So, despite the bitter cold (to us Floridans, anyway) and the overcast skies, Josiah an Dana made this engagement session too awesome for words. From the local indie coffee shop, Stardust, to a quirky and romantic picnic, this session was all kinds of adorable and fun. Now I’m going to stop boasting and start the show:

We took photos of them taking photos. It was awesome.

And now for my favorite favorite FAVORITE shot of the day (and definitely on my short list of fav. shots for 2010):

and how much fun is this sparkely/silvery thingy:

and then we went and had a picnic! they brought all sorts of goodies

Isn’t Dana oh so beautiful?

Man that was a lot of photos for one blog post, but I just loved this session so so so much. These two make me want to be more well-dressed, more photogenic, and just in general a bit cooler. Dana & Josiah, I can’t wait till your October wedding, it’s going to be a blast

So many of you are celebrating valentines day this weekend and, accordingly, I just wanted to share what we did for valentines day in our house this year. First and foremost, I baked. Yes. I have grown an affinity for baking cheesecake this year, and so far I’ve had a ton of success with it (meaning, nothing caught on fire) and I decided to bake Jare a cheesecake for valentines day.

It all started with this book. For Christmas, Jare bought me my new little friend. Anyone Can Bake. And I found out, it’s the truth. If you follow the instructions, you can bake. It’s so simple and yet so awesome.

I actually sort of made up the recipe for the cheesecake I made on v-day, but this will give you the general idea. I encourage you to make up some little spin on traditional recipes(within reason)! I decided to make Strawberry Cheesecake Bars with Graham Cracker Crust:

Graham Cracker Crust: Mix 1/3 cup butter with 1 1/2 to 2 cups finely crushed graham crackers and line the pan with them. The end!

Cheesecake bar: mix 2 8oz  packs of cream cheese with 1 cup sugar and 5 egg whites. This is the part I made up: I added about 2 cups of fresh strawberries, the majority of them were mushed up into juice, and some were freshly cut. Take the strawberrry mixtury thing and beat it in with the cream cheese/sugar/egg combo. Put in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes, and bam! You’re done. You’re a professional cheesecake baker.

Topping: I took the remaining strawberries (about a half cup, maybe more), pinch of sugar, and oooooh about 1/3 cup of orange juice, put them in a skillet and let them simmer for about 20 minutes (until the cheesecake is done) and added it to the top of my delicious master piece.

And I know you want proof that I did this. So here, photographic evidence of my master chef status:

Mmmmmm. You like how I added the little heart to be super duper sweet and romantic for V-Day? I know, I’m good. I paired this yummy little guy with a bottle of Pink! champagne. YUUUU-UUUUM.

So, I challenge you to go forth and make delicious cheesecakes and all sorts of goodies for your man (or lady!). Flowers only go so far, people. Jared said it best when I questioned him getting me chocolates instead of flowers for valentines day, “you’re going to be glad later when you’re scarfing down those little chocolate turtle things out of a heart shaped box. You can’t eat flowers, Shan”. To which I thought, hmmm.. you should have gotten me both. Happy valentines day, lovers !

Okay guys, meet Lesley & Andre. They are such a down-to-earth, fun to be around couple! I loved this session and I really feel blessed when I meet clients who I can see myself being really great friends with for years to come. These guys are awesome and their wedding is right around the corner, and guess what – I can’t wait for it!

Seriously LOVE this shot ^ above.

Then we went to this gorgeous golden field for some quintessential SNS shots. Because really, there’s no better way to pull off timelessly romantic and whimsical photographs than with a field of golden tall grass at sunset.

okay and this next shot is my absolute hands down favorite shot from the day. I freaking love it. See below:

L&A: see you guys soon! I am too too too excited for your big day.