Love is in the Air

Ahh yes... Love.
Valentine's Day recently passed, celebrating our love for our significant others.
Easter is on its way, celebrating the love of God so great and unimaginably full of grace.
And then, to those in any industry involving flowers, sweet treats and planning, wedding season begins.

I love weddings. I didn't have a wedding.
Those two statement tend to look quite funny standing side by side. One would assume if you love weddings, you would have a wedding, and put all your heart and soul into it and it would be the 'most amazing day of your entire life'. I love weddings-- but my husband doesn't (he also doesn't like engagements, or really anything traditional) so we compromised. The deal was as follows:
1 - He had to propose.
2 - Then we could sign the marriage license papers anytime, anywhere. This was risky on my end because the example he most often gave when alluding to it's romantic spontaneity was signing papers in a butcher shop... not really the thought I had in mind...
3 - At a later date we would have a party with family and friends to celebrate the marriage.

This worked wonderfully for us, and while I love weddings and everything to do with them, I have not once regretted the decision we made to skip out... And really, having the party later on (which we did as a masquerade theme) gave me all the 'wedding' type fun I wanted!

What makes one love weddings?
I love Love. I love how weddings are an expression of each person as an individual, as well as their lives as one unified front. The meaning behind the event is even more enchanting than the glitz and glamour showcased to the loving guests throughout the celebration. Let's be honest though, I also do love that glitz and glamour. The flowers, the dresses, the delicious food and sweet treats... pretty colour palettes and signature styling woven into the littlest detail from the guest book, to the name cards, favours and centerpieces... it's all just so lovely. How can one not be completely enthralled with the love put into the smallest of details?

This past summer I had the amazing opportunity to create wedding cakes for two unique and lovely weddings. This was also the first time I have ever made a wedding cake and it was such a great experience! Meeting with excited brides, chatting in cute spaces over delicious drinks about their upcoming celebration made their enthusiasm contagious! Ideas being bounced back and forth, the endless combinations of flavours and styles being discussed and crossed off lists until settling on the perfect compliment to the wedding being planned-- it's wondrous. The sky's the limit, and it's amazing to see what each bride is looking for. With each unique wedding comes a unique palette of preferences, colours and creative freedom, which makes my job so much fun and very rewarding.

The two wedding cakes I created for two lovely brides may look quite similar, but each one was unique to the couple it was created for.

The first cake (being my first wedding cake ever!) was created for a bride whose rustic charm wedding was full of handmade touches, vintage books, paper hearts, and a down-to-earth feeling of warmth and love. This two tier cake started with an incredible chocolate base-- it's actually the same recipe I use for cupcakes and is my amazing go to recipe! The layers of cake were filled with espresso cream cheese frosting and homemade salted caramel! Since making cupcakes with this flavour combination over 6 years ago, it has become one my signature flavour offerings. Covered in a simple vanilla butter cream and laced with fresh eucalyptus greens, the romantic garden roses were added at the venue from the garden of a relative of the bride. One of my favourite parts of this cake was the burlap used to hide the cake board. It created such a cohesive look to the entire wedding.

Next up was a cake for an elegant black and white theme wedding. This wedding was show stopping-- all guests dressed like they were heading to the Oscars, chandeliers above the dance floor, it was truly immaculate. This cake had a flavour combination that spoke to my soul-- the cake had a chocolate base and was filled with marshmallow flavoured butter cream AND homemade marshmallow fluff! Chocolate and marshmallow together is an amazing marriage of flavours. The live floral accents were added at the venue and were of the brides flower choices complimented throughout her other floral touches.

The second wedding also included a dessert bar of 200 mini cupcakes and 100 cookie sandwiches! All of these tied in with the black and white theme-- the cookie sandwiches were filled with vanilla butter cream, black chocolate drizzle and cookies & cream sprinkles on top. The mini cupcakes were a variety of flavours including chocolate Oreo, chocolate Nutella, vanilla mixed berry, and vanilla cookie dough.

There are really no words to describe the honour I felt being asked to create a delicious detail of these two weddings. Just being part of something so special is truly a gift, and allows me to express my love of weddings to those who appreciate it-- the excited individuals coming together in the name of love for the rest of their lives. Here's to more weddings in the future, and more delicious details to celebrate exciting milestones in the lives of those we love.

