Oh what a day!  I had my first Friday wedding cake.  The cake was for the daughter of a dear friend of mine.  A 5 tier buttercream cake with no décor as she wanted fresh flowers on the cake.  The contract states the flowers will be prepared by the florist and placed on the cake by me.  Delivery was to a venue 1 hour drive from my home with a 5:00 delivery time for a 7:00 reception.  All highway driving.

The weather had been horrible all day.  Raining and in the 50's.  My husband and I left at 3:00 which gave us an additional hour in case we ran into traffic problems.  We had been on the interstate 5 minutes when traffic came to a standstill.  It took us 20 minutes to get through this tie up caused by a car that hydroplaned.  This same scenario played out 3 more times.  I called the wedding coordinator at 5:00 and left her a message that we would be a little late.  We finally arrive at 5:20.  Still plenty of time to set up, so I start to relax a little.

It's still pouring rain and did I mention that this reception is in a tent on a college campus adjacent to the building they are getting married at?  I set the cake up but there are no flowers in sight.  The only person in the tent was the DJ who was still setting up.   I wait until 6:00 and still no florist or wedding director appears with flowers and neither of them are answering their phones.  I enter the building adjacent to the tent to try and find someone to help me.  I finally find the director and she claims to not know anything about flowers but that there are plenty of extras and she will locate them and handle the placement.  She signed off on the cake which by now was sweating profusely and basically dismissed me.  I waited 15 more minutes and she never returned.

I was a nervous wreck all night worried that the cake, a) melted, b) never got any flowers, c) the flowers were just stuck in the cake.

I finally see a blurry picture of the cake on facebook and it appears to be wet, and it does have flowers.

The bride left this comment, "the cake was perfect!!! It started to look like it was going to melt so we cut it a little early. Looked gorgeous and tasted delicious!!!! Thank you so much for everything!"

Would you have done anything different?  Should I have waited to place the flowers myself?

glad that worked out so well for you--

what i do is--i contact the florist before the wedding and introduce myself, blablabla a bit--and make my own arrangements with them--i ask what time they will be there --you learn what their schedule will be like that day--ask them where the cake flowers will be -- 

i mean if the flowers are not there you can't place 'em--but i have actually gone and 'harvested' flowers from other arrangements too  that cake is gonna get done ;) --you are entitled to make your executive decisions--

so i don't leave it to the bride to make my arrangements--that might help you going forward

♥

they covered up the whole 'slice of wood' plateau

beautiful work on your part--

is that how the bride wanted the flowers?

the flowers around the bottom changed the whole feel to me--and that's ok --it's elegant and beautiful--but it's just a different direction to me

The cake looks lovely!!! Glad everything turned out well with the cake!!!

The look of the cake was to be simple, sort of rustic.  The plan was just a few flowers on top and a few angled down the side.  The wood slab was not the most attractive one I've ever seen, but it was level and it was provided by the bride. 

I hated the way she arranged the flowers around the bottom.  With the red and white, it looks like a funeral wreath to me.  

Mother of the bride called today and said that they were very happy with the cake itself.  The flowers were not what the bride wanted, but she was still happy.  After she did some checking, the florist forgot to leave any flowers for the cake.  What the wedding coordinator did was steal from the other arrangements and the flowers around the bottom of the cake were the bridesmaids bouquets.

AI think you did all you could do...in fact, you went above and beyond! The only thing you really could have done differently is to double check with the florist ...or whoever is in charge of the event...to confirm the flowers would be on the cake table. Beyond that its pretty much out of your control.

I think you did a lovely job. I would have been a nervous wreck given everything you went through! Now take a big sigh of relief and relax. it may not have been 'perfect' in your eyes but :)everyone was happy! :)

Beautiful cake…flowers aren't bad, but I see what you were trying to achieve.  It still looks great.  Reminds me of my own wedding cake, my colors were pink and brown and some fool sprinkled ugly ORANGE rose petals around the cake…ick.  But I loved the cake and the man I was marrying anyways and it wasn't the baker who did the weirdo rose petal thingy…