Weddings Bells Ringing

December 30, 2017

I've been attending and filming a lot of weddings. 2017 was packed with five weddings that Rachel and I attended, up from the three in 2016, including our own, but 2018 will be even busier. Along with attending these weddings, I have began to film and edit wedding videos. Which is why I am proud to say that in 2018, I will be starting my own small business. Maluta Vision now does Wedding Videos! Here is my super basic portfolio / wedding page. Spread the word ya'll.

We started off our summer of weddings all the way on the west coast. We traveled to Portland for a June 23rd (Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad) wedding between Rachel's cousin Chris & Becca. The wedding was just as beautiful as the scenery surrounding the west coast city of Portland. I snagged a little bit of video with my 60d and unofficially filmed my first wedding with my camera.

Just a week later, on June 30th, I unfortunately was unable to attend Ashley & Sean's wedding in NY because I was in WI for another wedding, but I had the pleasure of editing their wedding video just this past week. All the way from the far west coast to the east coast for this NY wedding. My first wedding edit with someone else's camera work. And who said "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC couldn't be a wedding song? Rock and roll!

Speaking of Wisconsin and weddings, Rachel and I headed out early on my birthday, July 1st, to make it up to Arena, Wisconsin for Ashley and Cory's wedding. This would be the first wedding we officially were filming. Which means cameras, tripods, interviews, mics, and more! I taught Rach some simple tricks right before we started, and she did a professional job with almost no training. She is better than me! And even though we were officially filming, Ashley & Cory made sure that we were still able to enjoy it and party! What a couple! See their beautiful barn wedding below.

I had to miss one day of Lollapalooza on Saturday August 5th to attend Tony & Julia's Wedding down in Kankakee, IL. Totally worth it. I was able to snag some video of their big day at the Majestic Theatre. Not as professional as the last wedding we were at, as I actually thought I was going to be taking photos, but it turned out pretty decent for filming with my camera and no mic!

On Sunday September 3rd, Rachel and I got in our car again and this time drove Northeast to head towards Detroit. My senior year college roommate, Dave Monroe, would be getting married to Shannon at the Royal Park Hotel in Rochester Hills, Michigan. Our third wedding out of the state of Illinois, and fourth of the year! Our wedding band, Recycle the Day, even showed up to play their wedding so you know it was a party. It was great to catch up with college teammates Cody & Adam, and I am thankful for my 2 minute Uber from the wedding to our motel!

On Tuesday September 26th, I finished editing my first wedding video. It was from Mary & Jeff's wedding nearly a year beforehand on September 30th, 2016. This was all filmed on my Iphone because of a last minute request, but hey not bad for a phone wedding video! And unofficially the first of all my wedding videos since it was on my phone. A solid surprise for the happy couple a year later!

On Saturday November 4th, my parents picked Rachel & I up as we headed to the Northern part of Chicago in Rogers Park for Christine & Austin's Wedding. With the setting on Loyola University's campus right on the lake, and a bit chilly and rainy out, it was truly an Irish wedding as if we were in Dublin. It was fun dancing and snagging photos in the photo booth with my parents, John, Melissa & Beth. Also, Christine's now husband Austin, is in a Rush cover band called The Ents and they played at their own wedding, check it out!

And that wraps up 2017 weddings for us, and the start of my wedding video business. We are excited for all the weddings that are coming in 2018 as a result of 2017 engagements. Rob & Katie, Brian & Megan, Torie & Tim, Sarah & Colin and even a few friends more! Oh and not to mention editing my own wedding video, which will come nothing close to the work from our friend Melissa, who filmed and edited this masterpiece. Thank you again Melissa for our video, and for inspiring my editing style for these videos. Maybe a dynamic duo in the wedding industry next year?

Anyway, Happy Marriages to all, and if you want me to film your wedding, hit me up!

Josh

One Tallest Trailer of Marriage

August 10, 2016

Monday July 11th, 2016. Woo Hoo! We made it! Rachel and I celebrated our one Month of Marriage by eating tacos, sipping PBRs, and watching the movie Dead Pool. This is how you Anniversary people! Plus we heard this is the hardest month of marriage, so it is only up from here!

July 12, a Tuesday involved me working late, hung out at my parents and caught some pokemon while playing the new app Pokemon Go. So far I am not that good since I don't leave the place I am playing at. Basically only catching Ratatas and Pigeys.