Do you love weddings? What is your favourite part?

Justin Bieber and Honouring my Marriage

Justin.

Bieber.

I’ll admit I wasn’t a huge fan of the Biebs from the beginning. I can clearly recall the battle in my head while hearing one of his very first hits; ‘is this a girl singing? Or is this a guy? For sure a girl… but…maybe…it could be a guy?’

I’m sure I’m not the only one who had those thoughts.

It’s OK. You can admit it to me.

While not caring too much about his music or career, then hearing of his continually negative progression into adulthood that was shared throughout the world courtesy of our good friend, the media, I kinda had this ‘I’m not a fan of Justin Bieber’ mentality.

My wonderful husband, on the other hand…

JP loves the Biebs. Not even kidding.

Since he is a legit Belieber, we obviously had to go see the first Justin Bieber movie. While I tried to hold onto my indifferent ways, I couldn’t help but look at Justin in a whole new light. Was I becoming a belieber!? Naw, but I definitely had more respect for the dude knowing he works hard and is actually talented.

Fast forward through a few years of hearing crazy Bieber tabloid stories, husband-wife full-album Bieber dance parties in our living room, and the fact it’s 2016 and our dear Justin has done a lot of growing up, we land here—the point where I found myself anxiously anticipating his new album, Purpose, which came out this past November, and now even more anxiously awaiting his upcoming Winnipeg tour stop in June.

If you haven’t been following Justin lately, he seems to have turned a few things in life around. Not only are his latest songs the catchiest things I’ve heard in a while, a few recent interviews had led me to really appreciate the growth he’s been having. I’ve been especially intrigued by his statements of faith-- finding grace through God for his life and expressing how his purpose is to show that to others. If his catchy songs weren’t enough, look at this dude go!

While this seems like an advertisement for Justin’s new album, I can assure you it’s not (I’m not that popular that my speaking of something has any marketable value). It’s time to get real about why this post is here.

Recently amongst a group of ladies and I, the conversation came up of, in the crass yet culturally acceptable language, Justin Bieber's dick pic. While we are all quite different (different backgrounds, separate groups of friends, etc) we are all in happy and committed relationships with significant others we admire and are pleased to call ours. A girl had the image on her phone and was showing everyone. Comments were made on size and shape and whether it was ‘nice’ or not. There was laughter, and giggling, and comments about how funny it was the one girl had it saved on her phone.  One of the ladies wasn't around for the beginning of the conversation and was asked if she wanted to see. She replied with ‘No’ and walked away. Feeling a sense of comradelier after hearing her response, I, too, replied with no.

Obviously, these ‘no’ responses went against the flow of the conversation and how the reactions were going. One girl even exclaimed how it was ‘cute’ we didn’t want to see the photo.

Cute?

JP's instagram- day off for Bieber

Here's the honest commentary of what I was thinking in the moment-- I respect my husband and our marriage, and looking at an image of another dudes thaaang doesn’t set an example of how much I love and honour him. I wouldn’t want him to be looking at images of girls like that—famous person or not. What message does that send to others in marriages, or those considering the vow of marriage? A marriage is when two people commit themselves to each other in every possible way—emotionally and physically. Viewing ALL of Bieber makes me dishonor my vow. That’s how I see it, anyways. I know some may disagree, I know the idea of porn being helpful to marriages is something the main stream media tells the world. I disagree. The facts are against these ideas. I wrote a whole blog post about it, which you can check out.

Not only that, women speak so often about how they don’t want to be objectified, they want to be viewed for more then just their bodies, and how self-esteem needs to stem from more than what other women and men say about how their body looks. Why do women find no shame in objectifying men? You can’t change the cycle by being part of the problem. A cycle ends when one person takes a stand outside of it and says ‘hey, this isn’t ok’.

Today a friend and I took that stand. While it can sometimes be hard to be the ‘odd ones out’ in a room of people who think the same way, it is so comforting to know I am honouring my marriage, my faith, and myself with the choices I make in what to view and what not to view.

And Justin, I still love your new album and am ridiculously pumped for the concert in June… maybe just be less provocative when there are paparazzi around, deal?