Hi,
Sorry this is such a long post - feel free to skip
I have been lurking on the boards for years and have been reading every post on all the cake threads for weeks now.
After 28 trips this is my first time ordering a custom cake.
First I would like to thank everyone who has answered, posted or replied. I have learn so much from you all.
I think with everyone ordering a custom cake there is a story behind the cake, so as briefly as possible here is mine.
My husband & I have 3 kids, 2 boys & the "baby" is a girl. Now the baby will be 16 on 9/8 and the only thing she asked is to be in the Magic Kingdom when she turned 16. (so midnight on the 7th). Everyone else in the family has had at least 1 birthday in Disney. Somehow everything aligned and her birthday fell on Labor day weekend so only 1 day of school missed. Kamy attends a special program where she is on a college campus all day and does high school and college at the same time. Lot's of pressure & work. Missing a day is like missing a week. We will be leaving Friday night right after my middle's football game (senior) and taking Kamy & her 2 best friends.
The girls have a whole princess theme going on, Kamy's favorite is Ariel and we have Em as Cinderella & Sam as Auroa. We went all out so custom Disney cheer bows, monogram string backpacks and 2 rooms in the Little Mermaid section at AOA.
We started planning back in March and it was just going to be a 1 night quickie but in April my husband was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. (he had just turned 59) It worsened quickly and in May he had an emergency quad bypass. While being rolled into the operating room he coded and it was 6 minutes before they could get any heart beat back. He was placed on the bypass machine. A Dr. came to the waiting room and told me it was doubtful that his heart would restart and that I should call my kids and get them to the hospital to say goodbye (we live in Myrtle Beach and the surgery was at MUSC in Charleston SC about 2 hours away). At that moment everything in all of our lives changed forever.
Fast forward, we had a miracle and after 14 days in ICU and the greatest surgeon in the world we are back at the beach and living everyday to the fullest.
Now finally to the cake ... this is a HUGE splurge and really the only surprise for Kamy.
After reading everything I could and looking at every picture of Disney cakes possible 1 month to the day before our dinner at Ohana's I called Pat at the GF to place the order. Thanks to all the info on this thread I felt very prepared to make sure I would get the exact cake I wanted. I knew I had options and didn't have to accept a stock/standard cake.
The first call with Pat did not go as smoothly as it could have. She started with the 'No"s" No you cant have lemon flavored cake, no to the fresh raspberry filling, no to 2 white chocolate messages on the cake. I'm not going to lie it was at that moment I broke. Everything that I had held in for 5 months came out. I began to cry and asked her why she had to make this so difficult, my whole story came blubbering out, and I just sobbed. After a minute or so we both regained our composure and were able to work together. She took all of my requested asked me to mail pictures of the cakes I had seen that I liked and she would call me back soon.
Here is where I hope I can repay all that I learned here and maybe offer a small piece of advice. In my head I had this cake all designed and knew exactly what I wanted, or so I thought???? 10 inch lemon flavored cake with fresh raspberry filling, 3 princess figures on the cake, 2 white chocolate banners, lots of sparkle, LED light up feature, grown up looking & every single sea shell and creature possible.
Pat called and gave me everything I asked for - the quote $190.00! Ouch my budget was $120.00 so I knew I had to make some changes. So I finally started listening and turn loose some. Pat explained to me that what I was ordering was not going to look like what I really wanted, I wanted every cool beautiful element on every cake I had ever seen, I was on cake overload! She talked me off the ledge and below is what I ordered or our dinner at Ohana's on Saturday.
Cake - 10 inch lemon flavor
Filling - fresh strawberries in vanilla butter cream (raspberry's are not in season and may not look/taste good Pat helped me to understand that)
Topper - Ariel ornament that I had shipped to the GF ( I haven't see it so fingers crossed) they don't have access to many options for accessories on cakes the only thing Pat could work with was what was sold in the gift shop so plastic small figures which I would have needed 2 sets @ $20.00 each to get my 3 princesses.
LED - it will glow not sure how but it will ( this was important to me so Pat made it work)
Decorations - no clue it will just be a surprise
So what I learned and others may find helpful is - figure out what is really important to you, be flexible on the rest.
Just because something looked nice on one cake doesn't mean it will work for you.
And if you designed every element of your cake you may be limiting the imagination of the baker/decorator and missing out on some magic!
I will post pictures and an update when we get back. Pat called yesterday just to check in and she really is a sweetheart!
Thanks again for all the help I received here!
I asked why & she told me they don't have the rights to use certain imagines, like they can't use Pooh or Mary Poppins. I have to say, that's so crazy that Disney Cakes can not use certain Disney characters. If they don't own the rights to them, who does? And is it only cakes, they sell Pooh all over the parks. So confusing. I'm really hoping it doesn't actually take that long to hear back from them.
Thank you for taking the time to report on your experience.
