GRATITUDES + BREAKTHROUGHS 07.30.19

Gratitudes

I had two amazing engagement sessions with two of the sweetest couples! I will be sharing Jillian + Tanner’s engagement session at Great Meadow on Thursday! They brought their two pups Regan + Riley and we had so much fun watching the two dogs run wild and free.

I ended up spending most of the weekend in DC. Saturday I spent the evening with some lovely friends and industry rockstars. Rachel with The One Moment Events, Kir with Kir Tuben Photography and also Tori with Victoria Heer Photography! We met at Tori’s for rooftop cocktails with a warm sunset and city views. She showed us her favorite neighborhood eatery that was insanely good, called Chiko! It was a Chinese + Korean fusion spot that was quick. I had their house fried rice with catfish and it was tasty! From there we popped over to a speakeasy hidden in plain site called Harold Black. I had been there before (Thanks Ashley!) and wanted to share the intimate and cool experience with these gals. You follow the address to an unmarked door that is on the side of an open restaurant. You walk through the hallway and it’s completely dark, like we could barely see each other until we got upstairs to a foyer with a sign that politely asked us to knock and wait by candle light. We were greeted, seated and enjoyed specialty cocktails and dessert. I can’t even really tell you the last time I went out like a normal person on a Saturday night, it felt so good to get dressed up and to be out! Conversation was amazing and flipped between personal and business and we laughed so hard that Kir cried. I’m incredibly grateful for their support in business, real life friendship and their passion for really living life.

Sunday, I popped into Ayla’s to go over her wedding timeline and family formal list. I’ll be heading to Italy in a few short weeks and I wanted to make sure we were crossing things off of the to-do list before her wedding! Francesco, her fiance made an incredible dinner with skirt steak tacos too!

Yesterday I met Johanna + Anthony at sunrise for a walk around their Capitol Hill neighborhood to celebrate their upcoming wedding! We grabbed those classic DC architecture photos at the Capitol Building, enjoyed the stoop and garden in front of their church (where they met), sipped coffee at Firehook Bakery where they had their first date and visited their favorite bench, where they’ve had all of their most intimate conversations and the spot where Anthony proposed! I’ll be sharing their gallery soon!

Also, I got in all of my film scans from The FIND Lab. I had been hoarding my film before sending it in and it allllll came back last week. I’ve been flipping through memories of Italy, Ireland, Austin, the Grand Canyon and Portugal. I am working on setting up the blog posts and galleries and you know I’ll be pushing those out there soon.

Nail polish update, or should I say lack thereof. In the first time in probably a decade I haven’t had nail polish on my fingers or toes for about 10 days. It feels weird, and funny enough one of my best friends noticed when I met up with her. I believe she said “Wow, I don’t think I’ve EVER seen you without nail polish besides when you were changing colors.” So, why? Honestly, I’ve been shuffling back and forth between so many locations that when I took it off after OBX (sunscreen destroys nail polish) I haven’t had enough time to really pick a color and relax to paint them. That’s changing this week though, I need to get through some editing and I’ll post on IG stories my color and mani!

Breakthrough

Being in DC this last week reminded me I need to make an effort to explore locally. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in your home routine, you shop at the same places, hit the same restaurants or coffee shops because those places make you feel comfortable. Comfort is nice, but exploring is adventurous and rewarding. Most of my time in DC was in Capitol Hill and before last week I hadn’t spent much time there, um… it’s adorable. It truly felt like quaint a neighborhood; people were friendly, adorable shops and restaurants, lovely views of some stately buildings and the feeling of newness.

I’m sharing a local list of places I want to visit this year:

Williamsburg
Harrisonburg
Charlottesville
Luray
Fredericksburg

I’m sure there’s plenty more near by, so if you have a suggestion, let me know!

As always, thanks for reading! xo.