Not allowed bring our own wedding cake

Bally8

I'm about to book my reception/party with a hotel in Limerick. I have heard that you are not allowed bring your own wedding cake with you. You have to order your cake from a list of places approved by the hotel for traceability reasons.

Can they do this? I think its mad. My sister wants to bake our cake as a present and I really dont think they can make me buy a cake from their list.

I'll be meeting the events manager on Saturday and will ask her then. In the mean time I'm wondering if any one has heard of this before.

hunnymonster

I've not heard about this for the cake but I have heard of something similar where people wanted to get ice cream vans to come as a novelty at the reception.

sillysocks

I think that normally only refers to cakes that have fresh cream but coudl be wrong. I've heard of it in places, mainly because if they serve it and its off they can be held liable. I think normally fruit cakes are ok if thats what you're having but you'd have to check because some hotels are different!

Gillo

Never heard of it, but it does make sense when you think about it.

mikeanywhere

Bally8 wrote: »

You have to order your cake from a list of places approved by the hotel for traceability reasons.

To trace what exactly?? :rolleyes:

seamus

Freshness.

From the hotel's point of view - imagine they serve someone else's cake. It's covered in fresh cream and has been sitting covered on the sideboard in the bride's parents' kitchen for two days beforehand.

So they serve it, and the next day half of the wedding guests are violently ill. Bride is in tears because her wedding is a mess, and the guests are going nuts. There's no way to prove what part of the dinner made them ill, just that some part of it did. So the hotel are liable.

It's a tiny risk, but they have to protect themselves I guess. I'm sure most hotels would see reason though if you explained the situation to them.

BroomBurner

OP, it's nonsense. No hotel can impose their suppliers on you, it's anti-competition. As for the fresh cream thing, no wedding cake maker worth their salt will recommend using fresh cream, it causes problems for icing the cake afterwards. Sure what does fresh cream matter in the long run? Nothing, noone will be able to tell the difference anyway. Enjoy!

olaola

That's ridiculous! If they are that concerned, you can make a fake cake for the stand and keep the fresh one in the fridge until you are ready to eat it.

gagalina

Hey,

we were not allowed to bring in our own cake - as far as I can remember it had something to do with the place having a dance license or something like that... That was also the reason why we couldnt bring our own wine.

We needed the cake baker to be HSE certified and had to show the certificate when we delivered the cake to the hotel...

I guess I can understand it from their point of view - image if all the guests got food poisoning from the cake...

Gagalina

Gillo

BroomBurner wrote: »

OP, it's nonsense. No hotel can impose their suppliers on you, it's anti-competition.

Considering they are serving food, they can do pretty much what they want. They way I see it, hotels normally don't let you bring in your own mashed potato, beef, gravy etc, it's lucky that you are normally allowed to bring your own cake.

Bally8

Hey guys thanks for the responses. Just an update- I met with events manager in hotel on Saturday and she said there is no problem in bringing our own wedding cake. She was suprised I even asked the question. I am so relieved. It will save us a fortune as my sister is going to bake it for us as a present.