Help! Wedding Cake Hedoublehockysticks... Refund?!?!???
Decorating By soygurl Updated 29 Jun 2006 , 11:56pm by Lisa
oh at first i was feeling bad for the baker. then after reading the full 6 pages of responses i realized that everyone is right.
The bride should get the full refund!
first YOU advertised that You COULD do wedding cakes that people want.
then when YOU allowed her to change the design, You said you COULD do it.
Then YOU Have trouble because you really couldnt do it,, and start making every excuse and blame the bride because she knew that you were new at decorating and should understand. How is she to know your ability level if YOU told her you could do it. All she sees is her cake was ruined and part of her special day was.
the fact that you would then say well, i moved and i would have to eat rice for a month to make this right, well, hey.. then go to Costco and buy a 20 lbs bag cause even if you had to eat ketchup sandwiches for a year you need to make this right. why should it be the customers concern that you cant cover your claims? r that you spent more then you charged to make it? If the cake had come out perfect and beautiful and everyone loved it, would you still complain that you spent so much to make it??
Also i dont see how you could possibly spend 350.00 on a cake whose only decoration was swiss dots. the average cost of a wedding cake (yes i use mixes) for 200 people 5 tier is about $50.00 so where are you getting your supplies?
sorry to ramble but it really pissed me off that you would not give a refund cause you moved and she was rude to you. i would be rude too if you moved away and were dodging me.
Looking at this from the bride's perspective.....her wedding cake was ruined and nothing like what she wanted so she should get all her $$ back. If you under charged her that is not her problem, if you spent more than you made, still not her problem, and when she changed her flavor that close to the wedding date you really should have told her sorry it is too late at this point to make any changes especially when you normally don't work with box cakes. She is not making a big deal out of nothing in this particular cake and even though the demolished cake tasted good....that is not the point. She could be a ton of trouble if you don't refund the $$....she could spread terrible things about you, contact the health department, call a lawyer, etc.
I apologize if this sounds harsh, but its just my opinion and I am sure the bride was devastated by the whole thing. I'm sorry it happened to you and try to just keep your head up. We all have a disaster cakes we wish we had never done!
I am in agreement with cakesnkids. You're going to have to suck this one up, refund her money, grin and bear it and move on. A harsh lesson learned. So sorry for your disaster I really am I would have bawled too. Better luck next tim but I doubt this will ever happen to you again.
But she said she used DH mixes with egg replacements and canned frosting for the filling. I don't think she used all organic ingredients. She even said she thought it could have been more than $350 she spent.
And her purse was stolen with the contract? A contract written by someone who "doesn't have a business to protect" or something like that she said? I don't get it. It's not adding up. I think there's more to the story than she wanted to tell us, for whatever reason 
But she said she used DH mixes with egg replacements and canned frosting for the filling. I don't think she used all organic ingredients. She even said she thought it could have been more than $350 she spent.
And her purse was stolen with the contract? A contract written by someone who "doesn't have a business to protect" or something like that she said? I don't get it. It's not adding up. I think there's more to the story than she wanted to tell us, for whatever reason
Who knows what went wrong. lets not scar the girl into never making a cake again. Does everyone here own a business? Probably not the majority. So are we all legal? A contract is a contract regardless if you have a business. If you borrow someone money and they sign a contract to repay you that is binding. We all have had a bad day and this happened to be a real bad one. Should she give a refund? Did they even eat the cake? If it sucked and she did not touch the cake she has every right to be angry.
Ok...so I agreed to do a vegan wedding cake on the 6th. I've made two vegan weddign cakes before so I wasn't worried. Then about a month before the wedding they email me and say they changed their mind and want a DUNCAN HINES MIX mad with egg replacer! Not only that but they want CANNED frosting. When I said I couldn't ice the cake with canned frosting they decided they wanted it for the filling. Ok, fine. I said ok, after all, they should have what they want right?Well, I made a test cake with the mix to make sure it would work with the egg replacer and it did. It was a little "flimsy" so I looked up a few other egg replacers to try and stableize it a little.
I can't afford to refund all her money, not to mention that I already SPENT money on this cake. I guess I could offer to give her a payment plan for a refund, but I really don't think I owe her a refund... well at least not a FULL refund. I did everything I could to make sure she had a wedding cake, and to make it as much like the one she ordered as posible, but things just didn't work out that way. What should I do? What should I tell her? I'm so upset and overwhelmed by this!!! I really just want to cry, but I've already done that (a lot) over this cake, and it isn't helping. Thanks for any advice!
~Kelsie
If you read the very first post, a lot of the later questions and speculations are answered. Kelsie, honey..(meant lovingly, not condescendingly)...it's obviously bothering you, too. You asked for help from a great group of people, and, by reading your own words, that you thought they should have what they wanted, I think you know what you should do at this point. It sucks, we all agree, but, for your own good, get in touch with the bride.
