A Different Pricing Q...(No Really)...
Business By lostincake Updated 16 Apr 2009 , 1:46am by loriana
I base my servings off the Wilton party chart and/or Earlene's chart.
I have a higher price per serving though and my totals usually come out to something I feel is fair for me AND for the customer.
Plus, the customer usually has extra cake (except the friendly dad that buys his daughters cakes from me and I think he cuts too big of pieces!). I have heard several customers comment to me or a friend "She is generous with the cake, we always have leftovers, its great" rather than risk someone complaining that they ran out of cake.
Some of it is semantics....I mean, are you going to use the Wilton wedding chart and charge $2.50/serving, or use the Wilton party chart and charge $4/serving? On one hand, the customer thinks they are getting a better deal but they may run out of cake if they aren't careful....on the other hand, the customer feels the cake is pricier but in return they also get plenty of cake. So I've chosen to do the second.
Usually for weddings I use Earlene's....for smaller cakes I use Wilton party, as well as for 3D so that after I"m done hacking up the cake I'm sure the customer will still end up with roughly the amount they ordered. The customers don't know the difference in what chart I use though.
I am dizzy now. Wow, cake pricing is quite an ordeal.
Well, back in my day or not (I'm only 31) use to only eat cake & ice cream at bday parties & cake & maybe mints, nuts, punch at weddings. But now you almost or do have full blown meals at parties, showers, weddings. So, once people have eaten a meal they don't want a big slice. And truly it's not my problem if I make a cake, give you a cutting guide & you still run out. Next time get a bigger cake!
"back in the olden days", indeed...
I know that back in the olden days they didn't serve food at weddings and parties, but I was under the impression that custom was started around 1800's-ish and ended mid-century-ish.
Not really. The amount of food served tends to be a more regional thing. When I was growing up in Mississippi during the 60s & 70s, most of the weddings I went to had cake (wedding and grooms's), punch, nuts, and mints. That's it. They were usually in the afternoon and everybody in the church was invited via a notice in the church bulletin.
That's all my brother had at his first wedding.
When I got married in the early 80s we had all that plus a couple of fruit trays and maybe some finger sandwiches. I don't really remember.
When I went to my bil's wedding a year later they had enough food for a full meal. It was in Ohio, and that seemed to be the standard there.
I remember in the 70s a neighbor complaining because her daughter was getting married in Florida and she was expected to have a sit-down meal for the reception.
So, my experience is that there are more regional differences than anything else.
Brides Magazine contacted me (back in the 80's) for input for an article they were running on regional differences of weddings. They asked me what kind of food we served and I said, "Just regular stuff you find at weddings ... ham and turkey sandwiches, veggie trays ...... " etc. For the record, I wasn't the only person they talked to in the midwest but when the article came out, I was PI$$ED because they said those in the midwest served "....peasant food ..." 
(It was pretty cool to see my name in Bride's magazine, though! 
)
As I read the article, I remember the east coast was all Lobster Newberg type of stuff and the west coast was also "pricier, high end" foods. If I were to believe this article, no one in the whole country ever had just a simple church basement wedding reception anymore!
So yeah .... regional has a big impact.
I was definitely in my late teens before I went to a wedding with a "sit down" meal served.
Most of the weddings when I was little were morning weddings with a "light" lunch buffet served, i.e. finger sandwich's, chips, punch etc.
Definitely not anything like the hot appetizers/dinner we see today.
So yeah, I remember looking forward to that piece of wedding cake for dessert.........
Brides Magazine contacted me (back in the 80's) for input for an article they were running on regional differences of weddings. They asked me what kind of food we served and I said, "Just regular stuff you find at weddings ... ham and turkey sandwiches, veggie trays ...... " etc. For the record, I wasn't the only person they talked to in the midwest but when the article came out, I was PI$$ED because they said those in the midwest served "....peasant food ..."
(It was pretty cool to see my name in Bride's magazine, though! )As I read the article, I remember the east coast was all Lobster Newberg type of stuff and the west coast was also "pricier, high end" foods. If I were to believe this article, no one in the whole country ever had just a simple church basement wedding reception anymore!
So yeah .... regional has a big impact.
Debi, I liked your post. I grew up in Los Angeles. Weddings were very different in terms of food. We didn't have "peasant food" :X hahaha....
We were served stuffed avocadoes with grilled chicken and caesar salad. Or grilled chicken salads and pita chips. Or fruit salads with pineapple, strawberries, cantalope & citrus. Or marinated artichoke salad. Come to think of it, lots of citrus.
Now I live in Memphis, TN. Very different here! I just went to a wedding two or so months ago. Lunch was fried catfish or chicken fried steak & black eyed peas. I think we had a bit of salad served with ranch dressing and REALLY good tomatoes. (You can't beat the south for good tomatoes!). They fry everything down here if it sits still long enough.
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