We recently connected with Toni Alire and have shared our conversation below.

Toni, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

My biggest risk so far with the bakery has been going to strictly weddings. Weddings have always been a huge love of mine as long as I can remember, and I absolutely LOVE designing/executing wedding cakes. Prior to this year I did all sorts of events, and I just wasn’t happy. This year I decided that I was only going to do what I love, and what I love, is in fact love, and in turn weddings. I love being able to be apart of the happiest day of peoples lives. It was a huge risk for me having to turn down so much business to do what I truly wanted to do and be known for. But at this point, I couldn’t be happier with it. It’s been a great move for my business and I’d do it all again if given the chance.

Toni, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Toni Alire, and I own Alire Modern Bakehouse. I am a luxe wedding dessert designer. I specialize in elegant, modern wedding cakes. In addition to that I offer decorated sugar cookies, gourmet cupcakes, dessert shooters, macarons, dessert tables and more. It is my key goal to make something as beautiful as it is delicious, and make my clients wedding dream come to life. Weddings are typically one of the happiest days of our lives, and I love being apart of that. I take my clients vision, and bring it to life. I make sure my clients are my #1 priority from the second they reach out to me. No matter if they want a small cutting cake, or a 4 tier luxurious cake. All my clients get the same amount of attention to detail from me. I think love is one of the most beautiful things in the world, and it is an absolute privilege to be able to be apart of a day dedicated to it with my clients.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I opened the bakery two weeks before covid hit, whoops. Lol. The first year was such a huge learning curve. I did mostly cookie kits, and porch pick up only. That’s what kept us afloat for the first year of business. It was tough but we made it work. Second year was small gatherings because that’s all anyone was really allowed to have, so we made due with that. The first two years were tough, and it was hard to stick it out. I knew if I could just stick it out, I could eventually do what I loved. That leads us to now. I am full time in weddings and absolutely love it. The wedding industry is tough in Colorado, but is so worth it once you get in. Being resilient the first few years to get here, was worth every second.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

The bakery started just as a fun little side gig for me while I was restaurant managing. I liked baking, and was decent (barely lol) at cake decorating. It started as cookie decorating kits, and then small cakes or cookies for close friends and family. That turned into offering cakes for my social media friends. Much to my surprise I got a decent amount of work in that first year, and was able to get better at decorating. Pretty soon I decided that I was going to try to do this full time. I quit managing, and went full force into the bakery. I went from just a few followers on facebook. to now over 2,500 followers. I couldn’t have done it without so much love and support from my community. I am truly very lucky to have had the support backing me that I’ve had this last few years. I’d be lost without my loyal clients who have trusted me for years with their special events. These same people have been my biggest cheerleaders during my transition to only weddings, I am so very thankful for them. They’ve taken me from the tiny little side gig, to what the bakery is today.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.aliremodernbakehouse.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/aliremodernbakehouse
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/aliremodernbakehouse

Image Credits
Denali Media Laura Rachelle Photography