Courtney Dellafiora » xocourtney.com

One of the best things about my trip was that I really was able to relax and forget about emails, bookings, business decisions, photoshoots, albums, wedding, boudoir, the list goes on and on. I was so afraid that I would be checking up on things and still falling asleep at night thinking about my business like I usually do. I worried that I wouldn’t really get to enjoy this trip as much as I wanted to because of my responsibilities back home. But somehow, when I stepped on that plane to Europe, I left all of that here. I never once worried about any of it and I had completely reassurance that my amazing assistant had everything under control. (which she did!!) I was able to have SO much fun and really just completely let it go for the 3 weeks I was gone. It was AMAZING. Since I started my business, I have definitely become a workaholic. I love my job so much though so it doesn’t bother me to work hard to make my dreams come true… but it was definitely time for some Courtney Time. It was SO REFRESHING and inspiring and I decided that having more personal time is a MUST. No matter how much you love your job, having some “you” time is crucial or eventually we’ll all get burnt out. Before I left for my trip, I didn’t even have a day off… EVER. I had to work from 5am to 7 or 8 at night just to stay on top of it. But I am SO grateful that Deirdre has been able to take over a lot of my responsibilities – hiring her was truly one of the best decisions of my life. I honestly don’t know how I did it for so long without her. She is a GODSEND!

Back to the trip!!

So after Joslyn and Alison left me (sniff)… I headed to London where my friends (who are like family to me), Teresa and Stuart, picked me from the airport and took me to stay with them at their house for the rest of my trip. They live in a village in the country about 2 hours outside of London and I was so excited to hang out with them and have some down time since I had been going non stop every day and sleeping on a different bed every night.

Teresa took me to see the coast the next day. It was a very windy and cold day but it was nice to be able to see the edge of England.

We then headed to check out a castle in Framlingham.

The next day Teresa took me to college town… aka Cambridge. I LOVED this town. So many students, colleges and bicycles. The feel of this town was definitely fabulous and magical.

The day after my visit to Cambridge I took a train to London to have a few of days alone in the city again.

I did a LOT of walking around. A LOT.

I did a lot of shopping, went to a broadway, and I saw this amazing rainbow! This photo was taken with a point and shoot because I didn’t have my nice camera with me at the time.

And this photo was taken with my iphone. This may have been the prettiest rainbow I have ever seen. It was so vibrant!

I love this!!! I saw it and said, “Where do I sign up!?”

London is by FAR, my favorite big city that I have ever been to. It is AMAZING — a city of dreams!!

I never wanted this day to end. It was perfect.

The next day I headed to Notting Hill to do a photoshoot of Parisa and Tim. (more on that soon!)… and beforehand Parisa and I went and had some tea and she took me to see the famous Notting Hill bookstore (that is in the movie) since she lived right around the corner from it. (iphone photos)

That night I got back on the train to head back to Teresa’s and spent the entire next day doing absolutely nothing but reading, drinking tea and CHILLING OUT. It was pretty much wonderful. Later that day I decided to take a walk around the village and snap a few photos.

Siiiiigh. I LOVE ENGLAND!!!!

The day ended with a beautiful sunset. Teresa and Stuart’s friends came over that night for an AMAZING dinner (Teresa is the English Martha Stuart… no lie…. and her food was delicious.), lots of wine, and hilarious conversation. The English in general are SUCH nice and friendly people…. but especially Teresa and Stuart. They are two of the kindest people I have ever met in my life. I never once felt out of place,  like “the foreigner” or not welcome. They always made me feel right at home and I absolutely had so much fun staying with them.

Next post: The trip comes to an end. : ( WAH! Then Parisa and Tim’s London photoshoot. And at the end of all these posts, I have a surprise for you! Stay tuned!!

Our story continues with us renting a car in London and taking a road trip to Scotland. This was the part of the trip I was most excited about not only because road trips are always fun… but because it was going to give us the opportunity to see so much of the United Kingdom! I knew it would be an adventure for the 3 of us because it would leave us relying on maps, random last minute decisions and the complete unknown. It was pretty much awesome. We got our adorable little rental, and headed out towards the town of York, England. Driving on the other side of the road, sitting on the other side of the car and driving a stick shift with my left hand was … interesting at first. Not to mention, there are about 5 million roundabouts in England and at first I was like “uhhhh..” but it didn’t take long at all before I realized how COMPLETELY GENIUS ROUNDABOUTS ARE! Seriously, I wish we had them here. They make so much sense. (as does the underground train system… genius!) I actually had so much fun driving in England. Everyone drives really well there… so it was quite refreshing actually. (example: no one, I repeat NO ONE drives in the left lane [well in England, it’s the right lane] if they are going slow on the freeway. It’s amazing.) So we took our time driving to York and when we got there we checked into the cutest bed and breakfast. The owner was so nice and his entire family took really good care of us.

Our B&B:

After we checked in to our place, we decided to walk the incredible quaint town of York. Of all the places I had seen in England at this point, this was the place where I literally felt like I was in a dream. It was the cutest town ever and everyone who lived in it pranced around like they were the happiest people in the planet. If you’ve seen the movie The Truman Show, then you’ll know what I mean when I say I felt like I was in a fake world. It was just that perfect. This town made me fall even more MADLY in love with England than I was already. I actually felt completely overwhelmed and could not stop talking about it. I’m pretty sure Jos and Ali were wanting me to shut up by the end of this day. ; )

The town of York has tons of history as well including the most beautiful cathedral I have ever seen in my entire life: The Minster

The next morning we had breakfast at our lovely B&B and hit the road again heading towards Newcastle. I snapped several shots along the way.