On Wednesday July 13, I had 6am practice with the cats. Not a bad showing as 16 guys showed up for our first practice of summer. Reminds me of my college days waking up and going to 6am practices. Not fun until you get going, work hard, and then realize you have the whole day ahead of you. Good group.

That evening at home we were blessed with a double rainbow that was going right into the skyline, pretty neat.

I became lazy on Thursday July 14, caught more pokemon, and slept at my parents again with lax camp going on in the mornings this week. Nothing too crazy.

Friday July 15th was a sad day for our family as we celebrated the life of Auntie Lottie. It was a beautiful day out and the service was absolutely perfect, with family leading the readings and prayers. It was great to see so much family and to celebrate such an amazing woman! We will miss you dearly and love you always Auntie Lottie!

Here is a photo of her, my great grandma, and Auntie Wanda from 1994 at the Trailer. 22 years ago! Wow how time flies!

That evening John and Melissa came by Rachel and I's apartment and we had some chicken for dinner before walking over to the Tallest Man on Earth Show at the VIC Theatre. Before entering the theatre, we had to split into gender separated lines for a pat down, woah this is getting serious! It was our first time at the Theatre and Lady Lamb was opening up for TTMOE once again as she had last summer when we saw Tallest Man twice! She played a few new songs, which were enjoyable, and we stood near the back on the first level. It was surprisingly packed right when we got there just as Lady Lamb was starting up. In between sets, Rachel headed out to see if we can somehow get into this side balcony seating that we can see is empty, but looks sweet. I am super glad she did because she found the seats of the night. Even though we couldn't get to the side balcony seating, there was an entire balcony on the 2nd level with seats and we were able to enjoy the show sitting down, a little off to the right of stage center, but second row of the balcony. Thanks Rach for finding those perfect seats! The show was amazing, I was able to record the audio and get some decent video of my favorite song Where Do My Bluebird Fly... See above if you aren't already playing it. Once my editing program stops sucking (click to find out more about how it sucks), I will release the audio from this show as well as those great Deer Tick shows I attended back in April. Dumb computer. Gummies were in full effect for the walk home, making it quite enjoyable. We hit the hay once we got back and John and Melissa slept over, all of us having early mornings the next day.

The morning of July 16th, Rachel and I headed out to New Lenox to meet up with Beth, and then headed out to Michigan. After a quick little drive, we set up in the Trailer and started to blow up our new best friend, Francine the Floatmingo. My boy Nolan biked 150 miles from Lansing and met us there after 8 hours of riding. He literally left at 4am to get there at Noon. What a boss. Once Nolan is there we pack some sandwiches and head down to the beach. Cam drove up too and met us at the beach. There is almost no actual beach, but the water is great. It was calm and warm, so we took Francine out for many rides. She really was the hit of the beach, as everyone who wasn't us, was mad jealous of our float. Nice work Rachie! After spending some hours at the beach, we headed back up for dinner. Rachel and Beth put together chicken foil packets and I threw them on the grill. After eating a delicious dinner, we got a bonfire going and enjoyed staying warm around it all night while eating s'mores and drinkings brews. Fun night with great friends!

When we woke up on Sunday July 17, the log that we were burning from the night before, which was literally a tree stump that was at least 15 inches wide, was still going strong. I used the chimney to start the grill and grilled burgers for lunch while everyone watched step bros. Such a great movie. Nolan and I watched it in college probably at least 50 times. Cracks me up. After eating a scrumptious lunch of tasty burgers grilled by yours truly, we headed back down to the beach, but it was super windy, resulting in huge waves, so we couldn't take Francine out. Although Nolan did jump on her immediately and was pushed literally 150 yards down the shore. After a couple of hours, I took Nolan and Cam back to the trailer to say goodbye, Cam was giving Nolan a ride back luckily, then headed back to the beach for a little with Beth and Rach. Did I mention there was almost no beach again this year? Check it out below. Not much to work with but we made the most of it. Finally we headed out and drove back to Rach's parents to get Beth to her car. After Beth left, we stuck around to hang out with our "Favorite Couple Friends," Mom and Dad, and had some pizza with them for dinner. We were pretty tired and went to sleep right when we got back to the city.

What a weekend!

Video of the Week: Melissa put together this amazing video from our Wedding! Cannot believe it has already been a month of marriage! I Love It! Thank you Melissa! This is so awesome! Wish I could go back to the best day of my life (link coming soon..)

Let us not forget another video of Beth dancing to JT! Glorious!

