the wedding cake. She says my price is out of her budget. But for the groom's cake, she can't find anybody else "with my expertise in 3D cakes". (her fiance is a paramedic, so they want me to do an ambulance.)

What do you guys think? Would you mind if someone asked you to do this? This isn't the first time this has happened to me either. My groom's cake sat next to a VERY cheesy looking wedding cake at one wedding. Hope the guests didn't think I did both!

And there you said it. I don't want my cake to be next to a tacky cake. I'm also concerned about quality control. It is in my comtract my cake is the only one allowed at the reception, if there is another cake discovered on site, contract cancelled with no monies refunded. I know, harsh, but you have to maintain your reputation. Some people have done the groom's cake without any problems, but that is a personal business decision. And yeah, the guest probably did think you did both!

That's a tough one..... I also would not want my work mistaken for someone else's. It also tricky if the bride want to cut up grocery store cakes from the back. Lots of people refuse to do the cake unless they provide it all, not even other desserts.

Others just want it specified. I think it's really complicated - honestly, if I needed the money, I would do the 3D cake.

But it would be great if people had creative ways of making it clear you don't want your rocking cake mistaken for the other..... you know, tact. Sometimes it eludes me...... *sigh*

I think you answered your own question in the last two sentences

We dont to grooms cakes in SA, but if it was me I wouldnt do it for exactly that reason! JMO

Good luck, I don't do grooms cake with out the brides cake, they tend to be way to much work. Yes, I've also had a rocking grooms cake next to grandmas leaning disaster. Tacky! The grooms cake in my opinion should not steal the show.

I think most would agree that we wouldn't want our cakes confused with the work of another. There is a reason she can't find anyone with your skill in 3D...I say it's both cakes or nothing. You may need to walk away from this one. Value your work and your reputation.

I only do groom's cakes without the wedding cake IF it's for a rehearsal, not the reception, and IF I deliver it to the venue (no having some sneaky bride picking it up to save for later.)

I did deliver a cool groom's cake once and had it sit next to the ugliest wedding cake ever, made by someone else. The bridesmaids were asking me if I could fix it, but there was no way. Thus, the new policy was put into place.

You know, this is really good food for thought.

I was just asked last weekend to do a grooms cake for a wedding in 2010, but the bride to be told me that the venue provides the wedding cake, and would only take off $1 per person if she were to get the cake elsewhere. I hadnt even considered the points brought up here. I will definately be explaining this if she does call me. Thanks everyone!

Debbie

I do the exact same as costumeczar and for exactly the same reasons.

A gal I used to work with asked me the other day if I would do a dummy cake (with real top tier for cutting) for her wedding next year because her future husband's aunt wants to make sheet cakes as her gift.

I want to help her out, but I don't know this other person! For all I know, it could be one of you and the cake will be superb!!! But it could also be some scary person who smokes or something while she's mixing up a cake and then people will think that I did that!!!!

I told her to give me a call and we'd talk about it, but I'm leaning toward "no" because I'm just really getting started and making a name for myself. I don't want to wreck it that way!!!!

I would turn it down.

I am like many other posters, I provide all the cake or none of it.

Hm, with out reading our posts I would have said to do it. I specialize in grooms cakes and take them all the time on their own (a lot of venues here provide the cake). BUT I never though about how my name would be associated with a bad wedding cake. How did I not see this??? SO I would turn it down based on that, and I will now have a re-write in my contract for this. costumeczar is really smart to do the groom's cake, but not at the wedding. this a good compromise. I do a lot of rehersal groom's cakes anyway. boy, so glad i opened up this post!

Very interesting. I didn't have this issue for my wedding in Virginia. My rehearsal dinner and groom's cake came from an amazing lady in New York, where I lived. It was impractical for her to the wedding cake so that came from a place in Maryland. That was a great cake too. The Maryland baker didn't place any restrictions on me about any other cakes. But I guess that's something to think about.

All your cakes are beautiful! I say you should do both or neither.

I found myself in this same situation last year. The groom's mother was my cousin and they wanted me to do the wedding cake and the groom's cake. Well, the MOB contacted me via email after I quoted the price of the wedding cake and very passive agressively put me down and my ability to do cake. Basically told me my price was too high for my quality of work. My cousin was paying for the groom's cake and so being the nice realative that I am, I went ahead and did the groom's cake for her and her son. The wedding cake was a disaster, obviously the cake decorator was very inexperienced and there sat my cake next to it. I honestly didn't worry about people thinking it was me who made the wedding cake. I was proud of my cake and the MOB had to deal with the disaster of a wedding cake. She was also seen going back for seconds on my cake. I will say, I will never do that again, so after this long drawn out story, my answer would be no!

