Alright, I am fairly new to the wedding cake scene and i am basically taking any and all business prospects right now.  An old roommate of mine just recently asked me to make her wedding cake.  I gladly accepted the job and we are meeting next week to plan some things.  She just told me that her wedding is 4.5 hours away from where we live and its scheduled on Christmas Eve.  I don't have all the details yet, but I wanted to see if any of you charge an extra delivery fee for traveling extreme distances AND for holidays.  Mind you this is a 4.5 hour trip one way. So we are talking a 9 hour round trip delivery and i will be traveling through mountains which will more than likely have snow at that time of year.  

P.S. I may meet with her and she may tell me that she wants to travel with it herself, so this may be a preemptive thread, but worth a good chat and I would benefit from any help.  thanks yall!! 

Cheers,

Amy

AIf you are free around xmas then I wouldn't charge extra just because it's a holiday. If we were making that delivery we would charge $540 (for the delivery fee alone) so make sure you know what her budget is and what she is expecting before you accept the order.

Unlike Jason, I would certainly charge more for a cake scheduled on a holiday.  If I were to accept an order on a holiday (which is unlikely to begin with) I would double all my normal fees.  People working "regular" jobs get holiday pay, why wouldn't you??

Liz

I agree with Liz...you are being asked to give up your Christmas Eve to drive her cake, not to mention the hours spent creating it right around the busy holidays...charge more and yes do charge plenty for delivery. If she wants to transport it herself, be sure it is a cake design that will travel well and that she understands the risks. Some cake orders are not worth the trouble and stress.

I would just tell her to find a baker 4.5 hours away.  In my opinion, you're going to hate doing this over the holidays and dealing with the huge travel issue. Especially since you're new to the wedding cake scene. And something tells me you're not going to charge anything close to what Jason suggested for the delivery fee, which was very reasonable.

And please don't take this as a slam - everyone starts at the beginning, but the underlined part of this quote tells me you are a bit green to be taking this on. I'm not saying you won't successfully get through it, just that it's going to be harder than you may think.

AThe way I would approach scheduling orders for my bakery is we would either be available, or we wouldn't be available (in which case no order would be possible at any price). In an industry that does most of its business on weekends and holidays it just made sense to do things this way.

Once you get a few years of orders under your belt you can start looking at dynamic pricing based on demand, so if certain weekends fill up more quickly you can increase the price for orders on those dates.

AThank you ALL for your advice... I have a lot to take into consideration. Luckily, I have a week to think on it. And who knows, she may want a simple sheet cake that will travel quite well and won't take too long to make. All of your comments have been quite educational. Thanks!

Jason, 

Thank you very much! I have fallen in love with your blog and i appreciate your responses.