A fly on the wall.

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I recently came across the funniest post….

It was all about a wedding that cost 20k (dollars) but the guests had to essentially pay for their own food and drink. The thing was they didn't know this fact until they arrived. And since they will have had to buy a nice gift for the couple, needless to say, the guests were not happy….

They had been asked to a four-day wedding at an all-inclusive venue. They all paid for their flights and paid for their bed and full board. The wedding food was taken from the restaurant, where the wedding guests had already paid to dine. Basically, the guests paid for their wedding food!

And it just got worse from there. The bride had ordered a cake. This was a three-tier design and was ALL dummy cake. Not one slice was edible!

So, the guests never even got a complimentary slice of cake. There was no cutting cake hidden in the kitchen.

Now there's a couple who didn't want their guests to feel comfortable, appreciated and loved! (I'm willing to bet that the guests were never treated to a free drink either!)

Of course, the story continued that this "mean" wedding day had been a running joke to all who witnessed it.

There clearly must have been a cake decorator involved. This decorator had been asked to create a completely inedible just-for-show cake.

I would love to have been a fly on the wall witnessing that conversation!

Did the decorator try to persuade the couple to have anything edible at all? Did she ever discuss a price and a design that provided cake for all the guests? Or did she just make what was requested - a dummy cake minus anything edible without question? Did the guests even get a dessert at the wedding breakfast, which they had already paid for?

As cake designers and professionals, we are expected to give advice and impart our best solutions to our customers.

For the price of a dummy three-tier cake and the labour that design took, it’s more than likely an edible cake could have been made, in a simpler design. But were these options ever even discussed?

The decorator would just have needed to know and be aware of her pricing, design and length of time from start to completion. She could have advised them differently with varying options.

And that's where she might have been caught out. Not knowing the differences in price, time to complete and varying designs for a price that might be possible. And maybe options were discussed. It just seems odd that a professional was happy to sell a completely inedible cake….

The question is - would it have been better to have zero wedding cake as a centre piece and not annoy the assembled guests on this occasion? Why pretend to cut a dummy cake as part of the wedding breakfast?

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I believe that these funds get muddled up, because of the uncertainty of just how to clearly ring fence funds.  Not keeping records and winging it with the bank accounts, often running into expensive overdrafts and interest payments.  This then it feels like a vicious circle.

There are banks which allow you to put funds into "buckets" which means you can release the funds at an appropriate time.  The result of this strategy is to never feeling like you are "working for nothing".  (UK Starling Bank or Monzo as an example).

I've always worked on the principle to endeavour to try to never pay interest to a bank.  (Mortgage excepted)   

Earning money from your business should not be a hand-to-mouth strategy, but should be really aiding an enhanced way of life to compensate you for your hard work.  But you have to get organised and be aware of your income as well as spending too.

So, my tip for today is - could you get more organised with your money? And enjoy the knowledge that you have been paid in full and that you have those funds safely ringfenced for that order?