So, weddings have gone away for a while, it doesn’t mean we can’t plan for another day.   I firmly believe that the ‘new normal’ in whatever form that takes, is up to us as wedding suppliers to create with our existing couples and with those newly engaged who are looking for a bit of direction. If you have the right creative people at your planning table, virtually or by phone, I truly think we can make a micro wedding a thing of splendour.

Cara Zagni Photography at Swanton Morley House & Gardens

Number Cuts:

We have gone through the dash of hundreds of guests to 30, the audacity – how awful was that the first time we heard it? Then we had 15, that felt like our civil liberties were being slashed to the core, but that wasn’t all – oh no – down to 6!!!  Six! Who has 6 people at their wedding?  Those who wed in September / October 2020 (naming the beast for posterity), that’s who!

Currently we are at 15 guests which feels almost luxurious!  Who’s read ‘A Squash & A Squeeze’… Does it ring any bells…?

whataboutweddings.com

Flowers:

First up – Let’s take flowers first of all, an impactful piece of the spliced day, all eyes on the bride and bouquet, buttonholes for the boys and decorative arrangements for the church, later to be used in the wedding breakfast décor. Should you be in the position to have a budget already to go there are already massive savings when it come to that precious budget. I use the word guardedly as it is precious, slimming down your invite list will give you back some numbers to play around with.

You now CAN have a sweep or swag of flowers that give impact, colour and fragrance, whereas before it might have been a less abundant affair.

Catering:

Paying for catering for less folks, also has a win. You can splash some of that budget on better wine, a superb starter or have something that you Chef can create that previous was ‘off the menu’ with the old budget.

Valentine Studio at Voewood

CAKE!

Who mentioned that? Me – I would adore my cake to be one of the guests to your newly pimped up ‘do’.

Co-ordinating with your florist I prime each bloom, ensuring it is hygienic and food safe (not necessarily edible unless that is what you have asked for). Each design is organic and happens on the day, I’m inspired by texture, form and colour. I love the final reveal of the florists selection and finding the perfect placement for each stem or frond.

Our cakes have their own portrait, perfect for quietly acknowledging a dietary preference such as gluten free, vegan, etc. These come gratis with my wedding cakes and are a perfect keepsake long after the crumbs are gone.

Tatum Reid Photography at Holkham Hall

We also layer blooms, petals and greenery underneath the cake stand to create an ‘ambience’ (I can’t say that without thinking of Micky Flannigan, look it up).  I like to think it creates a ‘space’ for the cake, hopefully a making a little buzz that folks want to come and get involved in.  Roll up, roll up, come and see the pretty cake!

Kelsie Lowe Photography at Voewood

Less, But More

Talking of less folks, that’s less stationery but more zhuzhed up, gold, imprinting, embossing, extra ribbon, the full suite of stationery that with the old budget had to be carefully thought out – ‘do we use our own RSVP?’ ‘Do we really need x, y and z?’ Now you can afford all of the things that make a stationery suite super amped up. Aren’t the ones who are invited lucky!? I love a posh wedding invite – and to be one of the chosen few. Not that this diminishes any of your kith or kin who couldn’t make the cut, it’s just the world we find ourselves living in.

Cara Zagni Photography at Swanton Morley House & Gardens

Cara Zagni Photography at Swanton Morley House & Gardens

There are sadder elements of this, please don’t think I’m all for dumping the rellies in order to get a banging wedding – it does mean that you have to revisit the wedding invite list and see who really counts, who you really need to be there. We have a thing in the house with the boys to help them understand what is important with want and need. (when choosing between food/snacks, how to spend etc) You do the things you need first, then allow for the want, it applies here too. You might want to have everyone and their kids but current times and restrictions mean it just isn’t possible. 

Hautbois Hall,
Rob Dodsworth Photography

To quote one happy bride to be recently “I’m secretly happy that we need to lighten the list as we’ll have to think about who we really want and that will make it more special”. From the mouths of A Real-Life Actual Bride, peoples.

