Photobooth Journey

I saw this idea on one of my favorite blogs I follow :-) I love it so much that I decided to do it myself..Let me take you WAYY back to my senior year of high school all the way till now! It's been quite a journey.

Many Thanks.

A few frames from our Thanksgiving weekend at home. My heart is completely full from seeing so many of our loving family members and my belly feels like it's still full of turkey and stuffing! 

Friday night lights, us, mom's table setting, yarn ball wreath!

"off season"

Sorry for not being as "on top" of updating in blogland! I am thoroughly enjoying this vacation known as the "off-season" and we still have 7 more weeks of it [insert high-five and high kick here]. God knows how much I needed this!

My weeks have changed so much. Each Monday and Tuesday I try to convince Paul as best I can to stay home and hang out with me, call me needy but being home alone for 12 hours is not fun :-( besides, my success rate is less than 10% I think he has given in maybe once and immediately regretted it when I started the day watch Real Housewives of Orange County. He'll thank me one day. Wednesday - Friday is full of me begging him to let me make plans with our friends even though he is 2 weeks away from finals week and slammed with projects. He'll thank me one day for that too..and finally comes Saturday and Sunday which are totally free game. He loves me.

Oh. I do work in between too. 

Hope you have a fantastic week!

The Difference

Recently one of our photographer friends posted this on his Facebook.

The difference between okay and amazing ceremony photos may be starting 30mins before/later. The difference between crazy and organized family photos may be the guests putting down the camera for a few mins. The difference between a few and a ton (not to mention beautiful) photos of you and your spouse may be giving your undivided attention for just a few mins. The difference between messy/chaotic and creative getting ready shots may be you making sure the hotel room is clean and your makeup artist putting you in the right place. The difference between no/bad and gorgeous detail shots may be you setting aside time for your photographer to take those photos. The difference between serious/boring/unemotional and happy/interesting/emotional candid shots may be you and all your loved ones smiling/laughing/crying all day and night long. The difference between terrible and awesome first dance/parent dances/toast shots may be you dancing a bit closer with your partner (and smiling) and not eating/having waiters pass by/a giant bouquet of flower blocking your face during the speeches. The difference between a stressful/disorganized wedding and a stress-free one may be spending just a bit more and hiring a coordinator. As you can see, it doesn't take a lot to get amazing photos, it's just doing the little things...as they all add up :).


This couldn't be more true and although this was written by a photographer, many of these statements are very true for cinematographers as well. We don't mean to be "high maintenance" or "controlling" of where you get ready or how the day flows. Our #1 priority is to create the most creative/beautiful film of your day as possible. If we could give advice to any of our couples out there or just any soon-to-be wed couples it would be to trust your vendors 100%, remember that they want the best for you!!

MIA

Paul and I have been spending this Thanksgiving week at home and keeping busy with working and visiting with old friends. It really has been a sweet treat to have this week with all the people we love. I got spoiled by my sis-in-law, who tried many Pinterest inspired hair-do's on me.

Excuse my unwashed/dirty hair. Showers are optional at home.. ;-)

Since we spent Thanksgiving with Paul's family last year we switched between my mom+stepdad and dad+stepmom's houses this year. It was crazy and busy but really great to see everyone! I also made Mini apple pies which are sooo yummy!! You MUST try! So quick and easy.

Saturday night.

Today was our first official Saturday day off since June 18th, our anniversary weekend! I can't believe it has really been that long, I'm ready for a nap just thinking about that! We purposively didn't plan anything today knowing that we wanted to leave the day free to do whatever we pleased. I tried to tempt Paul into taking me to see Breaking Dawn, apparently men aren't tempted by that at all? Hot, shirtless vampires aren't appealing to them, what? So we laid low, I spent some time (ok an hour or two) on Pinterest researching fun Thanksgiving day foods. Thanksgiving just got a whole lot more crafty! I think I have a thing for foods in miniature form.

Look at all the fun 

Mini apple pies!!

Twice baked sweet potatoes. My favorite.

Bite sized pumpkin pie.

So great! Links to each of the recipes are below each image. Happy baking! Have a great weekend, I can already tell that sipping Tomato soup and pinning will be my highlight.

Celebrating

This week has been full of celebrations..some big like finishing up the year on Saturday with wedding #28 and some small like finding fun things to continue to decorate our new home with! All are equally as exciting. We also celebrated Paul's moms birthday on Friday (11.11.11) by heading down to Nick's. Family is fun :-)

She is 52 years young!

{robin, lauren, me, jared}

Please note Paul's mustache..he is working hard on it.

Exploring downtown San Clemente together.

Hope you all have a fantastic week ahead!

28 of 28.

I've been dreaming of this day since the 3rd week in July when I knew it was still and 14 weeks and 17 weddings away. Last.wedding.of.the.year! I'm full of so many emotions.. excited, relieved, exhausted, happy, sad, hopeful, and blessed are just a few. This year has been a complete roller coaster and we have learned so much that I feel like 618 has been in our lives for the past 10 years, not the past 15 months.

