so this is just a fun way for us to share some of our worst, craziest, weirdest tasting appointment stories.

This should be interesting.....

I think my weirdest one was when they bride and groom came in, I thought the groom looked familiar, but I couldn't place him. As they sat down, he said "You don't remember me, do you?" I told him he looked familiar, but I couldn't remember. Well, he had dated my older sister quite seriously for a number of years. Of course, bride wasn't thrilled hearing about this, and starting asking questions. After learning my maiden name, we discovered that the bride had dated my little brother for a few months!!!!!!
come to think of it, I never did hear from them again.

That is a good story. I wonder if they went through with the wedding....

One of my first ones, before I had racked up some good experience and backbone!

Bride & groom arrived with FOUR parents, TWO sisters and a grandmother. We barely had room for everyone in the room, let alone around the table. They had told me they were interested in catering and cake, so I prepared basically a full lunch .... food and cake. This was also back in the days when I made a 3-tier mini sample cake (4/6/8 size).

They ended up booking the cake .... but they'd already booked the catering and didnt' tell me, so all that food I prepared was a total waste. Waste of time, waste of money. Plus this was the one that was in my hometown, so I drove 75 miles with this cake. This was also my "sat outside for 5 hours and didn't melt" cake, so I spent the whole day there, in 90+ degree heat, wiping my face with a towel I had brought with me, all afternoon ..... until cake cutting time (a service I quickly discontinued shortly after this).

The first in a line of samplings that contributed to my honing of how I handle them now!

Good Lord, Debi, that was a heinous experience all around! At least it was a "learning moment!"

I had something similar happen, where a bride brought the groom, both sets of parents, and a couple of bridesmaids. They all had an opinion and kept telling her what she should choose, until she finally just burst into tears! I figured that she had probably had the same group trooping around with her to every appointment, and they were probably just as "helpful" everywhere else as well. She just reached her breaking point, and it happened to be during this appointment.

This also made me change my policy to only let people bring three total, including the bride and groom, to a tasting!

I'm saying....those derailed appointments make you revise your policies QUICK!

ETA Stories - there are several.

-When the couple rolled up in a brand new benz...ATE every last bit of cake (this is when I did 6" rounds), Then talked about how my quote was too high right outside of my door.
-The couple brought every single person in their family...you basically have no control over the meeting.
-The worst...when the bride was nitpicking over the color of blue crayon that I used to add color to her cake sketch. It wasn't "Univ. of Michigan" Blue, but a dark royal blue or something. I'm sorry..it's a CRAYON! That's the last time I did any type of sketch before a deposit.

I don't really have any horror stories about cake tastings however I did have a fairly well endowed BTB break my chair once.

It was awful because my first reaction was to be sure she didn't bump her head on the way down....but the GTB started cracking up and couldn't stop, so inevitably we all ended up laughing.

Talk about awkward.

Bride and groom were two hours late for their appointment, then basically yelled at me because they couldn't find a parking spot when they finally got here. They acted like that was the only reason they were late. Honestly, it took you two hours to find a parking spot? Luckily I was working that day and didn't come in specifically for the tasting.

The YOUNG couple arrives with bride's mother - bride had discussed on the phone beforehand that she wanted cupcakes for her wedding - great...should be an easy consultation! Groom and mother harass bride into ordering a full 4-tier cake over a two hour consultation...bride seems happy about the whole arrangement until we get down to the payment terms. This is when she breaks down into tears - I mean tantrum at my table! She is sobbing that she wanted cupcakes all along - I had to calm her down (NOT mother or loving fiance), and tell them to go home to think about it, and that I would not take a payment until they came to an agreement (AT HOME)!

bride phones me to tell me they are running a bit behind schedule, but are leaving the venue and will be at my place shortly. This venue is only about 10 min from me, so I recon they wont be too late. They turn up an hour later, then tells me that they were hungry so stopped for some food 1st :O
The groom then flops down on the couch, starts compaining about the cake and the icing being too sweet and how this other decorator made the perfect tasting cake, all the while stuffing cake in his mouth! I finally had enough and told him that maybe they should book the other decorator. Hi reply... "she is not returning our calls " (wonder why )
Well when they contacted me the next week, I was totally booked up

