THE WEDDING CAKE THAT ALMOST WASN'T...

This cake is not in anyway associated with the following story. Photo Credit: Cake Wrecks Blog

First things first, Robyn and Andrew were married yesterday in a beautiful ceremony. The wedding and reception were held at the Pink Palace Mansion in Memphis, TN. Robyn cried and Andrew smiled widely.

This is not a complete recap of the day, just an incident that could have consumed the day, but did not. Robyn and I have been working together about eight weeks pulling together the last details of her wedding. She has a great sense of style and knew what she wanted for the day. All of her vendors were chosen when we came on board. From this point on, I will tell this story as a story. Because, for the life of me, I can't believe it actually happened. It must have been a fairy-tale. We begin this story three weeks before the wedding day...

The bride tells the wedding planner, "My baker is known for being notoriously late to setups. She wants a range of time to be there."

Well, of course, the wedding planner spoke with the baker who, after some time negotiation agreed to an 11:00 a.m. setup. 

Forward to wedding day.

At 11:27 a.m. when the baker had not materialized, the wedding planner called her.

The baker says, "Oh, I just don't feel well. I was up all night having to re-bake a cake of mine that someone broke when they took it to store in their freezer." 

With her lips a bit pursed, the wedding planner replied, "I'm so sorry you don't feel well. Tell me again, what time will you be here?"  

"Well, you know, I just can't give you a time. I need to take a nap and have some coffee and see how I feel." Looking at her watch, it is now 11:45 a.m., the wedding planner replied, "I will call you back at 1:30 p.m. to see how things have progressed."

Immediately after this phone call ended, the wedding planner goes to the lead person for the wedding caterers. Having worked with them several times before, she knows they think quickly on their feet. The wedding planner asks if someone from their company could go pick up the cake from the baker. Darnit. Insurance issue. Now, they start to look at the wedding planner going to pick up the cake, to which she is game. Once the cake arrives, the caterers can have one of their baker's assistants come to the venue and complete the beadwork on the cake. Sounds like a plan. The idea is tabled until 1:30 p.m.

Wedding planner asks, "Hi! How are you feeling?", to which she is replied, "Well, I do feel better." 

"I'm so glad. What time will you be able to arrive? Setups need to be complete at 3:00 p.m." 

"Well, if you'd stop calling me I could actually get some work done." 

A bit puzzled as to why the cake was not ready at 1:30 p.m. when it was initially supposed to arrive at 11:00 a.m., the wedding planner repeats the pickup idea to the baker. "Oh, no, I'm not going to do that to Robyn. I will be there." "Great! What time will...", the baker hangs up on the wedding planner.

At this point, the wedding planner has to inform the family as to what is transpiring. She goes to the bar, has them make a drink for the bride and treks upstairs to where the bride, groom and their wedding party is getting dressed. (NOTE: It's a good idea to get the bride a little liquored before delivering potential bad news.) After arriving upstairs, the wedding planner realizes the bride's mother has made it back to the venue from an earlier errand. Perfect. She finds the MOB and details what has been going on. MOB asks wedding planner to call the baker and let her talk to them. The baker's husband answers the phone and will not let the MOB talk with the baker. The baker will only speak with the bride. Good thing she was liquored up ten minutes prior. The bride is pulled from the makeup artist's chair and after a ten second briefing, takes the phone to speak with the baker. The bride asks the same questions the wedding planner has been asking for the past three hours. She gets the same responses. The bride asks can someone come pickup the cake. THE. BAKER. HANGS. UP. ON. THE. BRIDE.

A collective, three-way sigh from the bride, the MOB and the wedding planner is made.

The wedding planner then tells the bride of the alternative cake idea and lets her know the ball will start rolling on that plan.

"Okay", says the bride with no tears and no look of frustration on her face.

Wow! Rum really works! 

Fast forward to 4:03 p.m. (three minutes after ceremony start time). The wedding planner's phone rings.

"Hi, Andria, this is the baker. Is someone coming to pick up the cake?"

"Uh, no. We have another cake that just arrived."

Smartly, "Well, thank you for calling me and telling me. You had me doing all this work for nothing."

"Well, Mrs. The Baker, I'm a wedding planner. I sometimes have to come up with a Plan B. And I can't let Plan A go until I know Plan B will actually work."

"Tell Robyn she will get all her money back."

Doesn't that go without saying?

Anyway, this is the end of our story. Of course, there were other tidbits that were not included. Like the wedding planner getting the groom liquored up to tell him his Chicago Cubs specialty cake was not going to be a part of his wedding. By the way, the caterers decorated his groom's cake with a Chicago Cubs logo. And they decorated the brides cake with the exact ribbon she had spent months looking for, but couldn't find.

CAST:

Caterers aka The Lifesavers: Draper's Catering of Memphis

The Baker: Wouldn't You Like To Know?

I told this story, not to fault my bride by any means for her choice of bakers. She wanted a product she had seen and tasted before and she loved it. I do tell this story to encourage all brides to hire vendors that perform their services as their primary source of income. Somehow, but not always, it makes a difference.

THE END