserved lol