the ribbons are not placed properly, the cake is crooked. if the bride chose those colors that's her problem. the cake does not look professional. when you are paying $$$ for a cake it needs to look perfect even if the colors are off. that is why i don't do wedding cakes. i am not good enough and do not want to ruin anyones wedding, bridezilla or not.

didn't say brown and pink couldn't work together.

know it's the au curant style (and in 3 years it will be oh so passe!)

but, just because it's the "style", doesn't mean I have to like it.


(yearbooks are a great reminder of how styles fade!)

It's funny, I was reading and somewhere around the "monkey butt brown"(Love it btw) posts about color and the thought of paint swatches popped into my head and then there it was in text.
I would've tried to locate the bride. We have a clause in our tux rental contract that states only the bride or the groom can makes changes. If anyone asks to change something we call the bride and groom for approval. We try to do the same with pick ups. I've found that my only saving grace with stuff like that is taking notes. Even if the bride calls to check on the people who have been fitted. We write a note on the back of their folder with the caller's name, date and the associate who took the call along with any specific notes about the content of the call. That way when we get called out on something stupid or that cant possibly be correct or true we have an accurate timed log. I work in a lower income area, you wouldn't believe what people will try to pull just to save some green.
In this instance, I think that the contract clause(Thank you Doug) would be a lifesaver to you. Even give the Brides and Grooms an option that if they are married at a separate location from reception venue, then offer to text message them(or BM/MOH if BR or GR don't have their phones) a picture for their approval on placement. That way when they reply you have a logged confirmation on your monthly statement and you can have the messages printed by your provider if necessary.
It stinks, because when I'm at work and I print up all the paperwork for the rental agreements and signed price receipts(in total 7 receipts, starting at 5"long and going to at least 1') it makes me cringe at the waste of paper(greenie all the way).
But I didn't have a payment receipt for a bride and groom once and they were looking at 2 different tuxes 109 or 139 and they picked the 139. They came back in after the 1st Groomsmen got fitted and tried to say that I never told them it was the more expensive one. The Bride was a wretched woman and it was as if she was dragging the Groom around by the spine like an accessory, rude and loud threatened to bad mouth us to the paper. My company being "in it for the customer" and since I had no proof because of lack of receipt, sided with them. I got written up and the company took a hit of $300(10 tuxes, $30 loss/tux) in volume all because of one whack-job.
But now I never let a customer leave without a receipt and all my stuff is backed up in paperwork. Do we still take hits occasionally? Most defiantly, but at least when we do now my Regional Manager will look at me and say "Wow what a psycho!" instead of "Kate, How could we have handled this whole thing better?".
I hope you have an easier go of it with the next crazy wedding goer. Good luck
-K

I have not read all the responses (haven't had time), but since I started this thread, I will finish it. Here is a link to another one of my sites:
http://www.weddingwire.com/vendor/VendorViewProfile?vid=c54a30895967f70d&portfolioPage=1&z=z&mode=&tab=profile#mPortfolio, most of my cakes turn out OK.
The cake that was refused was certainly blemished, the color was not my choice (99% of the time I have them bring a color chip from, lowes, home depot, walmart, their ribbon or dress) this Bride said she was Ok without a swatch as she is not "picky"??!! The ribbon was special ordered by the Bride, it was supposed to be identical to the ribbon shown in the magazine, the one in the magazine was peach in color and completely crimped like an accordian, the cake it was placed on was the same color peach, the one she provided was flat and pink with a white upper & lower border which of course the brown fondant showed through. Yes, to my horror the cake was tilted (perhaps in transit, perhaps the table was bumped), perhaps our fault. One of the levels was shorter than the other making everything else much worse in comparison. I wrote a check this afternoon for a total refund, I am out the materials and labor as well as the time I spent being verbally abused on the day of, and today on the phone and in person at my shop. This has been a costly lesson that I will take to heart I have already posted signs in all decorating area's stressing, measure all tiers, level all tiers, before, during and after, I will have contracts and I fully intend to give my opinion on how I think the addition of ribbon, color combinations or changes of famous cake decorators will look in my opinion and will have a waiver signed. I can say this year alone I have probably done 300 cakes without a complaint, with glowing reviews and follow up thank you's, however as has been painfully noted; I am indeed human and can and have messed up. In fact on the Weddingwire site I have posted my variation of a 1200.00 Buddy Valastro cake in which he hand painted on fondant; I hand painted on buttercream (my cake was under 200.00)
As far as the pics I posted earlier I can see where it would be confusing; the butterfly cake had nothing to do with this cake, it was my attempt at showing I am able to make changes on cakes with good results.
Again thank all of you with well wishes and those of you with honest polite critique.
My association with this site not only keeps me sane it keeps me humble!

