Candace Nelson

My dad was a corporate lawyer.

We moved around internationally all of our life and the priority was education.

So I went to a very academic boarding school.

I went to a great liberal arts college.

And then from that, I was recruited into an investment bank in Silicon Valley.

Well, actually in San Francisco, but we were working with tech companies in Silicon Valley.

And, you know, just figured I would keep marching my way up the pathway to success.

But of course, that was the dot-com boom days.

And then a few years later was the dot-com bust.

And I was out of a job without any prospects.

And so I spent a lot of time on the couch.

watching Martha Stewart watching Oprah Winfrey I was totally lost I was having a not a midlife I guess it would be called a quarter-life crisis at this point because I'd done everything right and it hadn't turned out and a couple things happened so I was actually planning my wedding at the time I'd just been engaged so I figured what the hell I'll end up going to business school eventually but for now for the next few months I'll just plan my wedding and so I was you know

Nose deep in Martha Stewart weddings magazines and and happened to notice that there were there was a new entrant onto the like wedding cake scene.

It was these cupcake towers.

And I'm sure everybody just, you know, nods their head now.

But at the time, it was pretty it was a new idea.

Nobody ever opted for anything but the traditional wedding cake.

And so there were these fun cupcake towers that had kind of appeared on the scene.

That sort of worked its way into my subconscious.

And then my husband and I ended up going on our honeymoon, getting married, going on our honeymoon.