Congratulations on getting engaged! Now the fun starts; planning the wedding. You may already know which baker you are going to hire for your wedding cake because you have been following this baker on Instagram for a while and absolutely love the cakes. Or you have a favorite local baker who has already made you other event cakes and love their work, or you have a family member who owns a wedding cake business and they are excited to make your wedding cake. Regardless, the wedding cake baker choice can be checked off your wedding to-do list.
Now for the venue. You are so excited that you and your fiancé have chosen a beautiful place to have your wedding and reception. It is a fairy tale come true. You visited their website and scrolled through all of the beautiful photos and have an idea of what they are about so you scheduled a tour of the venue. Maybe you hired a wedding planner to take care of scheduling everything for you so they visit the venue with you. After you and your soon-to-be-spouse toured the building and rooms, you sit down with them to sign your contract. Only now you find out that your special baker that you have chosen (and maybe put down a deposit already on your cake) cannot make your wedding cake because the venue does not allow outside food including the wedding cake. YOU ARE CRUSHED! What now?!
Let's start out with some of the reasons why a venue would have a "no outside wedding cakes" policy.
The venue has an in-house baker or caterer who makes the wedding cakes. The issue with this is that many in-house bakers have particular wedding cake designs for you to choose from, which are typically very basic and traditional designs. You really wanted a wedding cake that is artistic and unique but now you may have to settle for forgettable and ordinary. This limits your if you dream wedding cake baker created a very artistic design for you and the in-house baker is not skilled in that manner.
Another reason is that this could be a liability matter. What if someone gets sick from your baker's cake? It's on their property and they allowed the cake so they could get sued as well as the baker.
The venue has a contract with a particular baker for all of their wedding cakes. This is different than a "preferred baker". The preferred baker is typically one of a few bakers they have on a list to "suggest" for you as a recommendation.
Of course, it could be a simple reason as they prefer to be an all-inclusive venue to create more revenue since they can charge more because they are offering additional services such as wedding cakes.
Now let's talk about how we can possibly turn this sticky situation around. Obviously, the first question you may have for the venue is why they have this policy. Once you understand the why, then you can go from there.
If the reason is that the Department of Health requires a licensed baker for the wedding cake, easy fix. Have your wedding cake baker submit a Certificate of Insurance to the venue. This is proof of liability insurance the baker. The baker can get this certificate from her business insurance company. Most venues unless they are churches or smaller event halls will require the outside baker to present the Certificate of Insurance anyway as a requirement. Now if you were planning on having a relative or friend bake your wedding cake, this can be an issue. Many venues require the wedding cake come from a licensed and insured business. Home-based bakeries are legally required to follow these rules also.
If say, a family member or friend is making your wedding cake as a gift to you as the marrying couple, they obviously won't have insurance. The venue may allow you to sign a separate contract and have it notarized stating they are released from any responsibility for any damages caused by the wedding cake should anything happen, such as an illness from the cake. I'm not a lawyer so I do not know how this would hold up in court. You may need legal advice for this issue.
Explain to the venue that your chosen baker creates out-of-the-box styles for wedding cakes and uses very artistic techniques. You have a wedding cake style in mind that their in-house baker may not have experience in making. They may allow you to have your outside baker come in for a fee. It is not uncommon to be charged a "cakeage fee" which is a per person cake cutting and serving fee. This is used as a disguise to push for you to use their in-house baker to avoid the extra fee. The fees can range anywhere from $1-$5 per person.
If the venue does not have a cakeage fee, you can also negotiate someone else cutting the cake. Maybe your outside baker will offer that service and add that to the price of the cake. As long as they are insured and provide a certificate of insurance to the venue, this is not a liability issue.
After all negotiations are done and the venue will not budge in allowing you to bring an outside wedding cake into their venue, it may be time to re-think the venue that you chose; or worse yet make you choose between your venue and your baker. If your venue is so strict about the wedding cake, they may have other policies that are strictly adhered to and not negotiable so you want to review the contract very carefully before signing.
This is a good time to think about hiring a wedding planner because they can do all of this research and planning for you. You don't need the added stress of battling with the venues.
Design My Cake by Patty is a licensed, inspected and insured wedding cake business. We are readily available to submit a Certificate of Insurance to the venue of your choice for their record of file.
I hope this helps you with information to go forward to being assured your outside wedding cake is welcome at your venue.
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