Weddingbee

Image © IN Photography

The weeks leading up to the wedding were stressful on varying accounts, but that stress was only exacerbated by a variety of vendors that backed out on us. Yes, you heard that right backed-out!

First, it was my hairstylist. Luckily, she had taken the initiative to already book me with another stylist.

But the icing on the cake, so to speak, was our cake baker.

A month before our wedding, I emailed and/or called all our vendors to confirm details, payments, and whatnot. I emailed our cake baker to confirm delivery time and last minute floral changes. This is the email I received:

“So I’m a little concerned about your cake. I know I have emailed you about it and I never received anything back from you…. I can probably find the email if you need reference. I do require a deposit to save the date. But unfortunately, after I didn’t hear back from you, I agreed to be in a friends wedding in Minnesota that weekend and booked a plane ticket. Sorry for any inconvenience…”

Knowing that I had not received any emails, I asked her to send me the emails:

“Can you please send me the emails you emailed me, with the timestamps of when you sent them, as soon as possible! Thanks! Miss Cookie”

Her response:

“I can’t seem to find the email… regardless I am not available for your date… I own a small business and require a deposit to save a date. Sorry for any inconvenience.”

A little back story: Per our agreement with Breckenridge Lodging and Hospitality for the use of Ten Mile Station and the catering, the cake was included in our food and beverage minimum. At the time of the contract signing, they had an executive pastry chief on staff that we were required to get our cake from.

About a month after signing the contract, I was told by the catering manager that the executive pasty chief would no longer be providing cakes for Ten Mile Station. They had found another preferred vendor, but we were not required to go through them. We decided to go with the preferred vendor.

At our cake tasting, there was much confusion as to how the deposit for the cake would be handled by the cake baker, the catering manager, and ourselves since the cake, at time of contract signing, was to be paid for through our payment to Breckenridge Lodging and Hospitality. We told the catering manager and the cake baker to work out the deposit and payment of the cake between the two of them, but that we were not going to pay more than agreed upon in our contract. Not hearing another word on the matter, I naively assumed everything had been worked out.

Fast forward to a month before the wedding, and I have just received an email from our now former cake baker. We immediately called the catering manager to inform her of the situation, and in turn she personally called the owner of Blue Moon Bakery to get us another cake in time. The owner, Chief Ben Reil, was a godsend and confirmed that he would be able to bake a cake for us. However, with four other weddings that weekend, he could not deliver it to Ten Mile Station. So, my mother and father were put to the task of picking-up the cake on the wedding day. Also, since the road to Ten Mile Station is gravel road straight up the mountain, our cake had to be modified from the design below for stability purposes.

Image from The Knot Colorado

Image © IN Photography

In the end, at least we had cake. It looked and tasted fine, but I was a little bummed that it wasn’t what I had envisioned. What got my goat about the situation was the unprofessionalism by the cake baker. She had my cell number; she could have called me to discuss the deposit. We potentially would have been without a cake on our wedding. Although, Mr. Cookie put it all into perspective when he asked me, “Honey, would you have married me without a wedding cake?” To which I replied, “Sweetheart, I would marry you without wedding cake any day.”

Did you have any vendors back out at the last minute? Or did a wedding detail not turn out as you had envisioned it?