Work week.

Tonight is the beginning of our work week. Formatting cards, re-charging batteries, cleaning lenses, and triple checking the timeline of events. We'll go to bed and I'll pray for tomorrow, pray for the couple, pray for the other vendors, pray for peace of mind, and for me and Paul. Tomorrow our alarm will go off at 5:35am to Phil Wickham (because I'm sure those 5 extra minutes will count) and off to work we go. We will most likely stop for some Starbucks as we wake up during the drive there, and go over the timeline for a 5th time to make sure it's memorized. Once we arrive, for the next 9 hours we are in the zone. Shooting, communicating, and storytelling. Our job can be difficult in a sense that we must be both physically and mentally "on" throughout the day, but I don't love it any less. At some point Paul and I will argue about something, about lighting, shot composition, or audio. 5-10 minutes of the silent treatment will happen or one of us will nail a shot and then we will get over it. And in all honesty, I don't mind fighting for those 5-10 minutes because it reminds me how much we care about what we do, and I won't ever love it any less.

Above is a highlight of last weekends wedding. :) enjoy.

life in the fast lane.

Man 'o man, life on the blog has been slow lately, meaning life in the real world has been fast. I feel like I didn't even get a chance to breath last week with 3 shoots on our calendar + mix in a weekend home in San Diego. The Gilsters have been go, go, go! Today was the first day in 2 weeks Paul and I could sleep in knowing we had no meetings planned, no errands to run, and nowhere to be other than a date till 10am with our pillows. Feeling so blessed to have shoots on the calendar in the off-season, but all I can focus on this week is how we're going to celebrate this guy's 24th birthday this weekend! woohoo.

Paul's attire:

Shirt: H&M

Tie: Urban Outfitters

Pants: H&M

In the meantime..this has been our life according to iPhone images.

having fun on the job.

together. 

Paul and his husky envy. :)

corned beef for days.

Oh Monday, you came too fast. I hope you all had a wonderful St. Patrick's weekend. We kept it low key this year, stayed in and made 2 corned beef and cabbage feasts! No wonder I felt like sleeping all day today... Saturday, mom and brother came up to visit and indulge in our corned beef feast #1. It was so good to see them, especially little brother, he is away at school in Iowa, *sigh*, but coming home to go to school here in California after this semester! :) The four of us caught up while window shopping in a partial food coma.

Now I can happily live off of corned beef sandwiches for a week while preparing for this insanely busy week. 2 promo videos and 1 wedding, a 50k wedding for 50 guests. I know right? iPhone pictures will be taken to share. In the meantime, a good friends little sis got engaged this weekend and I'm drooling over her ice. 5 year anniversary Paul? Let's keep things fresh.. ;-)

preparing for rain.

Nothing I love more than seeing a rainy weekend in the forecast. I see many grilled cheese/tomato soup meals in my near future as well as numerous bubble baths. In additional to my daydreaming for the next 72 hours, there are currently two magical happenings in our house today..

1. The arrival of our new iPad 3, as if owning an iPhone, iTouch, 2 macbook pros, an iMAC, and apple TV isn't enough... Apple must own part of our souls at this point.

2. A yummy St. Patricks day meal of Corned-beef and cabbage cooking in our crockpot for tomorrow's feast! 

Don't forget some green in your outfit tomorrow!

3 for 3 and living for today.

.Personal Post.

Today was a good day. I joyfully forced myself to sleep in till 10, enjoyed some morning coffee, cleaned our home (which has become suddenly therapeutic), ran some errands, made dinner and caught up on work.. and although we have an extra hour of daylight, this week has flown by.

While working tonight, I couldn't help but feel overwhelmingly grateful that we are 3 for 3 of absolutely wonderful couples this year. Almost 2 years into this industry and I'm beginning to realize how much a wonderful client changes the outlook of your business, and on the contrary, how a difficult one can do the same. Luckily out of 29 weddings last year, we can only count on one hand how many bridezilla's and/or groomzillas (they are out there, trust me!) we booked. As we finished off 2011 and began booking for 2012, we decided to carefully handpick who our 25 clients of the year would be and I smile to think that we are currently 3 for 3 of couples who make us love our job. Can I get an amen?!

Also while working tonight, I realized (and Paul tells me time and time again) that I need to live for today.  Often I feel as though I'm living a year in the future, booking clients, planning out our schedule, etc. Our 2012 began in the summer of 2011 and we're already receiving emails for 2013. Although I can't express how incredibly blessed I feel, at the same time I'm thinking.. "2012, you just arrived!"It is a bittersweet aspect of our business and one I am still learning about. 

a small reminder for myself.

If crack were a website..

If crack could come in the form of a website, it would be this one. Olive Manna. This site has everything a girl could as for, home decor pieces, vintage goodies, and wrapping specialities. My heart is complete. Take a peak at some of her goods.

Now go shopping :)

Case of the Monday's

We all have rough days, this video basically sums up the start of my week..

