Cake Tasting

You would think that cake tasting is one of the fun perks when planning a wedding. I've since learned how big of a pain in the arse it really is. It is really annoying that cake makers should charge YOU a fee for SAMPLING their products.

So, I set up a cake tasting with a acquaintance of mine. She told me she would have to charge me for the sampling and that this is standard with anyone. I don't mind the fee since it was $25. I had never heard of this practice before, so I verified with my wedding coordinator who said it is the norm. She said some places don't charge a fee, but you usually go to them. Since this vendor was meeting me off-site, I didn't mind the charge. I understand for the smaller baker, this fee can help cover expenses for specifically making samples that they don't have on hand.

Heath went with me to the tasting and I told him about the fee. I honestly didn't think anything more of it except for the fact that as Heath pointed out, we are shopping for a cake vendor and this is the cost of doing business. As he put it, "We don't charge people for the gas to test drive our cars. It's the cost of doing business. They shouldn't charge us for samples." 

Anyway, like I said, I didn't mind the fee she charged, I thought her cake ball samples were really good. It was the second vendor who wanted $50 to taste their cakes and they didn't have nearly the sample selection of my acquaintance. 

With the first vendor, I felt like $25 to her was fine because it covered her cost of the ingredients, her time and her gas to meet me. This second vendor however, made me feel like I was putting them out by setting up a tasting. They had a statement in their email in all caps that said "NON REFUNDABLE" which, had they not put it quite like that, I probably wouldn't have been on the defensive.

If I set up 3 samplings and each one charged a fee of anywhere between $25 to $50 per sampling, I would have spent anywhere from $75 to $150 just to TASTE cakes. That's not us buying a whole cake, that's us TASTING cake flavors. I can go into an ice cream store and taste ice cream samples for FREE. I can generally go to a bakery and taste a sample of their products before buying and they don't charge for it. 

I canceled the tasting. It just doesn't seem right that I should have to pay extra for tasting a cake sample (not even get the whole cake for that price) and not get the price of sampling reimbursed if I chose to go with that vendor. 

It's an exploitation of brides by vendors in this "wedding industry". Frankly, it's frustrating to say the least. And that leads me to another question. Why is this an "industry"? We have turned this ceremonious event in a person's life into a 3 ring circus complete with ring masters, clowns and animals.

How have women survived all these years ago without the help of the "industry" behind them? I mean come on, do we really need so much fluff? What ever happened to friends and family helping out the bride and all working together to bring this day to a head and make it as special as it can be, just using your own resources? I understand the need for some of the vendors and such, but do we need quite so many? 

Well that's all I have for now. Sorry for the slight rant, but as we draw nearer the day, I find more things incomprehensible as the costs are rising. One thing these vendors (all of them, not just cake vendors, but DJ's, bands, rentals, transportation, ect...) should realize is that they are not the only vendor in town and we are not bleeding money.