To have my cake and eat it too
Well. It's been a while.
A while back already, we had to postpone the wedding by 2 weeks. settling for October 29. After I initially booked the hall, I learned that 2/3 of our guest list had a previous commitment and would have been absent. Fortunately, it was not a problem with the hall.
Speaking of halls, many have an exclusivity contract with a specific caterer. This puts them on the caterer's priority list, thus being able to guarantee their clients that they will have a caterer. While convenient for them, it can be a sheer annoyance for the client when the caterer is overstepping his bounds.
I was made aware of this by Cindi, our very own Cake Boss who I entrusted with making our wedding cake. When I told her that our hall had an exclusivity contract with that specific caterer, she leaned back a bit and just said "Ah..." It's not hard to read into that, so I switched to Full Investigation Mode to find out what the problem was. Apparently, this caterer had thrown his weight around, telling customers that they could not have their cake made by someone else.
Problem is, this caterer doesn't do wedding cakes. Just individual cakes that he piles up in plates... That's not at all what we want.
Cindi didn't want to take my deposit (which is not refundable) until I made sure I could do business with her without having problems. She told me that she would save my date nonetheless (since it wasn't a last minute thing), to give me some time to clear up the situation with the caterer. To which I replied "Cindi? Mark my words... I will be doing business with you." I was adamant that this was an insulting and disrespectful practice and that I would either see it exposed or resolved. Or both.
Coming back home, I found a message on my voice box... from the caterer! Very convenient indeed: I called them back. I filed the missing information with a lady who took the call - she kept calling me Ms. Germain, even though I corrected her about 4 times during the short conversation... After completing this, I took the matter head on.
"I have been informed that you have an exclusivity contract at the hall I reserved. I heard you have a baker. Does your exclusivity contract apply to our wedding cake? Because if it does, I will need to know if your baker can make us the cake that we want. If not, well, we have a problem."
She said she'd check with her boss (I later learned "her boss" it is actually her husband) who had to go to Montreal then get back to me. She took my email address and two days later, she emailed me the answer. Amazingly enough, she still managed to address me as Ms. Germain even if my email address spells out my entire name... At this stage, I really didn't care, the email address she sent it to says it all. I printed the email and filed it in my wedding folder along with the contracts and other invoices.
"Greetings Ms. Germain,
You can choose the baker of your choosing for making your cakes. "
Problem solved. I called back Cindi and made the appointment with her for cake tasting and selection of model...
A while back already, we had to postpone the wedding by 2 weeks. settling for October 29. After I initially booked the hall, I learned that 2/3 of our guest list had a previous commitment and would have been absent. Fortunately, it was not a problem with the hall.
Speaking of halls, many have an exclusivity contract with a specific caterer. This puts them on the caterer's priority list, thus being able to guarantee their clients that they will have a caterer. While convenient for them, it can be a sheer annoyance for the client when the caterer is overstepping his bounds.
I was made aware of this by Cindi, our very own Cake Boss who I entrusted with making our wedding cake. When I told her that our hall had an exclusivity contract with that specific caterer, she leaned back a bit and just said "Ah..." It's not hard to read into that, so I switched to Full Investigation Mode to find out what the problem was. Apparently, this caterer had thrown his weight around, telling customers that they could not have their cake made by someone else.
Problem is, this caterer doesn't do wedding cakes. Just individual cakes that he piles up in plates... That's not at all what we want.
Cindi didn't want to take my deposit (which is not refundable) until I made sure I could do business with her without having problems. She told me that she would save my date nonetheless (since it wasn't a last minute thing), to give me some time to clear up the situation with the caterer. To which I replied "Cindi? Mark my words... I will be doing business with you." I was adamant that this was an insulting and disrespectful practice and that I would either see it exposed or resolved. Or both.
Coming back home, I found a message on my voice box... from the caterer! Very convenient indeed: I called them back. I filed the missing information with a lady who took the call - she kept calling me Ms. Germain, even though I corrected her about 4 times during the short conversation... After completing this, I took the matter head on.
"I have been informed that you have an exclusivity contract at the hall I reserved. I heard you have a baker. Does your exclusivity contract apply to our wedding cake? Because if it does, I will need to know if your baker can make us the cake that we want. If not, well, we have a problem."
She said she'd check with her boss (I later learned "her boss" it is actually her husband) who had to go to Montreal then get back to me. She took my email address and two days later, she emailed me the answer. Amazingly enough, she still managed to address me as Ms. Germain even if my email address spells out my entire name... At this stage, I really didn't care, the email address she sent it to says it all. I printed the email and filed it in my wedding folder along with the contracts and other invoices.
"Greetings Ms. Germain,
You can choose the baker of your choosing for making your cakes. "
Problem solved. I called back Cindi and made the appointment with her for cake tasting and selection of model...