Had my first wedding show as a cakester today, had to share.
OMG it went so well! There were craploads of brides, and they all seemed a lot more purchase-ready than other shows I've exhibited at. (This was my first time at this show). We were mobbed pretty much the whole time, only getting breaks during the fashion shows. OH, and get this - people actually WAITED behind the groups of people, just to see my portfolio/talk to me/ get info!!! I'm so used to people just skipping the booth if it's too crowded. The cake display really brought people to the booth! We were also situated right next to a booth that was giving cappuchino and brownie samples, so that helped keep them in the area.
There were 3 cake people there as I could see - a grocery store (with grocery-store type cakes)... not my competition, so not worried. Then another cake decorator, who seemed to be doing the same sort of thing I do - designer flavors, fondant, etc.
We just about died when we were pulling up to parking, and saw one of them carrying in the SAME CAKE as one in my portfolio! OMG. I got the idea from a magazine, I guess they had the same one. It was my burlesque cake. They used a much thinner width of lace though. Still - was really glad it was just in my portfolio, and not one of my display cakes!!! That would have been embarassing!
I displayed my margaret braun knockoff, my snowflakes cake, the mad hatter acid trip cake, my black orchids cake, and one with chocolate draping - haven't added it to my photos.
WOW, what a response from the brides!!! It's funny - I've never seen Ace of Cakes, as I don't even have cable. Hubby's never even heard of it - I've just read about it here... but I swear, every 4th or 5th group (and sometimes a lot more frequently!) was mentioning the show, comparing my stuff, saying it was a lot like that. One person mentioned Collette, too. Woo!! It got to the point where DH and I would sort of snicker as soon as someone mentioned "Have you ever seen....?". LOL.
Anyway, we gave out tons of menu/postcards, had a lot of oohing and ahhing over my portfolio, and it's all good. I was SO worried that I didn't have enough, but it looks like I was just fine and shouldn't have stressed out so much! I was getting nervous at the amount of times the people from the other non-grocery cake place were coming over and going through my stuff, ya know? Is that common?
OMG, and the sheet cakes thing! AUGH!!! I lost count of how many people said something like "well, can you make me a dummy cake with real on just one small layer, then do sheet cakes?" . These were usually the people with 300-500 on the guest list! Odd. Gotta get me a wedding mag to see what all they're saying.
We had spent a LOT more on a booth at a bigger show in January, this was supposed to be much smaller, but it was actually SO much better for us! I think we racked up a ton of potential business, so cross your fingers for me that it pans out well!!
Congratulations... it sounds like everything went great.
I do my first bridal show on Sept. 26th... nervous as I don't have any dummy cakes ready yet... and part of my deal is I have to supply something for the brides gift bag, and dumb me said I would give them all a wedding cake cookie... Min. of 150 brides they said.
Hope mine goes as good as yours
OMG, and the sheet cakes thing! AUGH!!! I lost count of how many people said something like "well, can you make me a dummy cake with real on just one small layer, then do sheet cakes?" . These were usually the people with 300-500 on the guest list! Odd. Gotta get me a wedding mag to see what all they're saying.
All of the wedding magazines tell brides to get a fake cake or a smaller main cake and then serve guests pieces of sheet cake, that it is cheaper, and a way to spend less money on cake. Tacky, IMO. A wedding cake is special, has more layers of cake and filling and is 4" tall each slice. Sheet cake is not.
I charge the same per slice for wedding sheet cakes as I do for regular wedding cake, because if it is in conjunction with a smaller wedding cake, I am going to make sure that all the cake slices are the same! This is not your Costco sheetcake!
It is also less work to just make a larger main cake than juggle making and decorating more cakes! If a bride wants to save money on her cake, she can go to the grocery store, as far as I'm concerned.
So glad you had a great time at the show! Here's fingers crossed that you are swamped with orders soon!
I don't think it's tacky to serve sheet cakes but display a dummy cake. I think it's tacky to have a decorator make a cake dummy and then buy the sheet cakes from costco- not to mention can get you into big trouble with your baker/designer since you can slander their name doing that.
