The thing is, even though Valentine’s day is supposed to be all about love, it’s always just felt a little forced, more about candy hearts than real ones. But maybe that’s condemning a holiday that has been hijacked by overzealous holiday commercialism through no fault of its own. Sorry Valentine’s day.

The Valentines that have always meant the most to me were homemade. So I’ve decided to put a little homemade love out there today. I am a big baker and I recently went through a marshmallow phase, hence Valentine’s day smores, complete with homemade pink (!) marshmallows!

Now, yes they do sell marshmallows at the grocery store, as my father helpfully reminded me, but homemade marshmallows are so much better and surprisingly easy to make. Well, easy to make since I discovered this recipe on smitten kitchen, we won’t talk about the first two batches or glorified vanilla gelatin…

And voila! smores! But who to give them to?  Lucky me, my friend pointed me to Urban Daddy’s Pop-Up Wedding event at the W Hotel. I’m still relatively new to San Francisco, so getting my name out there is number one. And I thought, smores + weddings + photos = awesome. Here are a few pics of the great couples I met. Congratulations! and thanks so much for letting me be part of your Valentine’s day!