Had a great wedding show yesterday, until . . . young couple walks up to my display.
couple: "We're on a really tight budget."
me: "About how many are you expecting at your reception?"
Couple: "225"
me: thinking, tight budget, are you serious? Don't invite so many people. Out loud: "Can you tell me you budget?"
Couple "$300"
me: "Dude, you can't even buy Twinkies for that!" (the no filter part)
couple: "Well, we could go up to $400. What could you do for us with $400?"
me: "Nothing. Absolutely nothing. My per serving price starts at $3 for an all buttercreme design. With the equipment fee and delivery fee, you're looking at about $700."
Now, mind you, this was an UPscale venue, with UPscale vendors, and is known as the UPscale bridal show. Heck they get champagne just for walking thru the door.
Good for you!!
Someone one needs to set them straight. And frankly, I think half the problem with people these days is that they are used to feeling entitled and no one wants to hurt anyone's feelings and since no one tells them straight out to get their head out of their a$$...
okay done ranting (it's been that kind of day).
Leah, I (and I'm sure many other business owners) appreciate you even more right now 
Some people just honestly don't know how much things cost, I remember being really surprised at how much my wedding cake cost (before I started doing cakes), I try to let these people down gently. A wedding day is a very special day and it's hard to decide where to cut costs when you just want it to be memorable, beautiful, and you want to share it with everyone you love.
The good thing about my reading this forum is that, had I not been educated on what it actually costs for making cakes and such, I would be that customer walking through the door with a number pulled out of my ass that sounds nice to me but has no basis in reality.
It's just one of those things that people don't really think about logically because most people have absolutely no idea. Even people who have seen me make cakes and know the effort that goes into even a smaller sized cake still seem shocked when I tell them how much I would charge were I in the business of selling cakes.
My favorite " no filter" story is one of my employees, who is patient and proficient and just generally awesome let rip one day.There is an older lady who comes in the shop no less than 3 times a week:
Lady: " Do you have anything that is sugar- free?"
Employee: " We can make many sugar free desserts for special order, but we don't stock them because sugar free desserts don't stay moist as long as regular recipes."
Lady: " Okay, I'll have a ________" ( she always gets something different)
and seriously, this woman comes in no less than 100 times and the same exact words come out of her mouth. Finally my employee says " Do you see the window? Does it say Splendaland?"
I agree with OMGitsaLisa! Before I started reading cake forums, I would have been that naive customer as well.
I wish you had talked to my mother about my wedding cake cost reality! I got married EIGHT years ago and just this weekend my mother lamented the fact that we paid $500 for a wedding cake!!! (for 150 guests I think)
I certainly didn't remember the cost, even though I wrote the check.
Keep educating those brides!!! (and maybe their mamas, too. 
)
love it! I had someone tell me that they only had $250 to work with so I said I could help them (stupid me, thinking that it was a super small reception) then they tell me they invited 300! What? I had a response very similar to yours. Sorry, but I can't help you after all....and good luck finding anyone who can!
On the other hand, I talked to a great mom and daughter-bride about the "small display cake and sheet cake" garbage.
I said, "Visualize this: When the wedding cake is cut, you'll see four layers of cake and three layers of filling in every slice. The dessert plate looks elegant and special. A true sheet cake is a hunk of cake with icing on top."
Mom interjects, "Like a birthday cake!"
"Yes. So some of your guests will be ejoying wedding cake and some of your guests will get birthday cake."
Mom, "Oh my, that's tacky. We don't want that! I can image what people would be saying!"
Educated = 1.
Then we learned about kitchen cakes.
no filter between my brain and my mouth
Geesh, you say that like it's a BAD thing! 
I understand there are many who have no idea what cakes cost, but that's part of the irritation. These very same people would NEVER buy a car without doing research to see what a car costs; or think about buying a house. But they are going to spend multiple thousands of dollars on a one-day event and, as so correctly phrased by someone above, just pull a number out of their ass!
"I'm going to buy a car tomorrow. I need a 15 passenger van. I have $600 to spend and I'm not afraid to spend the whole thing!" 
must be me - i never thought for a second that a wedding cake was cheap and cant believe others think this way, its not just flour and milk - its art and skill
and i also dont understand inviting 300 people to a wedding and then registering for $2k coffee machines and $800 knife sets (as my office bride did last year) - im getting a $30 meal and my husband wasnt invited and you want me to spend almost a grand on your gift.. dont think so honey - reality is at the back of the queue so you better get into line
leah_s and indydebi, I so love your comments you honestly say it like it is, I appreicate it very much, I just had a bride ask if I could do her cake, I asked for how many she told me 100, and she only has a$100. to spend on the cake. OK am I missing something, but yet she bought the dresses for attendants along with shoes for grooms men. I can not even do sheet cakes for this price.
Another bride said she is having around 250 and are on a very tight budget. I honestly hate these comments I feel like I need to pity them and cut them such a great deal because of their tight buget.
No one cares of my tight budgets, and expense and time. OH Well one just has to love those brides who have beer budgets with champagne taste....
