Hello friends! You may have noticed, I have been absent from my blogging duties for a while – there's been A LOT going on in my life these past weeks, so I sincerely apologize for leaving y'all hanging. The 13th edition of Three to Share has some big announcements, so without further ado...
This is a very exciting announcement: My family recently opened a brand new restaurant here in Pensacola! It's called the Five Sisters Blues Café and it's located downtown in the Belmont-DeVilliers neighborhood. The restaurant has been under construction for a few years, and had been a dream in my father's head for many years before that – many years before me, in fact!
The five sisters are my dad's mother, Jeannette, and her four sisters: Cora, Dorothy, Sara, and Margaret. It is from these wonderful ladies my dad learned how to cook and also developed a passion for hospitality. And blues, well that was the soundtrack of his life, so to speak. This restaurant is an homage to these soulful ladies and his southern roots. And, it's a true family restaurant – daughters, cousins, aunts, and spouses have really come together in recent months to help this restaurant go from idea to reality. So exciting!
If you're in the neighborhood, and you have a hankering for some home-cooked goodness, stop by 421 W. Belmont Street and get your fix! They offer scrumptious Southern cuisine, Sunday brunch, a full bar, live music, patio dining, and on/off-site catering. I can honestly tell you *everything* on the menu is delish! My suggestions? Start with a refreshing Mint Iced Tea and some oh-so-yummy Fried Green Tomatoes. Then choose a filling entree, sandwich, or salad. And DO NOT leave without having dessert! Choose from 3 kinds of bread puddings or the cobbler du jour. Meg and I agree: the pecan cobbler is absolutely to die for!
It is with a tinge of sadness that I announce that I have left MBP and Pensacola for Boston. Yep, that Boston – up there in New England, the one with the Red Sox and Paul Revere and where Elle Woods went to school, and also where they seem to have their own vocabulary. ;)
My husband is originally from there, so it's a big homecoming for him and quite a new adventure for me! I've never lived anywhere that has four seasons and white Christmases, or a fanatical sports culture. I'm looking forward to all of that and more!
Although it seemed short, I have many great memories during my time here at Meg Baisden Photography. Getting to see all of you readers during the most special day of your lives (to date) has been quite a pleasure and a privilege. Meg and Charles are gracious employers and friends and I certainly do not see this as "good-bye." My home is here and I will be back visiting often and I hope to see them in Boston, too!
Thanks so much for embracing my little contribution here! If you're interested in keeping up with me, check out my own little blog that I just started!
I bid you all a very fond farewell. :)
And now for an update from Meg...
Hello readers! As you have now learned, last month we said a tearful goodbye to Jamie. It's been a sad transition, not just because we were losing a great employee, but also because of what she had contributed here on the blog and in the album-design realm for all of you. She made our world a prettier place and invented this little series that I loved from her first installment. I am happy to say that the Three to Share series will continue on - with snippets from me and whoever else I can strong arm into sharing goodness here.
Another change I'll be making (effective immediately - I've always wanted to say that!) is in regards to post titles and categories. Now that we have officially wrapped up our backlog with our flashback series, it seems silly to continue referring to recent work as "hot off the press" - as everything will now be hot off the press; so I'm retiring those two categories. They will live in the archives, so you can find what you are looking for there - but moving forward, I will be switching up our title format a bit so that it's easier to find what you are looking for in our search box. That's all for now!
Meg & I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Jamaica for a fantastic three day wedding weekend this past May. The trip, like so many of our wedding contracts (as my wife continually reminds me), would fall over our very own seven year wedding anniversary. What's a wedding photographer to do?
Well, in this case - the stars all aligned, as I was able to give Meg a fantastic anniversary treat - hopefully making up for several years of lackluster efforts. You see, a year or so ago we were published in a fantastic bridal magazine called Caribbean Bride - they ran a multi-page feature on the Bahamian wedding of Shonna + Harris at the Atlantis Resort that we shot several years ago. In that same issue, there was a feature on a fantastic boutique property in Negril, Jamaica: The Caves. Meg took one look at the photos of this place and went "I'm just putting this out there - if we ever go to Jamaica, I'd really love to splurge on this resort!"
Fast forward to April 2010 when I let my wife in on a little secret - I had booked our Jamaica hotel accommodations at The Caves - which just happened to be a hop, skip, and jump away from the wedding property. To ensure we would have a minute to catch our breath and enjoy ourselves, I even added two nights to the end of our stay.
I'm putting all of this out there because I know we have a lot of clients that are in the early phases of planning for the honeymoon and I wanted to offer up our glowing review of this property. It was the best trip we have ever had - better than our own honeymoon by far - and 100% of the credit goes to the amazing staff at The Caves. We could not have been better cared for here and I am so appreciative of our time spent in Jamaica.
Meg and I like variety and have always thought the idea of returning to the same essential vacation over and over (instead of trying new things with each opportunity) was a bit... well, odd (to us.) BUT after our stay here - we could absolutely see returning. I could go on and on about our experience here* - and I plan to, just as soon as I have a spare hour, over at TripAdvisor (which is a goldmine when planning for international, or even US-based, travel.)
