how early do you deliver your wedding cakes? For a 4 o'clock wedding with a 7o'clock reception. where someone from the family needs to let us in. When would you deliver? I don't want to inconvenience the family, but I really don't know if I want to deliver when they are decorating the hall in the morning either. Talk about pressure for a newbie. Ok, I know they would be really good to me, but would they watch over my shoulder? that would make me uneasy.

Thanks,
Janice

I try to be on site about 4 hours before the reception starts

I agree with Skaggs1. I did one reccently where they wanted me to set up only 1 hour before. I was literally leaving when the bride was walking down the aisle. I was rushed and frustrated.

i like to set up when everyone else is gone from decorating the site....no one is talking to you to distract you from being careful ..etc.. there can be bad mishaps when too many people are around looking at what you are doing... adding that you are already nervous... wanting it all to come together nicely...

My general rule of thumb is I set up one hour prior to the start of the reception. wedding at 4:00 .... recepton at 7:00 ... I deliver and set up cake at 6:00 ... I'm in and out in 10 minutes. Exception: If it's an at-home wedding, or if the wedding is being held in the same room, then I want to have the cake set up before the guests start to arrive. So wedding at 4:00 ... reception immediately following at 5:00 .... I will set up at 3:00.

For cakes, I can be flexible and can set up anytime. It doesnt' bother me if people are around ... I'm enough of a "ham" that I luv an audience!

For catering, it's non-negotiable. Had one wedding where they wanted me to set up at 2:00 for a 6:30 serve time. no way. This is food, not flowers and food can NOT set out that long. (Had one that actually requested this. They told me the wedding was at 5:00 so everyone would be at the wedding. I told her I understood that, but if she wanted food at her reception, then she needed to assign someone to be there to unlock the door at 5:00-5:30. Her food would not even be finished cooking at 2:00!)

See add'l responses on this thread: http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopicp-6008773.html#6008773

Thanks all for the replies I took your advice and told them they needed to let me in at 5pm.

Janice

My first cake setup took 2 hours, until I learned to carry them assembled. Now I open the box, slide the finished cake out, set it on the table, and leave. whew

My deliveries DO depend on if there are flowers to arrange on the cake, though.

If there's no flower arranging to do, I get there 30 minutes before the guests will be arriving. So, for a 7 pm reception, figure guests arriving at 6:30, I get there between 5:30 and 6, and I'm driving out as the first guests are driving in.

If there are flowers to do, that takes me longer, so I give myself 45 min to an hour to work, depending on how many flowers we're doing. For a 7 pm reception, guests arriving at 6:30, I'd want to be there between 5 and 5:30.

I gave up doing any assembly AT the site, because I hate how shaky I feel working on a cake with staff and/or guests watching. The only time I'll take something unassembled is if it's just too heavy for me to carry fully stacked, which hasn't happened yet, but it will in August when I have a 6, 8, 10, 12, 14" to deliver. For that one I'm going to try taking it in two pieces, I hope...! No way I can carry it!

Since I usually have 3-5 weddings to deliver and everyone seems to be getting married at 7 these days, I deliver as soon as I can. (The cake either sits on a table here, or sits on a table there, doesnt matter) There are some weddings where I have delivered at 9 am! So a lot of it depends on when they site will be ready and where the cake will be sitting. (If its an out door cake, I won't deliver till an hour or so before the reception either) I just like to give myself extra time incase I Need to do any repair work.

I agree, I HATE delivering a wedding cake where the family is still setting up. There is always someone who wants "to help" My DH and I have a whole routine we follow to get the cake set up and these "helpers" are DANGERIOUS! I had one "helper" try to take the cake out of the box while we were finding out where the table was!! I had another who took off her shoes and had them laying on the floor in front of the table. We almost tripped on them. But the ones I hate the most are the "helpers" who start telling you how they used to decorate cakes and you just want to set up and get on to the next one and still be polite! hahahaha!