Last Minute Panic

Normally I would say that panic mode sets in for a bride when they have waited until the absolute last minute to book a vendor or a venue or something of similar nature.  This was the first time I'd heard of a bride panicking because her vendor bailed on her a mere 24 hours prior to the wedding.  The following story was relayed to me recently and I felt compelled to share.  I am sure as I retell this it will not be verbatim but the point will be made.

Twenty four hours before her daughter's wedding, the mother of the bride receives a phone call from the baker who is creating her daughter’s wedding cake.  This baker is well known in her area and has been baking and decorating cakes for over 30 years.  However, on this particular occasion, she was calling the mother of the bride to tell her that the cake had fallen - it was completely decorated and finished - and she didn't have time to redo it.  She was very sorry.  She didn't know what went wrong but it had and she just didn't have time to make another wedding cake and she wished her luck.

What?  You've been doing this for 30 years!  How can it just go wrong?  What are we supposed to do?  This is my daughter's wedding.  Still, the answer was the same.  I don't know why it fell but it collapsed and there is not enough time to make another cake.

To this poor mother's despair and panic of a last minute solution, this bride was treated to a retailed wedding cake (store starts with W and ends with mart).  While not entirely happy, the mother felt it was the best she could do with so few hours left.  She arrived at the bakery counter when they opened, showed them pictures of what she needed and within a few hours her cake was ready.  (I do not know if it was picked up or if they arranged delivery but I'm thinking the first and not the second.)  It was not the cake they had envisioned but there was cake on her wedding day.

I personally was appalled when I heard this story.  I can think of dozens of things that could have gone wrong with the cake.  I can also think of dozens of compromises and adjustments that could have been made by this baker to accommodate the bride because, as I see it, that was her responsibility as the hired professional.  

I have been very fortunate that I have never been in this situation.  I try to plan and organize my time so that I have enough flexibility should anything unplanned occur because it usually does and you need to be able to roll with it and not lose focus.  I would be personally and professionally mortified if this had happened to me.  To my knowledge this baker has yet to offer any compensation to the family as a replacement for the cake she couldn't deliver.  

I think this just goes back to prove that just because you've done something for a very long time doesn't mean things can't go wrong and we should all have a Plan B for when they do.  If my bride is panicked it should be because she's waited too long to book her wedding and not because of something I did or didn't do.