Leah,
Don't apologize..I'm sure it was a huge eye opener for her! As an Event coordinator and as a decorator I'm hooked on bridal shows..well the one this week was a nightmare. Woman had 250 guest coming and thought EVERYTHING was negotiable...from her dress to her photos to the venue to the food...she wanted everything for half off or MORE. What a nightmare! I actually cheered when the venue said that they wouldn't waiver on their prices! GOOD FOR THEM!
They didn't show the bakery but I bet that was a nightmare too. I actually laughed when it came time to cut this lovely cake and she didn't want to cut it..actually refused to cut it and wanted to pretend to cut it for photos and demanded no one TOUCH her cake. In the end she threw a mini fit and let them cut and serve the cake but it was hysterical. Now way I would have had anything to do with this bride, either as a planner or as a decorator! UGH!
So good for you Leah! Stick to your guns and be proud you are worth your prices!
Cat
ps...is it LEE or LEE-AH?
Client: I want a cake for my husband in the shape of his truck were the wheels spin. (BTW I noticed a $1300 Gucci purse she was carrying)
Me: Great sounds cool! Did you decide how many people.
Client: 100
Me: (She sent me an email the day before so I knew what to expect) I charge $5.50 per serving plus extra for the moving parts and 3D design, so the cake is going to be around $700 (I am paraphrasing ).
Client: Oh I thought it would be around $100.00 (really put out and snotty)
Me: Costco has some nice cakes and they sell edible images at the grocery store. Take a pic of his truck and put it on the Costco cake.
Client: Silence pause...then...I am going somewhere else.
Me: Did you want me to print you directions to Costco...as she is leaving the store.
I am starting to think that her Gucci purse was probably a knockoff and that is what she is use to...I only make the original and I aint cheap!
Me: Did you want me to print you directions to Costco...as she is leaving the store.
Another bride said she is having around 250 and are on a very tight budget.
Wouldnt you just LUV to tell 'em, "no one who is planning a party for 250 people is on a tight budget. if they were, they wouldn't be planning a party for 250 people."
Love your comments to them!!
Had to do this...cuz my brain won't let me NOT do it!!
A box of 20 individually wrapped Twinkies costs approximately $14.00 depending on where you buy it. If you gave 1 Twinkie to each of the 225 invited guests, that would break down to 11.25 boxes. 11.25 x 14.00 = $157.50 without tax!
My question to them would be like everyone else's has been... "If you're on a tight budget, what are you doing at a high end wedding show?"
Seriously? $14 for 20 Twinkies? I'm glad I don't live there...I could get a box of 10 for $2.50 on sale, $3.69 at most not on sale. That comes out to 37 cents/serving, which is a whole lot cheaper (in more ways than one...) than a wedding cake.
Last week same scenario cheap and huge wedding. She wanted me to make her a faux wedding cake and sheet cake to compensate. Oh, and she wanted me to somehow cut the styrofoam and slip some cake in the faux cake so they could cut it in front of the guest. She also was only williing to pay me 1/2 price for the cake. I was weak and told her she had champagne tastes on a beer budget and hung up on her. My poor intern who was listening just put her head down and started laughing because she knew I was getting ready to be gnarly. I'll never do that again, but we laughed for hours Where do people get this from? I had 32 people at my wedding because I couldn't afford more. How dare someone come to me and expect me to lose money because you can't afford your plans!
I had a young man call me this week about a wedding cake. As his dad is a friend of my husband's, I have done lots of birthday cakes, shower cakes, etc. over the years. He asked me if I have a business license and I told him that I do not and I do not work for anyone at the present time who has one. I then suggested that he and his fiance go to the local cake show next week end and see who the best decorators in the area are and which of these are licensed. He said that sounded like a great idea - and then he asked THE question - "Will they be cheap?" Before I could stop myself, I asked his "Is the bride going to WalMart for her dress?" When he said no, then I told him that getting a cheap cake would be like getting a cheap dress! He laughed and told me that he would have to re-think some things! Good Boy!
no filter between my brain and my mouth
Geesh, you say that like it's a BAD thing!
I understand there are many who have no idea what cakes cost, but that's part of the irritation. These very same people would NEVER buy a car without doing research to see what a car costs; or think about buying a house. But they are going to spend multiple thousands of dollars on a one-day event and, as so correctly phrased by someone above, just pull a number out of their ass!
"I'm going to buy a car tomorrow. I need a 15 passenger van. I have $600 to spend and I'm not afraid to spend the whole thing!"
My thought was ...we alredy knew that Leah!
Seriously? $14 for 20 Twinkies? I'm glad I don't live there...I could get a box of 10 for $2.50 on sale, $3.69 at most not on sale. That comes out to 37 cents/serving, which is a whole lot cheaper (in more ways than one...) than a wedding cake.
Yeah that's what they cost here too.
I would never forgo people for cake my wedding. I mean who's going to be there for you in life, people or cake? But I'd be more than happy to feed them Walmart cake if that is all I could afford and my friends and family would be just as happy. But that's how I am.
Another bride said she is having around 250 and are on a very tight budget.
Wouldnt you just LUV to tell 'em, "no one who is planning a party for 250 people is on a tight budget. if they were, they wouldn't be planning a party for 250 people."
Unless it's a "Pot Luck", BYOB wedding. 
And BYOLC ... Bring Your Own Lawn Chair. (Thanks, Jeff Foxworthy, for that one.)
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%