10 weeks of free weekends?! Sounds like a small slice of heaven right now.

To Paul,


Even though we fight 70% of the time while working together and our intern probably thinks we have the most dysfunctional marriage ever, I'm so glad that we started on this journey together. You are a great husband, business partner, and steadicamer ;-) Couldn't imagine doing this without you.


love,
your wifey

bad days happen.

Back when we first started 618 I honestly never thought that there would be a day that I didn't enjoy my job..and literally for the first 8 or 9 months there wasn't, honestly I was in love with my job. ...Then our first "summer" happened and I slowly began to fall into the world of bitter.

I remember thinking, "What's wrong here? We started our own company, I'm my own boss, if I don't want to get out of bed before 11am I don't have to, I make my own hours..I shouldn't dislike my job ever." I literally began to feel like a failure. I didn't even know why. One day I was venting to my mom about a current work situation at the time and she totally called me out, "you sound a little bitter." As much as a girl doesn't like to admit it, mama's always right, and she was. I was beginning to get bitter. Too many weddings. I don't regret a single one, but 12 in 2 months was too much. I.was.burnt.out.

Looking back, (I say looking back but I'm still struggling with it now) I think it was the mentality that I always have to be 100% in love with what I do and the pressure that came with that mentality made me bitter. I shouldn't feel guilty about having a bad work day. I shouldn't feel guilty that i'm beyond stoked that this weekend is our last wedding for 2011. I shouldn't feel guilty that I'm relieved I don't have to see anyone get married for 10 weeks (Hallelujah!) My brain needs a little break. I need days of vegging out while watch the real housewives of orange county and weeks of never having to opening up Final cut pro. Breaks are goooood, breaks are healthy and I'm so much more at peace knowing that I no longer have the expectations of loving my job each and every day. Bad.days.happen. Has anyone else struggled with this? I know it's kind of a weird topic but I'd love to hear your stories and experiences! 

new friend.

Meet Kean. He is the cutest Mini-Sheepdoodle around. His parents asked us to watch him while they are away so me and Kean get to hang for the next few days. He's so easy to love!

what i'm thankful for.

Thanksgiving is coming! Meaning stuffing is soon to be piled high on my plate (with loads of gravy). I feel like each person has their "thing" for Thanksgiving..turkey, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, all are yummy, but stuffing is my "thing" I can't get enough of on Thanksgiving. This month is always a great time to reflect on what you are most thankful for, I've been seeing lots of people on Facebook posting each day what they are thankful for. That's commitment! Here are some things off the top of my head that I am thankful for right now in my life. Some are silly, some are serious ;-)

I'm thankful for..

- My family
- Having only 1 more wedding this year! and I'm thankful for the 17 we have booked so far for 2012.
- Couples who don't take their wedding too seriously (they always win for being the most fun!)
- Many of the opportunities I have been given
- Jesus
- Amazing friendships
- IKEA
- Loving what I do 90% of the time.
- Paul's humor and ability to make me angry and make me laugh in a matter of minutes.

and..

- This new place we can call home.

Me and Jared (Brother in Law) being silly at Fashion Island.

Random Wednesday: Accent Video

A little video for Random Wednesday, I found it on one of my friend's blog and it seemed kinda fun! See directions at the bottom if you'd like to do one for your own blog :-)

I apologize for my very bare office. The painting project is starting next week!

Say these words:

Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

And answer these questions:

What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
What do you call gym shoes?
What do you say to address a group of people?
What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
What do you call your grandparents?
What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
What is the thing you use to change the TV channel?

home depot and chinese food.

Today I begged  asked Paul to stay home with me. Forget class, chilling with your wife is way more cool. We spent the day grocery shopping, going to Pier 1, and Home Depot (I'm sure he was so glad he stayed home with me). Home Depot was his idea. And for the record, when we say we go to Home Depot that means we went to the nursery to buy succulents. We're pretty hardcore.

If you havn't heard, Paul love his garden.

It's weird to think this is our new place. It doesn't quite feel like home yet. I don't know exactly where things are in the kitchen or which light switches turn on which lights...there aren't enough memories here yet. Not like our old place. We went back to visit today and it feels so empty, almost like we never lived there. I went to check the mail and came back to find Paul sitting in the empty living room. Even though he'll never admit it, I know he was feeling a little sad. I was too. 

During our first night here after spending hours moving during the day and hours unpacking that night we took a break around midnight. We had nothing in the fridge except leftover chinese food from the night before. We grabbed a couple plates out of a box and sat on the floor eating our chinese food together. 

It wasn't fancy, it wasn't ideal..let's be honest, we were eating chinese food on dirty plates on the floor, but I soon realized that it was our very first memory here. And I love that.