Okay, so I skipped around all through out this thread and still didn't end up reading everything but HOLY COW!!!!!!! 
You may have mentioned it and I didn't read it but where did you move to? I would never agree to make a wedding cake if I knew I was going to move out of state a month later??????? That is just asking for a nightmare!
Anyway, I am so sorry though that this whole situation even happened.
That's all I can say!!
Amy
Kelsie -
I too am really sorry this happened to you. I'm not going to give any advice on what you should do because you've gotten plenty already. I just wanted to say that I feel for you girl. Keep your chin up, and good luck with whatever you decide to do.
To all wondering about the cost of the cake - I'm sure she's estimating the equipment she had to buy and the cost of the ingredients involved in testing and taste-testing her original recipe. As somebody else said, vegan and organic ingredients can be quite expensive and just because the bride went for the box in the end, that doesn't mean she didn't already spend quite a bit on the vegan cake first.
Who knows what went wrong. lets not scar the girl into never making a cake again. Does everyone here own a business? Probably not the majority. So are we all legal? A contract is a contract regardless if you have a business. If you borrow someone money and they sign a contract to repay you that is binding. We all have had a bad day and this happened to be a real bad one. Should she give a refund? Did they even eat the cake? If it sucked and she did not touch the cake she has every right to be angry.
I agree with you, we weren't there, we don't know what happened. As a college student, you're just trying to get by, but it's also about learning responsibility. You have to learn to admit that you're wrong, and do the right thing. This isn't about scarring her either, but I think it's wrong to use excuses when clearly there is a right and wrong thing to do. I would much rather hear I'm don't want to repay, then hear excuses.
I don't think everyone here has their own business, but I think the majority of us try to act as if we do. Thus having contracts, etc. I don't think it matters if people ate the cake. It may have been the best thing they ever tasted, but taste was only part of the package, I believe presentation is the biggest part. It's like saying the wedding was at the Ritz Carlton, but instead of nice seats, they made you sit on wooden benches. You're still going to sit aren't you? Guests eat cake to be nice and because it's there, but that doesn't mean anything.
All I'm saying is that it doesn't matter if you're legal or not, but if she had a contract it was binding in both ways. She agreed upon doing a certain cake a certain way, and if she didn't provide that, the bride deserves her money back.
Who knows what went wrong. lets not scar the girl into never making a cake again. Does everyone here own a business? Probably not the majority. So are we all legal? A contract is a contract regardless if you have a business. If you borrow someone money and they sign a contract to repay you that is binding. We all have had a bad day and this happened to be a real bad one. Should she give a refund? Did they even eat the cake? If it sucked and she did not touch the cake she has every right to be angry.
I agree with you, we weren't there, we don't know what happened. As a college student, you're just trying to get by, but it's also about learning responsibility. You have to learn to admit that you're wrong, and do the right thing. This isn't about scarring her either, but I think it's wrong to use excuses when clearly there is a right and wrong thing to do. I would much rather hear I'm don't want to repay, then hear excuses.
I don't think everyone here has their own business, but I think the majority of us try to act as if we do. Thus having contracts, etc. I don't think it matters if people ate the cake. It may have been the best thing they ever tasted, but taste was only part of the package, I believe presentation is the biggest part. It's like saying the wedding was at the Ritz Carlton, but instead of nice seats, they made you sit on wooden benches. You're still going to sit aren't you? Guests eat cake to be nice and because it's there, but that doesn't mean anything.
All I'm saying is that it doesn't matter if you're legal or not, but if she had a contract it was binding in both ways. She agreed upon doing a certain cake a certain way, and if she didn't provide that, the bride deserves her money back.
I agree about taking responsibility but I don't think it is my place to tell her what to do. Yes we all try to live by a code of ethics in our "businesses" and yes I agree that it is binding. She is not a reflection on how we all do things as a collective. If I had a aweful cake I would not serve it and that is why I mentioned it. If one is so upset about the cake and the presentation why serve the cake that everyone saw-It will just be a reminder of how upset you were.
I"m seeing a lot about the contract/business/legal/or not aspect of this, but I'm wondering if that even matters really. When it comes right down to it, don't we all have an agreement with our clients, whether we're legal or not? Especially for a wedding, the MOST STRESSFUL EVENT FOR WHICH TO MAKE A CAKE. I agree with previous posts that it really doesn't matter whether the guests ate the cake; they will eat it if it's there. What matters most imho is that Kelsie knew that the cake was messed up, seriously, not just in those minor imperfections that we all cringe about but no one else notices. Since she doens't seem interested in the business aspect of things -- she says she's not worried about future clients -- it does seem important that she consider her own acknowledgement of the mistakes/problems and the bride's feelings.
I am not trying to come down on Kelsie, and I really hope that she continues baking, but seeing as this post has really taken off, I just wanted to give some more input.
