What a delight it was to spend a few hours with the Westlake family during the Springfield’s Own May/June fashion shoot, which took place at Bunn Gourmet. If you haven’t been there yet – it’s a must! (And they have free WiFi). 

I first met Courtney Westlake last year, she’s an accomplished writer and keen photographer and I wanted to get to know the face behind the blog Blessed by Brenna. 

When she spoke at the Illinois Women in Leadership luncheon in February I, like many in the room were inspired. So, when the time came for us to select a family to photograph for our fashion shoot in the Family/10th-anniversary edition we couldn’t think of anyone better than Courtney, Evan, Brenna, and Connor. 

As always, I leant on Kate Spencer who is a phenomenal photographer to take charge and do what she does best – take fantastic photos. We chose Bunn Gourmet as our location because Bunn is a family run company, which operates internationally, but has remained at its core a Springfield business. We worked with the Itty Bitty Fashion Truck team when it came to Courtney’s outfits, I selected clothing from Macy’s for Evan, Connor and Brenna (I got a little carried away with Brenna’s outfits … so many cute items to dress her in) and we also featured t-shirt designs by Jesus Couture by Paige Plummer one of this year’s Sangamon CEO students. The BJ Grand Salon and Spa girls did an awesome job with Courtney’s hair – as always. A huge thank you to everyone that helped! 

So, don’t miss your next edition of SO featuring Springfield family businesses, 10 Sangamon CEO students, a GREAT fashion shoot and more non-profits in the SO Positive section, which is available on May 15th.