The last situation happened to my clients just three hours before they were supposed to cut their cake. Their three tiered wedding cake fell on the floor during delivery - all three tiers were damaged. At this time, the other vendors at the wedding looked at me and asked "What are you going to do now hot shot wedding planner?" After saying a couple of times a word that rhymes with duck, I pulled myself together and thought of several options. Here are some of the options I came up with:
1. Check with your pastry chef to see if they have other cakes they can provide you. If your wedding is on Saturday, they might be able to give you a cake they have prepared for a Sunday wedding. At this time, it is best on to be picky about flavors or style of cake. Assess what is more important to you - less than desirable cake or no cake.
2. See if your venue can help out. Likely they have a pastry chef that can wipe something up. If you are having your reception at a restaurant or golf course, this option should be the easiest for you. Once again you will have to assess the situation - $$$$ cake or no cake. (Some venues will likely not overcharge you for the cake.)
3. Call another cake company to see if they can help out. If your own cake company doesn't have a cake to spare, call another cake company. They might be able to help you out. In this case, if you have a wedding planner, he/she will likely call his/her peeps for an emergency cake call out. No worries. Leave it with your wedding planner.
4. Borrow a fake cake and buy a sheet cake from Costco. I only suggest this option if having a visually stunning cake is really important to you. If so, consider this option before your wedding and find out where you can rent a cake last minute.
5. Forget about the cake - likely your guests would not notice. If your guests do ask about a cake, either tell them that you didn't want a cake or ask them if they are still hungry. (Only do the latter to the guests you don't really like. But then again, why are they even at your wedding in the first place?)
For my clients, I went with option #1. I gave the cake company an extra five hours to come up with a cake. I told my clients that we were not going to cut the cake before the reception because we are running late and their guests are likely hungry. We will cut the cake after dinner reception. I didn't tell my clients until the day after to which the groom said: "I thought the cake flavor was different and not what I ordered!" All in all, it worked out.
Hope these suggestions help calm your nerves if you are worried about your missing wedding cake on your wedding day. Of course, I hope this doesn't happen to you!!
~Monica Hui
Owner, Lead Planner and Designer
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