Current times are extraordinary, we can embrace these days and accept the challenge which make us best we can be, and to have those around us to make it so. Celebrate what you have and make it as magnificent as it can be!

To talk about your wedding plans, please make first contact to cakes@bunsoffun.co.uk.

I can’t wait to hear from you!

Emma

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The brainwave of ‘stylist meets florist’ combines packages for Floral Sistas (old name Swaffham Florist) and The Little Lending Co. You’ll have seen these gals all over socials, now they’re teaming to provide joint creativity in wedding design. The Voewood Collaboration showcased the key elements of how suppliers work together to create holistic and synergised look for your day. We (the other suppliers) helped in the background to make the place look pretty and sound nice. [Suppliers below]

It’s better in the Floral Sistas words:

COLLABORATIVE COLLECTION

“As well as having our own floral packages and bespoke wedding flower quotations we have also teamed up with our great friend Penny at the Little Lending Company.

The collaborative collection offers packages to work alongside us both to fully style and flower your wedding vision. With our combined direction, styling knowledge and floral craft you can make the most of our joint creativity in wedding design. Tap into our trusted partnership and let us create a uniqueness for you, celebrating your relationship story, your loves and your style to make something that perfectly represents you as a style couple. Expect lots of advice, support and extensive communication from us as a duo along the way too.”

Images kindly supplied by Kelsie Low Photography from Voewood House, Norfolk. List of suppliers who collaborated on the day:

Venue:                  Voewood

Photography        Kelsie Low Photography

 Styling:                The Little Lending Company

Flowers:               Floral Sistas

Cakes:                   Buns of Fun

Drinks:                  East Coast Bars

Stationery:           The Luxe paper Co

Tables:                  Banqueting Hire

Piano:                   Carrie O’Donnell

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SO, 10 years – It’s funny how you look back and see how styles have changed in a decade. I started back in the day with no business but making cakes for beach picnics with the new mums that I met when we moved to Norfolk from Bucks. ‘You should sell these’ they’d say.. ‘phht *snigger*’, I’d say.

One night the girls were round for a roaring Burns Night and I’d make some Fimo figures of their babies for place settings and thought out the evening there was much discussion that I should put these on cakes and sell them. I got rather excited by this prospect as my background was Art & Design in Amersham in the 90s and I was enjoying the baking too. Within weeks I have done my first food hygiene course, bought a proper mixer (!), got insurance and some boxes and was off to Farmers Markets. I concentrated on ‘Pete & The Pirates’ cupcakes, ‘Crab’ cakes, made themed kids cakes, funny bakes, party cakes and attended countless farmers’ markets and food shows.

About 3 or 4 years in I found it draining endlessly packing and unpacking the car, guessing what to bake and how much, it wasn’t Fun anymore. The wedding cakes I was asked to make were more interesting and it mattered more about the people I was meeting and having a connection to those I was baking for. I was more inspired to make the change from the Markets to Weddings after going to a wedding show and realising I could do this.

The ‘regular’ wedding cake look wasn’t something that appealed and it took a while for my style to organically adapt. When making specific cakes for folks it really helps to meet them. I have to wave my hands about a bit to demonstrate when I’m talking, *duck* as my previous clients will attest. There’s nothing like meeting couples who are switched on to the types of cakes and my methods, then being able to create something bespoke on The Day. I have a few ‘off the peg’ designs which can be adapted with colour, texture, isomalt shapes or chocolate waves then further personalising.

The Art & Design aspect has played a huge part in my career in cakes. I have found my medium in buttercream, for sure. I love painting or colour-popping with buttercream, creating free edges to lift a gold lustre crust, crafting blanket style ‘hugs’ (my own creation) round the cake plus texture techniques and use of colour, gold leaf and natures edible beauties. The art side emerges even further with hand-drawn canvases on mini easels for each wedding cake I make. It advertises what’s in each fabulous tier, plus its a pretty cute keepsake when all you have is crumbs leftover!

