I’m a pretty proud daddy today. My seven year old son just completed writing, directing and editing his first film! I was so proud of him I am deciding to share this exclusive new release to the world, right here. He did this project for a National Elementary School art program called “Reflections.” Students from all over the country submit entries that speak to a common theme. This year’s theme was “Beauty is…” I asked him what he thought was beautiful and being an avid reader of books on the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, he of course responded, “Battlefields!” I asked him why and that little seven year old looked at me and told me, “They’re beautiful because that’s where we won our freedom.” He’s exactly right. He has one grandfather that was in the Army and another grandfather that was in the Navy (for only a week, but he gave it a shot!) and a Great Grandfather that fought in World War II, so this subject is very close to home for all of us. He wrote the script, recorded the voice over, found the pictures and edited the video by himself. I told him how to do things technically on Final Cut Pro, but he did it all, so naturally I had to have him go the extra step and teach him how to upload it to the web so we could share it with everyone. Here it is…and I couldn’t be more proud.

Fall is on it’s way! We were cold for the first time at a wedding in about 9 months, but you wouldn’t have known it from the warmth that was shared between Brian, Mary and all of their family and friends. What a beautiful wedding at the Westlake Inn on Saturday October 10th. Along with the beautiful flowers, the beautiful dress and the beautiful scenery were some pretty beautiful people. Brian, a doctor, and Mary, a nurse, sure knew how to take care of everyone. The food was delicious and I know everyone appreciated the incredible red velvet cupcakes at the end of the evening. They sure worked it off on the dance floor though, everyone had a great time and I stayed up quite late after the event to put a few of their best moments up online for everyone to see the next morning…

Once in a while you see a wedding where you just know the couple is going to be together forever. Ashlee Barnes and Tom Mullen are those two people. Fun doesn’t do their wedding justice. Every guest in attendance had to feel like they were one of the guests of honor at really great party. There was an air of relaxation, of true joy at this wedding that we don’t get to see often enough. It was a perfect day, beautiful weather and as far as I knew not a thing went wrong, but you just got the feeling that it could have been pouring rain and they could have forgot the dress and the cake and Tom and Ashlee would have still had the time of their lives. They really understood that this was one day, the first day of the rest of their lives together and they were celebrating that with everyone they loved. The fun oozed out from start to finish, but no more so than their incredibly original and entertaining first dance. I have posted the video below, enjoy it…I know they did!

Plan your wedding while sipping Martinis poolside

Here’s a great opportunity for brides and grooms to meet some incredible wedding vendors, sip a few martinis by the pool and help a great cause!  Please let me know if you can join us for the August Wedding Happy Hour to help Autism Speaks at the Four Points by Sheraton in Culver City.  Anyone who is my guest will get FREE admission and have the opportunity to give a tax deductible donation to Autism Speaks.  It should be a great night for a worthy cause.  For tickets please e-mail me at matt@matrimonypictures.com.  To find our more about Autism Speaks please go to www.autismspeaks.org/ and for more information on the Wedding Happy Hour please visit www.weddinghappyhour.blogspot.com/

Meghan & Matt Paletz celebrate in style at TPC Valencia.  Please see the detailed post below, but of course I’m a glutton for punishment and I stayed up until 3:00am the night of the wedding to do this highlight for this special couple.  I hope it looks as nice to you all as it did to me through my bleary eyes.  Enjoy!

I got the privilege of celebrating my anniversary with a wonderful couple last Saturday at the TPC Valencia.  My wife and I were married on June 20, 1998, 11 years strong!  Just for the record, my wife and I celebrated on Thursday night going to the live taping of So You Think You Can Dance and out to a great dinner in Hollywood.  She is very understanding about me filming on our anniversary…come to think of it, she’s very understanding about everything I do which is one of the many reasons why I love her and we’re more in love now than we were 11 years ago.  But enough about us…

I got to shoot a spectacular wedding on June 20, 2009 at one of my favorite locations, TPC Valencia (www.tpcvalencia.com).  Gina Goodrich, coordinates all of the events over there and you’d be hard pressed to find someone who works harder, cares more, or treats the guests and vendors with as much class and kindness as she does.  She’s the best!  

Meghan happens to be very good friends with one of the best wedding coordinators anywhere, Kelly Meyer of Kelly Michelle Weddings (www.kellymichelleweddings.com/), and it showed.  The colors, the details, the flowers, the linens and the candy table were all top notch.  Don’t try this at home people, this was professionally done from top to bottom.  The rentals were brought in by Rusty at AV Party Rentals (www.avparty.com) and he always does a superb job.  The gorgeous flowers were done by Jackie Combs of Jackie Combs Floral Design (www.jackiecombsfloraldesign.com/).  This was the first time I had worked with Jackie, but I sure hope it’s not the last, Meghan couldn’t stop talking about how much she loved the flowers.  

The whole thing was captured by Tara Rochelle of Tara Rochelle Photography (www.tararochelle.com/).  I have worked with Tara and her husband Ryan many times and they’re always a blast to work with.  Tara gets as fired up as I do to find new creative shots and that goes a long way to making the pictures and the video something really special.  

