This Valentine’s day styled shoot was so much fun! My amazing friend Mimo is a pastry chef and made all of these goodies from scratch the morning of the session. She is one talented chef and will be coming out soon with an amazing blog. I am so very proud of her! In honor of Valentine’s day, I asked my friends to come over and eat all the goodies for my shoot. I had them eat so much candy and sugar that I could not stop laughing. At one point I asked them to grab as much candy as they could and eat it out of their hands. By far the best session ever! I mean who does not love eating a bunch of candy while listening to a Galentine’s day playlist on Spotify?

Since it is Valentines Day and I am a total foodie I have taken the time to write down my top favorite restaurants from around the world. I hope this inspires you to try a new restaurant!

Top 20 favorite restaurants:

1. Sol Food- San Rafael, California
2. Tomi Thai- Windsor, California
3. Chloes Catering- Windsor, California
4. Bean in Love- Paarl, South Africa
5. Italia- Reykjavik, Iceland
6. Pauli Gees Pizza-Brooklyn, New York
7. Hopmunk- Sebastopol, California
8. Royal China- Santa Rosa, California
9. Simply Vietnam- Santa Rosa, California
10. Theresas and Johnnys Diner- San Rafael, California
11. El Patio- Santa Rosa, California
12. Perry’s Deli- Santa Rosa, California
13. Roam Burger- San Francisco, California
14. Soulva- San Fransisco, California
15. The Pharmacy- Santa Rosa, California
16. The Healdsburger- Healdsburg, California
17. Rustic Bakery- San Rafael, California
18. Rudys- Dallas, Texas
19. Velvet Tacos- Dallas, Texas
20. Burger Up- Nashville, Tennessee

Pictures above are of the amazing pastry chef Mimo!

Since I am a sucker for love stories and it’s Valentines Day I asked these two lovebirds their love story. Here is how they met and fell in love told by Caroline:

“We met right out of high school and became friends fast. He made me laugh and want to be a better person. About two years later he reached out about needing a change and thought California sounded fun. He wondered what I thought about him moving down to my area (he lived in Seattle at the time). When I told a close friend, thinking they too could be friends, he chuckled and said, “You do realize he is in love with you right?” I clearly had no idea but I did not mind that idea either. Peter and I texted and talked and facebooked all the time from then on. He came to visit and his visit turned into us dating and then before we knew it we were engaged then married. That timeline is still kind of embarrassing and I would not necessarily recommend it but I think because we started our romantic relationship after years of deep friendship it worked. I love that we have essentially grown up together. We have rejoiced, mourned and everything in between. He is my first and only love. Our lives are intricately woven together now and by the grace of God we have been married six years with two daughters and he still makes me laugh” -Caroline