Hi guys I was hoping for a little advice!!
I have a friend who I usually do cupcakes for her kids' birthdays for free. We are taking maybe 40 cupcakes done with fondant decorations. Usually I would charge someone around $40 - however I take it as the gift for the party, not a big deal.
However, now this friend is getting married and is asking me to make a filled, 3 tier, square, fondant wedding cake with fresh roses on it. I don't even have square pans, so I am going to have to buy the 3 pans to make this cake, plus not to mention the supplies and roses.
I have no desire to make this cake for free, but she hasn't mentioned anything about paying, and I don't know how to bring it up! I don't even know what I should charge!

Please can I have some advice on how I can subtly bring up the fee and what should I charge her! I'm thinking just the total for supplies?
PLEASE HELP!!!

That's a tough one... I always cringe when asking friends to pay, but my best friend always says "it's a business, not a charity"
Maybe just say something like, "because this is for a wedding, the process is a bit different. First we would have a tasting, where you tell me a couple flavours you may want. At this meeting if you have any inspiration for your cake, i'd love to see it. We also discuss the number of servings. With this information, I go and price it out, and get back to you with a design and a quote. This way i can make sure that our visions are the same and that you get the cake that you're expecting!"

I always find it easier to do this stuff in email too...
Good luck!

If you've never made a wedding cake let her know that you wouldn't feel comfortable making one because you would hate for it to turn out bad. Tell her you don't have experience with large pans and would be worried about baking times and it not coming out nice.

If she's a close friend and instead of a gift you can do a cake that would be nice.

if you make the cake as her wedding gift and don't leave money in the card than I think it should be fine, but if you really don't want to do it just mention that you don't have those pans and maybe that they are expensive, casually.

You to friend: "so what's your budget for the cake?"

I like mo gateaux idea about getting together to see what design she is looking for and to price it out. That lets her know that this is not free.
I just did wedding cupcakes for my brother in law. I was terribly nervous. Besides doing a cake for my Dads small wedding, it was my only wedding. My advice is to sit down your self and see if you want to do this. If you are not comfortable with baking for such a large group then say no. You also don't want to be stressed out at your friends wedding. There are other opportunities to get this experience.
Since you are the cake expert and if you are not doing the cake, offer to go with her looking for cakes at local bakeries.
But I agree, it is difficult charging friends for cakes. But who ever said that it is not a charity but a business is correct. Although hard advice to follow.

Just her that you can't afford to do it for free. No need to be subtle about it, just tell her.

Thanks guys so much for the advice. I finally sent her an email today. I just let her know that of course I would not charge her for labor, however I currently do not have the money to pay for all the supplies myself, especially considering I would need to purchase $50 cake pans. I then asked what her budget was. I haven't heard back yet, but I feel better.
Thanks so much for your advice, I know where to turn from now on if I ever have a cake related issue

When I started out and people (friends/family) would ask me to do a wedding cake, I would tell them that I would be happy to make the cake and I would do it for them if they would purchase the ingrediants and the pans (if I didn't have them) and any other supplies. This is a great way to build up your cake supply. Honestly it is how I have ended up with most of my cake pans. And they never minded doing this. They all understood and never expected anything less.