we came, saw, conquered.

Many of you probably already know as we plastered it all our our Facebook, website, and Twitter that we would be traveling to Colorado this past weekend to shoot our first "destination" (for us) wedding. The trip went so smooth!! Thank you for all your prayers, everything went well, we had fun, and the wedding was a blast. I even hit up the dance floor and we made sure to make a visit to the photo booth. :) Kelly and Eric are a truly genuine couple, I found myself getting teared up throughout the day. Their love for each other, their families, and Christ was nothing short of amazing.

The day after their wedding Paul and I had the opportunity to do some sight seeing as our flight wasn't scheduled to leave till 5:00pm. We were able to take some pictures to document our trip. :)

"Are we there yet?"

 We have been waiting and waiting and waiting for this weekend to finally be here...Our first traveling wedding :) I'm both nervous and ecstatic. Nervous because it's such a new experience and the fact that we will be traveling with 100% of our equipment (I will turn into a ninja in the airport if needed..). But I'm also so stoked because it will be a change of scenery from our normal So cal weddings (which we still love!) I'll be taking a break from blogging in the next couple days while we begin preparing and traveling to good 'ol Colorado. Please keep us in your prayers :) Kelly + Eric's wedding will take place in Colorado Springs at a beautiful venue called The Pinery

Indoor Chapel:: Ceremony

Ballroom::: Reception

p.s. if they have lighting like this I might just dance out of excitement..

Here's our itinerary for the weekend...

Friday - Fly into Denver, pick up our G-ride, head a couple hours to Colorado Springs.

Saturday - Wedding fun! boom.

Sunday - Spending the day sight seeing and flying back in the evening.

Lots of pics to come! :)

Twenty-six.

Paul and I are at a crossroads right now. Well, sort of. We had a few unwritten rules while starting 618. One of them being, I never wanted to be the wedding cinematographer that was doing 2 weddings every weekend...let alone 1 wedding every weekend. I would love to have a solid 2-3 per month. boom. But...somehow we ended up with 6 weddings booked in July and 6 booked in Sept. gaaahhh. I'm stoked and grateful don't get me wrong...i'm just thinking of the hours and hours of editing afterwards...I just don't want to turn into this:

asking why I did this to myself in mid-October..

At 26 weddings in 2011 we are thinking about keeping it that way and focusing only on booking 2012 couples. It feels weird only being in the 2nd month of the year and already thinking about 2012. Of course we have exceptions to the rule..if its a really cool venue we'll go for it and if it's a traveling wedding of course we'll go for it. But right now 26 is lookin' like the magic number this year :)

No baby fever here...

Me: "So i'm thinking my next blog post is going to be centered around baby showers, is that scary?"
Paul: "Yes."

Let's just clear the air right here and right now...i don't have baby fever. I am however extremely interested in how big the baby industry is becoming. Baby showers are quickly becoming like mini weddings with hiring caterers, have a cake/sweet table, all the decor, rentals, it's kind of out of control, yet i'm intrigued by it. People are now beginning to hire professional photographers to capture their baby showers. I would not be surprised if it was a necessity in the next 5-10 years. no joke. Wedding chicks just launched their new baby inspired blog www.ontobaby.com, it amazes me. Check it out. All of these baby showers below were found from their website! and p.s. no baby Gilsters for a looooong time..

#1. a rustic/camping inspired baby shower.

#2. A storybook inspired baby shower. Can I get a holla for veggie tales?

#3. an outdoors, rustic inspired baby shower.

Chicago in August :)

Upon starting 618studios, both mine and Paul's ultimate goal was to get the opportunity to travel all over the world to shoot weddings. We often admired other wedding cinema teams who posted wedding trailers from amazing locations like Italy, Hawaii, St. Lucia..the list goes on. Hoping that someday we would also get the opportunity to become international wedding cinematographers as well. I know. International wedding cinematographers...really? Trust me, I never realized how HUGE the wedding industry was until I got into it, they exist. I promise.

Well just a couple months after shooting our first wedding back in August and with only 3 weddings on our portfolio we received an inquiry to shoot a wedding in Berkeley, Ca.  Hey it wasn't Hawaii, but we were ecstatic!! I still remember the email clearly, "we love your work, and hope you are willing to travel to northern california." Willing?! Yes please. We booked that wedding :) a couple months after that we received another inquiry to shoot a wedding in Colorado...check. And just recently we received another inquiry to shoot in Chicago, Il. My stomach sank with excitement when I read their location...how could this all be happening so fast? Three big words, "Thank you Lord!"

