first wedding cake consultation!

I’m not a pro by any means Karen. But a few tips. Before you do anything, the first most important is there budget. No point showing cake pics, design, if you don’t know there price point. Once I established that, I asked about flavours, design, venue, etc., etc. Take lots of notes. Then I would explain I would use my notes & info, go home and work on sketches , ideas. Either I emailed them, or we met again. Also, I can’t stress enough mentioning that you will be asking for a deposit to secure the date, and of course, put towards supplies. So much % down, and full payment before. I usually asked a week before wedding.
Hope this is helpful…..

sure is Judy!!! I didnt even ask their budget- don’t have a clue how many people are going to be at the wedding -amateur or what lol. Its all a learning experience! Do you do taste testing?

Fantastic news Karen. The lucky couple are going to be in receipt of one stunning cake. I’ve only done a few wedding cakes so far but I would agree with June on every point. But I would also add that you should double and triple check everything, particularly the date and venue. One tiny mistake on those issues can have you scrambling for your life at the last minute (I know, I’ve been there. lol) lastly, don’t get involved in the madness. It may be the most important day of the bride’s life and she may want to consult with you several times a day and change her mind about details at least ten times before the wedding, but this is your business. You need to keep a cool head while the bridal party are losing theirs. Good luck. xx

I do an initial phone consultation, establish a budget, what their needs are and from there I can gage if I want to take the order on. If so, I block out 2 hour slots of appointment times on the weekends and let them have their pick of what is already open (as a standard I have 1pm, 3pm and 5pm on Saturday and Sundays… basically from February until April.
From there I let them pick out flavors to sample. They get 5 flavors. They must pay an initial $20 fee (In the start I had people who came for free cake and never contact me back) and if they book I apply that to their balance for a “free tasting”. Since I do a lot of tastings but I do this from home, I have baked up all of my flavors into sheet cakes and cut 4×4 squares of each flavor, then wrap individually and freeze. I do my frostings up in half batches and put them into those little tiny cups with lids. They get 5 flavors of those as well (only one cup per flavor). I label everything with dates and flavors and freeze. I cut the 4×4 squares up for each tasting into 4 pieces and put it on a serving tray with labels for the cakes and set plates around the serving tray on the table. It’s like a little dessert buffet when they walk in… and doing the frosting in the cups keeps it from getting freezer burn and also lets them mix and match their flavors… because that is what I do for my business. A bride may have up to 4 people including herself. If it’s just the bride and groom, they get more cake. :D
Hope that helps. It’s been slow progress to this system of mine, I used to tote everything to them and it was a hastle.

can I just say how much I love Cakedecor! Thank you so much June, Lizzie and Leslie for your responses. Never having done it before is quite daunting! Having people to be able to talk to is fab :)
Seriously Lizzie- I have people emailing me at all times over their daughters 1st birthday cake! Not kidding- I had 34 emails about 1 cake. 34. plus phone calls. She drove me crazy lol
Leslie- thanks so much- your system sounds good to me! I best get baking tomorrow then lol
Thanks again ladies for taking time to respond :)
Karen

Another point Karen. You can find online “contracts” which I would recommend you print out. There’s a good site Cake Boss ( not the decorator ) software. There’s a great section in there about dealing with customers. Fill out your contract with all the pertinent info, and have your customer sign off on EVERYTHING….price, design, flavour….etc, etc. Include everything that was discussed. This way there’s absolutely no confusion. No coming back with…….I didn’t agree to….“whatever” . It’s signed and sealed. I learned this the hard way.
Also Karen, get confirmation on cake delivery and set up. Are you doing it?? If so, there should be a fee rolled into your quote for this. How far is the venue??? Over a certain amount of km, you may want to charge for mileage. Also in your quote. Or, are going to pick the cake up and set up themselves. I also always checked out where the venue was. I called the venue and spoke to whomever was in charge, introduced myself and asked about setting up the cake. Always got confirmation and permission about coming at a certain time on the wedding day as to not disturb there set up. Asked about the room, its location etc. If I could, I’d go and see it, buts that’s not always necessary. It’s surprising how many venues have stairs, no elevators…that could make delivery a challenge.
As far as taste tasting, find out there preference so your not having to bake multiple cupcake for them to try. If you plan to do more of this, a good thing to do is save enough batter from cakes your currently baking. Make cupcakes labeled with flavour and freeze. This way, you have some tasters on hand…..

Thanks Judy- I will definitely look that contract up!
Seriously- thank you so much for all your questions to ask them, I am going to write these down to have with me when they come :)

just looked up that contract – its awesome! Thanks soooooo much!

Wrong name…..It’s June, not Judy Karen….. 😉 😉

Lol sorry June. I did write June one time, must have been predictive text !!!. I usually read back what I’d written just in case. Oops! :)