I need the advice from those of you who have contracts for wedding cakes.
Here is what is going on:
6-18-2007 - Bride & Groom come for a design appointment - Hire me -Sign the Contract & give 50% deposit. They state that they do not want the cakes delivered but will have someone pick them up. (Written on contract: Pick-up Contact Information & Final payment due 8-12-2007)
Wedding Info:
Date: 10-7-2007
Wedding at the Zoo
Reception at a Bar
Wedding Cake: foaming glass of beer
Grooms Cake: box of cigars
8-14-2007 - Final payment arrives (2 days late), but no information on who is picking up the cakes. (I have to give them a time to pick up the cakes. They have to sign a contract taking full responsibility for the cakes). So now I wait.....
8-23-2007 - Have not heard from bride, so I try to call. Voice mail. So I send her an e-mail letting her know that I not received the information that I need as to who is picking up her cakes.
Wait some more....
8-31-2007 - Get an e-mail from the bride asking if I can make the wedding cake bigger as now they have more guest coming. I respond letting her know that yes I can make the cake bigger, give her the quote and a new dead line for that payment, and I have to know who is picking up the cakes. (This is highlighted in red). She response that she will send me the check and "will let me know who is getting the cakes as soon as she knows". (Deadline is 9-15-2007)
9-15-2007 - Get the check, no information! So, I wait....
9-21-2007 - Last night I was doing the delivery schedule for the week-end of her wedding, 10-7-2007, and I still don't know who is picking up these cakes! So I call her, voice mail! So now I call the groom. Got him on the phone and tell him what is going on. He tells me that he will have me the information by the end of the evening.
He does not call!!!!
Wedding is in 2 weeks, cakes are paid for, pick-up requested, no information given.
Do I cancel or do I wait this out till the last minute and have someone sit all day till someone decides to show up for the cakes?
Please let me know your thoughts on this.
PS: I have now changed my contract to delivery only on wedding cakes!
My guess is that they don't know who is going to be picking up the cakes. I suspect that they are so busy with all the other things that need to be done before a wedding, that they figure this isn't a big deal - somebody will pick it up at some point that day.
I would leave another voicemail or email telling the bride and groom that you are working out your schedule for that day and you need to know exactly what time the cake is being picked up. I would say that, although you understand they are very busy with all the last minute details of their wedding, this is an important detail that needs to be resolved no later than Wednesday. Gently remind them that it is in their signed contract that they would provide this information to you by 8-12 and that unless they tell you exactly who is picking up the cake and what time, then regretably you will no longer be able to do their cake.
Sounds like they just need a kick in the pants.
Good luck. Keep us updated.
I would tell them that they need to have contact information by X time or they will not be able to get their cake on this day. Since they have already paid I wouldn't cancel...I think that might be a little rash, they are just not up on how things work for a deliver schedule.
Tell them nicely: I need to know by the end of this day who is going to be picking up the cake. I will only be at X place for 1 hour, from X o'clock to X o'clock or you will not get your cake on this day because I will be out on deliveries. NO exceptions! If I don't have the signed contract by the end of the day I will have to charge you a fee for being untimely.
Maybe not exactly like that but, to some extent! I know that Indydebi would like to have a say in this...I hope that I did some justice in what could happen!
Why don't they want you to deliver them? Is it just to avoid the delivery charge?
I would tell them the window of time that their cake is available to be picked up or a specific time if you have many other deliveries and obligations that day. It is not your responsibility to wait on them after said designated time.
I think I would send a certified letter with this info and maybe also a copy of the letter thru e-mail to cover your bases. They may not be answering you because you want a specific name and they don't know who it will be yet - which is scary in itself since I personally wouldn't trust too many people to handle such an important task.
I don't remember if you bake out of your home or not, but if you do, just let them know that you can leave it out on the porch for them if they don't show up at the designated time and you are not responsible for any melting or deterioration from either weather or any of god's small creatures! 