I had a tasting where the groom was late, but we started anyway. They met and bonded because they both own horses and arrange their lives around them. So the Bride is showing me pictures of the dress, a very romantic, kind of medieval design with an enourmous train because they are going to RIDE to the venue, and she wants it to drape nicely over the horses rear. Plus, her veil has a tiara. So, she wants a princessy cake with peach flowers and butterflies. OK.

The groom arrives. We chat. Then he tells me he will be dressed as a river boat gambler like Kenny Rogers. (Actually, a good look for this guy.) He has inherited his great grandfathers pocket watch and wants to show it off.
He wants a Texas themed cake, gamblers hat on top, with a whip going around the tiers!

It was all downhill from there. They were planning 2 entirely different weddings===she a Hollywood historical romance, he a country and western song. So a fight is starting.

Bride says, well, we can compromise. I can combine both their "visions" into one cake, can't I? Groom is determined to have his whip. I was pretty speechless. Butterflies and a whip? Finally I promised to think about it and get back to them. I never did, and I never heard from them again. I would have said i was booked.

When the groom repeatedly made jokes about divorce and having the topper at the anniversary of their divorce, not the wedding.

My most awkard consultation was this past summer when an engaged couple and the bride's mother had a spat. It was like watching a tennis match. My head was going from side to side.

The groom wanted his "Mamma" to make the cake.

The bride and her mother laughed at his idea and said "No way in he#@".

Groom gets mad, "You don't be talking 'bout my momma!"

Bride replies, "I don't mean to disrespect your mother, but she can't even make biscuits!"

Bride's mother interjects, "I know that's right!".

My response, "So will you sending a check or should I send an online invoice?" I got the check 2 weeks later by mail.

*****
My most embarrassing moment was when I was attacked by a coughing spell. The conversation went kind of like this..

Hello, my name is, *cough* cough* cough*.

I apologize for all the *heeve*cough*cough*couging!

Perhaps we should *heeve*heeve*coughing* reschedule!

I couldn't even shake their hands at the end. Needless to say, I never heard from them again.

I learned a valuable lesson about cough drops that day!

Mine is the consultation I never even got to have!
A lady from my church is getting married next Aug and asked if I could do her cake. We chat for a moment after church about it and I find out that she wants it for 300 ppl, she doesn't really know what colors she wants but is leaning towards black and white with another color... maybe. No clue what style or flavors. I let her know that it will be about $XXXX. Not a problem. I TELL her that we need to get together SOON and go over the details and price. I finally see her last week and she starts telling me that she wants me to do fruit bouquets for the center pieces for the table AND now she wants a grooms cake... and did I mention that the wedding is over an hour away. She tell me that she knows we need to talk about the cake but she trusts me. And with that she hugs me and leaves. I just stood there with a WTH look on my face.

Oh, cookielady....Good Luck with that one!!

Butterfiles and a whip... LMAO... maybe you could have thrown in a ball gag as well.

I think I would have cracked up too at the broken chair.

Debi... a 4-6-8 for a tasting??? Do I need to get your mom finger out???

I've been lucky thus far *knocks furiously on wood* with tasting appointments. The only oddity I had was with one btb who was so very meticulous about her cupcake tower. I had to measure it and give dimentions and match icing colors to laser cut liners and the list went on and on, BUT... she was the sweetest person, so not really a bridezilla... just knew exactly what she wanted... and 'twas exactly what she recieved. Everyone happy... the end.