*I guess it is worth noting that we are not affiliated with this property nor are we being compensated for the endorsement - we just figured it was the least we could do, after the staff went so far above and beyond to make our stay so enjoyable.
I'm also adding some of our personal (mostly) point-n-shoot photos taken during our stay. Enjoy the view!
We had breakfast several mornings under this white umbrella overlooking the water.
The Caves is an intimate resort built in, among, and on top of a vast structure of caves (who saw that coming?) The caves themselves are open for snorkeling, kayaking (which you can see later on), swimming, diving, and sunset or starlight private dining. The largest, as I understand it, is also available for intimate weddings.
We managed to squeeze in lunch at this gazebo several times during our stay - but we passed on the blue loungers for some hammocks in the shade.
A small saltwater pool is available to the guests, as well as a jacuzzi deck - though the real attraction is the open water mere steps below.
We stayed in the cozy Two Birds 'hut' - that boasted very high ceilings and an outdoor shower - which sounds a little iffy, but was a daily highlight here. There's nothing quite like looking up and seeing trees, flowering shrubs and open sky overhead while sudsing up.
Our room was one of twelve individual properties at The Caves - which makes for such a wonderful contrast to most other island all-inclusive resorts. We could be as social or private as desired while partaking in the luxury amenities of better-known mega resorts such as guided tours by kayak and spa services - both of which we found time to squeeze in.
Our unit was the smallest on property (hey, we are struggling artists, after all!) - but when the staff so graciously offered to (complimentary) upgrade our accommodations on our second night (after learning of our anniversary) - we actually turned them down, we were so in love with our room!
The following shots were taken after our wedding weekend coverage was complete - I took a few shots while Meg ordered us up two Dirty Bananas at the bar. So, technically it was after 5pm during cocktail hour - but the indulgence was a lot like having dessert before dinner. To even it up, we had another after dinner as well :)
The view from those blue loungers from above...
Ready for my next nap.
We had dinner at this little spot on our first 'night off'
And we had this private waterside cave scheduled for our anniversary dinner. There were probably one hundred votives and blooms dotting the walls...
Surrounded on three sides by the rushing tide, we had to cross small wooden bridges to our candlelit table.
It was a magical trip - I only wish it weren't over.
Can't get enough of the view? See some more in our personal snapshot slideshow:
Tomorrow I'll share the first day of our three-day wedding weekend coverage in Jamaica. See you again soon!
We (kindly) interrupt your Monday afternoon to share this special announcement: Meg Baisden Photography was the proud recipient of a 2010 Silver ADDY Award!!!
As some of you may or may not know, I wear a few hats here at MBP and one of them is "graphic designer." Recently, Meg Baisden Photography has undergone a rebranding overhaul and business cards were at the tippy-top of the to-do list. I created several concepts for Meg and this cute and quirky, vintage-inspired design won her approval! We then found an amazing letterpress printer out in Utah that printed my design onto doubly-thick premium paper stock and added the pop of blue to the edges. The design coupled with this printing technique proved to be a winning combination!
We were all so proud of the end-product that we thought we should enter it into our local AdFed's ADDY Award competition. The Gala was held last Friday night at the Hilton Pensacola Beach Gulf Front. It was an exciting evening, and though I felt a bit like a little fish in a big pond, I was delighted to be amongst Pensacola's best and brightest creative professionals representing the best and brightest photography studio this side of the Mississippi!
The AdFed put together a great night complete with a showcase of all the entries, a (winner winner) chicken dinner and the award presentation emceed by a couple of local area news anchors, Jaimee Lee and Bree Sison. The winners' name and piece was displayed on a projection screen and they were presented a framed certificate. It was a *really* cool experience to walk up and accept the award! I also want to mention that Charles won for his photography work with Ideawörks, a local ad agency here. Congrats to you, Charles!
Without further ado, have a look at the award-winning Meg Baisden Photography business card...
Meg and Charles, thank you so much for entering the card into the competition! It was absolutely wonderful getting recognized for a sampling of the fun, creative projects I get to design for you! :)
Everyone loves seeing their name in lights, and Erin & Chad did us proud! The recent edition of Coastal Weddings (a regional wedding magazine) hit the shelves this past weekend, and we were so pleased to see our handywork featured throughout. If you have a chance to grab the publication, not only will you see Erin & Chad, you'll also see our images featured in a few of the vendor & venue ads throughout. So check out Coastal Weddings & enjoy!
PS -- Meg says "Sorry for the crummy image quality here. We have a pretty lousy scanner."
Here's the shot that nicely accompanies the article:
Hello everyone & welcome to 2010! We started off the year with a couple of flashback posts for you & now we'd like to share a little news - we're pleased to announce that our studio was selected as a "Best of..." by the Knot for 2010. Yay!
To back that up, we're pleased to share our much awaited featured wedding in the Knot. Shelley & Sanner garnered a feature in the current issue! Here are the spreads in case you miss it on stands.
