Last week, I got cake quotes from my reception venue. Here are direct cut and pastes from my catering manager:
5 tier – Round with Fondant cake = $950.00 + + (this is with only one tier of real cake – and the remaining tiers to be Styrofoam"
With 300 Guest – Butter Cream Frosting & White Cake - 3 tiers stacked- $800.00 and we will need to do a sheet cake to accommodate 300 guest = $250.00
Can I just say this is a RIP-OFF?!!! Who in their right mind would pay close to a thousand dollars for a styrofoam cake? And not to mention my hotel pastry chef doesn't even offer cake tastings. Can this cake talk to me? Or better yet - make me lose 10 lbs? I thought including fake layers would make a cake cheaper. Well, it wasn't long after I received these quotes that I started looking for other cake vendors. Unfortunately, many cake bakers are already booked for my wedding weekend. I had to keep saying,"Yes, ma'am. It's for June. Of
this year."
Well, today was the start of my cake search and it went off to a rocky start. This morning was my first cake tasting. It was scheduled for 10 AM so I left promptly at 9 AM from Ewa (approximately 30 miles from Honolulu). I forgot to ask the baker what the bakery address was when I booked the appointment but I figured I could look it up on the web. When I tried to look it up, there was no address on the cake vendor's website. The Yellow Pages, both online and hardcopy, had the same address and corresponded with the telephone number I called so I figured I had the right address. I reached my destination at about 9:40. However, there was a realty sign in the window indicating that the tenant had moved out. The place looked empty through the window. I went into a store in the same building for some help. The salesperson there said someone else not too long ago came in looking for this bakery but she said they moved out and never gave a forwarding address.
I called the bakery several times and left a message noting who I was, the appointment time for the cake tasting, and that I wanted to get correct and new address. The voice-mail stated that the bakery was not open until 10 but I called and called anyway.
With no one picking u p the phone, even after 10 AM, and not knowing what to do, I went to the Wedding Cafe in Manoa to see if I could find the address there (I also called a couple of girlfriends getting married but no luck there). I got there at about 10:20 and asked the Wedding Cafe owner where it was. He gave me directions and I finally arrived at the cake baker at about 10:30.
As I entered through the door, I introduced myself to a staffperson who appeared to be cleaning up and just tidying up the place. He didn't appear to be the baker but I told him what happened to me and apologized for being late to my cake tasting. He didn't seem to be sympathetic to my story (just gave a blank stare) and then went to the back to tell someone that I had arrived. He came out to tell me have a seat and gave me a couple of wedding cake albums to peruse through.
Ten minutes later, a woman comes out one of the doors (from her office?), sees me but does not acknowledge me and goes into another door (the kitchen maybe?). I wonder if she's the baker that I talked to over the phone while scheduling the tasting although I had imagined her to be much more friendlier-looking. Then I wait for another five minutes until the same woman comes out and asks me how she can help me. I tell her I'm there for a cake tasting. She looks at me with a disgruntled and bothered look. I could tell the tension was escalating and then I just apologized (even though I knew it wasn't entirely my fault ) for being late and told her how I went to the old address and how I tried to find out how to get there. She curtly told me I went to the wrong website and that the new one should have the address. I asked her if I would be meeting the baker. She told me she's her business partner and would be working with her today, not the baker I talked to over the phone. I never had a chance to tell her that I called several times but no one answered the phone. I never got to tell her that I went to the Wedding Cafe to find out where they were located. She asked me what I wanted in a cake, gave me a quote, and asked me what flavors I wanted. Then she went back to the kitchen for the cake. About 15 minutes later, I was tired of waiting any longer. I couldn't believe she was so curt to me when I felt they could have done a better job in their advertising noting the move and telling me over the phone their location when I called to book the tasting. They could have also answered the phone once they opened and returned my call. I told the staffperson that I couldn't wait any longer and I just walked out. I wasted my time and theirs.
I'm finally home and I googled this cake vendor's name. It turns out the old website is shown as the first two links and the third website is the new one.
This cake vendor had rave reviews in the past which is why I wanted to book with them in the first place. However, I was very disappointed with their customer service.
I have another cake tasting tomorrow and hopefully it'll turn out better than the one today.
I'm on the fence on emailing this vendor and letting them know about my experience so that they can at least fix their websites and change their addresses so that future brides won't go through the same ordeal I did. I just have a sour taste in my mouth about the whole thing and, what's even worse is that I didn't even have any cake.
