Oh, it's a wedding cake...

My husband sent me a video clip a couple of years ago that makes fun of the wedding cake industry.  I've included the clip so you can watch for yourself here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gimiDBAK2wA.  I will warn that at the very end the man does use a very description word for the cake.  It starts with "s" and ends with "t" so use headphones - otherwise it's clean.

I use this opener to illustrate a recent meeting I had with a new client.  The young lady had called for pricing a couple of times and it's pretty clear that a) English is her second language and b) she's inexperienced with sales people.  We finally decided to meet for a tasting and she brought her neighbor with her to help her.  First I found this a very wise decision on her part because she was a wonderful older lady who you could tell looked after this girl like her own.  It was such a great meeting.  Anyway....

As we went through the tasting and decision making she kept asking me, "How much more does that cost?'  My reply was almost always, "It's included; no extra charge."  This kept replaying itself and she was beside herself when she realized that she could get the exact cake she wanted in the price that she could afford.  It was best summed up by the friend when she said, "See, you just have to keep looking until you find the right baker." 

I didn't intrude in their moment and ask her what she meant but this is what I took away from this meeting from my own observations; her emotional responses, sheer delight at finding a cake and relief at the price all told me she'd been getting the "wedding cake" treatment.  Had she really been told that every little thing she asked me about was extra?  Had she really been told that this is the way everybody does it?  This is the feeling that I got.  And I've looked at other bakery websites in the surrounding areas and I can see it right there in black and white.  In some cases it goes back to starting with a smaller per slice price but "slightly smaller charger" for other items in the wedding cake package.  Some items charged for are essential to the success of the cake not fallling over (happy to answer questions through email on this).  Let's just say I am stunned at not only the brass used in charging for some of these things but the excellent wording used to describe these items is obviously intentional. 

Yes, I bake wedding cakes.  Yes, I am part of the weddig industry.  But, no, I don't fit into their "wedding cake" price mold.