Stacia and Max’s wedding day was warm and sunny, filled with glowy, fairytale-esque light… and when I think of one word that could sum up their wedding, it would definitely be “fairytale”! Stacia carefully planned every beautiful detail of their day, and every little thing had significance. Her dad, an arborist, hand-cut the gorgeous cedar […]

There’s nothing like Saturday mornings in summertime Chicago! If you can get past getting up early (it’s tough, I KNOW), Chicago is quiet and beautiful and so peaceful. Last Saturday, I met Alyssa and Jim at the Grant Memorial in Lincoln Park, and the morning was so perfect, so beautiful! We spent some time at […]

Two and a half years ago, on the day the Chicago Cubs won the World Series, my dear cousin Kristen had her lucky #worldseriesbaby. Christopher was born eleven weeks early, in a hospital right in the middle of a city erupting with crazy celebration. Christopher’s early arrival took everyone by surprise, and he was a […]

During my trip to Portland a few weeks ago, I sat next to someone at the conference I attended, and we struck up a conversation. She was from Portland, and I asked her if she ever took it for granted that she lived in such an incredible place (as in, access to nature/mountains/rivers/the ocean, an […]

Stacia! Max! What a COUPLE! What a love story! Stacia is my cousin, we grew up together, we’ve traveled Europe together (on our trip, she turned 18 and I turned 21! Our birthdays are days apart!!), and Marty and Stacia both went to Bradley University (they overlapped by a year)! While she is younger than […]

Besides two quick trips to California, I’ve spent very little time on the West coast, and zero in the Pacific Northwest… so when my sister Ali and I found out that a Portland church we love was hosting an amazing conference, and the weekend happened to be wide open for both of us… we jumped! […]

Oh, Lori and Poitier! WHAT A WEDDING! And what a couple! Lori and P met playing basketball with friends, and their casual friendship slowly grew into a deep love for each other. When I walked into Lori’s hotel room this Friday, I was greeted by a kind, welcoming, hilarious group of bridesmaids — the atmosphere […]

I’ve mentioned this before, but I have a really big extended family, and I love it so much! My mom came from a family with six kids, and I have a ton of cousins! We all grew up together — sleepovers, road trips, VBS, holiday parties, summer BBQ’s. Now that we’re adults, we’re more spread […]

Hooray for December weddings!! This was such a special wedding for us, because Caitlin is one of my younger sister’s dearest friends! It was such a privilege to get to know Caitlin and Max and their families and friends on their wedding day! They got married two days before Christmas — and while it wasn’t […]

Marty and I have never had a real live Christmas tree in our house. As a kid, my family used to go to the local garden store (Franks!) and pick out [what felt like] a ginormous tree… they’d wrap it in plastic netting for us… we’d strap it to the top of our conversion van […]