I have been saying 'show behind the scenes' now for a long time and sadly it was bought to my attention yesterday yet another very public comment on a UK TV show, Loose Women, saying 'well we all know when wedding is mentioned the cake price triples'.
I do feel there should be a public apology to everyone working so hard within the wedding industry, but especially to all the cake makers and designers who constantly have to work out a reasonable mark up on their beautiful creations in order to stay in business.
Whilst I am not shaming it is disappointing that such a flippant comment was made on a show that is all about women supporting women which makes up the majority of cake designers.
What it takes to run a Creative Business
All cake makers are creatives, making a living as a creative is very hands on so factoring in the time spent, the cost of the ingredients and tools, the skill sets they have acquired, the packaging and transport.
Then let's take a look at their actual business costs.
Premises, health and safety certificates, insurance, internet, phone, website.
I could carry on listing everything single cost to run a small business but for creatives dealing with clients it isn't a matter of tripling the prices as soon as the word 'wedding' is mentioned.
The admin involved, the service they are providing, consultations, design skills, cake tastings and the knowledge they have to be able to safely transport and set up a cake.
Yes you could and buy a generic cake and have this at your wedding but for many this isn't their dream.
Many have closed and decided it wasn't profitable enough or the hours worked were overwhelming and if no couple could ever buy a wedding cake of their dreams I couldn't think of anything sadder.
Meeting Clients Expectations
Clients want a beautiful wedding, it is they who decide what they wish to spend their wedding budget on.
I have had clients who just want flowers everywhere as they adore them yet not want a cake.
Flowers not their thing but lighting and candles everywhere and a high level of catering.
Regardless of what clients decide to spend their money on it is the suppliers who will create their dream day. It is a highly pressurised industry to work in meeting expectations and ensuring nothing goes wrong.
We have watched in horror the wedding mishaps on You Tube as they are thankfully rare and who is it that makes sure the these fails are minimised, the wedding industry.
Share behind the Scenes at your Weddings
Too often businesses don't want to share behind the scenes, they just want to share picture perfect weddings for fear of showing the very unglamorous side of the wedding industry.
The late nights, early mornings, loading and reloading, cleaning up, traffic jams.
But again seeing such a throwaway comment affecting so many cake designers it is up to the wedding industry to fight back and tell it how it really is.
Of course we will continue to show the final results as we are skilled and delighted with our work.
Honestly I couldn't tell you how many times I have averted disasters and how hard I have worked when the unexpected has arisen.
One that springs to mind is being evacuated in one of the biggest fire on the Costa Del Sol and having to quickly load 5 weddings into the van whilst ash was raining down on us.
Remembering also to grab our evacuate kits, make up and hair brush as wasn't sure I would be going home and had to look the part, passports, chargers, laptops, dogs all at 3am in the morning.
Even if I didn't come home to a house my priority was to get the weddings done.
You don't need to share anything quite so dramatic but I am sure you have a lot of content you could create of behind the scenes not just for social media but to blog and write about too.
Make the wedding industry real and then people will stop assuming prices are higher because the word 'wedding' was mentioned, they are higher because of many factors.
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