I would like to know everyone's opinion on Bridezilla's/problem clients?
I recently had a bride who was a family member of a good friend of mine. She contacted me to do a cake for her. She wanted to keep her budget at $100 which I thought was REALLY low especially for a wedding cake. Anyway....long story short after 50 or so back and forth emails, she finally decided on a 2 tier beach/ocean themed cake with gumpaste coral, fish seaweed ect. I gave her a price of $165 and she agreed. The cake was small and only needed to feed about 20 people, but she wanted 2 tier. However all the gumpaste work she wanted was going to take me forever. Ok, so anyway....she changed her mind and wanted to purchase the topper instead of having me make it. When I gave her the address to mail the deposit to (she is out of state) she says "Wait, if your not doing all the gumpaste shouldn't it be cheaper?" I knocked 10 bucks off the cost of the cake since I wasn't going to be making the topper and nicely told her that if she didnt think she was getting a fair price to go price the cake at local bakeries in her area and I told her I was most likely going to be cheaper than what they would charge. The next email I got was her telling me "not to worry about making her cake" and that I was "obviously too busy to do her cake" for her! So, my question to all of you is At what point do you cut your losses and move on? How do you tell someone that the relationship is not going to work, and that she is taking up too much of your time already? I feel like I spent hours going back and forth with this girl and for her to just dump me like that kinda irked me! However, I feel she wouldn't have been happy with the cake she got anyway, so maybe it was a blessing in disguise??? What do you think?????

It does sound like your experience might be a blessing in disguise. I cannot even believe she wanted a wedding cake with a $100. budget! Sounds like she expected a deal from you because of the friend connection.

As for customer relations concerning brides: IMO: booking wedding cakes take a lot of work. You have to meet, discuss, put up with changes, answer phone calls, NOT to mention the actual work of the cake! But, the way I see it, it's a lot of work for a potentially big sale. I'd have to sell a LOT of occasion cakes for the profit I'd get off 1 wedding cake. If you really want the sale, you'll be willing to spend the time. But I've turned down what I deemed to be "troublesome" brides before - some are not worth the stress.

I agree with bakingpw....count your blessings and move on.

I'm throwing this out there as a devil's advocate POV but I have to say, I'm wondering why her cake wasn't cheaper, too. You say that the price reflected all the gumpaste work. Was the topper just a small portion of that or would there still be a lot of gumpaste work to do without it? If she only needed the cake for 20 or so people but she wanted 2 tiers were you going to do an 8" and a 6"? That would serve 32 which is more than she needed but just about the smallest tiered cake I can think of. You don't say how much you charge per serving but even at 4.00 that would be $128. You wanted to charge her $155. Maybe she didn't express herself well and that's why you felt defensive but I do think she had a rght to question/clarify the new price you quoted her. Or, if I'm missing something completely, maybe she did too.

This might be a good example of where line item invoicing would be beneficial:

Cake to serve 32 @ $4 ........................................ $128
Gumpaste corals, shells, other beach items ...........$50
Gumpaste Topper ..................................................$10

sub total: .............................................................$188
Discount .............................................................$<23>
grand Total due by xx/xx/10 .................................$165

Then when she cancels the topper or cancels the shells, it's already written down how much will be deducted. She can also see she got almost a 15% discount, too.

This method doesn't work with all designs. Just throwing it out there as "for future reference" thing.

Sounds to me like you should count your blessings. she probably would have found other things to complain about. I think the ones who want something for nothing are the ones yous should be too busy to take an order from.

When do I cut my losses and move on? Shortly after the $100 budget and definitely after the 5th email without a contract.

She only "needed" to feed about 20 people but kept sending me pictures of cakes that would feed at least 50 or more. I was basing my price of the pictures she was sending me, and the size cake she was asking for, not the number of people attending her wedding. I told her I could do a small 1 tier cake for less than her original budget of $100 but she insisted on having 2 tiers. I was trying to give her what she wanted and not spend my own money/time to make her cake. It was a lesson learned......

Have you ever watched Bridezillas on we tv lol.................run..........lol