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It’s hard to believe my birthday has already come and gone and my blogiversary is here! I am an old lady compared to my blog. THE BACREY is merely a year old and so much has happened in that year.
There was a time in the not-too-distant past when I was fairly convinced I didn’t ever want to get married. What a very jaded, privileged position to be able to say, “I will exercise my right to not get married, even though I can.”
Long before I met my amazing farmer, a previous engagement ended about six months before the wedding. When I left, it was the most freeing and also heartbreaking experience of my life. I had not been happy for some time and was fortunate to find the strength to walk away from the relationship. After that chapter came to a close, I began to shed many layers of complicated emotion over time, only to discover that my hope for a life of commitment and love with another person was somehow still miraculously intact.
Now I am engaged to the man I want to grow old with and suddenly the world seems full of marital bliss. Within the past year I have celebrated the union of my uncle and his partner, witnessed the marriage of my cousin, congratulated another uncle on his engagement and two of my oldest friends on theirs. And as of June 26th, marriage is now not just a privilege for some, but an opportunity for all. Marriage in my country is finally what it should have always been: a human right. Now all of the people I love can exercise the fullest expression of their love for each other.
Long before I met my amazing farmer, a previous engagement ended about six months before the wedding. When I left, it was the most freeing and also heartbreaking experience of my life. I had not been happy for some time and was fortunate to find the strength to walk away from the relationship. After that chapter came to a close, I began to shed many layers of complicated emotion over time, only to discover that my hope for a life of commitment and love with another person was somehow still miraculously intact.
Now I am engaged to the man I want to grow old with and suddenly the world seems full of marital bliss. Within the past year I have celebrated the union of my uncle and his partner, witnessed the marriage of my cousin, congratulated another uncle on his engagement and two of my oldest friends on theirs. And as of June 26th, marriage is now not just a privilege for some, but an opportunity for all. Marriage in my country is finally what it should have always been: a human right. Now all of the people I love can exercise the fullest expression of their love for each other.
For how much the institution of marriage has been criticized, demonized, vilified, quantified, cut down to size by research, data and facts, for how much it has been overexposed by every form of media and made a mockery of by the celebrity puppet show, it still means so much to us. We still want to believe we are not alone and that a chance at belonging, acceptance and love exists. We want to believe - we need to believe - that love wins. And now, I can honestly and wholeheartedly say that I do believe, or rather I choose to believe, that love wins. Because I don’t want to live in a world where it doesn’t.
My Uncle Brian and his partner Earl got married in a small ceremony a couple of months ago after same-sex marriage became legal in Pennsylvania. We had a mini-family reunion over the Fourth of July and decided to take that opportunity to celebrate. It was wonderfully serendipitous that the Supreme Court ruling happened just a little over a week before the festivities. I made them a small, three-tiered wedding cake and I was so nervous about it because I had never used dowels to stack a cake before. Plus we had to transport the cake two hours away – but it worked! I decorated it with fresh flowers from Sarah Berndt who runs Lacksmirk Manor, a lovely vendor that attends one of the farmers' markets with me.
Now all I want to bake are wedding cakes!
The bottom tier of the wee wedding cake was chocolate with swiss meringue buttercream, which seemed to be the overall favorite that night. I used the buttermilk chocolate cake recipe from Molly Yeh and the buttercream recipe from Sweetapolita.
My Uncle Brian and his partner Earl got married in a small ceremony a couple of months ago after same-sex marriage became legal in Pennsylvania. We had a mini-family reunion over the Fourth of July and decided to take that opportunity to celebrate. It was wonderfully serendipitous that the Supreme Court ruling happened just a little over a week before the festivities. I made them a small, three-tiered wedding cake and I was so nervous about it because I had never used dowels to stack a cake before. Plus we had to transport the cake two hours away – but it worked! I decorated it with fresh flowers from Sarah Berndt who runs Lacksmirk Manor, a lovely vendor that attends one of the farmers' markets with me.
Now all I want to bake are wedding cakes!
The bottom tier of the wee wedding cake was chocolate with swiss meringue buttercream, which seemed to be the overall favorite that night. I used the buttermilk chocolate cake recipe from Molly Yeh and the buttercream recipe from Sweetapolita.
I also updated the zucchini bread recipe from my first ever blog post and added some swanky new pictures. Go check it out!
Happy Birthday, Blog!
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