Pandemic

For the past five years I have run a wedding cake business from my home studio. I started by making birthday cakes for local families but my goal was always weddings and I quickly grew to a luxury brand with a strong reputation in the wedding industry for beautiful, bespoke cakes.

I loved my work. I didn't always love the stress and the weekend deliveries but the weeks turned into months turned into years and I kept working away with no time to correct the elements of the business that weren't quite working for our family.

And then 2020 came. It was due to be my busiest year. I had some lovely wedding cakes booked in and I looked ahead at the year with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. I knew I would be working 6 or 7 day weeks and wishing for more family time at weekends. I didn't know that there would be family time and free weekends in abundance.

The effect of the pandemic on the wedding industry has been devastating. And I have been similarly devastated for my couples and the pain and disappointment they have felt. Devastated for my fellow suppliers dealing with debt and facing losing everything. Through all of this I have considered myself extremely fortunate. My husband's job has been constant throughout and we can just about scrape by on one salary when needed. I have had time and space to think and dream. Time to bake with my boys and do crafts and play board games - all the things I had missed when living life at such a fast pace.

But we can only carry on so long with one salary and the time has come for me to return to work. So I will be saying goodbye, or possibly Au Revoir, to my home cake studio (I am not burning any bridges just yet) and beginning my search for an office based job.

My first step has been to enroll in a course to get me ready to return to the workplace. As yet the rest of my journey back to the office is unknown but I intend to chart it here.