Wedding cupcake mishap AIBU bride wants full refund for me wrecking her big day?

[ilovepombears]

I run a home based cake making business a few months ago I had a request from a bride to make 100 black cupcakes for her wedding. She provided the wrappers and black food colouring paste and also black and white photo toppers of the couple as she asked it this would bring the costs down so I deducted this from the bill.

Today is her wedding day and there seems to be a massive miscommunication somewhere along the lines.
Friday I baked all 100 cupcakes and whilst I was waiting for them to cool I text her and asked if she was sure she wanted them all black buttercream or if she would prefer black and white or black and grey. She texted back and said 50 black 50 grey would be ace. I then had another text asking where the buttercream was going. This should of really set off alarm bells. I told her the buttercream would be going on top of each cupcake. No further response.

As the wedding is out of town she came to collect them yesterday. They looked stunning and really complimented her wedding theme. She seemed a bit off when collecting but said she liked them.

Two hours later I receive a text from her saying how dissapointed she is with the cakes and how they are not as disscused as the cakes are white.

I didn't understand where she was coming from so I tried to call but she didn't answer then text to say I have wrecked her wedding.

After a while of toing and froing it transpires what the bride in her head has ordered is 50 black and 50 grey sponge cupcakes as in no buttercream frosting. Where I was suppose to put the picture toppers is still a mystery.

She has seen hundreds of images of my work and I have never produced a nude cupcake. Always have frosting on them.

She has not given me time to rectify the issue. Not that I would as I am not having my name associated with what she thinks she has ordered. Not would I let black sponges out to be eaten as they will taste horrendous but they have so much colour in them can you imagine the additives.

She is now asking for a full refund as I have "screwed up her order" what do I do? I'm my head she has received what she has ordered.

If you guys ordered a black & grey cupcake how would you interoperate that? What she thinks or what I have made her.

Ok all through the thread I was thinking that your order form needs to be more specific. I had instantly thought black sponge when you wrote your OP and like another poster, I had assumed the point of the complaint would be that they were grey not black.

However, after seeing your past post, and that she signed off on the content, I think the best you can do is a letter confirming that you provided what she ordered and you understand she isn't happy with that order and you hope that she managed to enjoy the rest of her day.
Don't do an anniversary cake free of charge.

Alo how am I as a customer supposed to say right I want a vanilla flavoured cake, that is egg free and that os black and orange?

I've never had a wedding so I don't really know what I'm talking about but can slightly different cup cakes to the ones you've ordered really wreck your wedding??! I'd be concerned about whether or not I should be actually getting married if something as minor as this would wreck my day. I could understand it if you'd rubbed the cup cakes into her face, that may well put a bit of a downer on things, but to provide cakes similar to what she wanted but just with the black being in a slightly different place, that is insanity.

Black cakes sound revolting anyway

I think you need to make a section on your form for spong colour.

I would agree with adding sponge colour in future but vanilla sponge with no extra details written is sponge coloured, not anything else. Same as if I ordered chocolate sponge I'd expect brown unless I asked for white in white case it would say white chocolate. It also states black buttercream so she can't really say she wasn't wanting buttercream.

She was already trying to cut costs by supplying ingredients to you. I think she's trying it on to get a complete freebie.

Think it was miscommunication from both sides.
How did you not have a conversation with her about it though or did you just assume she was talking about the colour of the buttercream?
From your op i would think the bride was talking about the colour of the sponges too.
Think i'd offer partial refund for goodwill as think you really should have checked these details.
Different coloured cupcakes really are not anything new now.

The bride is demanding a full refund because, she claims, the OP has "wrecked her wedding" by providing attractive, edible cakes which the bride thinks do not meet her specification.

By saying these cakes have "wrecked her wedding" and she thus wants a full refund, I think there are three possible scenarios.

1. The bride is lying, or hugely exaggerating, because she is a chancer who thinks she might be able to get her wedding cakes for free.

1. The bride is not lying or exaggerating, and is actually going to throw the cakes away because they are so awful (and she is such a nightmare) and therefore she will have no cake at her wedding.

1. The bride is not lying or exaggerating and has told everyone that she is having black wedding cakes - "won't mine be the coolest wedding ever?!" - and thinks that everyone will sneer at her because they are not the way she has bored them shitless about told them they would be. She thinks she should get her money back so she can tell everyone you screwed up so badly you've given her a full refund.

I've never had a wedding so I don't really know what I'm talking about but can slightly different cup cakes to the ones you've ordered really wreck your wedding??! I'd be concerned about whether or not I should be actually getting married if something as minor as this would wreck my day. I could understand it if you'd rubbed the cup cakes into her face, that may well put a bit of a downer on things, but to provide cakes similar to what she wanted but just with the black being in a slightly different place, that is insanity.

They won't wreck your wedding if you're getting married for the right reasons. No wedding goes 100% according to plan, it's a big event with a lot of different companies to coordinate with, there will be something that messes up. It's just part of planning a big event. Of all the weddings I've attended, I can't think of one that didn't have something that was messed up and the bride (and sometimes groom) had to frantically fix last minute.