Oh Mondays...

team gilster @ work.

It's not all fun and games, but 85% of the time it is. Found a few of

 these images of us at "work."

jennifer rodrigez photo

color me rad

avery house

10.11 photo

color me rad

color me rad

Dear Lord,

Thank you for this.

view our work --> 618studios.net

Saturday mornings.

Saturday mornings.

Created especially for: sleeping in, catching up on our favorite shows, big breakfasts, and endless coffee/chai tea...

Have a wonderful weekend!

Target treasures.

With clothing stores and food joints like Chick-fil-a, TJ-MAXX, In-n-Out, Target, World Market and not to mention the entire South Coast Plaza mall (which is a whole new set of problems) within a mile radius of our new home, I've truly learned what it means to have self-restraint.

It's not that I'm a big time shopper, I really just have to restrain from spending an entire afternoon browsing through all these places. Just yesterday I came across some treasures in Target, you know, since Target is full of them!

To my surprise, I found my go-to wedges for the summer! 

Nautical Navy

Coral

Anyone looking for some wedges with all 3 C's: casual, cute, and comfy.  I am such a wimp when it comes to wearing any type of a heal, but they are unbelievably comfy and only $25! I grabbed them in coral, but those navy ones may be calling my name too. Go peak at them HERE.

DIY succulent terrariums!

I've probably talked about Paul's love for gardening here and there. But not just any gardening, only succulents. Which is great because they are currently fun and trendy! He loves the fact that they are so clean looking and very easy to maintain :) I agree! I recently came across some inspiration for succulent terrariums and shared them with Paul. The gardener was hooked, and made one for us and for our friends Troy and Aimee, who happened to snap these photos.

Here was the outcome.

Wanna try for yourself? Here is what you will need.

                        - A large class vase or bowl of your choice. We found ours 

                                   at TJ-maxx!

                        - Cactus soil

                        - Small pebbles for the top. Ours are from Petco ;-)

                        - Succulents that are to your liking!

*only water once a week!* Super easy!

this weekend's project.

Our sad little home office is dying for some wall art, or more like I am dying for something to look at besides white walls staring back at me. Tonight I took a trip over to Paper-Source and found this awesome 2012 wall art calendar. Not only will it bring so much color to our office, it was 50% off may I add! Here is some inspiration for what we are planning to do with it :)

Enough color right? Hopefully I'll remember to snap some photos for before & afters.

summertime in march.

This part week has been blissful, all my fellow Southern Californian's I'm sure will agree that this past week was just the right amount of a summer preview. Clear skies, 75-80 degree weather *sigh*...July where are you? With all this wonderful weather, I can't help but think about some fun summertime beverages. Here are just a couple I thought sounded refreshing during this warm weather...

fresh strawberry margaritas

recipe for one margarita, can easily be multiplied

          2 ounces Grand Marnier

          1 1/2 ounces Tequila

2 ounces lime juicelime 

fresh strawberries for garnish salt 

sugar for the rim

2 1/2 ounces strawberry simple syrup [recipe below]

For strawberry simple syrup: combine equal parts sugar and water, bring to a boil and let sugar dissolve, then turn off heat and let cool completely. Combine 1 cup simply syrup + 1 1/2 cups slices strawberries in a blender and blend until combined.

picnic peach sangria

1 bottle of white wine

1 cup peach schnapps

1/2 cup frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed

2 nectarines, sliced

1 cup green or red grapes

Combine all in large pitcher, cover and chill at least 2 hours or overnight. Stir before serving

home swoon.

Thank you Pinterest for creating unrealistic expectations of my future home.

Yours truly,

a fellow pin-a-holic. 

afternoon delight.

Don't worry, keepin' it G here! Sometimes we break out the roller blades and skate board. It makes for a delightful afternoon.

my blades of glory.

we got creative with ways to "walk the dog" while pet-sitting Kean.

happy birthday little sis.

As much as I love my little brother, Troy, I secretly wished for a little sister my whole life. When both my parents re-married, I happily gained 2 and when I got married I got a third! It's hard to think of life without Lauren. She was only 12 when Paul and I became an item and I also have to add that I was taller than her! Now she towers over me like a big sister and offers advice like one too. She is incredibly wise for her age and it is unbelievable to me how well-rounded she is as an individual. 

Today she turned 18, I just can't believe that in the next couple months she will be graduating from high school and in less than a year she will be off to college. What happened to my little middle school Lauren? I loved her like a sister then and now I truly love her as a sister of mine now. Happy Birthday little(big) sis!

motivation.

All my close friends and family know that I tend to be an impatient person. I've tried and tried to bring patience into my life and she just isn't here yet. While getting back into a workout routine, my impatience immediately kicks in. "Why don't my abs look any different?" "Why have I only lost 2lbs?!" In the past,  impatience wins resulting in me giving up my workout routine because my results aren't coming fast enough. Luckily I came across some inspiration recently that has given me some food for thought.

Hoping this gives you some inspiration and patience too!