Well, we’re finally back from our vacation! It’s so nice to get away from the city and spend some extended time in our favourite place in the whole world.

11 days of camping and surfing is a long time… I have to admit I was ready to get back home and have a shower by the end of it. It was the best shower EVER, that’s for sure. Still, there’s nothing that calms my soul quite like surfing and camping in Tofino, so I’m really glad we were able to be there for a long period of time. So what did we do?

… lots of surfing (Greg, Trev, Allan, and me) …

… hanging out at the beach until sunset …

… celebrating Canada Day …

… by applying tattoos …

…. and eating lots of cake …

… spent a lot of time enjoying our amazing campsite …

… and surfed with sea lions …

… we checked out our wedding venue again …

… and made sure our amazing menu was coming to life (yes, they did our recipes proud!) …

… we went crabbing (Nice work Crista!) …

… for Red Rock crabs and Dungeness …

… and it was a success …

… we celebrated Allan’s birthday (Happy Birthday my love!) …

… and we spend a lot of time just enjoying our favourite place.

What have you been up to lately?

I’m writing to you on a Blackberry rapidly running out of battery from a tent on the far coast of Vancouver Island in a remote town called Tofino.

Okay, so you’ve heard of it and it’s not that far away but it sounded cool.

We set up camp on Friday and we’re back in Vancouver on July 6th… So 11 beautiful days of surfing, camping, and relaxing on the beach.

Although we come out to Tofino over a dozen weekends a year, I always look forward to this annual Canada Day camping trip because our friends come out and it’s a long trip ending in Allan’s birthday on the 5th.

With spotty cell reception, I probably won’t get a chance to make another post till we get back… So! Happy Canada Day or Happy 4th of July, or hope your summer is going great so far wherever you are in the world…

See you on the flip side; time to go to bed with the ocean waves crashing at our “doorstep”…

What are you doing for the next couple weeks?

On Sunday, Allan and I attended the AMAZING 1st Annual Cupcake Challenge at the Yaletown Roundhouse station (free admission). Several cupcake companies and bakeries from around Vancouver participated.

Free samples were offered to attendees… and over 1100 people came out! It was organized by Nicole Marie Events (Twitter)… and Nicole also happens to be the awesome wedding coordinator we hired to handle the coordination the week and day of the wedding

It certainly was cupcake overload… I think I ate about seven different mini cupcakes!

Allan’s favourite was the Mango Chocolate cupcake by Bon Gateau.

My favourite was the Lemon Vanilla cupcake by Indulgence Desserts… SO good!

It was a lot of fun! Judging table pictured above.. You can check out FollowMeFoodie’s blog for the official results.

Big City Cupcakes won the Food Bloggers’ Choice (pictured above).

Frostings Cupcakery won both People’s Choice and Judge’s Choice for the Neapolitan cupcakes (above)!

It was a blast, and we will DEFINITELY be attending next year

It’s a gorgeous, sunny day today in Vancouver… and even though it’s been “June-uary” (January+June) here on the West Coast as usual, I’m just about ready for summer and I know it must be around the corner somewhere!

Next Friday we’ll be leaving for our annual surf trip to Tofino for 11 days and we could not be more excited. 11 days of surfing, beach, camping, camp stove cooking, crabbing and exploring. Wohooo!

I’m starting to get in the mood for summer so here are a couple things I love about summer… What do you love about summer?

Surfing.. (Minus the bikini and adding a 5 mm wetsuit in Tofino)

Camping!

Playing on the beach…

Skimboarding!

A trip to Hornby Island…

Making mojitos and summer drinks… not to mention the availability of our favourite rums at the liquor store!

Golfing!

Continuing to learn how to downhill mountain bike…

Mmmm.. summer BBQs…

Hosting patio parties….

Wearing sunglasses!

The sun on my feet…

What do you love about summer?

I am absolutely THRILLED to finally announce that we have selected our dream wedding photographers… Jonetsu Photography!

The past few weeks, Allan and I have been on a thorough search for the best possible photographers to photograph our special day. We weren’t able to find the level of quality we were looking for in Tofino, so we decided to look for Vancouver wedding photographers. We looked through about 60 different wedding photographers in Vancouver, and narrowed it down to just a couple choices.

Photo Credit: JONETSU Studios

After a couple in-depth meetings, I am proud to say we were able to secure Jonetsu! We really clicked with Camille and Chadwick. Not only are they beautiful, authentic people… but they have great energy and you can tell they are really in love with each other. They really have a connection with nature and I honestly can’t imagine anyone else shooting our day. We love their epic “dreamscapes” and attention to detail with telling a story in their albums. Not to mention they are so similar to us in so many ways. They are extremely accessible too since they are based here in Vancouver and they get back to us with e-mails faster than any other photographer we have dealt with — this is actually a very important part of the selection.

Photo Credit: JONETSU Studios

Thanks to everyone who recommended us to them on Twitter. I can’t believe how many of our favourite couples have been photographed by them, and the reviews they have all given me of Jonetsu have been beyond glowing. I think we will be good friends with Camille and Chadwick for a long, long time

Yesterday we signed the contract and I am just giddy with excitement that we were able to get them! I can’t believe it! WOOOOHOOOOOOOO!

Photo Credit: JONETSU Studios

Camille and Chadwick will be shooting our wedding in Tofino, as well as our engagement shoot in Vancouver and a boudoir/saucy cat session that will be my wedding present to Allan! Can’t wait. We will of course be posting some of the photos on the blog here. Thanks to everyone for all your advice and help with planning this wedding so far… I couldn’t do it without you!

Photo Credit: JONETSU Studios

You can follow Jonetsu on their website here, their Twitter or their awesome blog!

Here’s a question for you… can you recommend any cool places in Vancouver for Allan and I to do our engagement shoot? Any ideas for cool shots that we could do that involve surfboards/snowboards/bikes/golf etc? What do you think of Jonetsu’s photos?