I've got a little situation I need advice on. I have a wedding coming up and was finalizing the details with the bride when she tells me the florist insist on putting the flowers on the cake. In my contract it states I will place/arrange any and all flowers on the cake. The bride read and signed the contract 7 months ago and has a copy. So what is the best way to handle this situation?

I would say if your bride read and signed the contract 7 months ago, then it's up to her to resolve it with the florist. However, if you would be willing to allow the florist to put the flowers on the cake, I would make sure that the bride signed something acknowledging that you advised against it and relieving you of all responsibility in case the florist screws up the cake or someone gets sick due to possible contaminants on/in the flowers.

Make flourish sign something saying she takes full responsibility for the look of the cake as well as full legal responsibility if anyone gets sick from eating the cake. I'm positive she won't sign it and will just give you the flowers. It's a liability of she places toxic flowers on the cake or inserts any flower directly into the cake.

While I was putting yalls advice to work I got to thinking and the more I thought the madder I got.

A florist work is showcased all through out the wedding, at the ceremony and reception, and they have dominion over their work. The cake at the reception is the only work I have to showcase and I should have dominion over it. Why in the hell does the florist need to have any dominion over my cake? It's just a flower, the florist didn't create the flower itself, didn't spend endless hours growing it. If a flower falls in the floor it can be picked up dusted off and put back where it came from. If a flower breaks it can be replaced. A cake on the other hand can not.

I mean no disrespect to florist at all. But I think the brides vision of her wedding flowers is between her and the florist. I think the brides vision of her cake is between her and the baker (i.e. me).

If you look at it from the florist's perspective it's understandable. Guests won't necessarily know which flowers were placed by the florist and which were placed by the cake decorator, and if the cake decorator doesn't do a good job with the flowers on the cake then it reflects poorly on the florist.

Same situation with other people bringing homemade cakes to the event, some cake decorators specifically disallow this in their contract (although whether they are willing to enforce this clause is another story).

I agree with having the florist sign a disclaimer waiving your liability from any damage they cause, but I would coordinate directly with the florist well before the event, in a professional manner of course.

jgifford, nip it in the bud, lol. Jason, I'll calm down and handle it professionally. But for now I'm gonna froth.

The flower clause in my contract came about after seeing several of my cakes poked to death. Or they leave a dent on it with their knuckle or something. And mine are buttercream cakes, so not that fun to try to smooth out. Before I started working in contracts last year, I was setting up a wedding cake when this florist insisted on putting the flowers on. Well after some back and forth discussion the florist informs me she has a picture of the wedding cake to go by. I had the same damn picture and in the magazine from which it came in my hot little hand. The cake in the picture had 2 roses on the top tier. She put 7 roses on the cake, 4 on the top, 1 on the middle tier and 2 on the bottom. Big difference.

I'm not anti flower but come on. There are hundreds if not thousands of flowers at a wedding. Florist are getting theirs... on every table, door, alter, pew marker, hand, wrist, lapel, and any and everywhere you can stick a flower. Now that cake is mine to fuss over. I don't want it scratched, marred, marked, poked and prodded with stalks, stems, wire, thorns or fingers. So I say leave our cakes alone.

I having 23 years of cake handling experience know how to place flowers on a cake with out sticking them in the cake. I can do an entire cascade of live flowers on a 6 tier cake without stick on single stem in the cake. Yeah I am that good. And to be perfectly honest it doesn't take a rocket scientist to put flowers on a cake.

Now I'm trying to church that up and send that info to the bride and reword my contract so I don't encounter this in the future.

I actually am currently trying to figure out if I can take class or classes on flower arrangements after my last run in with the florist. Despite the clause in my contract, while I was setting up the cupcake tower for the groom at the venue, the florist stuck flowers directly into the wedding cake and while doing so, left fingerprints all over the tiers. By the time I saw that, it was too late. So I had to ask the florist to cover up the mess she made. There was no way of smoothing that buttercream up at that point. We had to add more leaves and flowers to cover all of the boo-boos. So, since neither brides nor florists seems to be respectful, the only way I know out of it is mandate that flowers be provided by me, live, silk, or otherwise and charge accordingly.
Good Luck, P

The Florist is NOT. the cake Decorator . He /she has no business touching he cake .

Tell the bride that when the florist shows her the license that she has to handle food she can put the flowers on the cake. Until them it's a food product and you're the one who's licensed by the health department to deal with food. And if she wants to mess with your cake, you can rearrange the centerpieces while she kills your cake.

I'd also tell the bride that the majority of fresh flowers are now imported from foreign countries, and they don't have the same regulations about pesticides and fertilizers that we do. They're allowed to use human waste as fertilizer, so you need to be the one to place flowers on the cakes in order to prevent any kind of toxicity issues from affecting it.

