Well this is a first for us! We got a poor rating on weddingwire for making a cake look too muck like the picture the bride brought us. When one of our decorators met with the bride she said we could put our own spin on it if we wanted to. Now I'm thinking we should have made it round with a black fondant base color.

It's pretty frustrating to give a bride what you think she wants only to find out on a public forum that it wasn't what she wanted at all.

Here's the review

http://www.weddingwire.com/reviews/piece-of-cake-desserts-mesa/81f53dd2674a0eb0.html

Here's the cake we made:

http://pieceofcakedesserts.com/images/wedding237.jpg

And the original

http://media.theknot.com/ImageStage/Objects/0003/0046535/large_image.jpg

Obviously they had less guests than the original cake would serve but I really thought she was going to dig it.

Oh well... just a part of the wedding biz I guess!

Wow! That is one pretty cake! Hard to know what someone means by put your own spin on it. I think it looks very original, and certainly beautiful.

For goodness sake! Some people just need to find something to complain about.
You did a beautiful job on the cake. I think your response to the bride was right on. You played it right to "take the hit" rather than be defensive; it kept you sounding reasonable and professional (which you certainly seem to be!)

OMG - what an upty piece of work that B&G are.


I looked at all the links - i read their review, they rated it a 3.6 - are you kidding me -
i read the response..... (loved it - good one Kevin - very apt in all you said )

I am now about to spin around, go bang my head against the wall and then scream
WHY IS COMMON SENSE NOT SO COMMON.

Truely - some people just have to complain about SOMETHING - ANYTHING just to be noted.

Don't you just loveeeee how brides always pass the buck back to the wedding co-ordinator when things *apparently* go wrong.

Such a beautiful cake -
Such a precious bride

Bluehue.

your cake was awsome period...

I'm sorry these people were so silly...

I followed the link in your response and laughed out loud! I imagine that any potential clients would do the same if they were concerned with that ONE review.

Beautiful work

Geesh! And yet there are brides who complain because it DOESN'T match the photo "exactly". Damned if you do ... damned if you don't.

If you don't want it to look like your picture, don't bring it. Great cake and beautiful job!!! Very professional response (and this reminds me why I keep my daytime job and don't do cakes for a living!!)

This cake was absolutely stunning!! Even if it looked like the picture, I loved it. It is unique and believe me that this is not a "common cake" that you see at weddings.

The ratings she gave you were absolutely off. Your response was very professional.

Gorgeous cake....and I loved the response too. I am not sure what is up with some of the brides??

They watch too many bridezilla shows, I think!

Thats a great looking cake, even better than the original IMO. Without knowing how much of a "spin" to put on it without getting away from the picture I would say you did a great job.

Oh well, at least others might read her unfairly low review and be more specific in the future when they place their order.

Your cake is gorgeous! If you "put your own spin" on it - she still would have complained! You handled it very professionally and that says a lot! Great Job!!!

"Those mean cake decorators, they made my cake look exactly like one from The Knot!"

hahaha...some people will complain about anything, no matter how ridiculous.

Great cake, by the way

Would she have been happy with other flowers and different colors? That probably would have been too much "spin". Like Debi said "Damned if you do and Damned if you don't. I think you can see enough of a difference to be her own cake. Also loved your response to her, very professional!!!
evelyn

Contrary to brides' beliefs, not everyone attending the wedding has been scoping out the internet looking at cake pictures. She and maybe 2 others attending the reception have seen it...it is original to 99.5% of the population.

The one 3.6 rating in a sea of 5.0's will soon fade away

Ditto to Indydebi....some are mad when it doesn't look like the picture..Fine piece of work...Beautiful!!!

Yours looked better than theirs! I liked the little addition of color to the white flowers. Not enough spin for the bride? Great job-keep up the good work.

As an artist it always alarms me when someone says "put your own spin on it" and hands you someone else's creation! What the heck? It is confusing enough to get the client's vision and yours to mesh but lets throw another artist in the mix! lol

Even when I was a stylist (for hair) I cringed at the women/man who produced the movie star picture and said "this is what I want" - really?

I loved the cake and I bet her comments were less on the negative side than they sounded on "paper".

I am a southern woman raised and taught manners by other southern women. We say please, thank you and excuse me. If there happens to be a disagreement that warrents a "talk" it is done in private. Perhaps your 'zilla was raised by a pack of wolves that cut the apron strings a bit early 'cuz she was a bit too "heathen" for them. Your feedback history is almost 100% perfect. Forget about this one and move on.

Wow, are you a pro or what? Your response should be kept on file for all bakers as a model for response to rediculous criticism. Your cake was wonderful, inspired by the original with some distinct differences - lovely. It is okay to have a not-perfect review - brides-to-be will read it, compare it to others and realize that all the other gushing reviews were not "planted" but authentic and this particular bride is just a whiner....

i got a really really bad review last year...it was buried in no time with good ones.

looks to me like it will be good advertisement for those who do want it to look just like the pic....she prolly did you a favor.

great looking cake BTW

Your cake was beautiful, your response was superb, and when you read the bride's review, the cake was perfection. The bride was a bit "off"...her interpretation of a 3.6-worthy cake is a bit skewed. If it was really only a 3.6, what did she give as a reason for the rating? I can't find a single reason stated. Anyone reading that review would know it was her expectation that was faulty, not the cake. I would revel in her review...it will rally the troops around you in defense, I think.

What 'spin' could she have been talking about? That cake is pretty straightforward in design. I don't see a whole lot of options unless you change the color and start adding things that would take away from the basic design...which is what she liked about it to begin with.

I think the only way to maybe avoid a situation like this one in the future is when a bride brings a picture in she wants 'spinned', she needs to be pinned down more about what elements she likes about the cake that she definitely wants to maintain and ones she's not that concerned with. Not that it will stop some people from bitching completely, but at least you have a better idea of where to start.

That was a GORGEOUS cake by the way. And honestly, I think her review was one that would make any future bride run TO your business and sign up. I mean...'your cake tastes great and looks awesome, but looks TOO MUCH like the picture". ???? Really??? This is a problem? Your response was gracious and also let your customer service skills shine. Great job!

I like your cake better than the original! :] I also agree with Indydebi on this one!

Perfect cake, perfect response.

That stinks she had to ruin your mood, if even for a few minutes!

Thanks for all of your kind words! Doing a few hundred wedding cakes year, we always expect that there are a few brides that won't be completely satisfied... but when that one left our shop I certainly didn't think that was going to be one of them and this will probably be the last time we ever get the " I was unhappy my cake looked like the picture I brought them". I thought you guys would get a kick out of it.

Having done this for a while, I really don't blame the bride, anytime you expect one thing and get another... no matter how nice that other thing was, the potential for disappointment exists. I'm kinda half hoping that she reads my response and then looks at their paperwork and sees the "If you want to put your own spin on it, go ahead" part and sees why we considered it optional... and perhaps bumps her rating to a 4.5.

What kinda sucks is that we were just a few reviews away from being the only cake shop on all of WeddingWire.com to have 100+ reviews and an Average Quality of Service rating of 5 out of 5. I guess that'll have to wait for a while for the awesome reviews to balance it out.