Am I doing something wrong?
Jun. 15th, 2004 05:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jainaMaybe some of you remember a post I made awhile back about the issues we were having with this one bakery for our wedding. If you don't (or want to refresh your memory), the post is here.
I did end up going for a consultation with Kathy herself and it seemed fine. I got a few more of my questions answered, I was pretty happy. We've tasted at two other bakeries since then and they had okay cake, but nothing special, and they were both at least $50 more than Kathy's Cakes, overall.
Then we came up with this stupidly brilliant brainstorm to have our cake be Minas Tirith. A seven-tiered behemoth of a fortress cake, which Rogue would decorate with his little LOTR mini figures. It would be funny, it would be impressive, some of our guests would love it and others would be confused. So I emailed Kathy's again to ask if it would be possible, and if so, what a ballpark cost might be. Here's my email:
Hello,
I've had two wedding appointments with you guys, and my
fiancé and I thought we had decided on what kind of cake
we wanted. However, last weekend we came up with a rather
elaborate, somewhat crazy cake idea. If you've ever seen or
read Lord of the Rings, there's a city called Minas Tirith
which is this huge, white, seven-tiered walled city. In
trying to describe it, people often refer to it as looking
like a wedding cake, and we thought-- wouldn't it be funny
to have a Minas Tirith wedding cake?
Here are a couple of images of what the city might look like
(the first is the city as it appears in the movie, the
second is a fan's concept):
http://shop.decipher.com/TCG/Card.aspx?gameID=7&cardID=3942
http://home.planet.nl/~radiant/Tirjpg.htm
Obviously we wouldn't want all seven layers to be cake; I
remember hearing that you can use styrofoam blocks for extra
layers. And I'm not sure how elaborate we'd want the
decoration to be, although we'd probably go for less rather
than more. Anyway, we're just trying to figure out if
something like this is possible, and if so, what a general
idea of the cost would be. It would still be about 100
slices of cake that we'd need.
Looking forward to hearing back from you!
Thanks,
Caitlin
***
And the following was her reply, and the reason for this post:
***
If you can afford $10.00 a slice, I could tackle it. In the meantime,
I am too busy working with brides who have contracted with us and
have given us deposit money.
You might try Crumbs of Paris. They do castle cakes.
***
Okay, maybe I'm being totally oversensitive (and if I am, please tell me), but does that sound like a total brush-off, or what? "I'm too busy working with people who've already paid us." Well gee, I'm sorry I haven't ponied up any money yet, but I'm trying to make an informed decision here! It's not like my wedding is next month and I'm asking her to do this-- it's four months away! I know this is San Diego and places book fast, but four months is still a fair amount of lead time on a cake, right?
I'm really worried that I'm doing something wrong, that I'm coming off badly in my emails, or I'm committing some major wedding-etiquette faux pas and I don't even know it. I had such great luck finding my florist and photographer, and now this. Is she mad that it's been a month since I first contacted them and I haven't picked yet? Does she think I'm obnoxious for asking for that second consultation and then for this email, asking for something crazy?
I'm really not sure where to go from here. I think the Minas Tirith idea is out; that's just way too much money (esp. compared to the less than $3/slice our original cake was going to cost). We've already tasted at Crumbs of Paris (the place she suggested) and I wasn't too impressed with either their flavors or their service. Or their prices, for that matter. *sigh* Weddings make you cry over the stupidest things.
I did end up going for a consultation with Kathy herself and it seemed fine. I got a few more of my questions answered, I was pretty happy. We've tasted at two other bakeries since then and they had okay cake, but nothing special, and they were both at least $50 more than Kathy's Cakes, overall.
Then we came up with this stupidly brilliant brainstorm to have our cake be Minas Tirith. A seven-tiered behemoth of a fortress cake, which Rogue would decorate with his little LOTR mini figures. It would be funny, it would be impressive, some of our guests would love it and others would be confused. So I emailed Kathy's again to ask if it would be possible, and if so, what a ballpark cost might be. Here's my email:
Hello,
I've had two wedding appointments with you guys, and my
fiancé and I thought we had decided on what kind of cake
we wanted. However, last weekend we came up with a rather
elaborate, somewhat crazy cake idea. If you've ever seen or
read Lord of the Rings, there's a city called Minas Tirith
which is this huge, white, seven-tiered walled city. In
trying to describe it, people often refer to it as looking
like a wedding cake, and we thought-- wouldn't it be funny
to have a Minas Tirith wedding cake?
