Our European Holiday: Ireland

Day 8 & 9

Every city we visited was so vastly different. From London to Edinburgh to Glencoe and then to Dublin, they all had their unique characteristics and different vibes. London was more fast paced and modern. Edinburgh had so much history and felt like you were in medieval times. Glencoe was just too unreal, with all the mountain views and the never ending roads to who knows where. Then there was Dublin, with its moody, rainy weather and graffiti everywhere.

When Jake was in college, he helped co-lead a mission trip to Ireland. He was so excited to be back in this country and to show me some of the places he'd been to before. Of course, there was a light rain the entire time we were here, but we didn't let that stop us from exploring! 

We didn't have anything specific we wanted to do in Dublin, so we just enjoyed walking around and soaking it all in. Dublin is a fairly easy city to walk through, with everything being off the canal that runs right through the middle of the city and out to the coast. On our cruise through the city, we stopped at Trinity College and took in all the old architecture. The college was founded back in 1592. Can you imagine the stories this place could tell? It's crazy!

By the time we knew it, we had walked a good 5 or 6 miles and had worked up an appetite. For dinner, we stopped a local pub called The Porterhouse Temple Bar. I got the best chicken pot pie I've ever eaten and Jake got fish and chips (I didn't know a person could eat so much fish and chips in one trip!). Yummm! What I would do to go back there for one meal.

From the cathedrals to the coast, Dublin has a sense of belonging. Although it was overcast and raining the whole time, there seemed to still be so much happening. Everyone we came in contact with was friendly and genuine. It made our short stop in Ireland, a good one. 

Our European Holiday: Scotland

Day 4

 After a cheap flight with Aer Lingus and a few hours later, we finally made it to Edinburgh, Scotland! We were both so excited to start exploring this country, but first Jake had to get used to driving on the "wrong" side of the road. Of course, he picked it up like he's been driving this way for his whole life. So off we went in our European Mercedes to our little cabin we found on AirBnB!

With the early morning and all the traveling we didn't want to do anything except relax in our cabin (goo.gl/XXT9yD). The cabin was located in the countryside about 30 minutes outside of Edinburgh. Once we arrived, we were greeted by our lovely hosts Dave and Lyn. They were as sweet as can be. A little hard to understand at times with their thick Scottish accents, but we enjoyed talking with them. In the cabin, they left us with a welcome basket filled with so many yummy goodies including, croissants, eggs, fresh strawberries, coffee, and a few other little things that we may have needed during our time there.

The cabin was small but oh so cozy. There were lounge chairs outside that backed up to a horse pasture that had the most friendly horse roaming around. The sun was shining and there was a perfect breeze. This was the best combo for an afternoon nap, which we took full advantage of!

 

Day 5

Edinburgh is a city in Scotland that is so rich in history. Walking down the streets makes you feel like you were walking back in time. Jake said it best, "Edinburgh decided a long time ago that they would still progress, but preserve what is beautiful and good". This is so true! It's modern, but history filled all at the same time.

We absolutely loved exploring this city! From walking the streets aimlessly to roaming down the Royal Mile, which is an iconic road that leads from the Edinburgh Castle to the base of Arthur's Seat. We didn't walk the whole mile, but we did walk a good portion of it with coffee in hand. If you're looking for a good spot to see all of Edinburgh, you must hike to the top of Arthur's seat. Such a beautiful view that is worth the effort.

In Edinburgh, we finally slowed down and actually took time to eat at a few restaurants. For lunch, we came across Element, a little hidden gem that was tucked away on a side street downtown. (http://www.elementedinburgh.co.uk/). It was so good that we were tempted to go back for dinner. As the day went on, we soon realized that everything started to close around 5 or 6. This left us with few options for dinner. We happened to stumble upon a shop that had acai bowls. We could literally live off of acai bowls so we couldn't pass them up.

 

Day 6

This was a wake up early, no make-up kind of day. We had a FULL day of exploring the highlands of Scotland ahead of us and we wanted to get an early start. We packed up our cameras and a few extra layers and we were on our way. We knew that once we got into the "rural" parts of the country there wasn't going to be many options for food. So along the way we stopped at a local grocery store and picked up a few things for lunch.

