I actually can’t believe Sylvia Weinstock called my cell phone!  Still getting over the shock as we speak.  I met Sylvia a few years ago at her studio and I remember tasting her buttercream at 8:00 am and just taking in the fact that I was meeting THE icon of our industry.  She is so warm and inviting, easy to talk and relate to, and I appreciated the time she took to meet with me so very much.  I recently saw Sylvia again in Las Vegas at Engage 09: The Encore and I was taken back by the fact that Sylvia and her husband sat in the audience like everyone else taking in everything Engage had to offer.  When I emailed requesting this interview, we received a response within a few hours and I just got off the phone with her this morning.  What a wonderful experience I get to share with all of you!  Enjoy the interview – I know I did immensely. ~ KP

KP: What is your favorite part of the wedding process?

SW: I enjoy meeting with the bride, discussing what she wants and what she doesn’t want.  Sometimes she brings in photos of cakes she has seen that she likes, sometimes we work off of the different aspects of her wedding design- the invitation, her wedding dress, the flowers, overall décor.

KP: What do you love most about your job in the wedding industry?

SW: I love meeting people.  I love sitting down for an appointment and learning about each couple and their wedding.  I love the creative process of designing our cakes based on their personality and décor.

KP: What is the biggest misconception about your industry?

SW: That we’re overpriced, which we’re not.  You are paying for the highest quality ingredients and most importantly an artist’s time and process.  Sometimes I’ll take a client to see the actual sugar flower creation process, so they understand that this is a very labor-intensive business.  A cake with 100 large roses each with 20 petals will take an entire week to make from scratch.

KP: How did you get into the wedding industry?

SW: I made very delicious cakes for family and friends and people thought I should sell them.  No one was being innovative when it came to beautiful cakes and we started the business of making beautiful and delicious cakes.  That was 1975.  I did some apprenticeships with some master pastry chefs as well.

KP: Tell me one wedding vendor other than in your industry you highly recommend?

SW: Giving you one name is like asking a mother to pick her favorite child! There are a number of wedding planners and florists that I recommend and work with often.  Harriette Rose Katz because she has been doing this a long time, she is detailed, knows food and wine, and she’s great at what she does.  Marcy Blum is also wonderful.  For florists, there’s Preston, David Beahm- he is such a sweet and down to earth person, Ed Libby, and Dejuan Stroud.  All of these people are amazing and are not divas at all.

KP: Tell me one wedding vendor in your industry you highly recommend and why?

SW: We keep our blindfolds on at all times.  We work within our own industry and keep ourselves as innovative as we can.  I feel that some people copy and do not create and we want to always be creating.

KP: Favorite wedding story- funny or serious.

SW: We’ve been fortunate and haven’t had any horror stories directly related to our staff, but we created a 1,000 person wedding cake for an Indian wedding once and after we left and signed off on the delivery someone decided to move the cake.  They forgot to lock the legs of the table and the entire cake toppled over.

KP: What other part of the industry would you not want to work in and why?

SW: I wouldn’t want to be a dishwasher.  Dishwashers are VERY important people, but I wouldn’t want to be a dishwasher.

KP: I wouldn’t want to deliver a wedding cake!

SW: There’s a lot of tension when delivering a wedding cake.  You are only in control of your vehicle and can’t control everyone else around you.  When we ship our cakes we only use Continental.  They take great care of us.  Our cakes are the last items put in cargo and the first ones off ☺

KP: What differentiates you from the rest of your industry peers?

SW: Our quality of ingredients.  We only work with butter cream, no fondant.  I don’t eat it so I won’t serve it. Our ingredients don’t allow our cakes to sit on a shelf for a week.  We are also original in terms of our designs.

I asked Sylvia for some other thoughts on our industry and here’s what she had to say…

KP: How many cakes do you create per week?

SW: Depends, anywhere from just a few to up to 20.

KP: What’s your minimum?

SW: We have a $500.00 minimum and that’s a dinner cake for 20-25 people

KP: Do you assemble your cakes on-site or in-house?

SW: If it’s a very ornate or large cake, we’ll assemble on-site.  Many of our cakes are pre-assembled in our studio.  We have a woodshop that helps construct the bases for our cake tiers.  It’s a whole production!

KP: How much do your cakes typically cost?

SW: Our cakes cost anywhere from $17-$20 per slice.
(KP: That is MUCH more reasonable than what I think the industry realizes!)

KP: As a wedding planner, do you have any advice for me?

SW: I think a lot of party planners don’t understand how to deal with venues properly.  You are on someone else’s turf and should tread quietly instead of making a lot of noise.  It is an honor for you to be working in an establishment and you should be there to help in any way.  This industry should be about team efforts.  I can remember stepping foot in a male kitchen for the first time.  Most kitchens were all male, and often times led by a French chef.  I said, “ I am so honored to be allowed to breathe your air,” and they were much nicer to me after that- even bent over a little bit backwards.

KP: Did the economy affect your business this year?

SW: Yes, of course it did.  Anyone who says they weren’t affected by the economy is lying to you.  We had lower guest counts, brides who wanted bargains.  They are not spending the way they used to and I don’t think they will ever spend the multi-millions they did before.  Hopefully this spring will be a bit better and by fall we will be closer to where we were in past seasons.  Destination weddings are also affecting our businesses because it’s easier to take 25 people to an island than to have a big expensive party.  We allow our clients to pick up their cakes a few days before their event if they have a walk in cooler they can store the cake in.  That will save them their delivery fee, which can be quite expensive.  Lots of our clients in Maryland and Pennsylvania choose to pick up themselves.  We box the cake and give them ice packs.  We would deliver it the same way, so why not let them do it and save a bit of money?

Sylvia asked me if brides in my area were spending a lot on their cakes and I said that they weren’t prioritizing cakes as much as food, music and photography.  This is what she had to say about that:

SW: I think that’s too bad.  The cake is the showstopper.  It’s the dessert.  You don’t need to spend $10 a person on a favor.  Their favor is being invited to your wedding.  The cake is the WOW factor.

my Kate Parker Wedding is your online wedding resource guide launching in January 2010 geared toward directing couples to quality vendors based on their price range and state.