“What about ‘Love and Ocean?’ I said.”That might be nice.”

“Water,” Adam turned to me.

“Water and Ocean?” That totally doesn’t make sense.

“Love and Water” he replied. Ah. Yes.

The hair stood up on my arms (and legs… because winter) – we both knew it was right. The epitome of what we loved the most, where we wanted to be, what we wanted to shoot. Love and Water.

I’ll never forget that night, our bleary-eyed inspiration, waking the next day at noon and shuffling out of the room to drink coffee and jot notes, how to make this work, when to make it happen. In the years since we decided who we were – and how to transform our brand into something true to ourselves – we have seen highs and lows. The highs are exhilarating, the lows leveled by the sense of peace that comes with knowing you’re doing something that feeds the soul. And ourselves, because I do love to eat. Like, a lot. Alottalottalot. Nom.

A friend sent me a quote from Northern Exposure.

“Because in a sense, it’s the coming back, the return which gives meaning to the going forth. We really don’t know where we’ve been until we’ve come back to where we were. Only, where we were may not be as it was because of who we’ve become. Which is, after all, why we left.”

We’ve forgiven ourselves for the years of planning it took to move back to Australia only to know deeply we had to turn right back around. We look forward to our move back to Maui in November, and to following once again what led us on this beautiful journey to begin with, love and water.

It was a cold winter’s night in Chicago, circa 2012. Adam and I, living in Australia at the time, had flown 24 hours from Brisbane to O’Hare to visit my parents and were recovering by laying in bed staring at the ceiling, as you do. Having come from an Aussie summer, my arms were so cold I couldn’t feel feelings despite the heater blasting warm air into our room. We were talking about what to name the business we hoped to create together. Well, what did we like? Weddings, water, people in love! At the time, I was shooting weddings and Adam was doing surf photography.