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May Recap – Personal

June 6, 2019

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I’m Manali
Coach, editor & brand photographer based out of Cincinnati, Ohio. When I'm not behind a camera or teaching about systems, you'll find me at a vineyard or cuddled with my cat Keegan on our cozy couch!
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A LITTLE later to this post than my normal monthly recap but here we go! May had some downtime towards the beginning of the month and then picked right up into high gear as I finished out going through the branding process with Alex of Alex Collier Design, started planning out some workshop logistics for this upcoming July (!!!) and prepping for my June weddings & travels! Besides all that, here are some fun things that happened in May as well as some #reallife struggles

Highlights from the month:

  • Visiting Toronto!!! I’ll do a full recap with pictures soon I promise
  • Spending time in Charlottesville at the beginning of the month, 10/10 recommend eating at Oakhart Social if you haven’t already!
  • Mother’s Day brunch full with mimosas, avocado toast and eggs bene made by yours truly. And one INTENSE game of Settlers of Catan. It was my first time playing it and I loved it! My mom also loved her Simply Jessica Marie print!
  • Getting Mon Ami Gabi with my cousins and trying escargot for the first time hahaha I say they taste like mushrooms!
  • Another first over here was actually having sangria at Bartaco for the first time. Not quite sure how I hadn’t tried that yet but it is delicious 🙂
  • I’ve been watching the Batchelorette this season and honestly I wasn’t too excited about Hannah but I’ve actually been enjoying her and her realness on the show LOL
  • MY BROTHER GRADUATED FROM UVA!!! The Sontakke’s have officially made it past becoming college dropouts! I got to take his grad pictures which is a HUGE deal because he actually hates pictures despite being one of my business’ biggest encouragers
  • Went to the first Jazz in the Gardens and may or may not have made travel plans while buzzed, those are the best kinds of plans right?!
  • Got to have mid day lunch at Ballston Quarter which is now completely renovated, beautiful and has the best fried chicken I’ve had in Northern Virginia from a shop there called Hot Lola’s! I have no pictures because I ate the sandwich too quickly hahhaa
  • Spending time at Blue Valley Vineyard for #winewednesday was a definite highlight!
  • Been super enjoying the book called Off the Clock by Laura Vanderkam

Real life struggles from this month:

  • Getting 3 hours of sleep the night before a flight back to DC and being at the airport 2 hours early yet again hahaha
  • When I was photographing the proposal at Stone Tower I actually completely thought I MISSED it and was having a panic attack only to realize that Aarti & Angel were seeing the tanks inside hahaha phew
  • SO glad to have an updated website but you guys, I was spending 13-16 hour work days to get it all updated, no easy feat right there!!
  • Got a haircut after MONTHS of putting it off and my dad thinks it looks the exact same and long again already…hahah I tried!
  • Trying to find the perfect pair of blue light glasses after snapping my expensive pair in half, have been parading around with them taped back together looking like a total nerd around my house hahaha
  • Hasn’t been my most productive month and I’m learning to be ok with that

That’s all for this month, here’s some fun pictures of #reallife from around here!

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