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Our Styled Adventure: Styled Shoots, Plane Rides & Ireland
There's a special buzz on the day of styled shoots. The energy is strong, the excitement is palpable, and being that we were in another country, we were on fire!
We spent the morning of our shoot meeting up with our newest Icelandic Viking, Gudrun, for brunch in the harbor. (I lovvveeee boats! Did I mention that yet?) It was probably our favorite restaurant so far. Gudrun was so helpful. She made phone calls for us, helped us map things out and made our Iceland trip totally possible and wildly fun!
There's a special buzz on the day of styled shoots. The energy is strong, the excitement is palpable, and being that we were in another country, we were on fire!
On our stroll to brunch.
We spent the morning of our shoot meeting up with our newest Icelandic Viking, Gudrun, for brunch in the harbor. (I lovvveeee boats! Did I mention that yet?) It was probably our favorite restaurant so far. Gudrun was so helpful. She made phone calls for us, helped us map things out and made our Iceland trip totally possible and wildly fun!
Our Icelandic pal, Gudrun.
After brunch, we had some shopping time to buy all of our goodies and eat a true Icelandic hot dog, then it was time for shoot prep. We met our model, Jórunn, in person for the first time when she came over for model prep. Woo hoo!
A little over two hours later, we were ready to shoot, and a car ride and a few missed turns later, we arrived at the photo shoot location. Oh. Em. Gee. Stunning! I think it's safe to say we might find normal styled shoots boring from here on out. 😘
It was probably not the ideal weather situation — freezing and a drizzly rain — but we are shooting, people ... rain or shine. That's how it rolls. Just wait till you see the sneak peak of the location below! Jórunn’s fiancé, Böddi, and kids made an appearance at our location and totally tried to steal the show. 😉
Even though we can’t reveal the styled shoot photos just yet, here's our sneak peak! Don't fall over ... I know I did ... OHHHH EM GEEE! STUNNING.
I'll wait to keep going until you wipe away the drool. Don't worry, we feel the same!
After we finished up shooting, dropped off our model and went to eat dinner, we realized that Emily left her camera bag, including her passport and all of her credit cards, at the photo shoot site! Ah, crap. As we tried to speed back to get it, we kept getting lost! But, have no fear, we eventually made it back, and Emily's bag was right where she left it. Thank goodness! It was then time for our final Iceland adventure ...
WE WENT TO SEE THE NORTHERN LIGHTS BY BOAT!!!! Only my favorite thing in the whole world.
We rushed to make it on time, had a takeaway dinner on the boat and then set off in the cutest red overalls you ever saw. And, if you think Iceland is freezing, the wind off the water is 1 million times colder. Anyways, I digress ...
We saw the northern lights from the boat! Stop the world. My life is complete. (Well, this portion anyways.) It was cloudy still, so it wasn't like the whole sky was lit up, but you could see the lights dancing thru the breaks in the clouds. Even with cloudy skies, it was amazing and soooo worth it! Sadly, all great things come to an end, and with that, our time to explore in Iceland had come to a close.
We were going to leave "bright and early" in the middle of the night for Ireland. Were being the keyword there. We made it to Ireland — thank goodness — however, we had some bumps and bruises along the way.
We might have slept 40 minutes past our alarm, had to speed all the way to the airport, then run from the rental car drop-off thru the airport, hoping to make it to the gate in time. We also may have gotten between one and three camera speeding tickets (I'll have to let you know when we get the bill), sustained a broken suitcase and ran out of time to put gas in the rental car ... but all in all, we got unforgettable memories, permanent smiles and an adventure of a lifetime. Iceland sure was amazing!
And we are sure, just from the drive so far, that Ireland is going to supersede all of our expectations! We just have to survive driving on the left side of the road from the right side of the car on the tiniest roads you ever have seen. Cliffs of Moher, we are coming for you!
With Icelandic love and Irish blood, we can't wait to share our “Irish I was sober” adventures with you!!
xoxo,
H
Our Styled Adventure: Trekking Through Iceland
When you travel as a group of four, you end up with four different ideas for what to do and four different directions of where to go, so we have tried our best to mesh all those things into one great big adventure.
When you travel as a group of four, you end up with four different ideas for what to do and four different directions of where to go, so we have tried our best to mesh all those things into one great big adventure.
Miss M was super pumped up to check out a few of the highly recommended, super-popular tourist spots, so we started the first morning at the Blue Lagoons. After a long day of travel, it was pretty nice to relax in a really warm geothermal hot spring. However, the hot spring sucked all of the moisture out of our bodies and really tore up our hair, which is a hairstylist’s nightmare. 😒😢 The Blue Lagoons were named as one of the 25 wonders of the world by National Geographic, so it is definitely worth adding to your bucket list.
Our next stop was to check in to our super-cute Airbnb, which is right in the center of the shopping district in downtown Reykjavik. We dropped off our luggage and went out to explore the city. It is really cute, trendy and far more Scandinavian then any of us expected.
As we were taking in the sites and sounds of the city, we thought we heard a parade happening, so we went to investigate. It turned out that what we thought was a parade was a peaceful political protest at the parliament building. I'm not exaggerating when I say all of Reykjavik was there or walking there. It was pretty wild!
We walked for 8 miles, exploring countless streets, shops, monuments and hot dog stands. (Hot dogs are their fast food, and who doesn't love hot dogs?) When our tired legs couldn’t take us another step, we decided to go back to the apartment and make plans for day two.