But also remember that weddings are incredibly stressful on brides with an expectation they need to be absolutely perfect and that this will be the best day of their life. It is not surprising that a small mistake could trigger a pre-wedding melt down after a year of intense planning, navigating tricky family politics, and figuring out your budget of what you can do with the money you have. If it wasn't the cupcakes, it would be something else.

So, it's not that the wedding is ruined, it's just all the stress building up and making a little deal a huge deal. The bride will calm down and at the end of the wedding, I can promise she'll look back at the wedding and think it was a great day.

Those who are saying the cakes should be returned are BVU.

Was the bride meant to whip them off everyone at her wedding ffs?

Don't be so stupid.

The op got the order wrong,that is her fault and she had to learn from that!

From your update on page 4, YADNBU. She said vanilla, she did not add further details, she specified buttercream. She's gone mad.

What a mix up, for both of you. But now your form does need an extra line - sponge colour, like you have for the buttercream.

Those who are saying the cakes should be returned are BVU.

Not really. The bride saw the cupcakes in the store. She had every chance to say "No these aren't what I ordered" and rectified the situation. Instead she said they were fine and walked off with them.

Now after they are all eaten, they were horrible and she wants a refund. How very convenient.

She's trying to get free cupcakes.

I reckon she picked them up, took them home and her mum/best friend/husband to be took one look at them and said 'oh I thought you were having them like such and such' and made her doubt her original decision. So she's panicked and made out that what she got was not what she wanted to save face at her end.

Stupid cow. Her wedding decor and 'design' sounds pretty foul. I'd politely tell her where to go.

TripTrap- but the bride signed a contract with specific details, which the OP completed accurately. The OPs post ^^ states that bride agreed to vanilla sponge with black buttercream ,which is what she got.

The bride is now claiming the wrong coloured sponge "wrecked her day" (lunatic!) - probably in the hope that she can get some money off the OP for a honeymoon.

She is probably going to claim injury to sponge colour preferences so she can pay off the post wedding overdraft, or the divorce solicitor when the groom sees sense. (Help! My bride spent our wedding day complaining the sponge wasn't black. What the hell have I done?)

I think you have not been clear enough, from your description in your OP I was imagining black sponge cake, with a small amount of flat icing to stick a flat cake topper on. Likewise for the grey ones. I actually had to read your OP several times before it dawned on me how you had interpreted it and what you had done. Not obvious at all, and given that it's her wedding I can understand why she was gutted.

Seeing now the written details, I still think there's a hell of a lot of potential for her to read it and still think it fits with what she thinks she ordered. Vanilla flavoured things can be coloured black, as google,clearly shows. A tiny amount of buttercream can be used to stick a topper on, it doesn't have to be a big swirl.

I think you need to come to an arrangement with her, apologise for the misunderstanding, and learn from this that what the client has in their head my be very different than what you view as 'nice'. Your descriptions need to be much clearer.

Mis communcation but i still wouldnt refund her

No bulbasaur she wouldn't have seen the colour of the sponge when she picked them up.

They were not what she ordered (vanilla is not a colour!) she specified black cupcakes and got white ones with black icing

Whether people eat them or not makes no difference.A mistake was made and it should not be brushed under the carpet,if it were then so-called professionals could make mistakes over and over again because they can get away with it.It is a lesson to the op and all others out there.

I don't know much about cakes but read it the same as Nerf actually - thought black sponge and grey sponge and then when you said about black and grey buttercream thought that that was going on each one respectively.

I'm thinking of that red velvet cake - that is dark red. I don't think it tastes nice but I'm no gauge really.

How much is your reputation worth to you, OP? For the future, I would definitely take some pictures of your work and be explicit about colour because this one was wide open to interpretation, I think.

No bulbasaur she wouldn't have seen the colour of the sponge when she picked them up.

No, but she would have seen there was buttercream frosting on them that she apparently didn't want.

Given that the buttercream colour says black (& then she didn't even seem to know she had buttercream) then I'd offer 10% as a goodwill gesture (providing you'll still have some profit). Or nothing.

I run my own business as well & have discovered that some business really isn't worth the hassle.

It depends a bit on how much work you have though. In early days I felt I had to accept all work no matter how unreadonable the expectations. Now I'm flooded with work & will refuse to take on some clients.

Are the cakes eaten?
She can't have a refund if she used the cakes.

I think, regardless of the mistake in either her description or your interpretation, you have to do something to appease her. With social media in particular she could do serious damage to your business if she is motivated enough. If you are a one woman band then you cannot afford to piss people off as much as a larger chain could.

It can stick in your throat, particularly if you feel you are in the right, but you just have to take it. Unless you have a huge national advertising budget, or a vast catchment area, you are relying on word of mouth for repeat business.

Don't cut off your nose to spite your face.

If she'd come to pick them up and gone "oh sorry that's not what I ordered" I have sympathy for the misunderstanding - but she did not and I think that she paid and left wih the cakes and that constitutes acceptance of the order