Alison Fawkes, who runs her own wedding cake business, started her company in 2019 and when the pandemic hit, she said she grafted to sell as much as the restrictions would allow – with weddings being very limited.

Afterwards, business was booming, and she ‘hit the ground running’ and made 90 cakes within six months.

“Because I was going to all these venues all the time, they got to know me and they put me on their supplier lists,” she said.

“In 2022 I made just under 120 wedding cakes, and I was riding a wave, I couldn’t believe where my business was going.”

But at the end of September 2022, Alison experienced an incident of distress in her personal life, which led her to feel ‘resentment’ towards her business.

“Last year I did 86 weddings and I struggled to cope with my email enquiries because of stress outside the job, and lost that love for it.

“Then in this last autumn, I started to feel a little bit better,” she explained, as that summer she had her business shared on social media and enquiries from across the UK came in, offering hundreds just for the delivery of cakes.

“It was a wake-up call. Looking back at what I achieved and where I’m going, I needed to find my love for this again.”

For that reason, she has decided to debut at Cumbria’s Premier Wedding Show in Carlisle this Sunday, February 18, not necessarily for exposure, but to get back in a positive mindset, she said.

The event is organised by Eden Wedding Boutique and takes place in Carlisle airport from 11am to 4pm.

For more information about the event, and to get a ticket, click here.