Stripes, Floppy Hats, Beignets, and Faux French Fabulousness

After a whirlwind 10 days of traveling from Denver to Salt Lake City to New Orleans to visit dear friends, shoot weddings, and eat lots and lots and LOTS of good food, I’m finally back at home for awhile and ignoring the massive pile of laundry in the corner and all the unpacking and cleaning that needs to be done. It’s been great to be away, but also great to be back with Jamie and Gretchen and the familiarity of our bed. I’ve got lots of fun stuff to share over the next couple of weeks, especially as I gear up for a CRAZY busy and exciting fall (five weddings and a ton of portrait sessions are in my not-so-distant future!), but for now I just wanted to post a few photos of my friend Kelly.

As much as I post about her here, I’m sure you feel like you already know her, but whenever we go out of town together to shoot weddings, especially when we’re in a gorgeous place, we just can’t help but bring our cameras along and do impromptu photo shoots of each other. I think it has something to do with the fact that we’re photographers and we’re very rarely in front of the camera, as well as our restless personalities and the need to always be changing up something and experimenting and pushing ourselves creatively. Or it could just be vanity. Whichever.

This week we got to spend a couple of glorious days in the city of New Orleans, where I second shot a wedding on a ship with her yesterday. Talk about a fun and absolutely crazy experience. Because I had never been to the city, I was super excited to soak in all the culture, and I wasn’t disappointed. Its charm and character and delicious Cajun/French/Southern/coastal-inspired food and spirit and sweltering humidity reminded me a lot of living in Charleston, but it definitely stands alone. I can’t wait to go back!

In true tourist fashion, Kelly and I decided to frolic about the French Quarter in our stripe-y best (I believe the French term is cliché), and we spent our free day wandering, gorging on delicious food (beignets? praline bacon? shrimp ‘n grits? boudin balls? Pat O’Brien’s famous hurricane drinks? yes please!), and channeling our inner Amelie. So much so that we chose to spend most of the afternoon in the courtyard of a restaurant called Café Amelie. We’re so predictable and we love it, okay?

I also made Kelly bring along her fabulous black floppy straw hat, which was a huge hit with the locals. It also added the perfect amount of je ne sais quoi to these images I captured of her. Enjoy!