Photographer self portrait w/ my beloved Nikon D90

Just a photo I snapped of my brother BJ at a recent wedding with his sick camera holster. We make a pretty sweet team if you ask me and can check out our wedding portfolio over at his site Light.Soul.Photographics

Our ninja photography style cannot be messed with and his perspective is AMAZEBALLS!

I can’t even begin to tell you how much good karma this sweet & savory cakebite has  brought me. Annie likes to call our Triple Chocolate topped w/ Caramelized Bacon cakebite the Holy Grail.

Sundays in our house are family days so I thought I would post about an adorable one from a late summer lifestyle mini shoot. Cynthia is great behind the lens herself but sometimes it’s a hard thing ALWAYS being the photographer. Her boys both had big personalities and I was pretty happy with the shots that came of this session.  More photos from this shoot at Cynthia & CO.

The Fest of Ale in Janesville, WI celebrated it 10th year with a sold out crowd and over 100 beers available for tasting. A lively crowd and great bands set the tone for a wonderful event with proceeds going back to the local Kiwanis group donating the funds to various community endeavors. Our custom beer themed dessert bar included cakebites (Red Velvet, Chocolate Guinness, Triple Chocolate plain as well as some topped caramelized bacon) and super yummy treats (mini pumpkin cupcakes w/ creamcheese frosting, sugar cookies, peanut butter cookies + homestyle fudge brownies) from our friends at The Afton Market. As always, not only were the sweets a hit but our display was unexpected and wowed the audience.

I find it funny how all my weddings trend as far as styles and colors. The end of summer brought 2 weddings colored in navy, green and beige.

These a la carte cakebites from the Genung Wedding were a hit and at their wedding from “cake balls” took on the hilarious moniker of  ”cake nuts”!

My little cousin (who isn’t so little anymore!) has grown into such a vibrant and beautiful young woman. She’s gone off to college, met the Russian man of her dreams and likeall fairy tales, tied the knot so they can live their happily ever after. The Allen’s asked me to help with their big day in a few ways, one of which was to build a custom dessert bar for a wedding chock full of sugar lovers. I seriously couldn’t believe how long that dessert line was…it went pretty much the entire length of the ballroom! We filled it with an assortment of cakebites, cupcakes, cookies and bars with plenty of  Forde family favorites and Afton Market staples mixed in. I drew inspiration for the table design from the happy bride and grooms favorites starting with COLOR! I like to think of this design as classy and colorful. I also commissioned my cupcake maven’s skills and had her create cupcake toppers to reflect other favorites such as mountain biking, nature, reading, skiing, ice cream, running, etc…  I thought the table turned out beautiful and very, very personal.

Growing up my mom always made our costumes and after spending money to buy a few for my kids I’ve recently taken to this tradition a few years ago. This time around I got a chance to work on zombie costumes. A trip to our local Goodwill was perfect to find cheap clothing that could be torn and bloodied without regret.

Do you know how liberating it is to tear up clothes?

After talking it over with my two older boys, we went with nuclear themed zombies and left the face gore to their cousins who also dressed as zombies. Kairo’s bio hazard mask and glowing mouth piece is missing in this photo. Oh, and little Batman is definitely on a sugar high!

The cool, crisp air of the fall season is upon us and this Harvest inspired collection created to match my cousin’s confirmation decor just makes me all warm and fuzzy.