Photograph | Gwen + Kristof


Only a few days after shooting the wedding of Gwen and Kristof I got an email from Gwen telling me her father suddenly died and if I could get her some pictures from the wedding for his funeral. They were the last they had from him. It felt unreal to edit the pictures and see him so happy and proud, not knowing this wedding of his daughter would be the last party he attended. Luckily, Gwen and Kristof really knew how to make it a very good one. It was a perfect wedding with the most smiles and happiest people I ever attended. Gwen and Kristof, I know for sure your dad is still smiling over all the good memories you made together on your
wedding day. Never forget you made him and all the people around you (including myself) smile for days and days…

Take a look at the full wedding here.

Love,
Melissa

DO: Auping blog event | Antwerp


Yesterday I got the chance to follow the Auping bloggers meeting and take some pictures as well. A pretty lovely night spend with some blogger girls. Marta thanks for the incredible meal, it was wonderful! Yellow Submarine, thanks for letting us stay at your fantastic b&b/café and to all the blogger girls, thanks for the lovely company. Perfect night out in Antwerp X

Love,
Melissa

DO // walks around Blauberg


Around christmas and new years we used our free time to take some walks and learn more about the beautiful nature we have around us here in Blauberg. I love this place where I grow up more and more and I’m secretly happy to be living here now and building our new home in the future. I can’t wait to go for a walk with our future kids. This is a beautiful place if you learn to look around.

Love,
Melissa

A lot of readers asked where I got my coat, it’s from Only and you can get it here!

READ // januari 2013


one. I got this one from my aunt Eliane who likes real food as well and I think this is very good to start with if you like to get into clean eating for the first time. This books explains it in a very good way. A plus for me is the beautiful design. Yay Liesbet, you made the perfect drawings to go with this book. You can find her work here. I was happy to help her out in the past as well when she opened her beautiful webshop!

two. If you really would like to eat less bread or grains but find it hard to convince yourself, please read this book. It will help. Promise.

three. One of the books that has been on my shelf for a long time. Still reading it, chapter by chapter. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don’t.

READ will be a new series on the blog where I’ll be sharing the books I’m currently reading. The one thing I really promised myself in 2013 and will continue do to in 2014 is reading. It makes me less stressed and I can really lose myself in a book. I’m grateful to have found something like that. I will share some of my books on the blog so you can follow along and maybe read with me. I’m most interested in books about Health, Food, Photography and Design, you’ll see 😉

Enjoy this very sunny sunday. It’s perfect.

Love,
Melissa

FOOD // Oriental Chicken Salad


As I told in a blogpost a few days ago, I started eating very clean this year due to some health problems. I got advice from a few dietitians and decided to cut out all grains, artificial sugar and I also try not to eat carbohydrates and proteins together because it’s very hard to digest. Most of my meals contain proteins and vegetables and sometimes carbohydrates and vegetables. More about that topic and the “why?” later 🙂

I will try to update my blog with some healthy recipes and learn more about food photography inbetween, would love to get better at this, it is something I’ve never done before and I really want to learn more about it in 2014, it’s a little promise to myself. (I start off with this very very bad photograph because I had no natural light at all: boohooh! belgian winter and short days – next time I’ll try to photograph at daylight.)

Here is my recipe for Oriental Chicken Salad!

Ingredients:

– 2 chicken breasts
– 3 paprikas (yellow, red and green)
– 1 iceberg lettuce
– 1 onion and garlic
– coconut milk
– coconut oil
– turmeric + salt and pepper
– coriander

1. Cook the chicken (i made some broth before i started this dish and used the chicken from this broth, yum!) – pull the chicken apart in smaller pieces

2. Cut the lettuce and place it in a large bowl

3. Bake the paprika’s, onion and garlic in some coconut oil and add the chicken after a few minutes, stir everything around and add some turmeric,salt and pepper. To finish off, add some coconut milk to make it a little sweeter. Let it cook for a few minutes until the coconut milk tickens.

4. Pour everything on the lettuce and to finish off – just add some coriander.

Enjoy your healthy meal!

Love,
Melissa

TRAVEL: Eindhoven (NL)


A few weeks ago, Jan and I decided to take a weekend off and go to Eindhoven. We booked a really cute apartment (via airbnb: thanks Fernand!) and off we went. It was so great to just hang out for 2 days and don’t think about all the stress factors in our life at that moment. I think we should do this more often. Here are a few images from our trip! Enjoy.

We started our first evening at restaurant Smalle Haven. A perfect place to relax with your loved one. The menu is small but so good! If you like tapas/real food and vintage design, please go here! (for the ladies -I have to admit- going here because a true look-alike of Ryan Gosling works here is just a very pleasant bonus ;-))

After a good night of sleep (hallelujah for the best bed I ever slept in) we went for a little shopping trip at the heart of Eindhoven city. I discovered the vintage shop Doortje and had some bagels for lunch (they have gluten-free ones EVERYWHERE in Eindhoven, so you’ll understand I started to feel in love with this place already)

Next stop was Piet Hein Eek, a lovely place outside the city center. We met up with Danique and Bart. (who’s wedding I’ll be shooting this year *excited look on my face*)

After our wedding-meeting-talk-thingie we visited the painting competition at Piet Hein Eek and met up with Hanke (a wedding photographer as well!) and went for a drink. Lovely time spent with lovely people, I LIKE!

We did some late night bicycling, some late night shopping and got ready for an evening at the light festival glow.

But because of the heavy rain that evening we started off at ‘De Burger’ – a lovely place with the best burgers you can think off (gluten free again! Yes – learn from this place @The Burgerij Antwerpen!)

Still raining we decided to do the light festival GLOW anyway (but we have to admit, we did go home only after seeing the half of it- shame on us :))

The next day was leaving day already. We packed our suitcases and had another few hours to see some of the lovely things Eindhoven has to offer. It took a little longer to do the things we wanted because we somehow locked ourself out.. #bummer!

We really liked the area of Strijp S and decided to go their for our last day. It’s a lovely creative, quiet place with lovely restaurants, shops and graffiti all over the walls 🙂

We went for a coffee and cake (woops) and 1 hour later we already went for lunch… a day full of eating and drinking, perfect no? 🙂

We had lunch at Radio Royaal, a very very very beautiful restaurant with a swing in the middle (who doesn’t want to swing, admit it) I loved the atmosphere of this place but did think the food/menu could have been maybe more extensive.

And so our weekend ended. I have to admit – I left a little of my heart in Eindhoven and hope to get back soon!

Love, Melissa

PS. all these pictures have been taken with my cellphone. Because it’s just a quick and relaxing weekend away with my husband, I think cell phones are the best, they are quick, real and not a hassle.