I can't believe this vendor!

Ok ladies.... I am in need of some new places to look for a cake.
So, the place we are getting married has a couple of bakeries where we get a 'credit' towards a cake. FH and I called one of the bakeries in advance to set-up an appointment for a tasting.The person on the other end of the line said, 'They [the designer(s)] don't usually meet with the bride/groom. All you have to do is pick out a design from our book at your reception location and your banquet manager will forward us the cake you want'. What if I don't want one of the standard cakes they have to choose from? What if I wanted to change the outside (buttercream or fondant?) What if we wanted a different cake flavor other than chocolate or vanilla sponge, we couldn't get that?
When I looked at the vendor's website, they detailed how the bride and groom should place their cake order either online or through the banquet manager. I thought, 'through our banquet manager? Are you serious?' We are about to put a relatively large detail of the wedding in the hands of the BM, someone other than the bakery and *hope* it comes out alright??? Here I thought a baker or cake designer would be working with us.
Well, we were able to 'order' samples, for which they charged us. Yep- $5 for the samples! We received 3 small slices with different fillings. I was a bit shocked considering other bakeries have allowed us entire slices free of charge. it was time for us to pick up our samples from this bakery, no one told us which sample flavors we were getting. When I asked, the girl behind the counter shrugged her shoulders, and said, 'I don't know.' There was no baker around, no cake designer, no one I could ask for any clarification as to what I was getting.
We tasted the samples....two were actually good- though I don't know which flavors they are.
I really wish this bakery was not one of the options we had to choose from.
So, I really don't know what other bakeries I should check out. Any suggestions?

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Posted by MrsSx2

Dortoni!!!

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I second that... they're pretty amazing!

I think I know what bakery you are talking about and I went through the same thing. My RH had other bakery choices and I used another bakery.
My cake came from Black Forest in Lindenhurst and I loved it.

We used a house bakery - it was Audrey's Bakery. They are amazing. We didnt meet with the cake designer though and I did change some things on one of the cakes .. They nailed it!

I highly recommend this bakery ... their cakes are SO good!!

Good luck!

the house bakery at my RH was dortoni. We never met with them before the wedding. We were instructed to send a picture of a cake we loved and they would replicate it. If we wanted changes to the picture, to tell them. We went to Dortoni a few months before the wedding, ordered every cupcake in the store to create our own cake tasting, and then let them know which flavor we wanted.

All of our communication with the bakery was through the RH.
Our cake not only looked incredible, it was delicious.

I don't think it is strange, I told my BM the cake that I wanted and gave her pictures - we went back and forth a bunch of times over the phone and with email and I got the cake of my dreams - It was 150% what I wanted - I never went for a cake tasting either, I picked out the flavors at my menu tasting.. . . . and people were raving about my cake!! It was soooooooo yummie and looked amazing.

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Posted by mariedsgn

I don't think it is strange, I told my BM the cake that I wanted and gave her pictures - we went back and forth a bunch of times over the phone and with email and I got the cake of my dreams - It was 150% what I wanted - I never went for a cake tasting either, I picked out the flavors at my menu tasting.. . . . and people were raving about my cake!! It was soooooooo yummie and looked amazing.

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ita.....we had plenty of options at the RH to pick out the cake, like whether or not we wanted fondant, about 20 different types of cake. Basically, whatever I wanted I was able to get. I did buy a cake from the bakery for a birthday just to get an idea of taste. Anyway, we essentially picked a cake out of a book and made a few small changes and everything was fine.

That's ridiculous! I would recommend:

La Bonne Boulangerie (on Northern Blvd.).. the chocolate cake with vanilla mousse is absolutely amazing and I absolutely recommend trying it. People were not happy at my engagement party when that ran out!

Buttercooky in Floral Park on Jericho Terrace has always been super yummy. They expanded at some point and now have some crazy cakes!

Franceso's in Hicksville... the cookies/danishes are good. I hear the cake is amazing also and that it's definitely worth checking out.

I am going to contact a few of those bakeries. I really appreciate the suggestions. I read that one of you had a similar experience.

I wonder if I don't use a house baker- could I use them for edible favors instead of a cake? I mean, if I already have a credit towards their bakery I might as well incorporate them somehow if not for a cake. What do you all think of this idea?

I say, go to another bakery. That is horrible business practices!!!!!!

We had a tasting at Bonne Boulangerie which as an FYI is the sister store of Dortoni so youre definitely getting quality. As an FYI, the prices at Dortoni are cheaper so you may want to consider them and truly the same cake.

Im not sure who you went to that you had a bad experience but we are in the 'cake shopping' stage and am having serious issues with one bakery. We may forget them altogether! FM me for more info!

We had the EXACT same experience with The Venetian Yacht Club's house baker...hmmm, let me guess, was it a bakery in Port Jeff?

Well DH & I were annoyed with the treatment, but when we had our tasting, we were like HELL NO, so we just supplied our own cake from DORTONI bakery in Levittown....they are INCREDIBLE and the decorating lady is really really nice! Yes, we paid for our own wedding cake but it was TOTALLY worth it, b/c it really is something you're going to remember.

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Posted by HurricaneGirl

We had the EXACT same experience with The Venetian Yacht Club's house baker...hmmm, let me guess, was it a bakery in Port Jeff?

Well DH & I were annoyed with the treatment, but when we had our tasting, we were like HELL NO, so we just supplied our own cake from DORTONI bakery in Levittown....they are INCREDIBLE and the decorating lady is really really nice! Yes, we paid for our own wedding cake but it was TOTALLY worth it, b/c it really is something you're going to remember.

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You guessed it! DH thinks if HE calls them, then they'll meet with us

Update: We met with La Bon Boulangerie- We have a large wedding 275-300 ppl. We need a big cake. They wanted a lot for the cake. They weren't going to make a 275 person cake, but rather a cake to feed 150 person plus a 'kitchen cake' = a lot/ quote was well over what I expected and we weren't going to get a cake to feed 275 people. ugh.