OP-
(HUGS).....

NOT your responsibility to run someone else's business. YOUR hands are clean, YOUR business runs. I am impressed you have notes from a February "looker" (MOB) that came in to ask a few questions. Clearly, YOU did YOUR job.

The venue/ planner... that's their problem. I won't even excuse the MOB- heck, even ordering a cake a WalMart they ask what flavor, how big, what color icing.

Thanks, everyone. I just wasn't in a good mood at the time I read the comments so my apologies. This has been a valuable lesson learned from the standpoint of further protecting ourselves. People read our contracts and are amazed at the contents, but I tell them these things actually do happen. As I said previously, I made the decision to have a separate contract for this venue's clients and a procedural list if they don't decide to contract with us at the initial meeting. I plan to give them a copy of the procedures so that the process is clear and they understand it is not the venue's responsibility to contract their cake, select the design, or flavors. I plan to send the venue a copy of it for reference so that they know that each of their clients will have the process clearly in writing. This really should be done from the beginning by the venue, but I certainly don't want to go through this again. From what I found out, similar situations have happened in the past with other vendors. Hopefully this will prevent us from being in the middle of something like this again. It definitely takes stress to a whole new level.

[quote="love2makecakesI'm just curious as to what is in it for the venue to order the cake from you? Do they have a markup on the cake? I guess I'm really wondering how it works if they (the client) sign a contract with you and they (the client) have to go over everything with you and sign your contract and then turn around and sign a contract also with the venue and pay the venue. I really don't see what the point of having a package lined up for the cake with the venue themselves. Seems like a lot of extra steps.

Now I'm only curious because I have a venue that has told me they have accounts with wedding cake places that agree to pay the venue a markup on the cakes they contract from these specific cake shops. So essentially they push certain cake shops where they will make money of those cakes. In this case I can see the benefit.[/quote]

The venue provides many of the services in-house. There are only three services that are outsourced with other vendors. We have a standard per serving price we offer their clients unless it is an extremely elaborate cake. The package deal is supposed to give the client a "piece of mind" knowing that most everything is taken care of and the venue has vendors pre-selected. It certainly didn't do that in this case...lol. The price of the cake is within the range of the starting price for our basic cakes so I'm making my usual profit on the cakes. It does help knowing that we are getting some consistent business, but it is mainly set up as a service for the client to make things easier on them as well as keep services in-house with the venue. Of course the venue is the one making additional money by not having those services outsourced. I'm not sure if there is a finders fee incorporated into the package for having vendors pre-selected for the clients. And I don't have any sort of contract with the venue. I am going to discuss this with the venue, however, after what happened. I think there needs to be some sort of contract between us and the venue regarding payments along with each of our responsibilities. Things have worked so smoothly up to this point, but now it is definitely warranted.

One thing that no one has mentioned as far as the OP's reputation: I bet everyone atttending the wedding heard/was told that her bakery didn't show! Those people are not goiing to learn of the outcome - that it probably (looks like at this point) is the venue's fault. They are still going to think it was the baker

My thoughts are tht Foxicakes was right on the money with her advice. I'm sure people who have supervised or been in managerial positions are aware of the importance of follow up and recheck.

Very obviously someone in charge of these details at that venue dropped the ball. And judging by the fact that the MOB has called you twice, is it possible that the venue is taking the blame off themselves and placing it all on you?

What I would do is write the venue a very courteous and friendly letter explaining much as you have said it here, and expressing your concerns for any negative reviews that may affect your business (due to THEIR negligence).
But put this in writing, I think it's a situation serious enough to warrant that.

As for the MOB, remember, her daughter had her wedding without a cake!
Not because of your fault, but because of the venues. It's enough to make anybody cry and for a long time!
I would be as sympathetic as I possibly could. If she should call you again, give her your undivided attention and put all the blame on who deserves it, but let her vent and then you explain again that humanly there was nothing you could do. She'll understand.

As for the venue, well, next time I would check and double check and triple check on what cakes are due, but then, who has the time for that?

I forgot to mention that we aren't the exclusive cake vendor for this venue. There are two other cake vendors that can be selected for a client's package deal. When I never heard back from the MOB, of course I assumed she went with one of the other cake vendors for her daughter's package. When we met, she did indicate she was visiting at least one of the other cake vendors. Therefore, I did not feel it was my obligation to contact the venue prior to the wedding for any sort of checks and balances and why I disagreed with Foxicakes comments. It would have helped with the big picture had I provided that important information. I do agree with Foxicake's comment that if the venue had our business listed as the cake vendor and never received an invoice, there should have been some sort of follow up on their end. Thank you so much for pointing that out.

