Great Goodbyes

As some of you know, two of my dear friends got new jobs and are leaving where we all worked together for bigger and better jobs. Topped off my our old director leaving about a month ago, that brings our 4 person department down to 1 - Me. So, I've been besides myself crazy. But alas, that's for a different post.

These two friends decided to take me out to brunch this morning for an "office wedding celebration" minus the office. While we celebrated their departure yesterday in the office with a pizza party and milkshakes, this kind of acted as a last goodbye, as I wont see them for a few weeks.

We met at a local restaurant known for its AMAZING breakfast food.

As we dined on the patio we talked about new endeavors and wedding plans - they presented me

with a card and my first set ever of SILLY BANDZ - the princess set :D

After a yummy meal, we walked over to a local ice cream and sweets place (Grahams).

Now, I was told that we were going there because one of the girls cousins worked there (which they do) but when I walked in I was greeted by two presents (easily identified for any Bride-to-Be as Bed Bath & Beyond's silver & purple wrapping) and a beautiful PINK gift bag, marking this trip to Grahams as a little impromptu shower!

We ordered a round of chocolate fondue, talked, and played a little trivia game called COFFEE SMARTS (super cute gift for your favorite barista, btw!) In between I had the chance to unwrap a new coffee machine, a bag of Starbuck's Breakfast Blend, 3 bottles of Sugar Free Syrup (which is awesome because S.F. Syrups make my diabetic-friendly coffee addiction possible), and two adorable coffee cups. Funny enough, the coffee cups were from one of the sets of plates KJ and I discussed early on: the Misto collection from Bed, Bath and Beyond! The girls didn't even know these mugs were our favorite coffee cups ever when we were looking for dishes - such a small, and happy, world!

The gifts were great because much coffee will be needed to keep me productive at work in the next few weeks. I am lucky to have worked with such fantastic people (who will both be at the wedding) and even luckier to be able to celebrate with them both!

Thanks for the GREAT morning, ladies!

Marketing Department (plus 'Little H', 2nd from left) at our last event of the season!

The Butcher, the baker, and the... Bridezila!

This past weekend my mom had come out to our apartment to watch our dog. KJ and I were heading to Michigan for his cousin, HJ & his new wife, Michelle's, wedding reception. Before we took off for MI, my mom and I went to order the cake for one of the showers.

Now, WHY are you, the bride, ordering a cake for one of your showers?

Before you send the etiquette police after me for ordering my own cake, let me explain.

There is this awesome thing called Geneva Bride. Basically, a bunch of Geneva shops got together and said "hey, we have what every bride needs and wants, all within 4 blocks from each other". So they formed a little business group. Twice a year, Geneva Bride has a Wedding Walk where you can get a ton on vendor information all in one stop. It's pretty sweet. Plus, you can enter in a bunch of raffles (including a 7-day honeymoon in Aruba) given by a local travel company. During one of the two Geneva Bride Wedding Walks I've been too I was lucky enough to win a gift certificate to a local bakery for a smaller cake good for a party or shower.

I was pretty excited. The Cocoa Bean has desserts and pastries to die for! When one of my co-workers got married last year, we ordered her shower cake from Cocoa Bean because you really can't beat them.

Now, back to this weekend. My mom happened to be in town and we had a little bit of time, so I grabbed the gift certificate and we headed out to order the cake.

The gift certificate suggested you order at least a week in advance, and we were three weeks out, so no problems there. My mom and I had talked briefly about what we would like the cake to look like, something simple and elegant. One layer, round, and hopefully, maybe a really pretty peony or fake e-ring on top.

When we got to the bakery, we told them we wanted to order a cake and the cashier said he would grab the chef. The chef came out, and we explained we had this gift certificate, and would like to order the cake. He kind of just looked at me, and said "ok".

Awkwardly, I grabbed my phone and flipped to 2 pictures my mom and I had found earlier. When I told him what I was looking for (round cake, flower on the top) he said "no. we don't do that". It just so happened I was standing next to a cake with a flower on top of it and asked about the flower (which btw, check out their website, every cake pictured has flowers on them). He said "no, we don't do that", crossed his arms, and stood there.

Now, I'm not expecting everything to be simple. And I'm a fairly easy person and understand "compromise" and "meet in the middle"... but when you just stand there and tell me "no" - well, what am I supposed to do?

Obviously, not making any suggestion on what they can do for me was his way of telling me to bugger off. So I did. I left said, "Well obviously we'll have to think of something else" and vowed to never go back there again. Personal vendetta, slightly, but definitely not over rated.

Now, as I mentioned, I was part of ordering a cake from there before, and they were totally willing to work with the theme that we had in mind for the work-shower that was thrown. So, why were they so obtrusive this time?

Well, honestly, I think it was because I had a gift certificate. Because there was no money in it for them. I wear a lot of hats at work, and one that I wear frequently is my smiley, Rose-colored glasses, customer service hat. If a patron has even the slightest issue we try to resolve it for them because where I work, patron loyalty is probably one of the biggest things that keep us going.

I really didn't appreciate being treated like that. Having bad experiences can suck the "joy" out of a wedding within seconds.

For all you brides out there, besides getting "viral" about your experiences (blogs, fb, vendor reviews) what else can you do to punish poor vendors? It may be trivial, but I really don't like people being a flat out jerk to me either.