The drive through Glencoe was unbelievable. We'd never seen anything like this before. Everywhere you turned was so unreal looking, with all the mountains and well, mountains. We stopped at every little turn off or random road along the way. We didn't want to miss anything. We ended up going down a one lane road that literally went to nowhere, had barely anything or anyone on it, but it went on forever.

I think the greatest part about adventuring is not having an agenda and just going with the flow. I'm learning more and more that schedules just confine you to what you already know about a place. It's when you 'just go' that you stumble upon the little hidden spots and the unknown beauty of a place. That is when true adventure happens!

We covered so much (but also, not enough) of Scotland this day. We could have spent a whole week just in this area exploring, camping, and going on endless hikes in the mountains, but I guess we'll have to save that for another time.

On our way back from Glencoe, we stopped in a village just down the road from where we were staying to find some food. We didn't get back until close to 10 and there wasn't much open. All of the pubs closed their kitchens at 9, so we stopped at a local restaurant called, The Old Bakehouse (https://theoldbakehouserestaurant.com). If you're ever in Scotland, you MUST try this locally owned, family restaurant in West Linton. If you stop in, make sure to say hello to Sue and Ian for us. They were the nicest people and called us their American friends, only if we weren't Donald Trump supporters. We got a good laugh out of that conversation. We told them we would come back for dinner the following night when the kitchen was open again and that is exactly what we did. Hands down, the best decision. The food was too good to even stop to take a photo of it.

 

Day 7

Our last day full in Scotland, of course, came way too quickly. We took this day to just relax and explore the area where our cabin was. We were surrounded by big, rolling green countryside and it needed to be explored.

We hopped in the car for one last trip around the area. Little town, after little town, we were just enjoying the views and all sheep that seemed to be everywhere. We saw some giant turbine wind mills in the far off distance, so Jake got the idea to try to drive as close as we could to them to he could fly his drone up to them.

To make a long story short, we got as close as we could to the wind mills before we were stopped by a private road. We walked up the road a ways but we couldn't get close enough to make flying the drone to them worth it. Instead, we were surrounded by fields of sheep, so Jake thought it would look cool to fly the drone by the sheep and get some footage up close. By the time Jake had flown the drone by the sheep, he had literately herded the entire flock to the other side of the pasture with his little Mavic. We got a great laugh out of watching the sheep all run together because of a little drone flying by. He may have discovered a new way for farmers to herd their flocks! 

After that little adventure, it was back to the Airbnb to relax and get ready for our early flight the next morning.

Our European Holiday: London

Day 1

Upon landing at the London City Airport, we hopped off the plane and looked for the best way to get across the city to our hotel near Paddington Station. Traveling by the Underground or the Tube, was our best friend while exploring London. The first thing we did was purchase an Oyster card (http://ow.ly/h85130czx6S). Which is a prepaid card that allows you to pay for your fare, quick and efficiently. Once we had our trek mapped out, we got on the next train so could drop off our million pounds of luggage at the hotel and start exploring.

The hardest thing about traveling east is the lovely red eye flights. After traveling through the night and being awake for 30+ hours, we needed coffee. We end up at a popular local shop called Grind Holborn, which was as tasty as it was beautiful. While at the coffee shop we started talking with a few locals who gave us their personal must see and do list of the city. From there we just started walking around. Everywhere you turned was something new and exciting to see. London is so vast and rich with culture and history that it’s pretty easy to get lost in its beauty.

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Day 2

The next morning, we got up pretty early considering this was a vacation (or holiday as they say in the UK). Our goal was to venture outside of London and head south to the coast. Since we decided not to rent a car, we had to use three different modes of transportation to get to our end destination. First we took the Tube to the Victoria national rail station. From there we took a scenic hour and a half train ride outside of the city. Because the train didn’t drop us off right where we needed to be, we jumped on a public bus to the Seven Sisters, right in between Brighton and Eastbourne, UK.