August 19th-21st we will be traveling to the windy city to shoot Jenny+Donny's wedding at the beautiful Loyola University...I googled the location and came across some blogged photos, I already can't wait. For more of this wedding click HERE.

If you liked it then you shoulda...

I'm growing to have a deeper appreciation for rings..I've never been big ring girl. Remember those girls in high school that would wear like 6 different rings on their fingers? Ya. that wasn't me. I like to keep it simple, wedding bands on the left, Paul's promise ring he gave to me on the right. boom. However, I am slowly falling in love with these gorgeous ring designs by Rust wedding rings ...all their rings are handmade in London, how cool is that?! Here are some designs i'm currently lovin'

It's a husband + wife team who designs these handmade beauties, they also share bits and pieces of their own wedding on their blog..its amazing.

First, this tent with the flag banners rocks my world.

Second, I must know the font used for this program.

wants, needs, wishes...

#34302 of what I want for my future home..

someday..someday.. Hope you all are having a wonderful Sunday :)

He loves the movie "The Notebook"

My husband is such a funny guy...

#1. I think he loves/appreciates trendy weddings more than I do.
#2. He has picked out my outfit for the day on numerous occasions.
#3. He knows about every bit of wedding etiquette out there.
#4. I have caught him on wedding blogs before..(if only he was this into weddings when we were planning ;)
#5. I know he has an appreciation for the store Anthropologie (although he'd never admit it).
#6. Play Natasha Bedingfield's song "Strip me" at any time of day and he will rock out.
#7. He loves the movie "The Notebook"

Another funny fact - it also bugs Paul that I don't like drinking wine (we got married at a winery..fail.)..I've heard him say things like, "It depresses me that we have all these nice wine glasses, but we never use them," and more recently, "let's be classy by drinking wine while watching the notebook." LOL should I be worried? I don't think so :) He's just a great guy. Paul, I love you and have loved being your wife for these past 7 months, it really has been an amazing journey.

Wedding 411:: Venues

Paul and I have learned sooo much about weddings in general over the past year, first with planning one, next with working in the wedding industry (a whole new world)! I think it is safe to say that Paul knows more about weddings then the average girl, and I think he is ok with that ;) haha. We both love everything about it, except for the occasional bride + groomzilla. But it's all good! One of the things that I never realized even while planning our wedding is the importance of a venue.  The venue is so much more than, "oh hey this will look good for pictures." It depicts the couples style and character. There are so many types of weddings, farm weddings, beach weddings, country club weddings, private estate weddings, hotel weddings, winery weddings, church weddings, etc and each one sets a different tone. Here are a few venues we will be working at this year, our so called, "offices for the day." Enjoy! And if you have time, comment on your favorite :) If you like what you see, click on the picture to see more photos by this wedding/photographer!

Holy Spirit Catholic Church

Rancho Las Lomas

Condors' Nest Ranch

Smogshoppe

McCormick Ranch Home

Soka University

Strawberry Farms

Sisterly love.

Sisters, they rock! Having only 1 full brother I was so blessed to inherit two amazing, beautiful, and Christ-like sisters.

Meet Lauren...She's amazing...she is the sister-in-law i've always wanted. We share many inside jokes, and laugh a lot together and she's gorgeous. The ultimate package! We were sleepover buddies during family vacations, best times. I call her Schlork, she calls me Kiki.

Meet Monica...my crazy awesome step sister :) We shared our childhood together, lived off of "sprinkle toast," tormented the house cleaner, dressed our little brothers up in dresses and heels, she's amazing and is currently going to school in Chicago!

best. photo. ever. so many memories behind the lens.

I'm so blessed to call these two God honoring and beautiful women my sisters. :)

Let's get this party started.

