Kestrel and John wanted to have an outdoor wedding on the water and Jamaica was the perfect destination.  Of course planning for the biggest day of their life in a location far from home presents challenges.  One issue is how to capture all of the memories on video to be able to enjoy the celebration forever.  It becomes even more difficult when you can’t simply drive to a studio and meet the pro who will be shooting your wedding.

That’s why Kestrel found our WeddingMix service so appealing.  She could bring the camera we shipped in her purse and have it available for the entire trip to get all of the personal, candid, and fun moments.  It was the perfect way to get a great video of both her wedding and honeymoon that was convenient and fit the budget.

Take a look at their teaser video and imagine the beautiful sunset that you’ll have to relive from your big day.

Today’s post comes from recent bride Lexi.  She selected our Mix n Match theme option and used the Elegance theme with jazz music and the Glass font.  Congratulations Lexi and we’re so glad you like the teaser video. 

I knew when I started planning that I wouldn’t be able to afford a videographer, but when I found out about theStorymix Wedding Videos I jumped at the chance to capture the toasts, the first dance and just the overall fun of the wedding!

You start by choosing the overall theme and look of your video and they have a lot of options to choose from.  Then, you rent the Flip cameras from Storymix and then send them back after the event.  Then, they will upload the clips and put them online for you to look at and put into a sequence that you want.  Maybe your favorite part of the day was cutting the cake… well, you can make that the first thing on the video if you want!  Once you have your Storyboard put together, they will make it happen as you’ve asked and send you the DVD.  You also get all the raw footage so if you don’t want your vows in the themed video, you’ll still have them to watch.  I’m still in the process of getting my Storyboard together, but I was surprised by Storymix this week with a little something they’ve created for me…

So now I’ll have a wedding video, and for about a tenth of the price that I would have with a videographer.  Yes, you do have to have someone to film for you, but the cameras are so easy to use that anyone can do it.  I hope you enjoy the video and I hope you’ll check them out!

Today, recent bride Laura (congrats!) provides a guest post regarding her experience with our WeddingMix (formerly My Flip Wedding) and how much she enjoyed everything about it.

Last week Storymix Media, sent me a teaser for our My Flip Wedding video!! You may remember from this post, that I used My Flip Wedding from StoryMix Media for our wedding video coverage. As I said in my earlier post:
“[My Flip Wedidng] supplies flip cams for 3 day usage by your friends, family, guests, and even you to shoot footage the whole weekend. After the wedding, you simply send the cameras back, they upload the footage to an online account, and you get to personalize what’s included by picking the scenes and adding captions and titles!! Then they professionally edit it into an amazing 15-20 minute highlight movie on DVD based on one of 10 themes you choose.”
I finally finished going through all the footage our bridal party captured on our flip-cam last week, and was able to start the process of picking which scenes we want to include in our custom-made video! Mike, from StoryMix Media, sent me this teaser to tide me over for the time being, and I can’t wait to see more!

Here, you’ll get to see Chris’ brother forcing me to be a diva by shouting “This is my day!” before actually getting annoyed that I can’t get the flipcam from him (sigh, like a true brother already), Chris talking about castration (no…really), a rousing rendition of Katy Perry’s “Alien” that I sing to nobody in particular at our after-party…until I realize that nobody is listening, and us dancing to my all-time favorite wedding song “SHOUT”! It’s pretty funny, and I can’t wait to see the full thing once I finish going through all our video. Enjoy!

Jeff and Toya capped their seven year relationship off with a fabulous honeymoon to Barcelona. And they had an HD camera in hand to capture the memories and include them in their WeddingMix video.  They’re so excited to have an enjoyable video that shows the entire wedding story – including Jeff cutting his lawn the day of the wedding!

So here’s the backstory:  Jeff and Toya first met at work.  So they needed to keep things pretty quiet for a while.  It may have taken some time, but Jeff finally popped the question and they began their wedding planning. They both have a great group of core friends and family that were very important to be included.  Jeff and Toya wanted to have a fairly traditional wedding starting with the ceremony at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Catholic Church.  Also key for them was having personal and unique touches included.  Toya had a very unique veil and their choice of the Iroquois Club for their reception and it’s rustic motif certainly enhanced the ambiance.  They also found great vendors on Etsy who handcrafted birch wood coasters that served as the guest favors as well as their cake platter.

After the wedding they jetted off to sunny Spain.  Jeff had spent time working in Europe but had never visited Barcelona.  Having an easy way to video their honeymoon relaxing at the pool and taking in the sights made the adventure even more enjoyable.  You can tell how excited Toya is from her testimonial, “Thank you guys!!!!!! We ABSOULTETLY love the trailer!!! Thanks again!”

Check out their video trailer to see why she’s so excited.