I had completely forgotten about this one until I started reading these others:

BTB calls to have samples brought to her, tells me she's "in town" I deliver free of charge in town.......took me half an hr. to get to her on ALL dirt roads (I thought my van was going to break in half the whole chassie was creaking the whole time)
anyhow I get there with her samples 8 cupcakes and 2 piping bags with filling in them. She tells me, sorry...we can't stay and taste we're on our way to a race (car racing track down the road) and I say" that's fine, you don't need to taste with me here anyhow, just let me know which you like" She already knew what kind of cake she wanted (design and size wise) and I left her my pricing sheet......then as I'm leaving she says to me

"Thanks again........we were supposed to bring a dessert to the track tonight for us and our 6 other friends and these are gonna be PERFECT" I smiled and then turned around and thought "how on EARTH are you going to know WHICH cake you like if you don't even taste them?????????" Unless of course they shared individual cupcakes which they may have done, who knows!

I never heard from her again and after that and a phone call from some giggly teenage girls wanting samples...I started charging for them!

yeah, I was kinda mad driving away but then I thought.........you know what......if people have to stoop to the level of "posing as a bride" to get dessert then maybe they really needed the hand out!

I may have just dodged one.

Last week, "L" calls up, getting married outside my delivery area. I tell her the only option is for her to pick up. "How many servings will you need?" 200. "Well, that's too big for you to move on your own." So, "L" says, I really just want a little three tier cake for 75 and then I'll get sheet cakes."

My heads explodes at the words, 'sheet cakes.'

Well, I say, I don't do sheet cakes. I do kitchen cakes, but I won't sell a sheet cake. "L" responds, no problem, I'd planned to get those from the grocery or bakery anyway, to save money.

My head rolls across the floor.

I explain that cake designers won't allow cakes from another baker, liability, blah, blah, blah, you know the spiel. Perhaps a bakery for all the cake would be a good idea.

Fast forward to today.

"K" calls, needing a cake for 75 people. Reception is in the same city as "L". Also the same venue. Date sounds familiar also. I made an appointment for her thinking I was having deja vu.

Then "K" sends an email to cancel her appointment, and the funny thing is, is that it was from "L's" email address.

Yeah.

L is for Loser. j/k. kinda.

lol .............they really DO think we're stupid!! I got duped on a gift certificate wtih the same sort of thing there leah.
Lady contacted me to donate to cancer society, I donate gift cert. month later bride says "I got the certificate at a benefit in a raffle) orders a cake.........then I get an email saying "thanks for my gorgeous wedding cake, here's photos of it with our topper for you" signed.........you guess it......initial woman asking me to donate gift certificate for the benefit hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm people are slimy!

I'd say you dodged one. I have the same rule, but have still had "other cakes" show up at the venue. Not topic related but... I had a groom that loved a particular grocery store's carrot cake. I told them my policy, and I was told that they would just not have a grooms cake. When I arrived there were ten 8" 2 layer round still in the grocery store plastic domes sitting on the cake table. I WAS PISSED! I moved those cakes off the cake table and set up. One of the venue workers even seeing that the carrot cakes were in a grocery store dome with the grocery store lables asked me if I made all those carrot cakes. I was shocked! I said "absolutely NOT, can't you see the grocery store lables on them?" I did learn from the bride later that no one hardly ate the grocery store cakes, and my cake was devoured! She also told me her now mother-in-law bought them behind her back. Who knows. maybe she did. But you still can't really police that policy. They had paid fully well in advance for their cake, I certainly was not going to take it back home with me and risk a lawsuit. (because that SOB groom would have sued, he def. was that type).

OMG!! I'm in shock at some of these stories.

I created a new user name so I could tell this one..

At the tasting, the bride and I knew we knew each other, we just could not figure out from where.

The day of the wedding, she comes up to me and says "I know where I know you from! I was your neighbor on Blank Street!" (where I had not lived for close to 3 years)

She was a hooker. Who I had called the cops on several times.

I have no idea what my facial expression was.. I was in shock.

I got my ass outta there as fast as I could.

The best part, she was marrying this total preppy jock boy.

I should also share that her sister came up to me while I was finishing the cake and demanded I get her some wine. When I tried explaining to her I did not work at the hall, she cut me off and told me "well just find somebody then!"