All Photography: Sunshower Photography (Charlotte, NC)
Bean's Stylist: Whitley Hamlin of The Queen City Style
All Cakes: The Wow Factor Cakes
Fact: Bean has been 7 for almost two months. Fact: Life has been crazy this summer. Fact: We've been celebrating the "lucky number 7" since June 29th and the party is finally nearing an end - gotta love school almost being back in session. :) But - let's rewind to Bean's birthday wish list and something that she loves more than life itself: cake. In fact - I'll let her explain. - Mom
The Cinderella Project
For my 7th birthday I wanted a stylist and I wanted to collect dresses for little girls. The little girls will be able to wear the dresses whenever they want to and it will be for them to feel like a princess. My mom helped me talk to the Ronald McDonald House and they let me bring all of the dresses I collected to them. I'm calling the dress drive "The Cinderella Project" because every little girl should be able to feel like a princess. I have collected a lot of dresses thanks to my friends in Charlotte and Fort Mill. I hope that the little girls that get to wear the dresses are able to smile because they are all princesses even if they don't feel like it.
Let Them Eat Cake
I also wanted a stylist for my birthday. I interviewed the ladies at The Wow Factor and I wanted a stylist to help me put my outfits together because it's a fun thing to have done and I know my mom is tired. The questions were fun to ask and I got to eat cake! I think I really, really liked that part. I mean who doesn't like to have cake in the morning because I don't get to do that. Like ever. It was really good cake too. Yummy! I hope you like the questions and the answers. My advice is to eat cake whenever you want because it makes your stomach happy. - Bean
Bean's 7+ Questions with ... Lei Cristine (owner) and Marianne Warrick (cake designer) of The Wow Factor Cakes
Note: Marianne immediately became a Bean favorite when she quickly offered to hot glue a new pom on Bean’s headband (advised by Whitley Hamlin, stylist). And voila - some (additional) cuteness happened immediately and of course - Lei was added to bff sisterhood when she offered up cake for all; just like the saying goes: "Let them eat cake!" ;)
1. What’s the tallest wedding cake you’ve ever made? (Marianne) It would be the 11 tier; [it's] taller than Lei + and about as tall as your mom.
2. Have you ever made a cake with a accessory on it? If yes what accessory was it. If no do you have any accessories to put on a cake? (Marianne) We’ve done cakes that look like purses and shoes; we’ve done plenty of those. The only accessories that we typically do are sugar flowers and with those are something that you can put them in vases to make them look like real flowers and they last forever. (You can technically eat them if you want to.)
3. Why do you like working at a bakery? (Lei) Well, I like to eat cake and a lot of sweets, so that’s why it’s great to work at a bakery; but also with wedding cakes - we get to work with some awesome clients to make their day special. (Marianne) Think about it -- you can eat cake every day … and cupcakes whenever you want (Lei).
4. Have you ever made a cake so tall it fell down? Tell me about it. (Marianne) That have [fallen] down? I don’t think so. We have had some that barely fit through the door. And that was big! We had to roll it out and put it in a special car. Wouldn’t fit in our cars!
5. Do you like nursery rhymes? If yes what kind? Do you like Humpty Dumpty or old Mother Goose or neither? If no - do you like any nursery rhymes? (Marianne) I like Humpty Dumpty! (Lei) I like Humpty Dumpty; I always thought it was cool with the graphic with the egg falling over … maybe that’s a baker thing though.
6. Did your parents force you to work at a bakery? Or did you do it on your own? Marianne) My mom doesn’t cook that much, she’s not a big cook. So I started baking on my own because it was something that I like doing. / (Lei) I picked cake decorating instead of going to summer camp so no one really forced me to do anything.
7. What did you do when you got messy from mixing the batter of the cake? (Marianne) We try to get clean but it’s kind of hard; it usually it has to go through two loads of laundry to get all the sugar off. But if you’re around puppies - they love you because you smell like sugar and cake. They want to be on you all the time!
8. What do you like about being a baker? (Lei) I would say I get to work with my hands and a lot of sugar and I get to do a lot of fun, different stuff; artsy.
9. When did you decide you wanted to be a baker? (Marianne) Ooooohhhh, I was 13 when I wanted to start baking but I didn’t know I wanted to decorate cakes until I was 20 years old. (Lei) I’ve been cake decorating since I was 12; I used to bake with my grandma a lot when I was a kid - like around your age (7).
Finis! Hope you enjoyed. But, that's not it! We've included some editorial shots for you fashionistas. :) See below. Thank you, again, Whitley, for all of your hard word and time with Bean. Can't wait until our next styling adventure! - Mom (aka Brittny) / P.S. And as always, just a friendly note that all questions are actually created by Bean and so is anything with her moniker following it. #facts