Hey, Folks! Heather here. I was recently the lucky recipient of a My Flip wedding prize from Storymix! We really love the video Storymix created for us and are so happy to have won the contest.  After working with Ariane on our video, she graciously invited me to do a guest post about our wedding. Ain’t she sweet? So, here I am to tell you about my favorite day ever.

I’m not generally known for my excellence in brevity, so I’m going to try to keep this from being 47 pages long. But, how can you understand if I don’t start at the beginning? My now-husband, Spencer, proposed to me in October. His exact words were, “Do you want to marry me sometime next spring or summer?” I find this adorable because apparently he wanted to make sure that I didn’t just haul his butt to the courthouse the next morning by including the time frame he had in mind. He was finishing up his degree and I, being a lobbyist, would be busy with legislative session all spring. So, that pretty much settled it that we would wed in June.

The most important things to us were that we liked our own wedding. We wanted it to be fun and to reflect our style (which is basically redneck-chic without the chic). It also had to fit our budget, which was mighty slim. We thought about eloping or going to the courthouse, but I really wanted a wedding that included our loved ones and left us with lots of memories. I searched around on the good ‘ole World Wide Web, just browsing different venues. Eventually, I randomly came across a place that looked promising. It had a small lake with a fishing dock and paddle boats; a covered pavilion; and a lodge with a kitchen. We booked it immediately when Spencer’s mom graciously offered to pay for it as well as cabins for some of the out-of-towners to stay in. If she hadn’t, we probably would have held it at a state park in the area. I hear they rent those pavilions real cheap.

Now, next on the list was food. We knew we couldn’t afford to feed everyone but we did want to have a real meal and not just cake. That left us with few options but I’m nothing if not resourceful (I get it from my grandma). I thought about our lakeside family reunions and the potluck meals we always have there. Those seem to work just fine. So, we asked everyone to bring a dish. In an effort to keep the tackiness levels reasonable, we asked people to bring a dish in lieu of a gift. Then, my family stepped up to the plate! My aunt offered to provide meat and my cousin offered to cook a pig as well as a big ‘ole pot of beans. My mom then said she would pay for the cupcakes (which we thought were more picnic-friendly than a cake). At that point we realized that even if no one brought a dish, we’d probably have enough to make-do.

The internet was a life-saver as far as ideas and inspiration. And my dress! I bought it for $40 at a website that sells used wedding items.

Then began the Great Gathering-Up. I spent the entire time of our engagement watching for wedding stuff at garage sales and thrift stores. We used mismatched yellow sheets as table cloths and mismatched fake yellow flowers in coffee cans as center pieces. I made a few bunting banners and painted a wooden “wedding” sign. I even threw up a few of those kitschy paper wedding bells. My main splurge was the Chinese lanterns. It came out really fun and cute.

We ended up being able to fulfill our wish of not hiring anyone to do anything. Of course, our moms did A LOT, but I don’t think we pressured them to. You know how moms are. We had family doing the entertaining, photography and performing the ceremony. It felt very intimate.

All in all, it was everything I wanted it to be. The only snafus were that I failed to rally the troops for decorating early enough so I had to leave a lot of it up to others while I was getting ready, I forgot to have someone video the dang ceremony, and we have a missing memory card of photos. But, it’s okay. Because I really did love our wedding and that’s the most important thing. Do it the way you want it and don’t worry about the stuff that doesn’t actually matter. In fact, maybe that should be our motto for not just our weddings, but our lives.

If you want to read more details (and peep some pics) about our wedding, please check out my blog! http://www.crawdadsinmysink.wordpress.com

Thanks for the awesome guest post Heather!

Jon and Caroline celebrated their wedding in downtown Chicago after a whirlwind 5 month engagement that had begun as a friendship over 10 years ago. Jon proposed on a Christmas vacation to Munich, Germany where he popped the question in front of the world famous Glockenspiel.

Glockenspiel in Munich, Germany

The couple wanted to add their own personal touches to make the wedding both special for them and their guests. Be sure to write down the ingredients in their signature drink while watching the video below!  Their celebration was an intimate affair focused on friends, family, and fun.  They decided that having HD cameras in their guests hands would be a great way to capture all the memories they want to enjoy and share.  And as the night went on and the Finkltinis were flowing, everyone wanted to be in front of the cameras!  Even the groom got in on the action, preparing for their honeymoon trip to Barcelona in case he happened to get in a bullfight

Jon and Caroline also took a camera with them on the honeymoon and will be using the Storyboard feature to pick the scenes and personalize what goes into their final video.  As for the trailer video we did for them, Jon had this to say, “Storymix has outdone itself!  I’m looking forward to sharing the video when it’s all finished.  I’ve got a smile ear-to-ear right now after watching the video.  Those are the first video clips I’ve seen of that night.  We had such a good time, having the cameras was a blast!”