As a person who will be starting up my own cake business in the next few months, I must admit reading all the horror stories about brides-from-hell and watching television shows like "Bridezillas" has me a little bit scared! I'm assuming I'll get the occasional doozy, but I would hope there are way more polite, nice clients than the scary, never-satisfied ones!
So my question is this: What percentage of your customers would you say are picky, rude, or downright psycho??
I don't have my own buisness but have worked directly with the public...and you are right! You will definitely have your share of difficult people.
I work with residential remodeling contractors.When I send them out to look at a job some will tell me if they are interested on bidding based on the personality of the homeowner. Of course some people may seem nice at first then they turn into Mr. Hyde.
I don't deal with brides at all due to choice at this point in time! 
But my customer base is 90-95 percent wonderful and 5-10 percent pain in the b..t! I imagine it would be much the same with brides, but sometimes when it's about them and not others people can change.
I've had 3 out of nearly 100 cake orders this year complain, or be difficult about something (2 minor niggles, and one downright psycho!) - so that'd be 3% of my customers. There will always be some people you can't please no matter what you do, but most will be delighted and very happy. It's a bitter pill to swallow sometimes, but it goes with the territory I guess!
In over 3 years, I've had 3 complaints .... 1 from the bride and 2 from the mothers. One of the mothers was not even a person who had given me a check!! (Step mom and Groom's mom paid for wedding ... bio-mom comes in after the fact asking for a refund! WTF!!!!!????)
In ALL THREE CASES, they were doing it "on the cheap". the one I've posted about a number of times is the one who
(1) ordered food for 100
(2) groom's mom increased it to 125 three days before the wedding
(3) I brought enough for 150
(4) They had 175 people at the wedding
(5) the only thing we ran out of was meatballs
(6) non-paying bio-MOB told me that *I* should have planned better! 
So watch out for the ones who "ain't got no money!" but want the wedding that looks like something Charles and Diana would have had. It's a definite pattern that we've noticed, and I have my little speech all ready for future brides who want veggie trays and cheeseball ONLY for a receptoin at the dinner hour!
I think that "bridezillas" are really a select few. We hear about more of them because this community is so huge. If every person had just one in years of decorating and posted about them, we would have heard about 80,000 bridezillas!! LOL I'll bet the ones who have posted about them have only had one or two in the hundreds of clients they've had. 
I don't have much data in terms of cake clients yet, but from the floral/fashion end of things.. I don't have many/any anymore. I used to have probably 5-10%.
They interview you to see if they want you as a vendor.. you have to interview them to see if you want them as a client. I don't take abuse from anyone, most certainly not for a few dollars per serving!
If you really don't want to turn business away, then come up with a "PITA" surcharge for those that will be making you earn it!!
Overall I have not had difficult brides, one of the things I learned a long time ago is not to give any prices until you know exactly what they want. Too many times we give a price without getting a full detailed account. You can really get into a bind and cost yourself money by not finding out what kind of cake or services they need. The bride must also understand that any changes made may cost her more, once the contract is in place. I will accept minor changes as long as it doesn't require more time or money for me. I have also found out that alot of these gals really don't know what they want and often times I can gently persuade them to an idea that is easier for me and still give them a beautiful product.
I think the second you step out the door people are judging you.
Some love your cakes...some hate them. I think that doing cakes takes a lot of time and patience. And when you pour that much into a cake, to have someone hate it, kind of takes a bite of you. I think you have to have a tough skin. Are you going to be upset every time a couple chooses another baker of you? I know for me personally, it's a big emotion investment.
It's really not as bad as TV would like to make it out to be. Just like ANY business that deals with the public, you take the good with the bad. Some people are particular, some are indecisive, some are down-right rude and some just do not want to be pleased no matter what they are doing in life in general! You will encounter many different personalities no matter what type of cakes you are making. Some people you will enjoy working with and some you just get through it! I had a bride last year that I felt like was a HUGE P.I.T.A! She stopped in it seemed like every week to change something about her wedding cake, she was constantly checking up on me to make sure I had everything straight. She brought in countless sketches until finally 2 weeks before the wedding, I told her she absolutely could NOT change anything else! I did my best to create exactly what she wanted and she was thrilled! Called me after her honeymoon to personally thank me and has ordered birthdays, etc. from me several times since. Sometimes it's easier when they are a pain up front, at least you know what you're dealing with!
-Lori
Indy deb. I raised my step daughters since they were kindergarten. Where's mom all these years? Good question. But as I suspected, when wedding time came for our oldest this spring, here she came. She had a lot of advice and a lot of opinions, and as far as I know, little financial investment. I just stayed out of it. It was a pretty hard pill to swallow to see her big b__t walk down the aisle with the child I had fed, clothed, cared for and sent to college. But it wasn't my day, it was my daughter's. For some reason, people can really act out of character when it comes to weddings. As for brides, you never know what kind of pressure they're under. So, I say take the bad with the good.
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