But, my fiance's cousin got married and because of the heat she ended up getting a dummy cake so she could make sure that it would actually arrive and stay up-- not to mention that the type of cake they wanted was an angel food and unable to hold up to multiple tiers. They were guaranteed their cake arriving all in one piece because they opted for the dummy, therefore it wasn't melting/crumbling in the crazy heat and humidity and all of the guests had slices of angel food cake decorated to look very similar to the dummy cake (they took it away shortly before plating the cake).
There are a lot of reasons why women may choose to want sheet cakes to serve and a dummy cake for display- some may not want to risk the entire cake collapsing and having no cake (and from the disaster stories, we all know that it is a real risk with even the most structurally stable cakes), they may not be able to pay a cake cutting cost so are having Auntie Grace do it and she doesn't know how to cut non sheet cake, etc. It's tacky to get a costco cake to feed your masses after having a professional do a dummy cake, but if you have a professional do the whole thing I fail to see the problem. I think we should be proud of all of our work, including sheet cakes that people see only as individual slices- because people are still enjoying all of our work. It's a personal preference perhaps, I dunno.
Anywho, I'm glad to see you did so well! I saw your cakes that you've posted so far, FlowerGirl and your stuff is amazing! I hope that you get tons of awesome business off of your hardwork and endeavors!
Oh, every bride that brought up sheet cakes mentioned it being a price thing. A couple seemed to be under the impression that dummy layers are free??? Weird.
I charge the same for sheet as I do for tiered, and let them know. I also have an "exclusive cake" clause in my terms and contract. Don't want anyone confusing cakes!
Congratulations FlowerGirl! You do amazing work! I hope this show brings in lots of orders for you!
Oh, every bride that brought up sheet cakes mentioned it being a price thing. A couple seemed to be under the impression that dummy layers are free??? Weird.
I charge the same for sheet as I do for tiered, and let them know. I also have an "exclusive cake" clause in my terms and contract. Don't want anyone confusing cakes!
Yeah, in very few cases is it less expensive to get a dummy cake and sheet cakes.. otherwise it comes out to be more. Like I said, I do think that dummy cakes are useful and a good idea for some brides/certain situations but they're not the "budget" option- that would be Wal-mart, hahaha.
Oh, every bride that brought up sheet cakes mentioned it being a price thing. A couple seemed to be under the impression that dummy layers are free??? Weird.
I charge the same for sheet as I do for tiered, and let them know. I also have an "exclusive cake" clause in my terms and contract. Don't want anyone confusing cakes!
Well sure they're free! It's not a real cake so it's not like you did real work on it, right? 
When I told a bride that sheet cakes are NOT easier for me, she was shocked. Here's how I explained it.... let's assume she wants cake for 150 guests. A 3-tier cake for 100 and a sheet for 50.
A 3-tier cake for 150 is a 16/12/8.
But if she wants the 3-tier + sheet, then I have to bake a 14/10/6 PLUS a sheet cake, so my baking time is higher, because it doesn't take any more time to bake a 16/12/8 than it does to bake a 14/10/6.
I have to buy 3 large cardboards to support the sheet ... higher cost to me. Takes up more space in the van for delivery (and if I'm also doing the catering, this can cause me to have to drive 2 vehicles to the reception ... I am NOT kidding!), so higher transporation costs to me. (And by the way my sheet cake pricing does not include delivery, so that's another reason why it's all the same price, no matter what pan I bake it in.)
And she's suppose to get it cheaper why????
I also explain that if she's getting her cake from a mass production bakery factory who bakes them a year in advance and just pulls one out of the freezer to slap some icing on it, then it might be cheaper if she buys it from them .... .but I dont' make her cake a year in advance and I don't just slap icing on it.
When I explained this to a bride a couple of weeks ago, she understood and dropped the "cheaper sheet cake" idea.
Glad your show went well for you! Did you take any photos? I would love to see your booth setup.
IndyDebi, you're my idol.
Would you mind if I paraphrase your explanation on my FAQ? You managed to explain things I wasn't even putting words to!
We did take a photo of the setup, I'll go find it!
Ok, here's our setup.. I know it's not much to look at, we really didn't put any thought at all into the display - we're going to work on that for the next one, for sure!
The right side of the booth (as you're looking at it) was my husband's photography stuff, the left side was my work.
Wow you guys make a great team! Congrats on a great show! 
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