Once we got off the bus, we had a very hard decision to make, which trail we wanted take. There are technically three different 1-mile trails to choose from that all bring you to different location to view the Sisters. We chose to go across the river and walk down the left side, which took us right to the base of the majestic white rock cliffs.

The best view to see the faces of the cliffs is from the hills west down the beach. If you take the trail we did at the wrong time of the day, you won’t be able to access the hills. Luckily, we we were there around low tide. During low tide, the river drops enough that you’re able to walk across to the right side of it and access the hills for a great view. Now mind you, we had to walk across an old wood dock, which was like walking on a balance beam but we made it. The hassle was well worth the view and standing at the base made you feel really small.

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Day 3

This was our exploring London day. Now, typically we would much rather be out exploring nature, but London has so much history to offer within it's walls that we had to see it for ourselves. First thing first though: coffee. We got recommendations to check out Workshop Coffee so we grabbed some coffee from this cool little shop and headed right to Big Ben. I think it’s safe to say we photographed every angle of this beauty. The day before, we attempted to explore this area in the afternoon. It was so overwhelming with how many people were all trying to get a selfie with Big Ben so we thought, lets get up early the next day and see how that goes. Good thing we decided to do it that way because there wasn’t nearly as many people. Nice thing about being around Big Ben is there is tons to see all within walking distance. The London Eye sits right across the river and Tower Bridge is just a short walk along the riverfront. 

Eating was low on the priority list. If we didn’t force ourselves to stop exploring and eat, we probably would have starved the entire time in London. There was just so much to see and not enough time, but we made sure to make time for a stop at The Breakfast Club. From the line out the door to the 90’s hiphop music playing inside, this place was top notch. The food was delicious and the retro aesthetics were pleasing to the eye. Did I mention the food was amazing?! It was definitely our favorite restaurant we ate at while in London.

To add to our eventful day, we rented bikes and rode around Notting Hill. Street after street were brightly painted row homes. We had seen pictures of a particular set of homes that we really wanted to see but we just couldn’t seem to find them. We asked a couple different people to point us in the right direction but nothing was panning out. Either we couldn’t explain it to them well enough or they just really didn’t know where they were amongst all the colored homes because we just kept pedaling. It wasn’t until we did some research on the phone the hotel gave us, that we realized it was on Lancaster Road, a few roads down from where we were. We were determined to find them and we did! 

By the end of everything we accomplished that day, we needed to unwind. Hyde Park was just down the street so we took a stroll through the park to let our minds and cameras have a break. Day 3 was action packed and we honestly couldn’t have fit anything else into it.

 

 

Day 4

Our last day in London came too quickly. We visited one last coffee shop called TAP Coffee in SoHo. In order to get cheaper flights to next stop in Edinburgh, we had to do some research and we came across Ryanair. The tickets we found were dirt cheap in comparison to most airlines in the states. The problem was that the airport they flew out of was so far away from the London city centre. Only option: purchase another hour train ride to the London Stansted Airport, north of the city. Only having to pay $40 a plane ticket made the hassle of traveling to the airport worth it. 

Coming into this trip, we really didn't have much planned out. We had a good idea of the things we wanted to see and do, but realistically we would have needed a few more weeks to really enjoy all that this city/country has to offer.

Because we didn’t get to everything we wanted to, here is a list of places and things we hope to see and do in the future:

Farm Girl Cafe

Enjoy afternoon tea

Cereal Killer Cafe

Visit a Lavender Field

The Royal Botanic Garden

More Coffee shops (can never have enough coffee)

Ok, maybe these are more things that I, Corinne, would rather do than Jake, but still! Next time!

Sara's Hampton Park Bridal Session

Congrats to the new Mrs. Lovelace! Now that Sara and Philip are married, I can finally show off this beautiful Hampton Park bridal session! It took everything inside of me not to share her session before their wedding, but I didn't want to ruin the surprise.

