Our recent re-brand!

Just a few weeks ago we had the excitement of launching a fresh new website for our company 618 Studios. Having entered our third year of business, we figured it was time to work with a graphic designer on collaborating with them on a new look for 618.

As creatives ourselves, we know that great things happen when clients give free reign on your creativity. So that's what we did. The only guidelines we gave were, "clean, modern, attractive to both brides & business owners and easy to navigate. Our designer (Cody) totally nailed it. If you find the time, please head on over and take a look! www.618studios.net. I am so happy that we invested in this new site, both Paul & I are excited to see where it takes us in this next year! Also, we've been working on product packaging for 2014 (didn't 2013 just happen?). We always seem to be a year ahead ;-) These custom wooden engraved USB drives we ordered recently turned out amazing. I'm already looking forward to 2014!

…and hey since we are already talkin' biz, here is a new wedding film of ours! Enjoy.

My summer project.

I've announced it subtly in another blog post but here is a more official "coming out." An unexpected summer project came my way about a month ago. My mom bought a pony. A pony too small for her to ride so she has graciously handed her over to me for the next few months; while we take baby steps towards training and ultimately showing later this year. Training a pony is completely new to me and its safe to say that she is teaching me as much as I'm teaching her. 

Coming into official wedding season just two weeks ago, it wasn't the most ideal situation for this project pony to come into the picture. She is about 25 minutes south of our place at a barn in San Juan Capistrano. I work with her 5x a week. Spending about 3 hours from the time I leave my apartment to getting home per day. Growing up around horses my entire life I knew what a commitment this would be for me, but I couldn't say no and now I'm glad I didn't. This pony gives me balance. Without her I would spend my entire day indoors, locked in my office, and glued in front of a computer. This project gives me a reason to break up my work day, get outside, and really enjoy "barn life" again. She provides me with exercise, joy, and a breath of fresh air. Thankful to have this little (sometimes rotten) pony in my life right now!

Is it wrong to miss just dating?

Dating. Dating is fun, right? If you are married you may know exactly what I mean. To be back in that time with your spouse where everything was new, things were exciting and unknown. Just being able to spend 30 minutes together talking made your week, I could go on and on and probably come up with 50 other sappy examples but I'm sure you get my point :). I personally totally took the dating days with Paul for granted. I just COULDN'T WAIT to be married. Don't get me wrong, we still had a ton of fun in those 4 years as BF & GF, but I remember never fully being content because I was constantly looking ahead to what was next for us. Marriage. 

Just this past month Paul's little sister began dating her very first boyfriend. She is 19 and officially started a relationship with a boy who she went to high school with and who actually grew up across the street from me. Adorable. Last week she got her wisdom teeth out and instagram-ed this picture.

Her caption read..."Well, I guess getting my wisdom teeth out has its benefits, thank you Anthony for being amazing! Your know me too well." Gah! I suddenly realized how much I missed those 4 years before marriage, those same years that I could not get out of fast enough. I never realized it until now how special those years were. I now encourage all my friends who are eagerly waiting for that rock to simply enjoy those moments. When you think about it, the time you spend dating your spouse is really such a small and special time of life when you look at the big picture. Marriage changes a lot, more than you expect it to when you are on the outside looking in and "dating your spouse" is probably one of the biggest challenges that couples face after years and years of life together. I know for Paul and I it is. I've yet to read it but have her great things about "Date your Wife" by Justin Buzzard. Would love to hear if any of you out there have read it and what your thoughts are on rekindling that dating excitement in your marriage now.

I need to blog more...

I've really dropped the ball on Team Gilster recently. Honestly, there hasn't been much motivation to get on here and write, the lie of "I'll update tomorrow..." has really gotten the best of me, or I start on a blog post and get horribly distracted by Teen Mom 2. Is it just me or does Janelle have the worst crying voice? So I'll start with our quick trip to San Fran. Super fun and we had a blast sightseeing, eating, finding cute coffee shops, but it was hard because I kept comparing it to NYC (I miss you ny). For the first time we got to actually see and walk across the Golden Gate which Paul had been dying to do. It's pretty incredible. We accidentally left the camera at home so if you follow me on instagram you may have been a lot of these ;-)

Then.... we officially launched our second business, The Toasting Tent! A fun & fresh video booth company. I wrote a little about it on here...check out our website www.thetoastingtent.com or keep up to date by liking us on facebook! www.facebook.com/thetoastingtent We are super excited about it and excited to see it grow! Would love to hear if you would have had a video booth at your wedding, we totally would have. To see our guests like this would have been priceless.. Watch a sample toasting tent film below...

Then....my mom found a project pony, we tried her out, and then bought her! Cray. We've had her for just 5 days now and she is a handful but we are excited to keep working with her and see what she is capable of. For those of you who aren't sure what a project pony is...it's basically when you purchase a green horse/pony (green meaning hardly trained)  as an investment. It's up to you to put the time and training into the horse and hopefully sell for more when he/she is ready. With ponies, the goal is to work with them until they are ready for a child to ride/show them. So here we are! Sienna is pretty cute and I'm trying hard to not get attached to her.

Then...no just kidding, not much else has happening over here. We've been doing little house projects here and there but other than that Paul is super busy with school and getting ready for finals. Just 3 more weeks and he will be officially be halfway thru grad school! Proud of that guy.