Wow.....tough crowd!

To the OP sorry this happened to you.

To those who say they wouldn't have taken the cake without the bride/groom telling you to......

The OP stated that the MOB looked at the groom and asked him if he thought she should take the cake away and the groom said yes, take it away.

So the groom did agree that the cake needed to be taken away.


As far as color goes.....they can bring me any swatch/color card they want, but in my contract it clearly states that I cannot guarantee an exact color match....I will do my best to come as close to the color as possible, but icing is not fabric.


As far as the ribbon being special ordered by the bride....if when the bride gives you something you don't feel it will work, you have the right to refuse to use it. I would have refused that ribbon, it's way too thick.

I really don't understand the MOB's motivation here. It would have to be a pretty awful cake to be worse than a rush job from the grocery store - and if it's the usual buyers remorse scam then you eat the cake then complain for a refund don't you? Why not go to the store and buy a different ribbon? If I was that unhappy with the cake I would have voiced my concerns to the person delivering it, asked if there was anything they could do to rectify it and then said we will be in touch after the wedding as it has not met with our expectations. But I wouldn't send it away and go by a grocery store cake - why pay for two cakes and eat the bad one??

Personally if the bride had provided me with that ribbon I would have told her it will look odd on the cake and discuss changes - the bride is not always right!

When I saw the MOB who actually turned out to be MOG, I asked if there was anything I could do to make her happy with the cake and I suggested: removing the ribbon, hand piping different decorations, applying fresh flowers etc... And of course fixing the tilt, at that point she had herself so worked up nothing would have helped short of Martha Stewart herself showing up! Of course it would have cost A LOT more

having had a "not quite what I thought I ordered" cake at my own wedding I can certainly say I would have rather had your cake than a grocery store cake when it came time to cut it and eat it for that matter. Four years of marriage later did what the cake look like affect our marriage in any way, NO! I work at Michael's as a floral designer and customers expect alot of things from ribbon that it just doesn't do, like go perfectly around something round. There are always clients that want ribbon that is too small or too big, but they have a vision that all your explaining of how it will really look can not change. I am very sorry this happened to you and for what a "newbies" opinion is worth the cake may not have been perfect but wouldn't have made me cry or vomit.

and i would bet money with a mom like that, the groom was most likely too intimidated to counter her opinion, lol! i mean geez, he has to be related to the witch!

so the cake wasn't perfect. You are a professional cake decorator and only make perfect cakes and nothing ever goes awry???? I think not. We all have made cakes that don't do great and have their problems and we deal with it. You offered to make it right and do right by your work. What more could you have done? Give them a full refund is above and beyond what that worthless MOB deserves. That cake is so much better than the cake I had for my wedding and it is not even the right color. I would have gladly accepted that cake and enjoyed my day!

In any case, you've handled this thread with complete class. I have no doubt you managed to handle the bride and her family with equal class.

Doug: the "EEK -- what were we thinking?!?!?!" factor grows every decade!

Are you by any chance referring to the BROWN tuxes that my husband and the ushers wore at our 1977 wedding?

All i can say is: HAS ANYONE SEEN THE WEBSITE CAKEWRECKS??? Some of those wedding cakes horrible...This one on the other hand is just fine!!


I think the bride wanted a wedding cake made of ribbon...that ribbon is huge... There is more ribbon showing than cake...whats the point decorating a cake and then covering it with ribbon? a nice border made of ribbon is fine! But really...you are not a seamstress decorating a cake...
She should have had someone knit her a cake and then placed the ribbon on it...

DKelly, you figured out what she was wanting! I have seen those things. That is what the cake looks like! They should have had it for the bachelorette party and not the wedding, unless they are older and need the Depends! Did she say if the couple was in the retirement villas?

ba sed on my knowledge of making bows and working with ribbon almost everyday for 16 years, whenever the customer makes a bad ribbon choice and it doesn't turn out as fab-u-lous as tehy were so sure it would, they always try to blame you for it. AS for all the people pointing out how the cake wasn't fine, i'm so happy for you that all of your cake come out as perfection.

Our kids are too embarrassed to laugh at those pictures. They think we were so un-cool, but we were really stylin'. The groom wore a brown tux, and I wore a "Qiana" (polite word for polyester) wedding gown.

Had to check in and look at my year book. Big hair ring a bell? So many Madonna look a likes, the 80's questioned everything in terms of taste.