Ever been stuck on the freeway?

The other day my chocoholic friend and I were heading into San Francisco from the peninsula. Thinking that we were going to have some time to check out a store in Marin and grab a bite before she dropped me off at another friends house, our bubble was quickly burst by this...

Not fun let me tell you - and even less so for the person who was involved in the accident that caused this backup for sure! What was interesting was that people decided to get out of their cars and just walk along the freeway! After sitting in the car for a while we thought it would be an experience to get out and join in. Not to mention that standing in the shade of a lone eucalyptus was cooler than sitting in the car. Thankfully we were only about 20 cars away from the closure of the freeway and had to wait about 50 minutes before highway patrol cleared open a few lanes for us to get through. Could have been much worse. Hope the person in the accident is ok.

The World of Photography

Looking for wedding photographers has been an interesting process. Since taking our engagement photos I have come to appreciate photography more than I did before, and have also been able to narrow down what type of pictures I would like for my wedding day.

On my search I found an amazing photographer in the Bay Area by the name of Jennifer Kloss Photography. Here is a sample of some of her most recent photos from a San Francisco wedding. I love the colours! Especially on the pictures of the details.

More of her work can also be found on her blog.

Having our wedding in Cyprus posted many photog questions. Could we find what we were looking for in Cyprus? Would we hire someone from North America that we liked? How much would that cost? What does that even involve? So I spent many an hour online looking into photography. I realized that the photos that most appealed to me were the ones with a photojournalistc outlook.

One of the few Cypriot photographers that I came across that met our requirements were a couple who took pictures of weddings in Cyprus and the UK called Amorphia Photography. We contacted them and they were great, but not available for the dates we wanted. Here is some of their work.

They too have a blog you can check out. They do some neat digital work on some of their photos, particularly those of "day after" or "trash the dress" shoots.

What does one have to do to get a ring around here

Mr. Milk and I are mostly in agreement about what's important for our wedding day and marriage. Flowers are beautiful but they don't last, the wedding dress can be gorgeous but chances of wearing it again are slim (at least not the same one!), so spending a ton of money on these things seems a little pointless. What we don't want to be too budget conscious about are our wedding bands and our photographer (more on him coming soon in a later post) since these are the things that last from your wedding day. 

We have been perusing stores for wedding bands in the last few months, trying to decide what we both like, if we want matching bands or not, and so on. Mr. Milk finally found a band that he was excited about from none other than Tiffany's (which I love, but then again, who doesn't, little blue box and all).

So we went to the store to ask about prices only to find out that this particular band is being discontinued. Tiffany's will no longer be making it therefore the only sizes you can get it in are the ones that the stores already have in stock. Well it turns out that Mr. Milk has a very common ring size! I have spent most of the morning calling a bunch of Tiffany stores in an attempt to see who has the ring in his size. Apparently there are only three (yes 3) left in the US market! And a few more internationally! The other issue with this particular ring (yes we try not to EVER take the easy road) is that because of its shape and style, it is very difficult to resize without leaving marks (or so we have been told by two separate sales people). Well, when the Tiffany jewelers are telling you that resizing is difficult you sit up and listen! Needless to say we want it even more now that it is hard to find and will be discontinued! In Mr. Milk's mind he will have a very unique ring in the years to come.

So I have called four different stores (and had a fifth one on my list) leaving my contact details and being told how difficult this is but that the sales people would do their best. I LOVE the customer service at this store. No matter who you are, or what you look like when you walk into a Tiffany store, or whether you buy anything or not, they treat you with courtesy and are super friendly. Well... the call finally came! The lady helping me at the Bay Area store called back to tell me that she had found one and was having it delivered to the store next week ready for me to go pick up! So happy! Although don't want to get to overexcited until its actually in the store and she has called me to say so. But still can't wait for my upcoming trip to San Fran to get it!

Engagement Photos

I lived in San Francisco for five years, completing my Psy.D. I LOVE that city! I met wonderful people, ate amazing food, and my only real complaint is that it's too windy! To top it all off, Mr. Milk proposed to me in my little apartment in North Beach! A few weeks after he proposed we started to talk about having some engagment photos taken. We decided that we wanted some pictures that would showcase San Fran and that we could look back on once we (or I) moved back home.

I began an internet hunt for an engagment photographer who not only met our location requirements - we wanted to be able to take pics in several locations across the city - but who also met our budget. All I have to say is thank god for craigslist! I was able to find a very talented young photographer by the name of Gabriel Beszeda, who was trying to make a transition from landscape photography to wedding/engagement photography and had a special deal advertised. We communicated back and forth through email, and we finally met one lunch time at my workplace (so nice of him to do) so that he could show me some of his work and discuss our needs.

We arranged our shoot to be on Valentine's Day 2008, which was a weekend Mr. Milk would be in SF. We had a wonderful day taking pictures followed by dinner at Palomino's. Who knew that being models for a day would be so tiring! We took photos in 3 different locations around the city and here is a sample for you to see.

A favorite (above)

Another favorite (above)