Here are a couple of images of what the city might look like
(the first is the city as it appears in the movie, the
second is a fan's concept):
http://shop.decipher.com/TCG/Card.aspx?gameID=7&cardID=3942
http://home.planet.nl/~radiant/Tirjpg.htm
Obviously we wouldn't want all seven layers to be cake; I
remember hearing that you can use styrofoam blocks for extra
layers. And I'm not sure how elaborate we'd want the
decoration to be, although we'd probably go for less rather
than more. Anyway, we're just trying to figure out if
something like this is possible, and if so, what a general
idea of the cost would be. It would still be about 100
slices of cake that we'd need.
Looking forward to hearing back from you!
Thanks,
Caitlin
***
And the following was her reply, and the reason for this post:
***
If you can afford $10.00 a slice, I could tackle it. In the meantime,
I am too busy working with brides who have contracted with us and
have given us deposit money.
You might try Crumbs of Paris. They do castle cakes.
***
Okay, maybe I'm being totally oversensitive (and if I am, please tell me), but does that sound like a total brush-off, or what? "I'm too busy working with people who've already paid us." Well gee, I'm sorry I haven't ponied up any money yet, but I'm trying to make an informed decision here! It's not like my wedding is next month and I'm asking her to do this-- it's four months away! I know this is San Diego and places book fast, but four months is still a fair amount of lead time on a cake, right?
I'm really worried that I'm doing something wrong, that I'm coming off badly in my emails, or I'm committing some major wedding-etiquette faux pas and I don't even know it. I had such great luck finding my florist and photographer, and now this. Is she mad that it's been a month since I first contacted them and I haven't picked yet? Does she think I'm obnoxious for asking for that second consultation and then for this email, asking for something crazy?
I'm really not sure where to go from here. I think the Minas Tirith idea is out; that's just way too much money (esp. compared to the less than $3/slice our original cake was going to cost). We've already tasted at Crumbs of Paris (the place she suggested) and I wasn't too impressed with either their flavors or their service. Or their prices, for that matter. *sigh* Weddings make you cry over the stupidest things.
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no subject
Date: 2004-06-16 09:41 pm (UTC)The wedding is October 10, a Sunday. There will be around 100 guests but we probably want a little extra cake. So probably only three layers of actual cake? Maybe four?
Where on the Sugarcraft boards would I post? I checked out all the forums and there didn't seem to be anyone posting and looking for a baker, and I didn't want to post in the wrong place.
I'm almost crazy enough to try it myself, but I just don't think I want that much stress that close to the wedding. Plus, our oven is evil. Seriously evil.
I'll ask around the cake boards for someone in your area, and get back to you.
I love you forever for this. Searching the San Diego wedding boards I visit just comes up with the same bakeries over and over. If we're going for this cake, we really need someone who either loves LOTR or is looking for a challenge and willing to work with me on making a good reproduction.
Rogue also wants to decorate the cake with all his LOTR mini figures in lieu of a cake topper, so that Minas Tirith is actually peopled. ;-) I'm all for it!
no subject
Date: 2004-06-16 10:49 pm (UTC)I posted a note to sugarcraft, and called my friend in san francisco to see if she had any suggestions. (She runs a cake supply shop.) I'll let you know if anything turns up. But if not, we can do it ourselves. The most complex part will be the citadel at the top. I think I could cast that out of royal icing, and mail it to you- you'd have to put it together, like a puzzle. Assuming you need 105 servings of actual "cake", and 2 "fakes", we could also build the fakes out of foamcore and ice them in spackle. They'd hold up long distance, to be mailed. That'd leave you four or five stories of cake for someone to do, and really? they're easy stories- mostly white "walls" carved into the icing. The most elaborate stuff I could do in advance, from here. Your decorator wouldn't have to do anything but the plain stories and assembly.
I'm thinking 4-6-8-10-12-14-16 diameters, 6, 8, 10 and 12 to be real cake.(6-10 serv, 8-20 serv,10- 30 serv, 12- 45 serv)( the top 4 in layer could be a fake, or it could be your 'anniversary layer').
You could pretty much have a grocery store do the plain white layers, and carve them yourself, if you had to. I can handle the citadel and the fakes. (Sigh. I really wish I lived closer to you!!!)