Lili7568 I am very concerned about the fallout and why I am still very stressed. I appreciate all the support, and it does help tremendously. However, I too am concerned that the 150 guests at the wedding and the other vendors think that we did not deliver the cake. Rumors spread like wildfire, and I do not want to be known as the cake vendor that failed to deliver a bride's cake. They are not privy to all the details, and this could have serious repercussions for us.

My business partner and I did provide a shoulder for the MOB to cry on yesterday. She was hysterical! We have such sympathy for her and the bride and let her cry and vent. Had someone called us at an earlier point the day of the wedding, I could have whipped up something or could have at least taken one of our display cakes so that the bride could have some decent pictures. With a design not being selected, any of our display cakes would have worked. The venue purchased a grocery store cake for the ceremonial cutting of the cake and photo op, which made the MOB more upset.

bakeacakea, do you blog, and if so, do you link it on Facebook? This is a good opportunity to post a thread about contracts and maknig sure things are in writing and confirmed. You don't have to point it out and use names (of course not), but you can make it in general, and reference "an unfortunate incident that occured recently" that is specific to someone thinking they had a cake coming, when they didn't. If people who were at that wedding happen to see it, it may be an aha moment for them.

I actually posted a blog once that mentioned what a great cake free weekend I had once, where I got to catch up on all the upcoming orders, in the hopes that people from a wedding I didn't do saw that and knew I didn't make the train wreck of a cake that was there. The bride didn't want my prices, and boy did she get what she paid for. I did a lot of business for this wedding planner, and didn't want anyone thinking I had anything to do with it, so that's why I posted a blog that day. It worked.

I used to work at a bakery that had a similar arrangement with a venue. In our case, however, the bride would order through her coordinator at the venue, who would then place the order with us. Every month the coordinators would fax us a list of all the cakes they were expecting, and I would go through and make sure we had a complete order for each one. You'd be surprised at how many times that list saved us from missing a cake we had never received an order for.

Just a quick thought and I know that you aren't in the wrong but it might be nice to offer the newlyweds something as a goodwill gesture. Maybe a discount on a 1 year anniversary cake since they won't have that.

Might bring in future biz when they do realize it wasn't your fault and they will need other cakes for baby showers, 1st birthday, etc. etc.

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I just wanted to say that I think that GourmetSharon, had such a great idea for the offer of an anniversary cake other cakes. It shows concern and true feelings about what happened. Very nice thoughts!

That is a great suggestion, and I think I'll call the MOB tomorrow and offer the anniversary cake to the couple. Thank you for the wonderful input!

been reading through all of this....what a horrible experience for you and for the bride.....It was no way your fault. Maybe because of all the excitment and craziness of getting a wedding together the MOB could have assumed the cake was taken care of...but the venue dropped the ball also. Glad you had the chance to talk it out with the MOB. I love the suggestion of an anniversary cake.....

Playing devil's advocate What a great way to save money and get out of purchasing an expensive wedding cake, and save face while doing so.

I know you are concerned about your reputation...but the good news is that people have very short-term memories and so often what we see as absolute disasters, most people could care less about. I can almost guarantee that NO one who attended the wedding remembers who was supposed to supply the cake and didn't. Just that they were at a wedding and it wasn't there.

Everyone has their own life problems to deal with and a bakery snafu at a wedding is probably low on the list of concerns to everyone except those that were directly affected by it...a.k.a the MOB, you, venue and bride.

That's why the goodwill anniversary cake is a great idea. The only way this could be a negative for you is if the bride and MOB keep it alive.

Good luck!

WHOAH!!! WOW!! Okay, You definitely got the WRONG impression from my post!! I am 110% ON YOUR SIDE here!! Absolutely it's NOT YOUR FAULT. And, I'm sorry that you misunderstood what I was saying in my post. I was ONLY trying to give advice for you to pass on to the venue so that this doesn't happen again to you--or them, for that matter. After all, it was THEIR mistake, but it's your reputation left knee deep in sh@*t right now and that's not fair to you.
Again, sorry you misunderstood the point I was trying to make...

I'm not sure about offering the MOB anything. It could be construed as compensation/admission that it was your fault. If the MOB is still calling you after knowing it wasn't your fault, she may be the type to take it to court.

The goodwill gesture is nice, but SOONER, rather than later. I wouldn't want the "bad taste" of this nightmare to linger for a year. Offer it when they return from the honeymoon, or at "1 month anniversary" time. That way the nightmare story gets passed around with your nice gesture. A year from now, lets' hope it is forgotten.