Hello,

I'm new to the forums here and am sorry if someone else has asked this question already.

I am a culinary arts student and recently completed my first four tiered wedding cake.

I had the bride fill out a contract, and required a deposit for the cake, and an equipment deposit for the pillars and cake seperators. She paid the cake deposit with a check wich I cashed no problem. The other equipment deposit I told her I would hold the check and only cash it if she did not return the equipment clean and free of damage within 3 days after the wedding. All of this is outlined in the contract wich both of us have a copy of.

Four days after the wedding I have still not recieved the equipment. The bride calls me and tells me she is too busy with family in town and that there will be no way she can drop off the equipment and to just cash the check. So I mobile deposit the check into my bank account.

Four hours later the husband comes with a box of the equipment and drops it off at my doorstep.

I immediately texted the bride to let her know that I had already deposited the check however I would send her a check in the mail for the equipment deposit.

She texts back saying I am completely impossible to work with and that her account is going to bounce. She then starts complaining about the cake. (Based on the text messages, apparently she wanted me to use a boxed white cake mix instead of from scratch who in there right mind wants a wedding cake made from a white cake mix???)

At any rate I send her a money order for the equipment deposit back. The next day I see that her check was returned. I text her, and she tells me she will send the money order back when it arrives at her house.

A few days later she texts me and tells me that my bank tried and process her check again and that it caused her account to bounce again and that she is not returning my money order because of it.

What should I do? Should I take her to court? I have our contract and the text messages of all of her changes that she wanted (we went from a 3 tier cake to a 4, and that increased the price and equipment deposit wich she agreed to). My bank sent me a letter with a copy of the check and letter telling me that the check had been returned, which I am keeping in the folder with the money order reciepts and original contract. Has anyone else ever had this problem pop up before?

Any advice is greatly appreciated, THANK YOU!!!

Your contract stated equipment was to be returned by the 3rd day, I would not have returned anything to her as the equipment was returned after 4 days. As far as the cake, if she wanted a box white cake, she should have said so (there's nothing wrong with people wanting a box cake for their event) and if that isn't what you do, it could have been discussed. You could tell her that you're going to take her to court as she was technically in breech of the contract for not returning on time and see where it goes. She can't keep the money order simply because her account bounced. 

You learned a hard lesson.  ALWAYS, always cash any check you recieve then put the money aside for things like this happening.   

.......who in there right mind wants a wedding cake made from a white cake mix???)......

I had a very good career making many, many different occasion cakes including wedding cakes all using boxed cake mix.   Please don't dam us.  I tried many times to bake from scratch but I, nor my clients, were ever was happy with the results.  There is room in this world for both box mix and scratch bakers w/o critising either.

People would suggest small claims court but I have had experience w/it (many years ago) and even if you should win you probably would never get your money as it is up to you to collect!

Small claims court can have some detrimental effects to your credit score even if the bill is paid. If they don't pay it could cost them thousands if they are in the market to buy a house. I once had a situation, not unlike yours for an off site wedding venue that I catered.  Long story short, I ended up taking them to small claims court and won. However, as kakladi pointed out, I still had to collect the money owed. I made several attempts to collect but it was obvious they weren't going to settle up. About a year later I got a scathing letter from the couple along with a check.  It turns out that their credit score dropped well over 100 points. When they went to purchase a house several banks either turned them down or jacked up the APR because of their credit score tanking on the courts ruling. 

i just mostly have random comments -- yes banks do typically attempt two deposits before rejecting the check and sending it back -- which does incur two different bounced check charges -- and in this case as you have described it -- it's all her fault -- and she's taking it out on you unfortunately --

for going forward -- at the consult -- clearly explain it is her financial responsibility but have the bride designate someone who will be responsible to return the goods to you because the b&g are often busy with honeymoon or whatever afterwards -- so before the excitement and tension of the wedding day swells to a crescendo, explain that like tuxes are returned pronto so is the cake equipment -- have her tap someone responsible like a mom or wedding coordinator to do the return on her behalf stating clearly that it's still her financial responsibility if they fail to do so -- 

be sure you provide a list of the items to return and packaging well marked to return the stuff in --

but i use disposable everything and/or just have them pay for anything extra like a fountain or a plateau -- back in the day you could get inexpensive fountains maybe still can just haven't used one in years -- then if they want to return something you can buy it back according to whatever terms -- but no sweat if you never see it again -- or they can rent it themselves but you can run into size issues there -- that's why i make and sell them everything -- done --

oh and about the scratch cake thing -- having been to culinary school i can see how that idea might be more prominent -- but just for the record if you use butter in the cake recipe and refrigerate the cake -- it will be firmer than it was when unrefrigerated -- the butter relaxeth not all the way back to room temp so those cakes are often deemed 'dry' because they scratch the back of the throat due to the extra firmness -- don't know what you used of course -- just tossing that out there -- and while cake mix cakes take their fair share of bashing -- a mediocre or bad scratch cake is infinitely worse yes? not you individually but in general --

so please update on how its going -- hope you are getting it all resolved and sorry she is being so ugly about her empty checking account and lack of responsibility -- that shouldn't be landing on you -- you're not her punching bag and you can quote me on that 

@thecanadian160 -- wow is that cool! thanks for that update -- hey was that in canada? but it must be true in the u.s. too? i hope 

Hmm, well it sounds like I could take her to court, but then I would be responsible for collecting the debt. I guess I could tell her that I will have the bank keep processing the check until she pays up, do you think that would work? In the letter the bank sent me it said they could process it again if I called them. But I think at this point she has blocked my phone number as she hasn't been replying to any of my calls/texts.

