W. DeBord and anyone else who was interested.......

[Anna W.]

My website is up but being tweeked.

www.grand-finale.com

We are trying to re-vamp the home page, we have gone through several graphics changes and still haven't come up with the right thing yet. It needs to be more inviting.

Any comments, suggestions, or ideas are welcome.
Anyone?

[panini]

It looks very good. I really like the flavor selection. I'd like more info on merengue buttercream.
wanna trade links. We get some inquiries from people having their recept. in Ohio. That's where you are, right?

[katbalou]

dear anna,
what beautiful work!! and the descriptions, i'm now so in need of a sugar- chocolate- butter fix. too bad i'm so far away!
kat

[Mezzaluna]

Gorgeous work, Anna! The site looks great.

[cape chef]

Anna,

Your work is terrific!!!

And your pricing is very reasonable.

[momoreg]

Great job on the site. It's very fast, the pictures are clear and easy to see, the cakes are very pretty, the flavors are out of this world (esp. the Bellini)-very interesting. You'll surely get more work than you inmagined. Thank you for sharing it with us!!

[W.DeBord]

Pooh............aol kicked me off and I lost my first rely!

First, It's just WONDERFUL, very clean and well thought out! Your chocolate roses cake just blows me away! I LOVE LOVE the fact that you took the time to cut out the backgrounds from your cakes!! It's very clean with no distractions, just cakes!!!!! BEAUTIFUL! Your discriptions are really well thought out and PERFECTLY written. Your selections tell me you clearly think about taste first. I might want to know alittle bit more about decorations....but I know you'll tell me at a consultation.

My over all reaction is it's nice and CLEAN, tells me your a real professional. If you had more photos I'd love to see them too.

It's not as if I've ever done a web site (so I know I couldn't do better), but as an artist there's a couple tips I hope you won't mind if I mention????? When I printed up your menus the right side of my page cuts off, phone number doesn't print (also I think I'd like to see it repeated some where else in addition to the top panel. (Maybe that's my computor?). Also when I scroll down to the bottom of your pages on my computor the decorative cakes get the top layer of each cut off, wierd huh?

Other MINOR, minor thoughts, tweaking stuff. I'd personally like a slightly bigger type face when I print your info. It's hard on older eyes.
You change up your different type faces according to what cake your showing. Some titles have capitals some don't...that technique would work better if your over all style was more casual. But since you have a very formal lay-out and over all type face I think I'd rather see a more consistant type face used through-out and instead more accenting with font sizes then styles and capitals. Hope that made sense...?

If you have any photos of your "other items" it would be cool if you had just a small photo next to each catagory.....I'd love to see you wedding cake cookies, etc...

It's a really clean classy site!!!! I'd be very very proud if I was you! I know you're going places Anna!

[W.DeBord]

P.S. THANK-YOU FOR SHARING......I knew you did great work! Your a real class act!

[Anna W.]

Thank you everyone for the nice words and the constructive criticism.

I think we've got the home page down pat. We're going to get rid of the background page with the repeating cakes. The phone number prints on my computer. Didn't try printing out the other stuff, didn't realize how tiny it was. The plan is to put my other "artful edibles" up there. Unfortunately, I am not as good at taking pictures as I am at making cakes. I have to bake a mess of them and then hire a professional photographer. None of my pics were good enough. Now...just have to find the time....but when? I asked my friend to create a professional, uncluttered site and I think, for the most part he has done it.

Panini- what do you want to know about meringue buttercream? I use IMBC on all my cakes except vegan (which I have only done twice).

[panini]

oh Anna, I'm sooo disappointed. I thought you would have some terrific merengue buttercream with your lemon to taste like lemon merengue pie. I really wanted to steal it

Pictures are tough. We always seem to shoot them before florist. Invested in a new digital which you can edit while there. Still come back with the tops cut off or shadows.
We do how ever encourage our client to use the whole cake and we trade them a 1 yr anniversary cake for pictures of their cakes. That was five years ago and our portfolios are busting at the seams and we have a great selection to choose from for our web site(which we don't do). We use our site as an on-line brochure. We did however change our cakes ofter 6 months from top shelf to average styles. The contemporary ones seem to intimidate the normal visitors. Many more hits with this format. Just 2 cents. Working on ours now, still want to trade links. We get this offer at least a couple of times a month. I either don't appreciate the quality of work or the person is flying under the radar. Your site is great. Do you have vegan info on there?

[kthull]

Anna, great site. Very inviting home page.

But I hate to be the one to report the typo in the first paragraph (the curse of my day job in the publishing field). "Competition" is mispelled.

Again, very nice site.

[momoreg]

Very cool idea with the anniversary cakes, panini!!

[KyleW]

WOW!

[Athenaeus]

Although my heart belongs to a specific chocolate rose...I must admit I 'd love to have your Chocolate Rose cake...
You are an artist and you know it!

Bravo!

[Isa]

WOW Anna your cakes are georgous.


Great website and good, clear pictures.