I had so much fun with Sara and her mom exploring this park. Everywhere you looked was filled with flowers and perfect lighting. I could have taken photos all day! Sara was absolutely radiating with happiness and glowing with joy, even though the bugs loved her hairspray and wouldn't leave her along. This session is one of my favorites to date. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I do! 

|| A little fun secret, Sara wore her rainbow sandals for the entire session, besides the shoe shot we took right at the beginning. Laid back brides are the best! ||

 

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A Sunflower Engagement

Happy Friday, Friends!  We made it to the weekend. Yay!! I have a special treat for you, a SUNFLOWER engagement session with the sweetest couple. 

Mallory and Jeremy are two of the most down to earth and easy going people I know. Their love for Jesus, all things musical (mallory plays the harp and piano, and Jeremy plays the drums, among many other instruments), and each other truly shine through them at all time. I was beyond thrilled when they asked me to shoot their spring wedding and how Mallory wanted their engagement session in a sunflower field because who doesn't love sunflowers?! Their wedding was this past weekend and it was absolutely beautiful. I can't wait to share their wedding with you, but for now you can enjoy their sunflower engagement session!

 

"You have a place in my heart no one could ever have:"

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

 

Two Northern Kids, Stuck in a Southern World

As a lot of you may already know, Corinne and I currently call Charleston, South Carolina home. Growing up and well into college, I never really knew about Charleston. South Carolina was just a state I had to pass through to get to Florida. The only thing that was real to me was Myrtle Beach because everyone and their mom from Ohio goes to Myrtle Beach at some point or another. To think that a gem like Charleston was just another 2 hours south and I never knew it was there until I got a call from Charleston while Corinne and I were living in Florida.

Corinne and I got offered a job at a church right outside of Charleston and this once mythical city became a reality for the both of us. I didn't have a clue what it looked like or what the culture felt like but we were loaded up in a moving truck and on our way 'south'. In no time at all we were surrounded by fried chicken and more sweet tea than any human should ever be exposed to. It was weird, people sounded funny, and there was still Palm trees... Aka Palmetto trees. Luckily, we had friends living here that helped us acclimate to the area, but even that came at a stretch. We were just two northern kids stuck in a southern world.

Over the last two years, I have had to ask too many people to repeat themselves because I couldn't translate that thick southern accent that is all too real. I still don't like sweet tea but man, I have really come to LOVE chicken and waffles. This city is so rich with culture and history. The food is to die for and the people bring Southern Hospitality to life. We walk around in awe of how unique the city, we now call home, really is. Three year ago, I hardly knew Charleston existed and now, most cities we travel to don't come close to touching Charlestons vibrance and authenticity. So this post and design is to you Chucktown. Thanks for doing you and allowing us to call you home for these short 3 years. 

Devon + Ben | Dorchester, SC

Some say that you can’t find true love in high school, but Devon and Ben proved them wrong. This fun loving couple met during their junior year of high school and have been in love ever since. They tied the knot at The Gatherings in Dorchester, SC with touches of country and elegance. It was a perfect day, the sun was shining, and the weather couldn't have been any better. Devon's bridesmaid’s dresses were a deep plum color, paired with the prettiest bouquet of flowers and greenery (the best fall combo).  One of the best moments from the day was when we caught the groomsmen watching YouTube videos on how to tie their bow-ties, this had me crying with laughter.

I am so thankful for the couples we get to photograph. Devon and Ben, your wedding was beautiful and we wish you nothing but the best in this new chapter of your lives together. Thank you allowing us to be a small part in your love story.

"I have found the one whom my soul loves." -Song of Solomon 3:4

 

Lauren + Slade | Moncks Corner, SC

 

One of my favorite things about weddings is seeing the support that surrounds the couple, not just for their wedding day, but for their entire marriage. Lauren and Slade’s wedding day was nothing short of a testament for their love for Jesus, each other, and their friends and family. They have truly surrounded themselves with genuine people who love and care for them and their sweet little daughter. We loved way they honored their guests that we’re able to attend and the ones that will forever be in hearts. 

"Let God guide your steps. He delights in every detail of your life." -Psalms 37:23

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This is me: Jake

And so it begins.

