Written by Candace on September 21, 2012 | 4 Comments

Armenian
Food Festival

This past week, Vitaliy and I attended the Annual Armenian Food Festival & Bazaar in San Francisco.

My BAF (Best Armenian Friend) Tamar invited us and I happily accepted. There are two things that I love in life – food and culture. Combine those two things and you are destined for a great evening. And let me tell you, the Armenian Food Festival did not disappoint.

I had warm sandwiches outside and followed it up with a cafeteria style dinner inside. Of course, I don’t remember any of the names that correspond with the dishes, but I do remember the flavors. We ended the evening at their dessert bar and took ours to go so we could have a little slice of Armenian when we arrived home.

Besides the good food, you could easily see that the festival was really about the people. We enjoyed traditional Armenian dance. And as I scanned the area, I couldn’t get over the beauty of the Armenian people. But what was even more remarkable was how connected everyone seemed to be. You would have thought it was one big family reunion. And though we were outsiders ourselves, they made us feel like we were party of the family.

If you are local to the area, you must check out the Armenian Food Festival next year. It’s a unique and fun date idea. And even if you’re not local, cities all over America have cultural festivals. I’m positive there’s one in your area. Check it out! You’ll enjoy some new food and get to experience a new culture.

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Written by Candace on September 18, 2012 | 4 Comments

Putting Things Off

I’m just going to come out and say it. There is something that your relationship needs that you keep putting off.

We know because we’ve done the same thing. Vitaliy and I have gone without drapes on our bedroom windows for more than five weeks now. We got rid of our old ones with every intention to replace them the same weekend, but never found what we were looking for. Then week after week, we kept saying, we’ll get to it…next week.

I’m sure you can infer that our love life started to pay the price for our neglect. With no window shades and a popular play area for our neighbors’ kids right outside our windows, we were very limited on when we could have fun in the bedroom. Like how I worded that? Just trying to keep it real, yet classy.

Moving on, this past week we were determined to fix the problem. As you all might know, if you neglect your love life in marriage, things will quickly start to go downhill fast. Desperate times, cause for desperate measures. We designated date night last week to finding drapes for our windows. And we were determined not to return home without them. Three Target stores later, we arrived home around 10pm with drapes in hand.

We slept that night with our windows covered in a cocoon of privacy, peace and love. Get your mind out of the gutter people! You’re missing the moral of the story.

Do not put off until next week what your relationship desperately needs today. It’s possible it’s something more substantial than window drapes, but that is what our relationship needed. You know what it is. Designate this week’s date night to working on that area. Date nights can be all about having fun, but most of all, they should be spent investing in your relationship. And if you don’t have a regularly set date night, then go ahead and start there.

This is us on our anniversary weekend trip back in August. Happy as clam be! But in order to keep it that way, it requires work.

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Written by Candace on September 13, 2012 | 6 Comments

Michael + Kate:
Engaged

Before the internet and the world of online dating, people used to get matched up by their friends. A person’s BFF would size up the potential candidate. And just like with online dating, their appearance, general interests, and compatibly would all be factored into the perfect equation to see if they’d be a right fit.

This is precisely how Michael and Kate started dating. Their mutual friends did the math and thought they’d be the perfect pair. They should be given a cupid award for their match making efforts because Michael and Kate have been together since high school.

Having been together for so many years, their love is acquainted, familiar and strong. Their roots have grown deep and a foundation has been set. They are ready to grow old with each other by their side.

Kate and Michael – thank you for giving us the absolute pleasure of documenting your love. To say it was fun would be an understatement. The location, the light, the two of you – it was all perfectly romantic. We are so excited to be photographing your wedding this upcoming October. Cheers to celebrating you!

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