This is a picture of the finished cake. When we originally signed the contract (and it is outlined in the contract) the room was supposed to be at about 75 degrees, maybe even colder. We get there and the a/c had been turned off all day long. It was a hot day in June (near 95 deg outside) and it felt like an oven inside. Apparently their bishop is the only one who has the ability to override the a/c and he lives a good hour away and had to get himself ready before he could come. So I was forced to set up this whip cream cake in an 90deg plus room. As you can imagine the sides were starting to droop and I did the best I could to patch it, but c'est la vie.

This is my first wedding cake, and I did tell her that as soon as she told me she wanted me to do her cake. She was a budget bride and we worked togethor at the time so I decided to do it cheap for her. $200 for the whole cake and strawberries.

$200.00 for a 4 tiered cake, and chocolate covered strawberries? She got one hell of a deal and definitely needs to return that money order. 

........$200.00 for a 4 tiered cake, and chocolate covered strawberries? She got one .... of a deal and definitely needs to return that money order......

EXACTLY what she ^^^ said!  You priced that WAY too low to begin with and now are out the deposit?  Yikes.  Better firm up your pricing and stiffen your backbone some before you next order :)

. .

what exactly needed to be returned? for that cake i woulda dropped it off and walked away with all ties cut -- 

it's whipped cream on the outside? yoiks on the temperature thing -- strawberries on the inside too? 

listen, unless you got a scholarship and i hope you did -- nevertheless big bucks have been paid for that culinary school training -- you gotta do like chamberlain yelled during the civil war CHARGE!

typically, a cake like that would go for $6 - $7 a serving give or take -- to give you an idea -- plus delivery plus tax  --

i love it

Thanks K8memphis, I'm studying at my local community college. Although I was shocked when I started taking classes and found out that most of the chefs have worked in Michelen 4 star restaurants. As a matter of fact Chef Scritchfield is the excutive chef at a country club.

As for the filling I just filled it with more cream. She stressed that she just wanted white cake with whip cream. And I was like "ok, no other flavor at all?" And she said "no." Originally she wanted 0 color, I had to talk her into the black scroll. She said it was beautiful.

it is beautiful -- oh good -- community college is not near as pricey as some of those ridiculous culinary schools --

but there is nothing in there, in your gorgeous cake that the bride can't pay for and keep -- going forward that is --  because as you've discovered getting stuff back is huge pia -- plus even when you get it back it's normal to not get all the pieces -- it's just the way it goes  -- just add it into the price you charge and don't look back --

while we're on the subject, try to get everything into one price per serving -- i mean if someone wants a sylvia weinstock full flower extravaganza -- i'd charge per serving and add on a few hundred dollars for the floral work -- but what i mean is don't let it look like you're nickel & diming them to death -- which at this point you're not in any danger of  just saying 

and i'm sorry that you've had this problem but it's really cool to get to offer advise on your maiden voyage -- best to you 

@kakeladi ‍, your Original WASC recipe may start with a box cake, but it is anything but!  There are more ingredients in your recipe than most from scratch recipes (and I've made a whole lot of scratch cakes).  For every one person who would criticize this recipe, there are 100 others who sing your praises for it's creation and your generosity for sharing!  It pleases people on both sides of the fence, those who prefer scratch cakes AND those who prefer box cake...and yes, there are a whole bunch of those out there.  Personally, I can't thank you enough because it is more sturdy than most scratch cakes and is so adaptable for any flavor.

@kakeladi ‍ , I pride myself at being a scratch baker especially chocolate cake (because box choc cake tastes like brown) but I have yet to find a white scratch better than your WASC cake! It is simply the best! I even tried one on this site in the scratch off that everyone was raving about and it came out tasting like cornbread! Seriously! Cornbread! and there obviously was no cornmeal in the recipe. I even had my mother taste it because I thought I was crazy and she agreed...cornbread!

@Andy66119 ‍ all it takes is one time to learn a lesson believe me I know. $200????? that would barely cover ingredients! People will pay your prices and if they don't, then you don't want them as customers. I agree to have it figured in the price for equipment.

If you can, take the check DIRECTLY to HER bank, preset your ID and cash it. If you know where she works, you may be able to figure out when her deposits are made. Mondays or Tuesdays are usually best.

MOST banks will also answer a question over the phone..."I am have a check from your bank customer and I want to see if it is good." They will ask the account #, name and amount and will confirm if it is "good". Then immediately run over to that bank and cash it!