Paul and I are both dreaming of wedding season...booking season is fun don't get us wrong, we <3 client meetings, getting to know future couples, hearing their story. But nothing beats an awesome wedding. The entire family from both sides getting together for one joyous event is nothing short of amazing...and yet wedding season doesn't start for us for another 3 months!! gah. luckily we have 2 March weddings (relief) I thought I might actually have enough time to edit our own wedding video *gasp* lol that is never going to happen..It will continue to sit on a hard drive for a raining day. Here's a little look into 618studios' first summer :)

May 14th - Orange County
May 21st - Orange County
June 26th - Orange County

I call this next 7 (maybe 8) week span "the blur..."
July 2nd - Los Angeles
July 8th - Orange County
July 9th - San Diego
July 16th - San Luis Obispo
July 23rd - Huntington Beach
July 30th - San Diego
August 6th - Berkeley
August 13th - San Diego
August 20th - maybe CHICAGO (fingers crossed)

A week break to regain our sanity.. and 6 more in Sept. I could either completely love my job or hate it by the end of September :)

work it.

Basically I long for the day that I have my own office, many of you know that our tiny apartment doesn't allow us to have one, therefore we have what you call a office, dining, and living room. Eh I guess it's what you get for living in the OC...So it dwindles my dreams of my very own office into the corner of our living/dining room. BUT, that still doesn't stop me from dreaming, I have it all planned out...

Pillow WIN.

Maybe a little too modern for my taste, but I love the concept for a chalk board calendar, another WIN!

boom.

confession.

Ok, I have a confession. I am completely in love with this ring....what? I know. But I can't help myself and a husband's gift to his wife on their one year anniversary is diamonds by tradition...see what i'm sayin'? A little right hand bling never hurt anyone :)

Check it. Find all of their GORGEOUS designs on their ETSY shop! Here.

A letter from my Valentine...

So Paul and I aren't diehard fans of Valentines day...since we both has class this evening we decided to have a relaxing evening yesterday to celebrate. After work Paul brought home groceries and we cooked a spaghetti dinner together and then headed over to church. It was perfect. I couldn't have asked for a better 1st valentine's day as Mr.+Mrs. Gilster until Paul surprised me with a hand written letter. With his permission I'm allowed to blog it :)

Dear Kelley,

Well, it's out first valentines day together as a married couple. This one is different from the others in the past because I feel like I don't have the money to do all the nice, romantic things you deserve. But i'm not worried, I know that someday I'll be able to surprise you with the occasional bouquet of ranunculus (my fav flowers).  But in the meantime, I guess I can just give you my love and affection. (Next part I have rated PG-13). So, I would like to offer you a massage tonight before bed.  I must say, I am so happy that I married you. I wake up each day happy knowing that I am loved and supported by the most beautiful woman in the world. I feel completely at peace knowing that I have such an amazing woman to share every part of my life with. I sometimes catch myself day-dreaming about future places that we will vacation and travel to, the family - little Gilster's running around and retiring and growing old together. Another thing that makes me so happy is the fact that we got to start a business together. It's so amazing being able to be on this journey with you and to be honest I couldn't be happier to have such a hot co-worker :). Anyways, I love you and am so have that you have been my valentine, and that you are my valentine, and that you will always be my valentine till we're old and gray. I love you more than words could ever express.

Love your valentine forever,
Paul.

ok, I'll keep him :)

Proverbs 3:5

This week has been nothing short of a trial for myself and Paul, there have been so many things that have happened in our personal lives, school lives, and business lives that has caused us to take a step back and think, "Ok God, where you at?" I feel like many of us tend to ask that questions, primarily when things don't tend to be going the way that we planned it (keyword We). We're all humans common, we love to think that we have control over every bit of detail in our day/month/year. When in reality what we really should be doing is not asking "God where are you?" but "Ok, Lord where are you taking me?" I've found in my own life that in those "God where are you?" moments He quickly makes it known to me that He is here, even though it might not be through the most obvious signs.

Just a couple weeks ago while Paul and I were looking over our finances to come in the next few months we became quickly (or maybe it was just me) overwhelmed with the ever growing list of payments and upcoming expenses with car insurance, 618 investments, and tuition+book (oooo tuition..). In the midst of all of this (and feeling panicked to be honest) I spent some time in prayer just asking the Lord encourage me to trust in him. A well-known verse Proverbs 3:5 states, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." I have probably read/heard that verse over 50 times and each time it still encourages me. Anyways :) that's all for today, but I hope that this also encourages you whether you are facing a "God where are you?" moment or not!