I would tell them the window of time that their cake is available to be picked up or a specific time if you have many other deliveries and obligations that day. It is not your responsibility to wait on them after said designated time.
I think I would send a certified letter with this info and maybe also a copy of the letter thru e-mail to cover your bases. They may not be answering you because you want a specific name and they don't know who it will be yet - which is scary in itself since I personally wouldn't trust too many people to handle such an important task.
I don't remember if you bake out of your home or not, but if you do, just let them know that you will leave it out on the porch for them if they don't show up at the designated time and you are not responsible for any melting or deterioration from either weather or any of god's small creatures!
OOO! I like that! You are good!
It won't be an issue again since you will deliver only, but I guess I don't understand why you needed to know 7 weeks in advance WHO will pick up the cake.
They've met your payment deadlines (most important!), so if you set a time-window for pick-up I'm sure they'll comply. Whoever shows up will have been entrusted to the task by the bride, and that person has to sign off then and there that the cakes were received in perfect condition.
Even now 2 weeks before the wedding, I can't imagine why you'd consider it cause for cancellation because they haven't yet NAMED the picker-upper, IMO. It's the TIME window that's important, and that's a rule that you get to make.
foxymomma521- they don't want to pay a delivery fee.
just let them know that you will leave it out on the porch for them if they don't show up at the designated time and you are not responsible for any melting or deterioration from either weather or any of god's small creatures!
TOO FUNNY! I bet that I would get a response then!
It won't be an issue again since you will deliver only, but I guess I don't understand why you needed to know 7 weeks in advance WHO will pick up the cake.
They've met your payment deadlines (most important!), so if you set a time-window for pick-up I'm sure they'll comply. Whoever shows up will have been entrusted to the task by the bride, and that person has to sign off then and there that the cakes were received in perfect condition.
Even now 2 weeks before the wedding, I can't imagine why you'd consider it cause for cancellation because they haven't yet NAMED the picker-upper, IMO. It's the TIME window that's important, and that's a rule that you get to make.
I want all final information for the contract 8 weeks before the wedding date. If some thing need to be changed, that can happen. But with someone picking up a wedding cake & grooms cake, if someone shows up and says the bride sent me to get the cakes and I give them to this person. Then the cakes fall over on the way to the reception cause the person who the bride sent over drove like a maniac or slammed on the brakes. I want it in a contract, this persons name from the bride, that they were sent here, by her, to get these cakes. So that I never hear from the bride, "I didn't send her to get those cakes."
Truthfully, the bride and groom are probably so harried right now, being this close to their wedding, that finalizing all the details is getting really tough. True story - for my sisters wedding (very small affair) all the guests were at the church, my parents and I were in the lobby waiting, and still no sign of the bride. My mother calls her, just to find out that she forgot to inform my parents that they were her ride!!!!
Ahhh, OK....
and OMG sugarnspice! Too funny!!!
Truthfully, the bride and groom are probably so harried right now, being this close to their wedding, that finalizing all the details is getting really tough. True story - for my sisters wedding (very small affair) all the guests were at the church, my parents and I were in the lobby waiting, and still no sign of the bride. My mother calls her, just to find out that she forgot to inform my parents that they were her ride!!!!
AWE! Bless her heart!
Sometimes I think I get as panicked as a bride when I don't have all the information that I should have. They allow me to share in the joy of their wedding by designing their cakes. I just want to make sure that it gets to them as they want it.
I tried to call them again yesterday and got both of their voice mails. I will try again on Monday.
I am thinking that if I don't reach either one of them, that I am going to leave a voice mail that I am going to deliver the cakes for them. That will take the stress off of them and myself. And the more I thought about it, while they would love to watch their budget and not pay for the delivery. When they said this, I bet they were not thinking about who would have to miss the wedding to go get the cakes and set them up.
It's as simple as this: Give the bride a time for pick-up. Who ever shows up to claim it really doesn't matter. Your contract is with the bride so she needs to be the one to sign your incidental clause.
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%