We looked at all our tour options, from helicopter rides to boat rides, trying to decide what the best way to explore was — or what was best for all four of us fiery, independent women, anyway. We settled on renting a car and exploring on our own. After just a few hours of sleep, we were off on another day of adventure.
With our rental car in tow, we decided to head toward the town of Vik in hopes of finding the U.S. DC-3 plane that crashed in 1973 and was abandoned by the surviving crew. With coordinates in hand — 63°27'32.8"N, 19°21'53.2"W — we set off, not knowing what we would find or what to expect. It was epic in so many ways.
On our way, we saw some PONIES (hear the excitement!) on the side of the road and had to get a closer look. They actually let us PET THEM! It was amazing, and E took endless pictures.
As we continued on our drive, we found a waterfall and had a hot dog from a gas station, and then, we noticed the weather was a changin’ ... low clouds, lots of wind and some sleet?! Being from the CLE, we weren’t going to let a little weather stop us. We had already trekked for too long to stop now (about two hours), so we ventured forth anyway. How bad could it really be, right??
Well ... it wasn't bad, just a different adventure than we had expected. When we arrived at the parking area of our plane destination, we quickly realized it was going to be pretty chilly. It was 39 degrees with 60-mile-per-hour winds! Had we known about the pending weather and sheer distance to the destination, we probably wouldn’t have made the journey, but whatevs, we are in Iceland after all.
So after the windiest, coldest 58-minute 2.4 miles, we rolled up on the deserted wrecked plane. (And, when I say windiest I mean basically bent in half fighting against the wind to walk; it was pretty comical.) Despite the weather and wind, the site was beautiful in the eeriest way and totally worth the trek. The walk back to the car was easily worse than the walk there. We were soaked and a little wind burned but grateful. After finally warming up, we were laughing about the feat we had just conquered. Oh, and did I mention that E did it all without a coat?
We made our way back to Reykjavik and settled in for some dinner. M had a real hankering for "Icelandic fish and chips." After dinner, we wandered some more around the really cute town before calling it a night. After all our adventuring, our miles walked for the day totaled 11.38 miles!
Tomorrow is shaping up to be a very exciting day. It’s STYLED SHOOT DAY, and hopefully, we will see the northern lights. Stay tuned for sneak peaks and our adventures in Ireland!
Our Styled Adventure: From CLE to KEF
What started out as a whisper of an idea came to fruition today! Our once-in-a-lifetime dream trip is unfolding in front of us, three wedding-styling girls — Emily, Maggie and me — and our trusty sidekick, Marie. We are off to explore three different countries and shoot the most breathtaking wedding styled shoots you could ever imagine seeing.
What started out as a whisper of an idea came to fruition today! Our once-in-a-lifetime dream trip is unfolding in front of us, three wedding-styling girls — Emily, Maggie and me — and our trusty sidekick, Marie. We are off to explore three different countries and shoot the most breathtaking wedding styled shoots you could ever imagine seeing.
Maggie, Haley and Emily in the CLE airport.
A little back story ... Emily (E), Maggie (M) and I (H) love weddings — everything about them! We call ourselves the Dream Team. E is an exquisite wedding photographer; in the softest light, she catches the sickest picture ever. M is on the beauty team doing makeup; she knows just how to accentuate someone’s best features. And, as you probably know, I do hair — love hair! Ethereal and organic, I like to blend someone’s normal style with extraordinary touches to help her feel even more beautiful. It's an honor to be a part of someone’s very special day — we all feel that way really.
We would be remiss if we didn’t introduce you to Marie, our travel assistant for our trip and honorary Dream Team member. She is an awesome, gentle soul, who happens to be a school counselor, which is amazing! She came with us to be our trusty sidekick but also just to enjoy and experience this styled adventure.
Our lovely sidekick, Marie!
We first met up at the CLE airport, then flew to Boston where we picked up Marie and had an adventurous time finding our gate. (Imagine riding up and down the same set of escalators six times only to finally see the set of escalators you were missing all along!)
The best part about the flights and layovers were the friends we made along the way. On our first flight, we met three beautiful sisters from Boston and North Carolina who were thick as thieves. They reminded us of angels really: sweet and gentle and just what the doctor ordered for us girls.
In the Boston airport, while we waited for our next flight, we met a brother and sister duo, Hannah and Collin, who will be making an appearance later on in our trip, as we have made plans to meet up with them when we are in Dublin. Lots of Snapchats and nicknames later, our time seemed to fly by, and we were ready for our final flight. We were tired, but the excitement far overwhelmed the grogginess.
After a wild, long day of travel, we are so thrilled to say we made it to Iceland! (I just said that ... we are in Iceland?! Is this a dream or what?) Our first shoot and adventure will be in Reykjavik. Can you believe we might see the aurora borealis and that we get to explore a land of glaciers and black-sand beaches? Neither can we!! We are just so happy that after lots of laughs, and even some tears, we made it, and we can’t wait to share this incredible adventure with you!
If we were to pick a theme song for our first day of travel, it would be Sing Loud by Alpha Rev.
If you care to share this adventure along with us, you can:
- Subscribe to the blog
- Follow our hashtags: #CLEwedIntl and #OurStyledAdventure
- Follow us on Instagram: @hdelzani, @emilymillayphotography and @mkleinmanartistry
With love,
H (+ E, M & Marie)
P.S. – Photo credit goes to Emily Millay Photography. Does she know how to capture a moment or what?