Until Next time,

Josh

First Birthday As a Married Man

August 6, 2016

July 1, 2016 - On this Friday, I took the day off and decided to head to the Will County Court office and get our Marriage License. Originally planned to get 10 of them, but the kind woman working told me that would be far too many. Ha! Rachel took the train to Naperville and that evening we drove out to the Ruffled Feathers Golf Course to attend our first wedding as a married couple. Jackie from Camp was getting married to Tyler and it was set to be a mathtastic wedding! It was a lovely night, the food was delicious, the friends were great, and the dancing was on point as the kids are saying these days. Solid first birthday as a married man! Congrats Jackie and Tyler!

Saturday July 2, We did a quick photo shoot at Rachel's parents house, and had some delicious burgers for lunch Rach's Dad cooked up. That night, Beth, Rachel, & I watched Jurassic Park 2 in our apartment. Vince Vaugn's breakout film if you didn't know.

We started the morning of Sunday July 3rd, by hitting up Stan's Donuts for the first time ever. I got some kaptain krunch donut, was a decadently filled treat. Beth and Rachel (and me a little) cooked up a pasta salad, coleslaw salad, and an all-american strawberry and blueberry cake for the party to be happening later in the day. We also ate some of that pasta salad and a bacon topped romaine lettuce food of sorts for lunch. After we had some grub we headed over to Sarah and Colin's new apartment downtown. They have a rooftop pool on floor like 30 which was amazing. I was the only brave soul to swim, but did so in elegant fashion. The party was hopping, with great drinks, snacks, food, and friends. Sarah made this amazing Jello watermelon vodka dessert. A tasty and fun way to enjoy the night. Check them photos.

On Monday July 4th, America! I celebrated by staying in the city and watching Jurassic World with Beth and Rachel. Afterwards we went and hung out with Mary and Jeff at the Fullerton grass/beach area all day, getting some sun and enjoying the view of the skyline. We then walked to a little place near the golf course close by to have some drinks/dinner. After stopping at Mary and Jeff's pad, and our place, we headed over to grassy area again to watch the Navy Pier fireworks with some more friends. They were a little underwhelming since they were so far away and the booms came long after the bright flashes of light, but it was still a solid show. We finished the night off like every night should be finished off in the city. At Frank's bar. Amazing place, everyone of the appropriate age should attend. Happy 4th of July everyone.

July 5th, Tuesday, After a days work I started Bloodline Season 2. Season 1 was top notch, pumped for season 2, although Squid tells me it is a little slower paced.

Wednesday July 6th, is a very sad day for a very sad reason. A star of many Jcubed videos, a dearest friend, and the best dog I've ever known, Izzy, past away suddenly. It was a shock to everyone as she had just turned 9, which is very young for a golden. See more about her in this special blog dedicated to her.

Thursday July 7 was a historic day for all my slither.io lovers. I made it to 3rd place in the game I was playing. Highest score I ever got and just 200 points shy of 2nd! Slither on my fellow snakes. This eve I stayed in Napes and went too dinner at Buffalo Wings and Rings with Beth in memory of Izzy.

July 8 a Friday, blessed us with another beautiful sunset, which is always a great site from our "balcony." We also jumped on that Pokemon Go life and caught some pokemon in our apartment. Not the best players since we only play in our place, ha. Rachel and I finished the night off with a game of Yahtzee! This is how we are spending our friday nights... are we married and old?

Saturday July 9th, Rachel was sweet enough to put together a fun little birthday party for me. It involved ping pong, beers, and friends. What a great combo! A new place downtown called SPiN is now one of my favorite places. It has tons of ping pong tables with a lot of space and endless balls. I felt like I was a pro ping pong player the way the balls just kept being supplied to me by these guys walking around with ball picker uppers. John, Melissa, Brian, Megan, Beth, and Grant joined Rachel and I for a night full of ping pong fun. Despite Brian winning our little tournament that we had, it was super fun and I gotta make sure I get back soon. After, we stopped at a Tiki Bar for one drink, it was pretty cool, but super crowded.

On Sunday July 10th, we were in the table tennis mood so we watched a documentary called Top Spin about some of the best players in the USA and their journey to try to make it to the Olympic games. After I drove Beth to the train that day, Rachel and I walked down the street to our local movie theater that we knew about but had never been to yet. We decided to check out the new film Secret Life of Pets. Pretty funny and cute animated film about what our pets do when we aren't home. I would rent it from the library if I was you.

Video of the Week: What's that? Another video of squid dancing around to JT? You got it.

Movie of the Week: The Secret Life of Pets