Lily Venable
Traveling Food, Farm & Family Blogger and Photographer
Hailing originally from the mountains of east Tennessee, Lily brings a heavy dose of Southern charm to the icy North! A Keweenaw local of five years, Lily and her son have built true place and community here in the Keweenaw Peninsula.
Through her food blog travels, Lily has discovered many a quirky human and charming stay. A true foodie by heart, Lily brings strong connections with the agricultural and private chef community, making sure your choice for fare is meaningful, beautiful, and delicious. A lover of love and of evening light, Lily's photographer/designer eye turns your engagement into art.
Lily has a marketing, teaching and outreach background. It is her love of storytelling that makes engagements so exciting. Meeting new people and creating romantic, beautiful experiences is the stuff of life; it truly fills her cup. Lily brings a down-to-earth presence to your session, plus truly heart-centered joy for your union.
You only get so many moments to make special and be truly present; life is too short to not make it absolutely magical.
Based in the Keweenaw, with travel to Marquette and the whole UP
The Birch & Bonfire Dream
We’ve all done it before: missing out on enjoying your weekend in paradise because you’re on your phone checking open times and getting a headache trying to plan your route. You spend money on convenience items because it was hard to plan for food and travel. Then you feel dissatisfied because the experience you read an article about wasn’t all that you’d hoped for. You go home from your vacation feeling different but not totally recharged, and now it’s time to get back to work! Boo.
Birch & Bonfire was a solution, a vague idea many years in the making. Something I thought, “That’d be nice to do one day.”
It took flight on one September afternoon when I was editing photos in the bathtub, like I do, when a friend called me in a panic. It went exactly like this:
D: I can’t figure out how to make a Fitz reservation and we’re on the way! It won’t work. I want to talk to a person on the phone!
Notably the best restaurant on the Peninsula, the Fitzgerald has no phone, by design, so I note her overwhelm and quickly pull up the restaurant website and make a reservation for her. I called her to explain that her preferred reservation time wasn’t available, with a new time booked and directions on where to go to fill the half-hour gap. I recommend the Jampot, 6 minutes away and open until 5 pm, or hiking around the Eagle Harbor Lighthouse to take in the views (named the most haunted in Michigan!), or arriving early to comb the Fitz shoreline for agates.
A sigh of relief comes from my friend and then a Venmo payment with a note: “Thanks for helping us old people.”
I feel satisfied. Five minutes later, I realize it’s time for this egg to hatch. An hour later, ideas swirl around my brain so fast I can’t keep it to myself, and three hours later, I had a name, business plan, and LLC.
But after that, this project came to flight on Yooper time. I deemed it to be a wintertime project, which turned into two or three winters, and finally took the leap to publish website and socials in October of 2026, after photographing a surprise engagement at Hunter's Point, smiling ear to ear from start to finish. The cuteness of Tyler and Anna reignited this fire!
This business is an extension of my heart, a flame lit from an existing fire. Let my joy be contagious, bubbling over your glass like chilled champagne. Let's celebrate love and not be casual about it. We can do that when we're dead.
-Lily