‘Shameless’ Binky Felstead is hit by MORE freebie claims as she is called out by an illustrator for asking for complimentary wedding invites and stationery for her 2022 Greek nuptials

Binky Felstead has been hit by claims she asked an illustrator for free wedding invites and stationery, days after a baker exposed the Made In Chelsea star for requesting a complimentary birthday cake. 

Last week, Reshmi Bennett, 42, who owns luxury cake business Anges de Sucre in London, took to social media to claim Binky’s team had requested she make her son Wilder’s third birthday cake in exchange for an Instagram post. 

Now illustrator Alice Peto has claimed she was contacted by a member of the MIC star’s team in the lead-up to Binky’s lavish 2022 wedding. 

One year on from their civil ceremony at Chelsea’s Old Town Hall, Binky and her husband Max Darnton hosted a huge celebration on the Greek island of Corfu.

Alice shared a screenshot of a 2021 email which read: ‘Thank you so much for your interest in assisting with the illustration for Binky and Max’s wedding invites.’

‘The wedding is in Greece and we would be looking for three invitations plus menus, table names and place names. The couple would be looking for the design free of charge in exchange for exposure on their social media accounts.’ 

‘It would be brilliant to understand your style a little better so if you could share any examples of your work that would be brilliant.’

Alice shared a shot of her brief response, in which she wrote: ‘Thanks so much, I’ve been illustrating for 20 years and I’m one of the in-house illustrators for [redacted], so sadly I just can’t do it for free. What fun though, I bet you find someone brilliant. Very best, Alice.’

London-based Alice has had her watercolours featured in the likes of House & Garden Magazine alongside commisions from Harrods and Selfridges.

Alice’s claims follow a now viral post shared on Instagram on Thursday, from baker Reshmi, who shared a collection of screenshots showing exchanges between herself and Binky’s team where she was asked for a free bespoke birthday cake and offered ‘exposure’ as the only form of payment. 

Reshmi has previously hit headlines over her fury at influencers requesting free cakes and her social media is full of posts from the baker making it clear she does not accept ‘exposure’ as payment.

But it seems her message was missed by Binky – whose personal assistant asked Reshmi to make a cake for her youngest son Wilder’s third birthday. 

Taking to Instagram on Thursday, Reshmi shared a collection of screenshots showing Binky’s team requesting a ‘gifted’ yellow train cake with an ‘Instagram post collaboration’ in return.

Reshmi went as far as to make a spoof GoFundMe page asking for donations of £1.4million for the cake – in reference to celebrity Binky’s huge online follower count. She is also thought to have a net worth of £1.4million.

Initially when Reshmi shared the screenshots she had redacted Binky’s name from the emails – but ultimately named the star in a later post. 

A representative for Binky told the Daily Mail: ‘This was a standard contra enquiry from Binky’s PA, offering social media exposure in exchange for a birthday cake.

‘Binky was not directly involved in these email exchanges, and is currently away on a family holiday. We completely understand that this type of collaboration is not for everyone and respect the decision to decline. 

‘It is, however, disappointing to see a private and friendly enquiry shared publicly, and contra deals like this are widely used within this industry and usually mutually beneficial.’

The original form request sent to Reshmi’s business read: ‘Yellow train cake! We would also be interested in collaborating [redacted] who has 1.4million Instagram followers.’

In response to the request, Reshmi shared she had tried to convert it into a sale as she asked for the client’s budget, postcode and image references. 

But Binky’s team pushed back, replying: ‘Thanks for your message. Would you be interested in collaborating on the cake? As in the cake would be gifted in exchange for a story on [redacted]’s Instagram?’ 

Rather than opting for a ‘sassy’ response – which Reshmi said would be her typical approach – she instead expressed her disappointment and referenced Binky’s ‘wealth’ before suggesting it would be a better look for the reality star if she paid. 

Binky’s team replied saying she had made ‘a valid point about optics’ and would speak to the star before coming back to Reshmi on whether they were happy to pay. 

It was at this point that Reshmi took to Instagram to share screenshots of the communication between them. 

She then received a ‘disheartened’ email from Binky’s team after they had seen her post – where they insisted the goal was never to ‘grab a free cake’.

They added: ‘Binky’s Instagram content is hugely focused around her children and she gets a lot of engagement from this sort of content so it can often have a very positive effect on businesses in terms of giving them exposure to audiences they may not be able to reach normally.’

Binky’s team finished the email by apologising for getting in contact as ‘this sort of partnership is not appreciated by you’ and insisting they meant no offence. 

Following the reply from Binky’s team, Reshmi created the GoFundMe page with an AI-generated Made In Chelsea-inspired yellow train cake. 

She wrote on the post: ‘We recently received a lovely request from the team of Binky Felstead for a very special cake – a yellow train creation for her soon-to-be 3-year-old son.

‘We were genuinely thrilled. Children’s cakes are some of our favourites to make, and this one sounded like a joy and that too for such a popular reality TV star. However, there was just one small hiccup… the proposed payment method was an Instagram story.

‘Now, we completely understand that times are tough, especially for influencers. Binky may well have had to rearrange a sponsored Dubai holiday at short notice and instead travel to the US to spend Easter with her family under much duress.

‘We were also reassured that her 1.4million followers are highly engaged, especially when her posts feature her children… because, as we all know, the internet is such a wholesome place with absolutely no creeps at all.

‘Unfortunately, our energy supplier is very old fashioned and continues to insist on being paid in actual money rather than exposure or engagement. We did try to explain, but they simply will not accept Instagram tags as legal tender.

‘So, in the spirit of collaboration, we thought we’d appeal to Binky’s 1.4 million followers. If each person contributed just £1, we could create the most incredible yellow train cake imaginable and also keep our energy supplier happy.’