I’ve been really, really lucky to have met some exceptional wedding suppliers along the way and received so much unasked for coverage in magazines and worldwide blogs, there’s been ‘that’ of television too. I’m still being asked in consultations -‘so what’s Kirstie like in real life?’…

Looking forward to the next 10 years I have so many more designs in my head that aren’t for right now. Some are a bit too crazy daisy to be let out just now.. I am excited about the planning of a name change to the business, a rebrand and refresh as I think the business is in a different place to when I originally started out.

Our beaut chocolate birthday cake is vegan chocolate cake, freeze-dried raspberry dairy-free buttercream, with Hotel Chocolat‘s new range of 45% nut milk chocolate, topper by For Keeps by Amie and greens from our garden.

Happy 10th Birthday Buns!

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‘How Has Your Business Become Dairy-Free?’

I have found in recent years and increasingly that I am being asked for plant-based cakes, maybe one tier for a wedding cake ‘just in case’ or because they have guests or they themselves are dairy intolerant or plant-based. I am more than happy to bake vegan/gluten free combo as we have family and friends in both camps.  For me, the whole thing about progressively answering and addressing dietary changes to my business is that more cake-lovers can be included, I want fewer folks excluded from celebrating with a bluddy great cake.

I decided that my business to was to become dairy-free after meeting with and discussing the dairy industry with vegans. Now, don’t sigh and scroll on… I also poo-pooed it to start with, having been a vegetarian for 30 odd years, my line was ‘if I couldn’t kill it, I couldn’t eat it’. I thought I was already giving props to animal welfare (yay, go me). Then looking closer at the economic side of farming, land clearing, rearing meat, air miles (think Amazonian forest and all of that hell hole) meats’ carbon footprint and all that, I thought I was on a winner with and oh-so-virtuous veggies. Then it all shifted a bit.. 

The reasons for not using dairy are, in fact, quite similar to the reasons people choose to become vegetarian: animal rights and welfare, environmental reasons, and health concerns.

Even though the animal is alive when it is milked, vegans cite that there is poor treatment of dairy cows, including steroid use and forced impregnation (see ‘Antibiotics’ below).

‘What Do You Use Instead of Butter?’

I have several tried and tested brands that I can rely on. Some really are better than others and it has come down to trial and error and my fam and friends eating a lot of cake!  I have been really pleased with some of the results then carried on from test baking to actual weddings going out as I was still using the brand and it was all ready to go.  Some of these real weddings that have received my plant-based offerings have sent me cards and emails with really, really lovely feedback (father of bride sent 3! – thank you S.R., I believe you!).  Typically, my substitutes comprise of plant oils like sunflower oil, rapeseed oil, linseed oil and certified sustainable palm oil (RSPO), plant-based emulsifier (sunflower lecithin) and vinegar (I know, right!), coconut oil, etc. There really are some fabulous alternatives and some are right there on the shelves in the supermarket with no faffing about.

If, after reading this, you join us to go dairy-free it might be based on health.  Dairy can negatively affect digestion and cholesterol and contain hormones or a protein that does not agree with them.

‘So, Is Plant-based Butter Healthier Than Dairy Butter?’

When comparing plant-based butter to dairy butter, both are a source of unnecessary saturated fat and calories. In this way, neither are healthy. Plant-based versions remain the better choice, however. This is due to the ethical and environmental issues surrounding dairy butter. Plus there’s the accepted 14 Allergens that all chefs in the UK abide by. I want to reduce risk in my baking as far as possible with dairy for starters – and there is rarely a time I use most of the other things in baking.

The only crabs in crab cakes shlous be these beauties

We’ll go a bit deeper here, stick with me ..

Calcium – Despite the hype, cow’s milk actually robs our bones of calcium. Animal proteins produce acid when they’re broken down, and calcium is an excellent acid neutralizer, in order to neutralize and flush out the acids, our bodies have to use the calcium that the milk contains as well as some from our own stores.

