May Flowers Bring Bridal Showers

Oh the changes that life will bring! Back in the summer of 2010, I was a wee little intern in the city. I was a little lost, a whole lot confused, and pretty darn lonely. Fortunately, I stumbled upon an incredible community group at my church which was specifically for interns and recent grads. It was in that circle where I first began extending myself, both in terms of new relationships and new experiences. I met incredible people from different facets and stages of life, one of them being a wonderfully quirky girl named Kristin who had a dream internship with a designer! Fast forward to 2013 when I moved to the city full time, and I joined a different community group at a different church, only to walk in and see Kristin sitting right there! Our lives were meant to intersect yet again, and since then it has been such a life-affirming friendship! Now in 2015, I had the honor of being a Witness in her bridal party and listen to her & Johnny exchange their vows. These photos are a couple of snapshots from her bridal shower back in May - she was already such a beautiful bride even before the big day! The lovely pale pinks are just a perfect backdrop to her stunning dress, don't you think?

Baby Blues for Baby Boys

Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to celebrate my dear friends Amy and Renee who are expecting baby boys a couple of weeks apart. Both of these wonderful ladies are actually the first within my New York City friend group to be entering parenthood, and I couldn't be more delighted for them. The item I loved the most (besides the gorgeous cake and ridiculously delicious monkey bread) was the hanging twine with "favors" for after the baby was born. Ideas ranged from bringing over a movie for a girls night to doing a sink full of dishes to holding a real adult conversation! As more and more of my friends have entered into different life stages than me, I've wondered how I can love and serve them best when I have absolutely no clue what they might be going through. I loved these tangible ideas and can't wait to see how amazing of mothers Amy & Renee will both become! 

Old Friends, New City

After almost two years of forcing my brother to come up to New York City, I finally got the chance to make the trip in the other direction and visit Washington DC this past weekend. While I was hoping to finally check off the cherry blossoms from my bucket list, the never ending winter foiled those plans. Luckily, thanks to some especially fortuitous timing and a last minute scramble, a few of my college friends from Penn (and one straggler from Princeton, ahem) managed to all convene in DC for a spontaneous reunion! As much as I love my new post-grad life in New York (I think I'm one of the only people that prefers "real life" to college...), seeing everybody in one place reminded me of what I truly value from my college experience. Yes, I had wonderful professors and a pretty great education, but most importantly, I was surrounded by an incredibly diverse group of people who were all high-achievers in vastly different fields. When I first got to Penn, I shunned the word "feminist", had no idea what racist microaggresions were, wouldn't have recognized privilege even if it slapped me in the face, and all around just knew so little about society! The diverse ethnic, cultural, geographic, and socioeconomic backgrounds of this group here as well as so many more of my friends at Penn totally transformed my viewpoints on life, society, education, and culture. Even though we didn't realize how diverse our little reunion actually was, looking at these photographs now brings so much joy to my heart. Beauty truly has no bounds - just look at these people! Beyond the lofty thoughts, though, of course the whole weekend was just an all around great time. I got to explore more of the city, meet my brother's friends, experience some epic brunches (shoutout to Tonic for their ridiculous breakfast tots and Busboys & Poets for their very unique Iraqi corned beef hash!), experience one of the weirdest shows I'll probably ever see, eat a gigantic passion fruit macaron from Bakers & Baristas (although it wasn't a "real" macaron in my humble opinion #ladureesnob), check out the incredible Newseum (the Pulitzer Prize photo exhibit brought tears to my eyes multiple times), re-live my study abroad semester with a friend at Nando's, and of course force everybody to pose for portraits and more portraits. Can't wait to travel more!

  Group shots (iPhone 6):  

The Other Side of the Camera

Since I've identified myself as a photographer more and more, I've found that I'm in photos less and less. There are so many days where I'll come back home with a hundred photos on my SD card and I'm barely present in any of them. So when Lauren from The Pear Shape and I were doing our photo shoot, I took up her offer for a chance to be on the other side of the camera for once! With such a sharp eye as a fashion blogger, I love the photos she took - perhaps it's the leather jacket or the dark lipstick, but I swear this is the edgiest I've ever looked in my life. Thanks for these amazing photos, Lauren!