Coco Cake at Indie I Do!

Make a statement without saying a word! Did anyone out there love Sassy magazine like I did as a teen? I remember my older sister buying them when she started high school, and me getting to take a peak at them, along with poring through her high school annuals and dreaming about my own high school experience that was yet to come...

Sassy magazine was like an early teen bible for my friends and I... it was feminist without being outrightly so, it taught young women about self-esteem and being strong and following their dreams. It had amazing fashion and true life stories (It Happened To Me) and real advice for real problems that young women faced. It didn't candycoat readers with a typified tween existence of boys and prom and weight loss. It gave young women confidence and the power to think for themselves. Of course as a teenaged girl you still want to feel pretty and be liked and have crushes and dream about boys (or girls) and so on. Sassy was a perfect balance for that - allowing girls to be teens but empowering them at the same time.

So yes, I was a proud reader of Sassy!! And within the pages of Sassy there were always ads for Exclamation! perfume... with the tagline "Make a statement without saying a word!" The colour scheme was always black and white stripes or polkadots, with a splash of pink! Very late 1980s/early 1990s... so this was my visual inspiration for this year's Indie I Do wedding fair!

I've been wanting to make one of these adorable cupcake wrapper garlands ever since I saw it online here! So with the colour inspiration in mind, I sat at my table with This American Life playing in the background and strung together a lovely, fluffy, crinkly garland of black, white and pink. I also made a super cute new Coco Cake sign in pink and grey (two colours that are so pretty together, and, let's face it, 1980s!) and then made oodles of flags to go with it all. My favourite thing is to make things matchy and designy - I had lots of fun doing this!

For the cupcakes, I made light pink rosette buttercream topped vanilla cupcakes in silver wrappers, dark chocolate cupcakes in pink gingham wrappers and dark chocolate cupcakes with white vanilla creamcheese frosting blobettes. Pink carnations rounded out the late 1980s vibe for my Coco Cake wedding display table!!

I had a blast and a half at the wedding fair, partying it up with my amazing friend Sharon. We met lots of great brides and grooms, chuckled it up with some fellow wedding vendors and met lots of new friends too. All in all a great event!

(last photograph of my table by the amazing Jeanie Ow!)

Wedding Wonderful!

2011 is here and I've been inundated with many wonderful emails from many lovely sounding brides and grooms... here are some of my favourite wedding cupcake and cake pics from the last year... !

Speaking of weddings... I will be in the one and only Indie I Do wedding fair this Saturday, January 22nd at Heritage Hall here in Vancouver! (Incidentally the Hall where Rich and I got married four years ago! -- I've attached a picture here for sentimental value... hee!) Indie I Do is a superfun wedding fair, with a great underlying energy, for artsy and artful, vintage-look, alternative and crafty brides and grooms! So come on out this Saturday and meet me, Lyndsay, and my lovely assistant Sharon! I will also have cupcakes for sale!

Also, look for a month's worth of guest posts by little old me, Auntie Coco Cake, over at the AMAZING design blog Poppytalk, starting tomorrow! So cool! I'm excited since I've followed her blog for years and think it's so inspirational!

Bye for now Coco Cakers!

xo Lyndsay

(Rich and I on our wedding day, January 13 2007! Pics by Jonetsu. Cake by Ganache Patisserie!)

Indie I Do Party Times

My table at the Indie I Do wedding fair!

Table view: portfolio of Coco Cake photos!



Just Married: stripey blue and yellow themed!

My little lovebirds. Hee!

Nuts about cupcakes

Pretty little silver dragee topped samples...

Sharon, my number one helper extraordinaire, and me!

Clockwise from top Left: Lotus Events table, some pretty vintage-look veils, bridal fashion show

Photobooth Vancouver was there! Sharon and I, and me and my cousin Michael (who is getting married in June, in California)

Pretty girls selling pretty things! I loved their mannequin heads.

Boy, I had fun at the Indie I Do wedding fair at my funny stripey little Coco Cake cupcakes booth! Organized by the hardworking cuties at Blue Olive Photography and Lotus Events, Indie I Do celebrated its second year of "indie" wedding ideas, showcasing some great local wedding vendors! Beautiful letterpress, arty and crafty event planning, reworked vintage veils, 1950s inspired hair pieces and fashion, green-friendly invitation design, gorgeous florals and more...

My dear pal and vegan chef extraordinaire Sharon was my right hand woman throughout the day-- we served up mini cupcakes for sampling, in three flavours: dark chocolate with vanilla buttercream, Lemon Frill (lemon cupcakes with lemon creamcheese frosting!) and Coconut Dream (coconut cupcakes with vanilla creamcheese frosting and toasted-by-me coconut!)

My plan was to do a fairly non traditional wedding set-up: blue and yellow vintagey themed, with two little yellow lovebirds made of fondant. Lemon cupcakes and coconut cupcakes made up the display in matching yellow and blue and white striped cupcake liners, and I handmade some little blue flags from vintage-look plaid paper to complete the vibe. It turned out pretty darn cute!!

Extreme props alert to Sharon for helping me all day (you're the best, Shabba!), Rafael for helping me set up and take down, and to my mommy too for bringing us lunch and snacks from Whole Foods!! Oooh I'm spoiled. All in all a great day, everyone was wonderfully friendly and I met lots of new vendor friends as well as some cute and adorable brides (and a few grooms!).

Yay! Fun times... xo