Health – as in big old dirty Cancers, Multiple Sclerosis, osteoarthritis (see calcium above) – Milk and cheese have been linked to an increased risk of developing prostate and ovarian and breast cancer, but dairy-free diets? They’ve been shown to slow its progress.  We have friends who have, are ongoing and surviving cancers through a plant-based diet and haven’t looked back. I have a friend who will attest to taking up a plant-based diet who is thriving if you can with MS!  As for asthma, my blue inhaler has taken a back seat, in fact, I couldn’t tell you the last time I used it since we ditched dairy! Dairy is a well-known mucus producer, think about making the change if you are prone to a wheeze to two.

Lactose intolerance –Lactose in cow’s milk can be difficult for people to digest, resulting in nausea, cramps, gas, bloating, and diarrhea. Difficulty with dairy digestion can develop later in life and result in progressively worsening symptoms. If it ain’t from yo’ mama’s boob it ain’t yo’ milk. A different beast than lactose intolerance, milk allergies can cause potentially strong and dangerous reactions (usually in young children), such as vomiting or anaphylaxis

Cholesterol – A single serving of milk can contain as much as 24 mg of heart-harming cholesterol. No plant food contains any cholesterol whatsoever. Some of the fats added to butter subs that I use will be up to half that amount, I’ll take

Antibiotics – the most grim one. Cows are often pumped full of antibiotics to keep them alive and producing milk in filthy factory farm conditions. We can thank this rampant overuse of them for the surge in antibiotic-resistant bacteria. When humans are infected by these superbugs, antibiotics at best have decreased effectiveness and at worst are powerless.

‘Where can I find evidence that going dairy-free is progressive?

The internet is a double-edged sword, you’ll always find an argument online that supports your line of thinking. I’m not so fussed about negative feedback and currently, I’m really pleased with how well it has been received since I announced Buns of Fun Bakery had gone Dairy – Free. My business will always be my business and as a family, we are together on it.

If you want to watch some very interesting evidence-based programs, y’all can try them too (they are American, that was my best accent).  Will & I watched ‘Forks over Knives’, 2011 on Netflix and although the documentary delivery seems a little dated it was actually quite shocking in that there is quite a lot of detail on dairy production practices. Previous to that we had watched ‘What the Health’ made in 2017 which had a profound effect. I challenge anyone who thinks they are an evolved Citizen of the World to not recoil when you see how your food is put before you. To give you an idea of how much we have changed as a family, Will is (WAS) a hardened omnivore and if he could have caught the ‘oink’ and eaten that between two slices of bread if he could have!

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and join us on our adventure into dairy-free and beyond. If you dare – come and join us on the vegan side…. 

The post No Bull – We’ve Gone Dairy-Free appeared first on EDIBLE ART BY BUNS OF FUN BAKERY.

‘The inspiration sunny styled shoot at the eclectic Voewood came from the verdant and exuberant Spring Fling. Our beauty team consisted of Lisa Frost on lots of plaits and tumble-down hair, Sarah Patterson MUA wowing us with sunset eyes and Laura from The Beauty Hobo on cabochon mustard nails.

Our florist Sharon at Flower30 created a uniquely wearable bouquet studded with a selection of rose buds, succulents and live blooms and a matching buttonhole for the groom. Tables were trimmed with blue velvet, honeysuckle, mint, air plants, anthurium, apple twigs and candles.

Sam Wood laid blue printed palm menus for each place setting, as well as a suite of stationery for the couple. Table settings by Chalk and China styled with authentic aged crockery mixed with glass and gin bottles.

Our 2-tier lemon meringue wedding cake referenced the eclectic vibe throughout Voewoods arts and crafts venue and the aperture in the cake referenced stone-holes found on the nearby beaches of North Norfolk. The textured cake was framed with palm fronds, scabious, celosia, roses, grapes and greenery from Flower 30.