A big thank you to Meghan & Matt and their whole family, this was really a special couple and a very memorable anniversary for me.  I hope their marriage is as blessed and fulling as mine has been.

Of course I’m a glutton for punishment and I stayed up until 3:00am editing a highlight montage for them the night of the wedding, so hopefully it looks as good to you all as it did to me through my bleary eyes.  Please take a look at the trailer above and feel free to leave comments, Enjoy!

What a great event last night for Kristy, Joe and their whole family.  The emotions were flying and everyone had an amazing time.  Here is the highlight video for everyone to enjoy.  Here’s the link on vimeo.com – http://vimeo.com/2284806

I worked from this version for the movie poster look at the bottom

I just finished editing an incredible movie themed B’not Mitzvah(Two girls having their Bat Mitzvah at the same time) honoring Hayley and Rachel Rappoport and I’m really thrilled at how the DVD cover turned out.  So thrilled in fact I had to blog about it!  

The Rappoports did a great job transforming Robinson Ranch Country Club for this Mitzvah, where all of the guests walked in on a red carpet lined with ropes and authentic Hollywood stars on the ground with family members names on them.  Each table was given a movie theme with the movie “Twilight” as the featured table.  I decided to make the cover of the DVD resemble the “Twilight” movie poster, as both girls we honored that night seemed to be quite fond of that romantic vampire saga.  After doing some research on “Twilight” movie posters I found that there were actually about ten different versions and luckily one of them had a group shot that I could really work off of in Photoshop.

This is the main movie poster I worked off of for my homage

 I had a nice group shot of Hayley, Rachel and many of their friends and I used that as the focal point of the cover.  The big challenge was to try and mimic the font used to make the name Rappoport look like the font used on the “Twilight” poster.  I found a basic font that I think passes for the main font but I then had to copy and paste many of the streaks coming from the “Twilight” words to get it to feel just right.  I then used a freeware “Movie Poster” font from dafonts.com to give me the perfect look at the bottom of the poster.  I used Hayley and Rachel’s names along with their family members and friends as the cast members names and then I threw in some of the vendors names like the photographer Photographic Memories as the Director of Photography and the DJ Mike Diaz of Diaz Entertainment in the “Music By” section.  All in all I’m really proud of how it turned out.  Here’s the finished product for you to see, I’d love to hear comments on what you think or if this was helpful for you.

Hayley & Rachel's B'not Mitzvah DVD Released today!

Evening With the Pros May 12th at the Hyatt Valencia

Anyone out there ENGAGED?

First of all a big Congratulations to you.  You are about to embark on one of the most exciting, most exhausting and most memorable times of your life.  Memorable is the key there.  No matter if it’s beautiful or not, whether it’s magical or not, it will certainly be memorable!  So it’s important to plan, and then research and then plan some more.  Friends who have recently planned a wedding are invaluable resources for you.  Your friend can share their success stories and hopefully help you avoid some of their mistakes.  But keep in mind through the whole process that this should really be enjoyable for you and no matter how hard you try, it won’t be perfect.

I am the President of a group called the Santa Clarita Wedding Professionals (you can see our site at www.santaclaritaweddings.com).  It is a great group of about 20 wedding vendors from all different categories and backgrounds (florists, videographers, dress shops, entertainers, etc.).  This is a group of highly talented wedding professionals that performs and services weddings all throughout Southern California.  What I love about this group is that we all really care about our brides and we are really dedicated to helping brides plan their wedding with as few mistakes as possible.  

Imagine the opportunity to sit down and talk with a friend who went to 50 weddings just last year!  Now imagine 20 friends all in the same room who each went to 50 weddings last year and they are all ready to help answer any questions you have and give you suggestions on what is really important and how you can save money in the right places.  That’s what this group does and I’m so proud to be a member.

We are holding an event we call “An Evening With the Pros.”  

It is an opportunity for you to come and see some fresh ideas, and ask every question you can think of.  There will be many other brides and grooms there that will ask questions that you didn’t even realize you should ask and then when that’s done, we’ll ask each other questions that we know you should be asking.  We are there for the whole night to speak with the group and then you are always welcome to take us aside privately and pick our brains some more.  

It’s a really fun night of information, hors d’oeuvres, cake and more.  Please join us and get yourself started on the path to a magically memorable wedding!

An Evening With the Pros

The Hyatt Valencia 

Tuesday May 12, 2009 at 7:00pm

Please call for a reservation, seating is limited

$10.00 at the door, e-mail me and I can put you on my guest list to get in FREE!

matt@matrimonypictures.com

What a spectacular wedding I had the privilege of filming at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach.  Chris and Keeli Rzewuski put on the Super Bowl of weddings, that was a visual feast for everyone in attendance.  It was great as always to work with such an all-pro cast of vendors with R&R Photography taking the still pictures, Charmaine’s Bouquet Canyon Florist working her floral magic, Atmosphere Entertainment keeping the party going and professional wedding consultant Jill Watson and her team from The Pampered Bride holding it all together.  Check out this video I put up of some of the best moments including the place card table that was a complete replica of a football field!  Feel free to pass the video along to a friend who was at the wedding and I’d love to hear your comments on the action!