Anyone Else Get Brides Who Want Cheapest Price Possible?
Decorating By onceuponacake Updated 29 Jan 2007 , 8:39pm by Chef_Stef
I know of one very well known decorator who was asked at a cake show how much she charges per serving for a wedding cake. She looked somewhat insulted, and came back with "I don't do SERVES." She has a base price (and it was EXPENSIVE) and it was take it or leave it!
I HATEFONDANT: good idea on setting minimum!!
i certainly can understand wanting to find the best price..but like i said above cake is not a necessity to getting married.
I always shop around to get a good price. When someone quotes me a price I cannot afford, I thank them for their time. I would never try and talk their price down. I use coupons, wait for sales, etc.
For ex: I met a couple who does stain glass. I really wanted that for my picture frame window in the bathroom. He told me it would be $1,000 depending on design. I said, "Thanks for the info." Too much for me. But in no way was i going to try and talk him down. That's a luxury for me and it's his livelihood (sp?).
I always tell the brides: "Your best best for the least expensive cake is Walmart or your local supermarket."
We are not in competition with them. We can offer things that they cannot. So, for the most part I will stick to my pricing unless I choose to cut someone a deal.
It's frustrating when you quote them a price and they want to talk you down. What if their employer did that? "I can't pay you your full salary this week...but I'll give you 50% and you put in more time."
I think this is the best post. 
I'm not an expert by far, far, far, I'm still really new to all of this. But I can offer you some insight from the other side of it. Because I can see both sides now that I see the amazing amount of work and time that cake decorators put into their cakes. You really hit the nail on the head about it. Every bride's going to try to get the best deal, but it's a different story when they try to talk your prices down. that still makes me laugh. I would never be so bold as to ask someone to lower their price. I wouldn't be able to ask it to any merchant, let alone a cake decorator. There's no excuse for that, IMO. But on the other point, of people being so shocked at the price and getting it from Walmart instead, please try to understand the average consumer (nto the whacky ones who go overboard) I think just genuinely does not know that's what a custom cake costs. I had NO idea when I was planning my wedding. i was genuinely surprised at how much a cake cost. i thought they were probably about $150. You just do not think of cake as somethign that expensive, when you're just an average joe working every day and haven't had any experience with anyone you know making cakes. I have such a better appreciation for what cakes cost now.
I felt so crappy when I read a post one time that called the consumer some really mean names for telling the cake decorater a budget and then shopping around for a better price. I genuinely and truly would have never thought this was an offensive thing to do. And I consider myself a polite consumer. OTOH, I wouldn't be offended though if the baker would tell me my price range is only going to be a small cake and I wouldn't dream of asking them to lower their price. LOL! That just gets me. But for the most part, swindlers aside, I think the general public just doesn't know what goes into it. They think, it's cake. Like I said after I made my first cake, I will never again think custom cakes are expensive. Can I confess that my SIL and I were talking once about some cakes and she was saying she'd never pay that price for a cake. After I made my first cake, I told her it's allll worth it! LOL! I can totally understand being frustrated by brides who are willing to pay 1000's of dollars on flowers then want to cut the budget on a cake. It's one thing to cut the budget because they prioritize thier flowers over the cake and they decide to go with a Walmart cake. That's thier choice. It's another when they want to haggle down the price. That's just unbelievable. LOL! Some people just prioritize thier budget differently, and genuinely do not mean to be offensive, and some are just greedy. LOL!
You're totally right, the cake is a luxury. But just like a lot of luxuries, some people go all out once in a while, or once in thier life for something that's custom and luxurious. Some people buy thier groceries at the discount store so they can have a luxury car, or shop at the thrift store when possible but live in an expensive house. Stick by your prices because the work is worth it and as "luxury" cakes become more and more common, more and more people will be appreciative of the prices.
-Heather
So as soon as potential customers start their sentencecs with " I don't want to spend a lot of money, but...." I always tell them "Well, my cakes aren't cheap. They are specialty cakes , not Safeway cakes, and my ingredients costs are quiet high, so if you want to save money, I suggest you go to the Safeway."
OH BOY! YOU ARE SO RIGHT! I HATE IT WHEN PPL IMMEDIATELY START OFF WITH 'WELL I'M ON A BUDGET SO...' It's like so what do you think I will offer a charity cake? They come to you with these grand ideas but want it for free. No one wants the garbage they make at walmart but they don't want to pay for something great? Ppl can be irritatingly cheap - yet want the best of something. It doesn't work!
I like this thread. It's a real eye opener for me... I didn't know it was like this. For my wedding cake, we found someone who does cakes, my mom called her and said "cake for 80 please," and she said "that'll be $180, where should I deliver it?" and that was it. I never even met her, and I had to get her name and address from my sister to send a thank-you card!
My cake was wonderful and I was very happy. Why can't these brides trust the professionals to do their job? Isn't it just more stressful to try to micro-manage everything?
The sad part is that while it's true many brides have no idea what's involved in, not just cakes, but in so many avenues of the wedding planning process, they are also being "brainwashed" by the book sellers, the websites, etal, and convinced that all they have to do is smile, bat their eyelashes, woo us with some lame compliment about "I'd just LUV for you to do my cake, BUT......." and we will fall over ourselves to prostitute our talents for them.
Under the false pretentiousness of "look, I'm here to help you!", these wedding poachers are actually preying on these people and taking advantage of their naive ignorance of the process. Instead of educating them to the world of reality, they are selling their "expertise" in the world of make believe.
I'm pretty certain that the wedding advice book author doesn't lower his price when the bride says, "I'd LUV to have your book but I can't afford $24.95!"
WELL SAID, FRANJMC!! And that cake is very pretty--looks like it has those cake jewels on it, too.
--Knox--
Any clue where I can get them?
Here's another interesting tidbit
Last night I was browsing Michaels and snooped through some sort of thick Wedding Planning Book. Of course I went right to the cake part.
I didn't get far, but I DID get to the part where it shows a breakdown of "average prices" for wedding budget items and showed Cake as averaging $300.00.
hmm....I suppOSE... 
(for a super basic cake for 100 ppl, here)
I ran out of time (DH and kids with me) but I'd like to go back and read the rest of the Tips on Saving Money on Your Cake yada yada and see if it even remotely warns the readers that they also should plan to spend incrementally for time, skill, and decorative detail if they want more than the "average cake".
I do, however, like to see the pricing clearly listed in Brides magazines photos of cakes, where it says "serves 75, price $1500.00"...now there's a reality check for ya.
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