Officially Feeling Low...sorry, It's A Long Post.
Business By Elcee Updated 2 May 2013 , 1:03am by PTDixieGal
I think it was someone here who took a CC number so she could charge a 'no show' fee if someone didn't turn up. Made the customer feel like they really needed to be there - I don't think the caker ever had to use it. Might just make the customer take your schedule seriously.
No-shows happen all the time and they suck, but they're not a reflection on you so don't take it personally.
Check to see if some of the "preferred vendor lsits" from those venues are actually advertisers. If they put out a brochure for the venue they might be referring only to their advertisers.
Good point on the vendors...something to look into. However, the venue that really ticked me off, the one that prompted this thread, is really an "approved" vendor list. They simply don't allow cakes from anyone not on the list and they don't allow home bakers on the list. I did an engagement ring cake for a friend's son and he used it to propose to his girlfriend (now wife). I've known him since he was a little boy. There's a cute little story with pictures about it on my Facebook page (kind of buried in my timeline photos). She loved the cake so much she wouldn't let anyone cut it. They froze it. They wanted me to do their wedding cake; I absolutely would have gifted it to them 100%. The venue refused but they did allow them to display my little cake next to the wedding cake. Which, BTW, was, like the one I linked in my OP, mediocre at best, non-food safe at worst, with fresh AND silk flowers jammed into it. We left before they cut it 
They've been married for almost a year and I'm still bitter. That's really what this whole thread is about..I'm grumpy 
and bitter about this particular venue and the picture on Facebook showed up in my newsfeed when I was discouraged about the no-shows and it just put me temporarily over the edge.
You've got to understand banquet facilities. They are business, only driven by profits, their own profits. You don't really know anything about the facilities other then the "face" they present to the public. Of course that's a nice face it's got a lot of make-up on it. They can be horrible monsters and really poorly run businesses behind the scenes.
An approved vendor list means something different at every location. It's really up to the people/person running it as to how they interpret the words "approved vendor". There's only a one reason why they would accept outside vendors into their operation....it's only if that business provides something they don't.
Other wise it's who you know and who you blow (sorry) that gets you into a place or on their list. They might not exchange cash to be a preferred vendor but I assure you they limit the vendors down to places that somehow benefit them. It might mean that vendor takes the Chef out to expensive dinners or gives them great tickets to sport events. There's no benefit to the banquet hall to have a long list of preferred vendors, only problems and more for them to manage.
Oh hey, I have something to make you laugh. I have come to the conclusion that the human race is slowly but surely getting accustomed to, AND being impressed with mediocrity. I set this up last Friday at the art center for a fundraising event. I do it every year, it's fun. Now take a look at my cake. You wanna talk about false modesty, well shoot, this cake was BANGING and was the most awesome looking thing in that joint, ok?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yuma_couture_cakes/8683068485/
There, I said it. Now. I had to share the table with platters of desserts that looked like they had been dumped out of boxes. Plain cookies, some sort of rolled cookie balls, and things that looked like this, but not nearly as pretty as this example:
http://ak.c.ooyala.com/tybmNrMTrpCc-hyujBoUQXmHHN0omcwb/promo107483353
I'll be danged if I didn't hear "wow, these are amazing looking, wow these are the most creative things I've ever seen, OMG who made THESE?!?" And of course most people thought I made them, so I had to repeat this phrase allllll night long. "I have no idea what those are, I didn't make them", with a pleasant smile of course.
Srsly? Really? I'm 2 feet from those, cutting slices out of the back (so the front was still pretty), and you're going gaga over some stupid sloppy looking tarts?!?!................ IT WAS A TART !!!..thank god you typed that - otherwise I wasn't sure what I was looking at.... it just looked like something gooey.
Bluehue
Yeah. Mediocrity. It's an epidemic.
Sadly, I think you're right. People generally don't want to put effort into things...like their job, for instance. A lot of people do just enough to get by. And when they DO meet someone who cares enough to give it their all, they don't know what to think.
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%