Alison drove a bunch on this day and I took advantage of it by taking some shots from the window.

The country of England is SO BEAUTIFUL. The pictures really don’t do it justice.  I truly loved every single moment of the road trip.

After arriving to Newcastle… we quickly realized Newcastle wasn’t as cute as York and was more known for the place everyone goes for their bachelor and bachelorette parties… or as the Brits call it, their Stag and Hen parties. : ) Thus making it the “Vegas” of the UK to us. We decided to take advantage of this and get dressed up for a fun girl’s night out.

The next morning we hit the road again heading straight to Edinburgh, Scotland!

When we arrived at the Scottish border. : )

Edinburgh. : )

Edinburgh Castle.

After spending a day in Scotland … the next day I flew back to London and Jos and Ali flew back home to the states. I was so sad that they had to leave but was super excited I still had time left to see more of my lovely England.

Next post: I head to the amazing village of Debenham, visit Cambridge,  take a short trip back to London and more!

(Blogging about our actual trip will continue on Wednesday, September 22nd.)

While in London, Joslyn Davis and I did a little photo shoot. : ) Jos is not only a fabulous host at ClevverTV, but she is an amazing model so needless to say we had a BLAST shooting the following photos.

Joslyn is truly one of the most beautiful people inside and out that I have ever had the honor of knowing. She probably doesn’t know this, but she truly inspires me on a daily basis to be a better woman. Not only does she have a wonderful heart and personality, but she is such a woman of integrity and I absolutely 100% love her! I feel so lucky just to be her friend. The world could definitely use more Joslyns. ; ) Thank you Jos for being so incredibly amazing in every way!! I look forward to many more fun memories in the future. : )

I love ALL of the photos below. It was so hard to narrow down my favs. Joslyn is so much fun to shoot.

While we waited for the tube to take us to our location, I decided to take advantage of the amazing light that flows into that particular station.

Haha this picture is SO random but it has a story behind it. Plus it’s like my only tube shot I took when it was super crowded like this. You should have seen the looks we were getting while we documented the “Where’s Joslyn” photographs for her blog.

Love love this.

After a change we headed to the park for a more romantic look.

I love that the light is hitting those bugs and making them look like fireflies. : )

The very last shot I took of Joslyn that day and I’d say it pretty much captures her personality in every way. Jos, you rock. Period. ; )

So before I start this post, I want to say that I definitely still have several things to blog (weddings, engagement shoots, etc), but before I get to those…. I wanted to first blog all about my trip while it’s still fresh on my mind. The great thing about blogging, is that to me it’s also somewhat of a journal. It will be here forever and I’m so excited that I can always look back on my life and everything that took place. I wish I had starting blogging a lot longer ago!

For as long as I can remember… since I was a little girl… I have wanted to go to England. Don’t ask me why, because honestly I couldn’t tell you. I really don’t know what it is that has had me completely intrigued… but it’s never gone away. I used to be completely into Princess Diana and remember her death like it was yesterday. I even remember what I was doing when it happened. I used to daydream about marrying Prince William and becoming a Princess. ; ) (don’t laugh, just being honest!!!) I love English tea. Anytime there was a movie filmed in England, my interest perked up. I love English ivy. I love pretty much all things English. I have always loved the British culture and have been literally itching to go for pretty much forever. On August 31, 2010, I finally made that dream come true. I arrived in England… and it was truly everything I had ever dreamed and so much more. I have never felt more at home in a “foreign” place in my life. I was overwhelmed with how much I fell in love with it and absolutely cannot wait to go back AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. The country of England is incredible. But that is not where my story begins…

I flew directly into Paris, France to meet up with my friends Alison and Joslyn. They had already arrived in Paris a few days before me. (I would have met them earlier, but had my grand opening party to attend. ; ) Which was awesome! More on that soon.) I went to Paris last year. (see some photos here) So since I had already seen a lot it of anyways, so we decided to only spend one more day when I arrived.

(BY THE WAY, a handful of the photos I use in these next few posts about my trip were taken with a point and shoot camera.)

On my plane ride to Paris I saw a beautiful sunset from my window. I absolutely love being able to watch a sunset or sunrise from that high up. It’s incredible. Taken with a point and shoot so it’s not the greatest shot but more just for a memory.

I arrived very early Paris time, took an hour nap, then we hopped on a train to go see the Palace of Versailles outside of Paris. It was the one thing I didn’t get to do last time I was there so I was excited to have the opportunity to go.

Meet Joslyn and Alison. They are sisters and immediately made me feel like the 3rd sister they never had. : )

Welcome to my Palace…

It’s truly a sight to see… incredible.

Ali quickly took the role of becoming our “google.com”. She read us every story on everything we saw the entire trip. It was pretty much awesome. We learned a lot because of Ali’s reading.

It was such a beautiful day.

After laying around at the Palace… we headed back to the city to have dinner near the Eiffel Tower.

The next morning we had breakfast and got ready to head to London. I snapped a few photos of our incredibly cute hotel.

Then we hopped on our train to England… which was pretty much awesome.

We arrived in London and decided to go check out the city!

Two of the greatest girls I have ever had the honor of knowing. Truly.

Me and Jos just chillin… waiting for the London tube.

We headed to see Big Ben and Westminster Abbey first and then walked around for a while.

Buckingham Palace. God save the Queen!

The Tower Bridge of London

This photo (taken with point and shoot) is super grainy, but there is something I still love about it.

That night we headed to have dinner together to celebrate our adventure with wine and great conversations.

Some random shots in the tube.

Do I look like I could be a sister?

Next up: We rent a car, and begin our journey to Scotland. TONS more photos and stories to come!! How cute is our rental??