It’s a new day and a new journey. The dream was dreamt and now the reality of that dream is coming to life. His & Hers Creative was a dream but not one that we had when were sleeping then woke up and only remembered the minor details. This is a dream that has been cultivated out long days and tireless nights. It has been crafted over many hours and a lot of failed ideas. His & Hers is Corinne and I saying, we are husband and wife and we can make this work TOGETHER. Sure, we have our own niches, but as a whole we do this thing together. 

As you can tell by now this post is going to be a little different from the title. I do want to introduce myself but I hate talking about myself so this will have a little more depth to it, so back to His & Hers Creative.

We believe you can be married and work together. This is because we believe in each other and we are each others BIGGEST fans. Corinne has strengths that frankly, I suck at. In return, I give my best to the things she lacks at. We fill in each others gaps and compliment each others strengths. Do we disagree? Yes, all the time. Does Corinne get annoyed with me when I don’t stay organized? Absolutely. Do we piss each other off by pushing those little buttons? Yup. But that does not stop us from humbling ourselves so the other person can thrive and step into the lane that they are better at.

We yell, we talk, we compromise and we DO NOT keep score.

Side note: When I talk loudly, most of the time Corinne thinks I am yelling. I am not and we joke about this all the time. If you know me, I am a loud person so my talking voice sounds like yelling sometimes. We can all thank my mother for giving me that trait. Love you mom!

I guess, I am telling you all of this because I wanted to make sure you knew why we joined what we do together. We could of easily did separate things and promoted ourselves individually, but this is so much more than just Jake or Corinne. This is our attempt to give back to the world by being excited about marriage and about doing life together. In a culture that has lost its drive to love and stay committed even when it hurts, we want marriages to work. We are going to do everything we can to shine light on this beautiful and challenging coming together of a man and a woman.

So we have joined forces. We brought our creative juices together and now you have photography, videography, and design all under one canopy. The future is only as vast as we want to give to it. We are excited and ready for the years ahead! 

As for me, my name is Jake.

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I like cold brew coffee, surfing, soccer, dogs, Ohio sports and all things creativity. When the surf is good you can find me in the line-up. On rainy days, you can find me sipping on some homemade cold brew… Who am I kidding? Everyday you can find me sipping on that delicious goodness. I like simplistic design that has the ability to pass the test of time and I enjoy cinematography that tugs at your heart. I snap photos because I like to freeze moments in time and I have a radiant wife that looks so good in front of the lens so I take photos of her.

This is me.

This is me: Corinne

Hi!

My name is Corinne. I’m a Northern girl, livin’ in the South. I’m a Jesus lover, adventure seeker, latte drinker, lazy morning lover, beach bum, sunset watcher, and lover of a good story. I’m always up for a random dance party or a brownie sundae. I tend to use too many exclamation points when I text and too many ‘happy faced’ emojis. I’m married to the most incredible man named, Jake. We have been married for over three years and one day we’ll be parents to the cutest little golden doodle!

Jake and I recently started our business, His and Hers Creative in 2016 and have been loving every minute of this new adventure together. We started this business in hopes to make a positive impact and use the gifts God gave use to glorify Him. We want to tell peoples stories so we started a visual-storytelling business in hopes to do just that.

Photography has always been something I’ve enjoyed and wanted to pursue, but there was always something hold me back: the fear of not being good enough, not creative enough, or not being able to capture the ‘right’ moment. Over time I’ve realized that photography isn’t a hobby where you can pick up your camera and excel at it over night. It takes time, patience, and practice… lots of practice.

The reason why I choose to strongly pursue wedding photography is because I love weddings and I believe in marriage! Marriage is the most beautiful, challenging, adventurous, and rewarding thing God ever created. This is the day where you commit the rest of your life to someone you love. I want to be able capture all the feelings of the day, be able to pray with you, and celebrate this incredible journey you’re beginning!

Going after a dream is scary, but so worth the risk.  I’m not sure where photography will take me or even this blog for that matter but I can’t wait to see where I end up, and the people I will meet along the way.

Thanks for following along on my photography journey. Enjoy! 

 

 

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