How Far Ahead Do You Book For Weddings?
Business By hilly Updated 20 Jul 2009 , 5:08pm by cakemaker30
I'll take a deposit a year out. Usually do tastings 6 months out or less. No quotes until the tasting.
We've got several bookings for next year already. At least three for next June. Of course, this is my first year in business, so that may change as I re-evaluate my pricing structures.
I also have several for 2010. I do the samplings whenever they want ... they pay the deposit after they see if they like my baking and if they want me to make their cake (I'm averaging about 18 days after the sampling for them to make their final decision, ranging from 1 day to 79 days).
My cake prices are pretty stable, but I'd probably not quote a catering more than 12-15 months out without a "subject to scheduled price increase".
I already have several for next year and got a request for 2011 - as Leahs said, if they want to hand over the non-refundable dollars, I'll book the space!
I have several weddings booked for 2010. I try to only do a year away though. That's only because I run a legal cake shop out of my home and who knows what could happen in 2 or 3 years. I would hate to take someone's money and for some reason something happens and I'm not longer able to make cakes out of my house. I guess that could happen with anybody, anywhere, but I don't want to take any chances. If I had an actual storefront I might take some a little longer than a year away though.
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