If you have a candy-filled wedding, of course you'll announce your pregnancy with SUGAR!

This summer was the summer of love. Well, it was the summer we decided to make a baby. So it consisted of a little more love than normal in order to make the baby happen.

I’d never made a baby before, so I made sure that there was excessive love. Probably more than necessary. I mean really, it only takes ONE sperm! But I digress. My mother might read this.

Ever since I found out our experiment in baby-making worked out I have been DYING to tell the world. This has to have been the longest 12 weeks of my life.

And it’s the first time I have started keeping track of time according to weeks and fruit size. (Right now we are 12 weeks and at plum. Yay plum!)

Thank goodness we decided to tell our families early. This is a secret that I could never keep from my mother. She’s the type of person that can practically smell pregnancy on a person. She totally would have outed me after one sniff.

I kept it a secret from her for about four days. It was long enough to plan how we were going to tell the family and short enough that I could stay out of my mom’s line of scent.

Some of you might remember me as the candy bride from Offbeat Bride. I like all things colourful and candy-like but I will not be naming my child after any type of confection. No Carmel, Candy, Tootsie, Baby Ruth…nope, not my kind of names. However, I was definitely going to incorporate candy, or at least cake, into my pregnancy announcement.

We had a fabulous wedding cake made by Scanway Caterers in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was colourful, whimsical, and just perfect for our day.

The best part was the two fondant turtles on the top. I was absolutely tickled when I saw that the turtles were kissing. We decided to incorporate the turtles into our pregnancy announcement. What better way to make an announcement than with cake?

My family and my husband’s family went out for dinner in order to celebrate our one year anniversary. At the end of dinner we had the restaurant bring out the cake.

At first there was quiet confusion over why there was cake and who ordered cake!? Then there was talk about the creatures on the cake.

It was my cousin’s girlfriend who realized that there were THREE turtles. It took both of our mothers and fathers a little longer to figure it out. Once they did they were thrilled! There were even some tears of joy.

I highly recommend that everyone make life’s big announcements with cake! I even had a friend whose cousin announced the gender of her baby by making a big blue penis cake. Well…maybe that’s taking it a little too far. But cake is a great way to let people in on your little secret.

I chose to announce my pregnancy to the rest of the world the way most people do. I posted a photo of my ultrasound photo on facebook. I know, it sounds lame, but my husband and I made sure to bling up the photo a bit.

I am a high school band teacher and flute player, my husband is a rocket scientist (aerospace engineer) and trombone player. We thought, if a flute and trombone were to procreate, what would they make? The result: French horn!

I’m so relieved to be “out” now. We had a blast telling everyone and I’m impressed I kept it a secret from most of the world as long as I did. In seven weeks we’ll be finding out the gender, so that gives me time to come up with another fun way of revealing the next big surprise. Too bad someone already made a big blue penis cake.

About Lani Sommers:

Lani is a high school music teacher, graduate student, and mom-to-be. She lives in Toronto with her rocket scientist husband, Jamie and they are both thrilled to soon be parents to a budding musician. The first performance is due sometime in mid-April of 2010.

To get to know Lani Sommers better, click here.