I had one florist come BACK to the venue to decorate the cake, She started sticking roses directly into the cake, and I told her to stop. She said "most bakers don't like me doing that" and did it again! I told her "SERIOUSLY...do NOT do that." She stopped, but if I hadn't been there the cake would have been impaled.

I'm not sure why this rubbed me the wrong way today but it sure did. Maybe it was because it's on paper and has been signed off on.

Granted the vast majority of florist are fine leaving flowers for me but there are the prima donnas want the whole thing to be about them. I've seen this with other type vendors as well. The cake isn't the center of the wedding but it is generally is the centerpiece of the reception. Folks don't usually see cakes that large or elaborately decorated unless it is at a wedding. So surely if I'm able to turn sugar, flour eggs etc into edible art, I can put some flowers on a cake. And if anything happens to the cake you can't just pull another one out of thin air.

Any suggestions on how I word my response to the bride? I want to be professional but polite. And if she sends it to the florist I want her to read it and say "oh I get it, I've never thought of it like that"

Dear Bride,
In regard to the conflicting contracts, I can respect the florist's concern that all flowers be done by her however I am licensed to handle food. The cake will be consumed at your wedding and as stated in my contract only I am to place items on the cake. If the florist is willing to sign a waiver taking the responsibility of food safety off my hands, then I am willing to allow her to place the flowers. Keep in mind also that the florist will also bare the responsibility of damage to the cake that is done when placing the flowers.
Please let me know if she is willing to sign and I will provide the documents needed.

Happy Baker


Once the bride explains your position to the florist, I suspect the flower lady will back off her high horse.

I stood there with my mouth hanging open last year as a florist took a branch out of a bucket of water, shook it off and then broke the bottom four inches off of it and JAMMED it into the buttercream on the top layer of a cake I made. ( She used it to hold up a metal monogram)
She told me she'd been decorating for years and did it all the time.
I vowed NEVER to let another person touch my cakes again. That was gross.

mommachris

I actually have an unwritten ban against fresh flowers at this point, UNLESS they are 100% constructed by a florist, in a leakproof container, made to the dimensions of the top tier. There is no more jamming of last minute grocery store roses plucked from swamp water buckets on MY cakes. Hell no.

Because that was what awaited me every single time. I told them tea roses and very small blooms until I was blue in the face. Nope. Huge honking roses wrapped in that plastic sheath from the grocery store. Every. Time. Ugh.

DOUBLE POST!

YOu build from the bottom, using the lower roses to support the upper ones. But to be fair, i've never had a bride leave me the gargantuan ones .... those big enough to use as a spare tire or thereabouts ........ though!

When you get your swamp water bucket of rejects the florist was kind enough to leave, cut the wet stems off and find a sink and rinse off any funk that crawled upward. Dry off any excess water. Try to carry a bottle of water in your bag for the the occasion when there is no running water.

Cascading flowers isn't too difficult. Start at the bottom of the cake and work your way upward. Use the heaviest (roses) and/or large flowers (lilies, orchids, gerber daisies) on the tops of the tiers and fill in with lighter weight ones. Twist and turn flowers to support one another, stagger them around. Cut the stems off or back as far as possible. Use icing to secure as needed. You can stick a toothpick at an angle through the side or bottom of a rose for extra security.

Full sizes roses are tight and heavy. You can take off some of the weight of "big honking roses" by peeling off some of the outer petals. Once you do that then insert your finger in the center of the bloom and spin it around to open up the rose. This will give it fullness and make it take you more space. You can use the extra petals to fill in or sprinkle on the table.

Break a big cluster of hydrangea and stock apart to make it go farther. You can stand some flowers straight up and hide them behind other buds. Use leaves to fill in bare spots, because sometimes you are never left with enough flowers to work with.

Here is an example of my arranging method, http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1778231. I was very pleased and so was the bride.

Update...I emailed the bride and explained my stand on the flower placement. I was very professional and polite, yall would have been so proud.

So today she emails me back with this response, "I totally get what your saying about the flowers. I am meeting with the florist Tuesday and I will explain the situation to her. But just in case she still insist putting the flowers on the cake will you please email me a copy of the waiver?"

Well damn it. The bride just needs to tell the florist to back off. Since I threw the waiver thing out there now I have to actually come up with one. So I'm going to need some assistance. And make it good so there is no way the florist will have the nerve to sign it.

Thanks Jason. It just really is hard to watch someone stabbing flowers in a cake that I've spent hours on. I hate having all those nasty stems stuck in there. And they literally stab them in there like they were trying to kill something.

Update alert!!!!! I composed a well thought out full page waiver that was sheer poetry and emailed it to the bride. Much to my surprise I received this response "the florist won't be putting the flowers on the cake, she will be leaving the flowers for you to decorate with."

So I won.