Sarah
" If I had a aweful cake I would not serve it and that is why I mentioned it. If one is so upset about the cake and the presentation why serve the cake that everyone saw-It will just be a reminder of how upset you were".[/quote]
I have been to lots of weddings where all they served at the reception was cake and punch. What else would the bride serve but ugly cake if that was all that was delivered to her? the guests would understand that it wasn't the brides fault that the decorator had a bad day. Not only that but what would the bride and groom feed to each other? It isn't like you can have a back up cake on your wedding day, if it is edible you pretty much have to use it wether it is beautiful or not. I can't really see any other option that the bride would have.
I have to agree with the majority.....just refund! At least part of it. Nothing spreads faster than bad word of mouth. A bad cake cak lead to no more cake orders, but a positive spin on everything may help. The bride sounds like she needs her feelings to be validated, so you should meet with her, face to face, and get ready to swallow your pride! It will be better in the long run!
Good luck
The minister messed up my wedding big time. First his secretary called 4 DAYS before my wedding and tried to cancel it, she said we hadn't attended enough pre-marital classes... actually yes we did show up for the correct number, the minister just forgot to show up. We worked that out and he agreed to do the wedding.
Rehearsal was fine, he showed up on time for the wedding, everything was great until he started reading the vows. The moron read off my sister's vows from her wedding he had done 2 years earlier! My sister was trying not to laugh, my Mother-in-law was furious since she wrote ours for us.
My father-in-law paid him after the ceremony. I am not sure how much he paid him but I can tell you it certainly wasn't what he charged.... from what I heard, I think it was barely enough to cover his gas to get to the church.
Now technically he did get marry us, we didn't stop the ceremony halfway through and inform him that he was an idiot, our wedding was ruined and we weren't paying him. It was a wedding, everyone was there, we just rolled our eyes and finished it out as if he had done it right. It has been 10 years now and we're still married, so I suppose you could say we did get our money's worth out of the whole mess and should have paid his bill.
Same thing goes for the wedding cake, it's not like you can call a new baker and ask them to make you a new cake 5 minutes before you are supposed to serve it! You just make do with what you have and if that's a cake that doesn't meet up to your standards, unless there is something wrong with it that could potentially make people ill, you just make the best of it and serve it.
You certainly shouldn't have to pay for a cake that isn't what you ordered, this cake was missing the largest layer and nobody orders tons more cake than people attending, so most likely a lot of people didn't get any cake! I think the bride deserves a full refund even if she was rude. She was probably very stressed out from the whole thing, she paid for a cake, got a lot less cake than she paid for and it wasn't even decorated the way she asked.
You really should stick to practicing with friends and family or just for yourself. I'm new to this myself I am dying to do a baby shower cake and plan to next week just for practice.
A wedding is not play time. you and the bride were wrong you bit off more than u could chew, the bride should not have answered your ad. Keep practicing and only promise what you can guarantee.
Every oven is different, there are a lot of factors that contributed to this mishap.
After eight pages of posts, Kelsy has enough advice from all of us here to make her own decision. What she does is her responsibility and hers alone.
Just my opinion.
Karen
I just wanted to let all of you know that I have read all the posts, and I thank you for all of your opinions and advice.
I'm sorry to say that I feel a large number of the posts were overly harsh and rude, but I understand that people have a right to post what they want, and how they feel.
I don't plan on quiting cakes (in fact I am making one for a friend tomarow), but I don't know how much time I will be spending here in the future. I really am quite turned off at some (maybe even most) of the responses I've recieved. NOT becasue I didn't/don't agree with what was said, but because I felt attacked and critisized much more than was necisary... especially in a forum where we support each other and share our "disasters."
I really do appreacieate all the advice, I just wish some of it could have come in a slilghtly more tactfull form...
As for those of you who are wondering about the cost of my supplies, yes, I am including equipment and gas to deliver the cake (not any of my other travel costs though). I also am including my costs to make several tasting cakes, and the practice cakes I did. While the bride ended up deciding on DH mix, she also wanted half of the filling to be homemade reaspberry filling and that amount of fruit wasn't cheap. She also wanted organic vegan icing (because she didn't want the taste to change at all from the samples) all of which have very pricy ingretents. Yes, I proably could have spent less on this cake, but I was buying things in a large city where prices are high, and I don't have a membership to any cost clubs. I DID spend at least $350 on the cake, so you all can either believe me or not, but please don't openly doubt that I am telling the truth here anymore.
I have decided not to post what I have decided to do on this board in order to avoid any more discusion of this. If you really want to know PM me, and I will share.
Thank you all again for posting, and especially to those of you who have given me kind words and support weather you agree with me or not! I can't tell you how much it means/ment to me!
I will probably be back at CC sometime, but I think I'm going to take a brake for a while to get over this.
I truly hope all of you are well, and happy caking!
~Kelsie
I have decided not to post what I have decided to do on this board in order to avoid any more discusion of this. If you really want to know PM me, and I will share.
~Kelsie
I'm going to close this thread now. As requested by Kelsie, you can PM her for further discussion.
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