One of the episodes of Amazing Wedding Cakes featured Reva and Mark doing a stadium cake for the groom as a gift from the bride. I noticed Reva stated that the wedding cake was being supplied by someone else. I'm not sure I see the conflict. I'd just place my name next to my groom's cake and not care a whit about comparisons. If you think about it, people are going to figure it out if the two cakes are entirely different in execution and workmanship... but it's a lot to assume the other cake is automatically inferior as implied in previous posts.

I can understand concerns on this. I have done groom's cakes without doing the wedding cake. Mainly, like you said I needed the money and whoever was doing the bride's cake didn't do anything carved or real fancy

If you need the money, you need the money. Do it and don't worry about it. I agree that folks will figure it out. Good luck with your decision, I know it can be hard.

if you need the money...do the cake, they can tell the difference.

i make grooms cakes with no wedding cake all the time.....believe me, they can tell the difference, i've had guests come in and tell me they gobbled up all the grooms cake and barely touched the wedding cake.

it hasn't hurt my business one bit.

i'm in it for the $$$$$$, i've seen some pics of the wedding cakes my grooms cakes have set next to, you can tell very easily they weren't made by the same person.

i worked for a kinda fancy bakery for a short while, they didn't demand you buy all the cakes from them.....i guess this idea seems odd to me.

duff does just the grooms cake sometimes doesn't he?

My step-daughter was married earlier this year and the reception venue required them to purchase their wedding cake as part of a package, although she wanted me to do the wedding cake. She asked me if I would do a groom's cake with a Chicago Bears theme for her husband. I told her I would but only if the venue was okay with the plan. They were and I did the groom's cake. Everyone raved about the groom's cake and considered the wedding cake barely edible. It was a small wedding so everyone knew I did not do the wedding cake and my step-daughter asked me to say something at the reception to "present" the groom's cake to her husband. I don't know that I would do this for anyone else because of all the issues raised by previous entries.

I have something in my contract that states that all cakes must be made by me, unless agreed upon beforehand. With that being said, I put that in there mostly to keep brides from ordering a small cake from me and then having Wal-Mart sheet cakes in the back and trying to act like they served all the guests the same cake. I actually had someone try that on me If they come and say they want me to do a groom's cake and their getting the wedding cake somewhere else I would be ok with that. Everyone can see they are two different cakes and could potentially be from different places. I just try to avoid the hidden kitchen cakes from somewhere else So I would do it.

I agree that if the wedding cake looks terrible and the groom's cake looks amazing, then yes, people will realize that two different people did the cakes.

BUT, what if the wedding cake looks fine or even stunning but TASTES terrible? Then will people still think there were 2 different bakers or will they think "Well, some of her cakes are delicious and some taste awful. I'm afraid to order in case we get a bad tasting cake."

Just something else to think about.

Personally, I think if you are fortunate enough that your financial situation will allow you to turn away cake orders then by all mean I would only do the groom's cake with the bride's cake. However, I know that I couldn't afford to turn away an order right now.

Now, if you did the cake and someone else did the bride's cake and placed them next to each other at the table, then (and I am in no way trying to be rude or snotty I know things can read differently on the computer than we intend them when typing) if you are confident that your cake skills are exceptional then it should be obvious that the cakes were made by two different people when placed next to each other. Just my two cents.

I not only have the "all or nothing" clause in my contract, I require that that clause be separately initialed to make sure the bride understand it.

I'm wondering, if one did a groom's cake and not the wedding cake, is it considered tacky to have a small placecard next to the groom's cake with "groom's cake designed by *** Cakes" ?

Wondering what the etiquette on this is...

I have a wedding in April that I am doing the groom's cake but not the wedding cake.
I did ask her who was doing her wedding cake and she told me who was doing her wedding cake. They are about 10 times more expensive than I am. But the venue that she is using has an exclusive contract for that bakery to do the wedding cakes. I know she would have preferred to not pay their prices. Let's put it this way they charge $100 to deliver the cake within their own city. Not to mention $25 per flower placement charge. PER FLOWER!

Amylou - I am with you on that. It COULD look nice to have an elegant card made specially for this kind of situation on a nice little pedestal or in a little frame.

I made only the groom's cake for my DH's cousin. The 4 tier wedding cake looked amazing, but my cake was gone before even 1 layer of the other was. Walking around the reception, I heard many people ask each other about the groom's cake and receive answers of "Oh, ***'s cousin made it, the other was from some bakery." I even heard the Bride and Groom tell people the cakes were from two different places.

I had no problem doing it, I was proud of my cake and thrilled to be included in a wedding that was mainly "keeping up with the Jones'" and to be complemented so much on top of that!