Who says you only wear your wedding dress once?

When I heard that my friend and fellow photographer Jessica wanted to surprise her hubby of over 5 years with photos of her in her wedding dress I jumped at the chance to photograph her.  Shooting another photographer can be kind of intimidating, but Jessica was so chill I soon got over my nerves and got in my happy zone.

Don’t let her sweet soft spoken personality fool you.  Put her in front of a camera and she is FIERCE.  I loved how she worked her accessories: the flower, the boots, the jewelry, it was all smoking I tell you….smokin!

When you get a chance check out her work here.

If any of you married ladies out there have been toying with the idea of rocking your wedding dress again for your man in a little photo shoot, holla at me and we'll make it happen. It would make a lovely Christmas gift :D

Holiday Baking & My Secret Weapon

I love baking around the holidays, but that directly conflicts with the goal of keeping the numbers on the scale going down instead of up.  So I have a secret weapon:  banana bread.

Growing up my family would eat bananas like nobody's business, but none of us really liked them after they became super ripe. So, we always had tons of leftover overly ripe bananas. Solution?  Banana bread. Lots and LOTS of banana bread.  By the time I was 10 I think I had the recipe memorized.  Occasionally ripe bananas would make their way into a cornbread recipe *shudder*.  Needless to say, banana bread isn't my favorite sweet bread ;)  However, we still have tons of ripe bananas, and I love the thought of homemade bread for a gift, or a surprise guest.  So there you have it, I can bake and still defeat the scale :)

Do you have any tips for surviving holiday sweets? Or maybe you even have another use for ripe bananas that doesn't involve cornbread :)

Toni + Tobi

Earlier this year, I had the wonderful opportunity to photograph Toni and  Tobi's Nigerian Traditional Engagement Ceremony.  Unlike the name suggests, the ceremony is much closer to the date of the wedding (most often the day before the wedding date).  At the engagement ceremony, is where the groom formally requests permission from the bride's family to marry her.  Gifts are exchanged, speeches made, and lots of fun is had by all!