Ok, so I met with this bride last weekend and signed a contract for her wedding cake. I filled out most of the contract, including the date, she filled out her name, address, phone & email. I wrote the date as Saturday, April 16 2011.

I told her to fill out the top of the form, look over the rest of the form, and sign at the bottom. She mentioned nothing of the date and signed.

I just went to deliver the cake and the wedding is NOT today, it is NEXT Saturday, the 23rd.

Ok, sooooooo WTF do I do now?! I've been in business for about 4 years and this has never happened to me. Any and all advice is appreciated. (I know what I WANT to do, but I'm not gonna do that! LOL!)

Thanks in advance

So did they TELL you it was the 16th? Where did you get the date from unless they told you...? I'm confused...

Freeze it.

ok why would a bride be ordering a cake 1 week before the wedding? or even 2 weeks before? that is crazy! and if she did tell you that it was the 16th I would freeze the cake....if it is not the best cake next week...its her fault but i think it will be fine! and if she did not tell you that....I would chum it up as a loss and make a new one next week!

Hopefully you can freeze it. If not, tell bride she can either have the cake you made for today -the date SHE put on the contract- or she can pony up the $$$ for you to make another one.

This is the BRIDE'S mistake. Not the decorator's. No way OP should have to come out of her pocket to pay for more ingredients.

I'm sorry this happened but you are the one that wrote the wrong date.

You wrote the date as the 16th. She did not catch it. Who is at fault? Both of you unless she told you the date was the 23rd.
Hopefully you can freese it until next week.

If she signed the contract then she approved the purchase of a cake for today. You need to call her and tell her that the cake is made and that she ordered it for today by signing the contract. I agree with giving her the option of paying for another one or arranging for freezing that one. Could the reception site hold it for her if you boxed it up and put it in their freezer?

Out of curiosity, why is she ordering a wedding cake one (or two) weeks before the wedding? That's really short notice.

I'd say that you should confirm all details three weeks out with each bride, but that obviously wasn't an option here.

Your lucky you only had the date wrong.. I had a mom order a cake because the bride lived out of state. Everything was fine.. She gave me the date and time and paid for everything because she didn't want to worry about things at the last minute.

As I was doing my bake list of when to start things and what I needed to buy for this cake.. I noticed that the date was not a saturday. I have a few brides to be married on fridays or sundays but this was a Wednesday..yes I was confused.

I called the mom and she sounded puzzled on the phone when I told her why I was calling. She started laughing and said now she knew she was too stressed the wedding date is July 29 the said.. I don't know where my head is..

So it happens to everyone... just glad that we caught it.

Well, I'm going to be odd gal out. If the baker wrote the wrong dates on the contract, it's the baker's fault. This happened to me several years ago. The bride claims to have emailed with a postponement. I didn't get the email and showed up with the cake.

Oops.

I took it to the local Salvation Army kitchen and made her cake again on the correct date.

Pissing off brides is never a good idea, nor is arguing about who is at fault. They run in packs and every other bride in town will hear all about this if you make her take the cake a week early, or freeze this one. Bad PR.

Mid February, I had someone contact me for a full sheet cake (100 servings) for the 25th. I mistakenly made the cake on February 25th when I didn't need it until March 25th. You can only imagine my surprise when I went to deliver the cake! No worries!

I took a bad thing and turned it into a good thing. I took it to work with me and fed it to the entire middle school. The kids loved me!
The liked the way the cake turned out the second time around.

Here's the cake: The additional photos are of the first cake (mistake)

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1983317

Well, I actually had a bride contact me last week on the 6th for a wedding today 4-16th, so lots of brides do wait until the last minute.

I agree with Leah. Sometimes what we WANT to do is not what we SHOULD do if we want to stay in business. To protect myself, for every event order, I have the client initial beside the date, time, and location of delivery.

In fact, I have them initial 7 things: that the deposit to reserve the date is non-refundable; down payment info; final payment info; cancellation policy; that the cake set/stand will be returned or they will be charged; delivery date, time, and location; and that they acknowledge that I have thoroughly gone over everything I had them initial.

No such thing as being too safe when it comes to your business!

Agree with Leah_s all the way.

I have to agree as well, showing compassion to this bride (regardless of who's fault it is) will show great customer service on your part. Not to mention, brides have so much going on that it's hard to keep track of things.

Sorry this happened, such a frustration but you will reap benefits by keeping the customer happy.

The ONLY time I have frozen a decorated cake for a wedding was when the caterer who ordered the cake, told me the wrong date. This was the SAME caterer that used to pick up cakes he had ordered and deliver them, telling them he had decorated them.

So out of curiosity, if the bride had initialed the date and it was still wrong, would you all still be saying that you should go ahead and make another one? What's the limit to what you're responsible for and what the client is responsible for?

I still say that if the bride signed a contract for that date, then that's the date the cake was contracted for. Are you supposed to be a mind-reader?

If there had been more lead time I assume that the details would have been checked out. The only thing that I would suggest is that you start calling the venues early in the week before the wedding to confirm details of start time, etc. It's one way to make sure that you have everything in place in case the bride is being flaky.

If the bride had completely filled out the contract AND written in the wrong date AND initialed the wrong date, then I *might* offer to make her another cake at 75% of retail, after she'd paid for the first one of course. Then again if she's totally and completely at fault, she might have to pay full price the second time.

I fill out the contracts myself, but if someone signs it then that's the day the cake is contracted for. It's in the contract that if the date changes from that date then I might not be available for the new date.

If I signed a contract without reading it then I can't expect the business to make good on something that wasn't contracted for. I asked about the short lead time because if I was contacted to do something on short notice like that, I'd assume that the bride had all the details correct since it would be unlikely that something would be changing at that point.

Let's say that the bride contracts for a 6:00 start time, and you have other deliveries that day that will let you deliver her cake in time for 6:00. Then you get a call that day as you're out delivering other things with the reception venue calling at 2pm saying where's the cake, the reception starts at 3:00. There's no way that you can get the cake there in time based on your other deliveries...Would you point to the contract that the bride signed to show that she contracted for a 6pm start? Or would you refund her money when she called to complain that you were "late" for the delivery?

Unfortunately in the OP's case it's not a theoretical questions. I just think it's interesting to go through these heinous scenarios to see what the options would be. Personally, I say that the contract is there to protect both the client and the business, so when you start saying that the bride isn't responsible for what she signs off on, you're opening a can of worms.

OP how are you dealing with the situation?

It sounded to me like OP got the date wrong, but was trying to transfer the blame onto the client by saying "well, they signed it!"

Perhaps I'm wrong?

I would like to know if there are any emails to look back on and see what date was discussed...even in an initial contact email....to see if the correct date is anywhere in any correspondance.

Also was any contact made at all to confirm delivery or take care of last minute questions? How many times was the date mentioned or confirmed?

The big question, I guess, is WHY the OP got the date wrong. If the OP put the wrong date in the contract after being given the correct date, then it would be the OP's fault, mainly....although the bride should double check carefully, she may have assumed "We just talked, I'm sure this is fine." However if the OP can prove they were given the wrong date, then they would not be at fault nor required to make a brand new cake.