{summer cocktails video with Pinnacle}

Hey guys! Sorry for the unannounced radio silence around lately- real life just got in the way these past couple weeks.  I'm back today with a fun video I shot at the beginning of the summer in NYC with Glam and Pinnacle Vodka.  It's full of easy summer inspired cocktail recipes and me acting generally ridiculous on camera!! Enjoy!

Cheers!

{video: 4 holiday cocktail recipes}

Along with the holiday DIY projects I showed you in this video, I also came up with four different cocktail recipes for Glam's Haute Hostess series that are perfect for the holidays!  Check out the fun video and all recipes are below....

Cheers!

{video: easy holiday decor projects}

           

A few weeks ago, Glam asked me to come out to NYC and shoot some fun holiday DIY projects for their Haute Hostess video series (you can see more of their fun videos right here).  This video shows you how to make a few different easy DIY projects for the holidays- my personal fave is the floral table runner adorned with gold antlers! This was the first time I have ever done something like this on camera (so don't judge too hard!) and while it was a bit awkward at first by the end I was having a total blast.  We also shot another fun video all about holiday cocktails that I can't wait to share with you in a few weeks- see a sneak peek here.

{one year anniversary trip video}

One of the best decisions we made with our wedding was deciding at the last minute to splurge on videography.  I love to watch our highlight video every now and then because it completely transports me back to that day.

Our DLSR camera actually takes great high quality video and I have been meaning to shoot more with it as well as learn how to edit it.  The trip to The Parker Palm Springs that Chris surprised me with for our anniversary seemed like the perfect chance to try it out!  Here's the video we put together using footage from both our DLSR camera and my Iphone then edited in iMovie.   After figuring out the basics of the video editing software, putting together the video was surprisingly quick and easy.  While I definitely have some room for improvement on both shooting video footage and editing it, having this great little memory of our trip definitely motivates me to want to make more videos of future trips.

Our 4 day trip to LA and The Parker Palm Springs was a much needed trip to warmer weather to escape the dismal spring that Chicago is having.  This video sums up our trip which was basically comprised of drinking cocktails, laying by the pool, drinking champagne, playing lawn games and drinking more cocktails - oh and celebrating our first year of marriage!

{our wedding: the highlight video}

The guys over at Nick Radford did such an amazing job capturing the highlights from our wedding.   I absolutely cannot wait to see the full length video next week, but for now we have this little jem to watch over and over!!  I have so many favorite parts of this video, but I would say the standout moments are having our "first look" captured on film and the confetti shot at the very end. (click here if the video below won't play for you)

{our wedding vendors}

With just a few more days until our wedding I thought it might be fun to share all the people who are helping it come together.  We spent countless hours searching for, interviewing, meeting with and selecting these vendors.  Every single one of them as been a joy to work with so far and we cant wait to have them with us on our big day.

Photography: 

EPLove- you can see our engagement shoot with them here.  We truly loved working with Roger- we were laughing at his jokes for our entire shoot!  Absolutely cannot wait to have them capture everything for us.

Videography:

Videography was a total last minute decision for us (as in we decided to do this last week) and Nick Radford has been totally amazing working with us to get everything together super quick.

Day-of Coordinator:

April from The Bride & I is so so so much more than a day-of coordinator. I honestly don't even know how we would get to this point without her and I know we certainly wouldn't survive the wedding without her by our sides.

Florals:

Our amazing friend, Chelsea is handling all the wedding flowers and centerpieces for us.  In addition to making awesome floral arrangements, she runs a super cute clothing site called Novel Surplus. (go. buy things.)

Styling:

I have always loved Lauren's blog and sought her out to style all the countless DIY projects we have been creating over the past couple months.  What's the use of making so much wonderful stuff for your wedding if you can't relax on the day of because you are setting it all up!?!  I don't have to worry at all knowing Lauren from A Fabulous Fete will execute everything exactly how we are envisioning it!

Catering:

Mike & Laura at Simply Elegant are really great. Not only are they making our dreams of having a wedding served family style come true, but they are doing it all at a very reasonable cost and accommodating our various recipe requests!

DJ

KC of Vox DJs did our friend's wedding and he was beyond great so we knew it would be perfect for ours.  This guy lives and breathes weddings- if you are in the LA area, I highly recommend him and his team!