Aperture Cake

International jewellery designer Monica Vinader adorned the bride and maids with silver and gold bracelets, 30s jewelled hairpiece by Melissa Morgan Designs. All images captured timelessly by Janie Richardson from Big Phat Photos

Featured in Your East Anglian Wedding Magazine Feb/Mar 2019

Supplier Love

Venue: voewood.com

Photo: bigphatphotos.co.uk

Flowers: flower3o.co.uk

Cake & Concept: bunsoffun.co.uk

Makeup: sarahpmua.co.uk

Nails: thebeautyhobo.co.uk

Stationery: samjwood.co.uk

Dresses: camillabrides.co.uk & willowandpearl.co.uk

Jewellry: monicavinader.co.uk

Hairpiece: melissamorgandesigns.etsy.com/uk/shop/MelissaMorganDesigns

Hire: chalkandchina.com

Models: IG: @chloejadepeek, @barneyholmesmusic

x Emma

E: bunsoffun@hotmail.co.uk

M: 07932 874576

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Katherine gave us a brief with colours, tones and textures that she wanted to include. Taking inspiration from this we crafted two looks for the shoot. Having 11-years in the floristry business Kat had a keen sense of what sort of look she wanted to create, and who she wanted to produce it with.

For Buns – Cake 1: The first look was in keeping with the ‘quiet’, neutral, pale buttercream, textured with simple palette knife radial grooves. Looking through Kat’s magic flower pails we found and abundance of jewel studded colours. Peony and ranunculi’s, plenty of textural greenery in the way of olive leaves and stems which we teamed with pomegranate seeds, black berries and split plums.

Cake 2: The second look featured palette knifed colours fitting the theme and was a Buns interpretation of the original brief. More colour in hued petal swipes on pale buttercream, more plums, blackberries and vivid magenta roses which we kept loose or shredded for the decorative trails which have become a signature piece for our wedding cake delivery. We added rosemary and honeysuckle providing a botanical feel.

Behind the camera, Janie from Big Phat Photos captured everything, including the llamas and chickens. Janie’s images are front page regulars on EDP Bride and Your East Anglian Wedding magazine. You’ll see her name pop up frequently on our pages with her fresh and unfiltered view of the world in the lens.

Fresh faced and rosy lipped our make-up artist, Leanne Stibbon who has been featured on the Bride Magazine Blog provided the look.  Hair stylist Gemma Holiday, a four-time winner of The Wedding Industry Awards, provided tumbled down hair and elegant up-dos. Both gals are well-known names in the wedding industry.

Bridesmaids dresses were hand stitched by Holly from Willow & Pearl, no’ off the peg’ here.  Holly creates 6 multiway dresses in 47 colours. Featured on a raft of bridal blogs on line Hollys deep ruby dresses were from a cast of colours you can find on her website. The models were Elle, Billie, Chloe and Amy – they punted, they posed and they were chased by llamas.

A full stationery suite was hand made by the clever Claire of Frog & Pencil, an EDP Bride Awards Finalist who pens and paints bespoke invites and portraits for couples matching the colours to the event. Perfect pinks in this case.

Florist, Katherine created an asymmetrical moon gate and filled the exterior line with David Austen roses, vine honeysuckle, richly burgundied dahlias, hydrangea, Astrantia and trailing clematis.

Please do look up these mega-babe suppliers’ below and see what they can put together for you in 2019 and beyond.

x Emma

white cake and peony

dresses Willow & Pearl

flowers Ivy Floral Events, model Elle

stationery Frog & Pencil

College Farm meets shoot creator Kat – Ivy Floral

www.bigphatphotos.co.uk Bigphatphotos Instagram

www.gemmaholiday.com   IG gemmaholidayhairartistry

http://www.leannastibbonmakeup.co.uk

www.willowandpearl.co.uk

Www.frogandpencil.com

Www.ivyfloralevents.co.uk  @ivyfloralevents on IG

Elle Harris – Instagram @elleharris8

Facebook.com/amybevenmodel @amybeven on Instagram and Twitter

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