While I was in Las Vegas for WPPI, I took part in a workshop with wedding photographer, Victor Sizemore. The workshop was a dream—we met up on the 57th floor penthouse at the Palms Place, and we had an opportunity to take part in a “Mad Men” styled shoot with styling from Summer Watkins of Grey Likes Weddings and amazing hair and makeup from Amelia C.

I would love to find an adventurous Michigan couple to do another themed shoot with. That extra touch of makeup, hair and styling takes a shoot to a whole new level.

I’m enjoying a few days at home before the next few legs in my journey—New Orleans on Wednesday, followed by Fort Lauderdale on Saturday.

San Francisco is an amazing city, and it was made even more wonderful by the hospitality of my lovely host, Carina and wine tasting with the ever-engaging Nicole. San Francisco offered up its sunny skies on landing and takeoff, and the rest of the week was rain rain rain. No matter—instead of the photo walks I had intended to take, I enjoyed the city one cafe and meal at a time. My favorite was Cafe Roma—it brought me back to my days studying in Rome.

After San Francisco, I went directly to Las Vegas for WPPI, a HUGE convention and trade show for photographers. I came home with so many amazing new friendships and ideas (special shout out to my roommates Mikkel from New York, Christina from Miami and Kristin from Fayetteville). I have a jolt of new inspiration and energy to throw into the business 🙂

The cutest living room ever—isn’t it inspiring?

A tiny little teaser from the Mad Men styled photo shoot I took part in while in Vegas.

When Jeff and I were planning our wedding, we knew we didn’t want to have a “typical” wedding registry. We’re all about experiences, and we were living in an apartment in Chicago with no storage (plus we were married in Mexico), so we wanted to limit how many material gifts we received. We opted for Foodie Registry—a registry for gift certificates to Chicago restaurants, and it was the perfect option for us.

This week, I was inspired to start a similar experience-based registry around my wedding photography. I joined the [b] School, which is a wonderful community of professional photographers, and one very talented photographer mentioned hosting a registry for friends and families of couples to contribute to their wedding photography packages. I knew right away that I had to offer this to my couples (see: I’m a geek for all things technology).

So if you’re looking for a way to make wedding photography fit into your budget (I know the planning process can become a bit overwhelming), I hope you’ll consider setting up a registry to contribute to your package at no addition fee. And for my current couples, I welcome you to get in touch to set one up as well!

We finished up the moving process early this week with the completion of our “office nook” in the loft. The simple, clean office area is a dream come true—and a nice improvement from my previously cluttered office.

I bought these recycled magnetic strips on Etsy. They were originally meant to be a wedding detail, but I had always planned to use them in the office after the wedding was over (a lesson for all of you brides out there—buy wedding details that you can reuse in your home later, such as simple vases and frames). And yes, even the field notes were left over from the package of three that we bought to write our vows in.

And if you love the desk (I know I do), you can find it at World Market.