Montana living.

If there is a picture that could sum up our time at Montana this picture below would be it.

No Facebook, no Twitter, no emails, no editing...just enjoying a good book on the front porch of Grandma's cabin. Ah, the simple life. Each morning started with a big breakfast (something Paul and I aren't used to, but thoroughly enjoyed) and each evening ended with sitting around the table after dinner reading the daily devotional. Especially now, family time is so good! 

Most of the days were spent on the Lake where we knee boarded, wake boarded, cliff jumped, and I learned to single ski!! 

this hat on Paul cracks me up!

and when we weren't on the lake we were exploring the great outdoors!!

this was in the middle of an 8 mile hike, we were feeling hardcore ;-) 

The Gilster's have started so many traditions over the years of visiting Montana every summer. They include huckleberry Ice cream after each day on the lake, chicken foot dominos, hike to "the waterfall", daily devotional each night, squirrel hunting, lunch at Napps, and so many more. I love learning about them all :)

The day before we headed back to OC living, Grandma treated us all to dinner!

It was a perfect week and the perfect getaway from the craziness of wedding season! Until next year :)

Just 2 crazy kids.

Wheww...what a day, blogging twice in one day, coffee at 9pm, pink eye in both eyes, hit 100 followers on Twitter, I'm living life on the edge that's for sure ;-) But seriously, today has been crazyy!! We're hopping on a plane in less than 48 hours and flying spontaneously to Montana to join Paul's family on their annual family vacation!!!

This morning I woke up, grabbed my laptop and randomly searched for flights from Orange County to Missoula, MT. The Gilsters had just left for Montana yesterday and would be arriving this evening. "Paul what if we just flew out to Montana and met your family, don't you wanna go?! We could go from Monday - Friday and be back for Saturday's wedding!" (I thought I was brilliant) This is what I got. "Kelley, think logically, no" Someone was craannkkyyy! ;-)

I texted my sis in law Lauren and told her my crazy plan, seconds later Paul's fam was calling me with a million questions..

"How serious are you about this?"
"When would you fly in?"
"How long would you stay for?"
"What if you left Sunday?"
"How much are tickets?"


They were ALL for it with me! After text after text, Paul was onboard and the tickets were purchased! After our wedding shoot tomorrow we will be leaving Sunday at 7:45am, arriving in Montana around 12:30pm and spending 5 full days big sky country! Lots of pics to come when we get back on Friday!

A few of my favorite things.

Lately, all my post have been so long. Felt like posting something short and sweet today :) A few of my favorite things.

::Laughing::

::Traveling::

 ::Sleeping in::

 ::Filming::

::Lemonade::

::Flowers::

::yes, i love teen mom::

::Working:: ...wish I had this.

::Weddings::

I wouldn't love what I do if I didn't. 

Wish I could give photo credit to all these peeps, but I just found them on Pinterest! 

On Pinterest? Follow my boards :) HERE

The Bitter and The Sweet.

//The Bitter.

Paul and I..or I guess you could say 618studios, had a perfect record up until about 3 weeks ago. Up until then we had a perfect record of booking each couple we met with in person. We get numerous inquiries throughout the month, mainly through emails, sometimes through phone calls, but when couples are really serious about wedding cinema for their big day they set up a time to meet with us in person. We hold all our client meetings, or about 90% of them at a small Starbucks just a couple blocks from our apartment.

Well, a few weeks ago we got an email from a coordinator explaining that she had two couples interested in our services for their big day...the whole she-bang. But, she wanted us to meet them in San Diego. Long story short, we explained that we are located in Orange County and hold all our client meetings up here. In the meantime we were planning our 1 year anniversary trip to good 'ol SD and figured we could squeeze one 45 min client meeting into the mix, why not? Again long story short, contacted the coordinator, set a time/location and met up. It went great, or so we thought..a couple weeks later we received word that the couple had decided to book a different videographer for their big day.

say what?!?!?

I was super bummed, at first I blamed the couple, "don't they know we took time out of OUR anniversary weekend to meet with them?!" "we basically drove over at hour to meet them, that's like $20 in gas?!" Then I blamed myself, "what did we do differently?" "Is it because of how our new packages are set up?" It went on and on and finally Paul stepped in, "Kelley, did you honestly think that we would book every couple we met with?"

//The Sweet

I felt like saying yes, but eventually I came to my senses and realized that we wouldn't. Needless to say, I received a large slice of humble pie that afternoon and learned a great lesson.

#1. From now on 100% of client meetings will be in Orange County (business lesson learned).
#2. I shouldn't expect that every couple we meet with will be the right fit for us.

We've been super blessed with booking the amount of weddings we have in just our first year, this turn down was exactly what I needed to keep me in line.

Road trippin' it

This morning at 2:00am we finally made it home from our quick trip to SLO (i just feel cool saying that). we heaved, or more like hobbled in with all our equipment and luggage into our apartment and passed out around 3:00am. It was a brutal trip, driving up Friday afternoon and arriving early Sunday morning, but we still enjoyed every second of will+lisa's big day!

We also worked with another husband + wife team..photographers :) They were so kind and always looking out for us! It was such a pleasure to team up with Jen Rodriguez Photography..we hope to work with them again soon.

