I have a small bakery / party supply store in a small town in Oklahoma. We (my mother and I) have been in business for about 5 years and during that time have made about 2 dozen wedding cakes - mostly we do birthday/shower type cakes. We have taken the Wilton cake decorating classes and most of our skills have been self taught and by experimentation. In July 2010 we did a fondant covered wedding cake. Square 12 inch, round 8 inch, round 6 inch. No decorations, just added orange ribbon as a border, the bride was adding fresh flowers. Have done it before and should not have been an issue.
July in 2010 in Oklahoma was HOT. The fondant arrived a few days before the cake was due. When we started kneading the fondant, it did not feel quite right and when I tried to roll it out it was very "Stretchy". When we tried to cover the cake, it looked awful. Not smooth and cracked. We had to remove it a few times and start over so the cake began to fall apart. Finally after many hours of trying to get it to look good the night before the wedding we "settled" and decided to see how it looked in the morning.
Next morning it still looked awful but we didn't have enough fondant or enough time to do it over.
We did what we could to make it look presentable and refunded the full price to the bride.
She was the most gracious lady. She accepted our apologies and our refund without any type of drama - saying sometimes things just happen. BUT - you could see the disappointment in her face.
I am so grateful that she was not a "bridezilla" but now I have lost all confidence in my ability to make a beautiful wedding cake. When we have requests now for wedding cakes I find myself telling customers that we cannot promise it will be a perfect cake and they should look elsewhere if that is what they are expecting. We have still gotten some orders because our prices are reasonable for our area and those cakes have turned out beautiful - done in buttercream - .
I'm not even sure why I'm posting this except that I need to share this story with someone who might understand the doubts I'm having with myself.
July in 2010 in Oklahoma was HOT. The fondant arrived a few days before the cake was due. When we started kneading the fondant, it did not feel quite right and when I tried to roll it out it was very "Stretchy". When we tried to cover the cake, it looked awful. Not smooth and cracked. We had to remove it a few times and start over so the cake began to fall apart. Finally after many hours of trying to get it to look good the night before the wedding we "settled" and decided to see how it looked in the morning.
Next morning it still looked awful but we didn't have enough fondant or enough time to do it over.
We did what we could to make it look presentable and refunded the full price to the bride.
She was the most gracious lady. She accepted our apologies and our refund without any type of drama - saying sometimes things just happen. BUT - you could see the disappointment in her face.
I am so grateful that she was not a "bridezilla" but now I have lost all confidence in my ability to make a beautiful wedding cake. When we have requests now for wedding cakes I find myself telling customers that we cannot promise it will be a perfect cake and they should look elsewhere if that is what they are expecting. We have still gotten some orders because our prices are reasonable for our area and those cakes have turned out beautiful - done in buttercream - .
I'm not even sure why I'm posting this except that I need to share this story with someone who might understand the doubts I'm having with myself.
I hope you would also keep practicing and I'm sure in the future, your confidence level will shoot up. Sure, there will still be bad days, that's to be expected, it happens even to the most talented people, but you should never lose faith in yourself 
