This is my first post on here - so I apologize if this has been discussed to death already!

I will try to keep this short-
8 months ago, my coworker and Groom approached me about making his wedding cake. I gave him an initial break down of base pricing and design. He agreed and we would meet closer to the wedding to sign contract, get deposit, etc.

I verbally asked him on about 5 separate occasions to set a time for us to sit down and finalize all plans.

Two weeks ago I sent a formal message saying I had a lot to schedule the next month, if we are moving forward with this, I need to know now. No response.

Tonight (two weeks later), I get a text "When can (bride) and I meet with you to talk about the cake?"

The wedding is now less than a month away. I realize that if this were a normal client (and I know most of you will say- it IS a normal client) I would say that after repeated attempts to sign a contract, I received no response and assumed you have moved on.

But this is a coworker - whom I have to see on a regular basis. And just because the Groom is an idiot - does the bride have to suffer the possibility of not having a wedding cake? I have a heart, and while business is business...I do this because I want to make people happy.

Also - the bride is a bit vengeful...is it worth the risk of receiving bad reviews/public insults on platforms like Facebook?

Wanted to get a general idea of your thoughts on how to respond. I decided to sleep on it (not responding to his text immediately) until I heard a few people's thoughts.

Thanks.

Set up the appointment with the bride and groom. If they don't show (or if they show and don't want to put down a deposit), wait a few days and send them an email saying you are no longer available for their wedding date.

I also recommend not communicating with customers via text messages, emails are more professional.

Hmmm...if you do get them to come in, at this stage a last-minute order charge would also be in order. AND they have to pay up the entire balance immediately, or no cake.

All of that IF you have time to fit the order in.

I agree with Evoir about the full balance paid at time of contract.

IDK, I've had good orders come in at the last minute for a variety of reasons. I would require full payment at the consult, though. Anything less than 3 months out is "last minute" in wedding world.

If the bride & groom are not willing to take the initiation to book an appointment with you at this point, I would move on. It's not your responsibility to keep after them to get them to make an appointment.

I had a similiar situation last year. A lady my husband works with mentioned early in the year that she needed a wedding cake for September. Plenty of time. She made and cancelled several appointments for tasting. I even offered to make some things for her to taste and send it with my husband to the office...we already had everything down via email as far as the cake design. Less than a month before the wedding, she finally contacts me saying we can skip the tasting and she wants the cake. THEN I find out the venue is at least an hour away. I already had another big wedding cake for that day. So I told her I couldn't deliver it but that someone could pick it up if she still wanted it. NEVER heard a thing back. And my husband says now she's not too freindly to him in the office.....lol. Luckily its not a big deal to him.

Set up the appointment but make it crystal clear that because they are so close to the date they will need to give you FULL payment or you will NOT be making the cake.
If she cancels or is a no show then tell them you are no longer available to make the cake.

Thanks for all your advice and insight. I think I will set up the one last appointment and request the full payment - that definitely makes me feel better about the whole thing. It's hard not to let personal feelings get involved - I'm not sure I would want a frustrated baker working on my wedding cake.

And as far as the texting goes - that was only one sent from them, I always use e-mail or in person/phone as contact.

This happened to me recently with two brides and both worked out really well in the end. Give them the opportunity to meet with you and request full payment / balance paid at the meeting. I had a client who was very skeptical to pay me the entire wedding cake cost even though her wedding cake was due 3 weeks away.

When I came out in my branded chef jacket she wrote me back immediately to say how professional I was and she felt safe having me do her wedding cake.

Sometimes people have delays on their end that we may not understand or know of. One of my brides was waiting on her dad to give her the cheque for the longest while to pay down on her wedding cake and I thought she was going to be a difficult client. She is now a loyal and regular customer.

I agree with everyone about getting the payment in full (if they show up). You don't want to hunt people down for payment! Hope this works out

Knowing that the bride is vengeful, I think I'd pass on this one. Better that she badmouth you for not making her cake, than for making her cake, if you know what I mean. You have a perfect response to the former: They never got back to you and the date is no longer available. If even the slightest little thing irritates her after you've made the cake, you could end up in a customer service nightmare. Maybe I just don't have the stones for this type of work, but if it were me.....I'd pass.

Here is something that I learned online. Doubt means Don't. If you have doubts about doing something, don't do it.

All I can add is that they need to understand that they have put themselves in the position of being "beggars" and because of that, they have to be fully prepared to commit to all choices at the tasting--no options for any changes once they sign the contract & pay in full.

If they waffle---on anything---tell them that you're just not their baker, wish them luck, and don't look back.

Rae

I've noticed a trend of grooms being "assigned" the cake to arrange. He's probably been telling the bride that he's got it under control this entire time, so don't blame her for it. Also, a lot of wedding magazines tell brides that the timetable to confirm details is a month before, so they might not be thinking of this as being "last minute." Grooms are not the most reliable of planners, nor do they have the same sense of urgency that the brides usually do. The bride might have been badgering him for your information and he never got around to giving it to her, you never know.

What I'd worry about is that when they finally do show up after not communicating with you that they'll expect a big discount because you work together. Watch and see if I'm wrong...I bet he told her that you'd give them a good deal, and when you tell them the price they'll both turn pale and act shocked. Don't budge on that. Also, even though I wouldn't consider a month last-minute in this case, I would consider them PITA clients, so you should add on an inconvenience fee for your inconvenience

I am in the midst of something similar with a lady from my church(her granddaughter ordered a cupcake tower from me last year and was a great client - no probs and they paid three months in advance in full) that sent me another family member for a cupcake tower because they were at the wedding for the one I did last year and they had a consult with me last month, nice people. But here it is, the wedding next saturday, and they still owe me 3/4 of the money...they only put down less than 1/4...excuse after excuse for the last two weeks and I just call now to find out the bride didn't show with the money this afternoon because she just had an appendicitis attack and she's at the hospital as we speak. So help me God, I will NEVER do this again without getting full payment with such short notice. I don't like to start work on something unless I have ALL the money....And I have about 150 flowers to make(molded, not petaled) but they still take time to do! I did about half of them already, because I am feeling really nervous about the missing 3/4 payment, but I can't wait til the last minute in case she actually comes through in time. I am still learning too, and I feel bad, but if she doesn't pay me before this wedding on the 16th she will have no cupcakes. I will feel really bad about it, but I don't have time to hunt her down at the reception/wedding when I have other things to do. Bottom line, we are all learning and let this be a learning experience to you. I am actually ameding my contract right now since this is happening to me. Best of luck with things!

150 flowers = 150 cupcakes?

1 sick bride, and 149 expected guests= 149 potential people who can do the poor sick bride a favor and deliver the cash.

No cash= no cake for you!