There's not much to be said about these next couple images, but one thing is for sure. Photo booths rock!

These were also taken by Jen Rodriguez. :)

Many of you probably saw through the Facebook grapevine that I had to opportunity to visit my horse Elf while we were in SLO. and Yes, I did cry. But only for a couple seconds when we drove up and Paul pointed him out to me in his stall. He is such a great horse. I was definitely blessed to spend 3 years with this guy..

Unfortunately, I caught a pretty nasty cold on the way up and spent Friday day/night hopped up on dayquil/nyquil. No fun. I was worried going into the day on Saturday wondering how being sick would effect my thinking, planning shots, and filming in general but I made it through 10 hours later!! On the ride home Paul was sweet enough to pull over and grab me some earl grey tea...meaning I basically begged him to stop lol. He was committed to getting home as fast as possible. Then, 2 hours later I had to beg him again to pull over to I could relieve myself of my bursting bladder from too much tea. Ahh...life. Lots more to share later on!

Jumping for Joy!

So, good news! We survived our double header weekend..it was pretty rough, but we made it through and I'm happy to say we don't have another one till Sept. :-) I wish I could share a few little images from Friday's wedding but we forgot to take some..but here are some from Saturday's wedding.

The owners of The Condors Nest Ranch are absolutely brilliant..this venue has everything a shabby-chic/country bride could ever want!

You may have seen it but here is their trailer! Eek it's a favorite.

This weekend we will be road tripping on to another wedding in San Luis Obispo. But we are also doing something super special!!  Two years ago last month, I sadly had to sell my horse Elf. It was time, I was in college, Paul and I were engaged and would be getting married in the next year and lessons and board didn't exactly fit in the budget. I knew it was going to happen sooner or later. :( The worst part about it was knowing that in the past I had sold horses and started horse hunting for the next right away..this time I wouldn't be getting another one..

 Elf taught me a lot in the 3 years I owned him.. (yes I'm going crazy equestrian on you right now) He was a difficult horse and made me cry in frustration at least once a week, but also made me cry with happiness. As I had been riding, owning, and showing horses for 15 years of my life it has been difficult to say the least that one day it just stopped.

Well a couple days ago I got a facebook message from his new owner saying that she knew we were going to be in SLO this weekend (she's a big 618 fan) ;-) and would like to know if I wanted to come visit/ride elf while I was in town. We were just about to leave from Paul's parents house on Sunday when I said to Paul, "We gotta go get my boots and saddle, I'm going to ride Elf!!!" Paul looked at me like I was crazy, "we're doing what?" "Ya, we're going Friday, I'm going to see Elf!" We got to my house, I ran down to the barn to grab my un-used saddle of two years from my dusty tack trunk, ran to my room grabbed some old breeches and my tall boots and placed them contently in the car while smelling the wonderful smell of old leather and reminicing on old memories (ok, i know I'm getting WAY sentimental about this, but I can't help it). I'm just thrilled to get back in the saddle, even if it's only for an hour!

Disorienting

I should probably be asleep right now seeing as in the next 48 hours 21 of them will be spent with a camera in hand (or on tripod in hand) shooting weddings. I've said it time and time again, I really appreciate and enjoy what I do, but I don't know if back to back weekends are for me/us. I probably shouldn't jump the gun and make such an assumption, but I'll get back to you on monday with the final verdict. :) If you think of me from 8:30am - 8:30pm tomorrow or from 12:00pm - 9:00pm on Saturday. Pray for me lol. Last weekends wedding was awesome sauce!

so unique and quaint!

If you have a minute or 3..take a peak.

Ok, besides work. Paul and I have had the chance to spend a few weekends with our family recently. It's been great to relax with those you care about and lean on during tough times. Although, we have great friends up here in Orange County, I still get lonely from time to time..I think Paul does too ;-) The past few months have been kinda..disorienting (for lack of a better word). Lots has seemed to have changed in my personal life and with relationships in general. New friends have been made, old ones have been lost. But overall I've never felt so blessed to be surrounded with those I am close with now. I've probably said this before, but I'm always intrigued with who God takes in and out of a persons life in His specific timing. And for now, without a doubt I know He chosen those who I know give endless amount of love, appreciate, and grace.

what's new?

Our blogging life is lacking lately, lots has been happening I feel like! First off, hope you had a great 4th of July by eating an obscene amount of hotdogs and/or hamburgers ;-) Not us this year...we kept is classy by grilling tri-tip with Paul's family, 83 year old Grandma Elaine and her 90 year old friend Ida. One thing's for sure..we know how to party! It was an odd group, but great company. By the way, I totally wasn't bashing hotdogs or hamburgers..Paul and I eat hotdogs at least once a week. My body hates me for it. But other than that, mama Gilster went out of her usual way to make an over the top meal.

God.Bless.America.

My mom on the other hand was celebrating being 50 years young in Vegas!! My mother...still 21 at heart. I just love her :) 

Mama Boyer on the left!

Other than it being hotter than you know what, Paul and I have become nocturnal. We refuse to sit at our computers editing and sweating during the day so we spend our days sleeping in and finding our way to the beach to escape the heat. Then from 6pm - 1am the work day begins. It's bizarre. I wonder what our neighbors think of us? Have a wonderful week!