Mr. & Mrs. Vesta Tie the Knot

On Tuesday, July 27, 2010, members of the wedding party started arriving. Lauren was first to arrive. Lauren and I did some shopping for Kathleen's Personal Shower shortly after she got in. Later, on Wednesday, July 28th Lindsay came in. Both girls flew in from Minnesota and are college friends of Kathleen.

Wednesday evening, Kathleen, Lauren, Lindsay, and I spent the evening swimming at Jason and Rachel's pool. Their pool has certainly come in handy this summer... I have done so much swimming this summer! Great exercise, by the way. After swimming it was back to my apartment for some wine, waxing, and the watching of Friends on DVD. Girls really do know how to have fun!

Thursday, July 29th, the groom and his brother [Brent] made it into town. That night a bunch of us went to the Bolingbrook Promenade to hang out. No surprises here, we had a great time! It really made me wish that we all lived closer together. That night Dan spent the night at the hotel with the boys while I joined the girls at my parents' house.

Friday, July 30th, we began wedding activities for Kathleen and Brad. That morning all us girls got together for Kathleen's Personal Shower. With help from the other bridesmaids, I managed to assemble a fun and relaxing morning/afternoon for the bride-to-be while the guys spent the morning golfing - which Dan was kind enough to arrange.

We started the morning at the Pickwick Society Tearoom in Frankfort. There we enjoyed a Pickwick Society Breakfast. We learned a lot about tea and had a fabulous meal! While we ate, Jess and Michelle led us in a fun game called "Things" (i.e. "Things Brad will say to Kathleen when he sees Kathleen in her wedding dress..."). After we were done eating Kathleen opened her gifts. She got a lovely variety of gifts!

After the tea room, we made our way to Zaza Nail Spa in Romeoville. There I handed out goodies bags filled with treats for each of the girls to snack on while we got Pedicures and Deluxe Manicures! We also sipped on sparkling white grape juice while we got pampered. Again, girls really know how to have fun!

Later that evening we had the wedding rehearsal at Lincoln Landing in Lockport. Things went very smoothly and the weather wasn't too hot. In fact, we were hopping for an overcast day for the day of the wedding as well. After the rehearsal we went to White Fence Farm in Lemont for dinner.

Once again, I spent the night at my parents' house... along with several other girls! That night we popped open some pink champagne and celebrated Kathleen's last night as a single lady!

On Saturday, July 31st, we woke up nice and early to rain... lots and lots of rain. Kathleen was handling it very well. She, along with the rest of us, got up and started getting ready. I turned on some music and it got everybody up and moving.

Carrie and Jenny showed up and did Kathleen's hair and make-up (at the same time). Before they were done... rain had stopped and the sun was starting to break through! Right then, I found "Here Comes the Sun" by The Beatles and everyone started cheering when the song started. It was great!

The wedding from start to finish worked out nicely! Aside from some technical difficulties with the audio equipment and a working power source (which got fixed), everything else seem to come together beautifully! Kathleen was a stunning bride and Brad was a handsome groom!

During the reception, I had a special treat for Kathleen [and Brad]. For about a month, Dan, Jess, Andrew, and my parents worked on recreating the "Sisters" scene from White Christmas... a song and scene that Kathleen and I both very much enjoy! Dan and Andrew (who were both Ushers) did a FABULOUS job surprising the bride and groom with their special song and dance, which took place right after my Matron of Honor speech. Kathleen and Brad were successfully surprised... and aside from a minor audio glitch, Kathleen was stunned at how Dan and Andrew "matched the movie perfectly!" It wasn't easy keeping our special treat a secret, but it was totally worth it!

Below is the clip from White Christmas that was recreated at the wedding!

Note: I am behind on my photo editing, so many of the photos that I used for this post came from friends' photos. Thank God for Facebook!

Jamie and Chris' Wedding

On Saturday, July 3, 2010, Dan and I filmed Jamie and Chris' wedding. Jamie is a long-time camp friend, so I was excited to capture her special day... and let me tell you, she was as cool as a cucumber all day and filming her wedding was easy, breezy and a total blast! The ceremony was lovely, the reception was fun, and the food was delicious!

While filming was my number one priority, I also took the time to snap a few photos - mainly for DVD menu purposes. Here are a few images:

This photo was captured by Dan.

Dan snapped this photo of me hard at work, capturing the cake cutting.

Dan captured this photo of me with the lovely bride and groom.

Once Dan and I were done filming, we hit the dance floor and joined our friends.

One-Year Anniversary at the Grand Geneva

On Monday, June 28th, Dan and I finally got away to Lake Geneva for our anniversary! There we stayed at the lovely Grand Geneva! It was a first time stay for both of us. For our one night stay, we added a spa package - which was a great deal!

Upon our arrival, Dan and I hit the spa with an hour couples massage! I haven't had many professional massages (only this one and the one on our honeymoon, really), but I must say, this massage was amazing and really set the bar high for future massages! This guy really listened to me and took very good care of my troubled areas - mainly my neck and shoulders. Dan and I felt great after our massages!

When it was time to check into our room, we did just that. There was some sort of Career Builders conference going on, so there were a lot of people in the lobby waiting to check in. Right away, a Grand Geneva employee noticed that we weren't with the conference, so he pulled us aside and let us check in ahead of the group.

When we got to our room we were surprised at how large our room was! Turns out, we were upgraded for free in honor of our anniversary! What a treat!

We had some time before our dinner reservation, so we went to the lounge to enjoy some live music played by a delightful pianist and sipped on discounted mini cosmopolitan martinis.

I took my time getting ready for dinner. I even watched TV in the bathroom mirror as I did my hair! Seriously, it was awesome!

We had dinner at the Geneva ChopHouse. In honor of our anniversary, we were given a private booth with a rose and rose petals sprinkled on the table. How romantic!

At dinner Dan got a steak, of course, and I got some tasty shrimp! We had a bottle of wine with dinner, one that Dan's father highly recommended. Dan's father knows quite a bit about wine, so we always go along with his suggestions. Once again, he suggested a good one!

For dessert our waitress surprised us with free desserts! Each dessert was oh so delicious! What a delightful treat!

As dinner came to an end our waitress told us that we were free to take our wine with us, there was no need to sit at our table and "chug" it - not that we were planning to. So we took her advise. With our wine in hand we moved to the Embers Terrace, an outdoor fire experience at Geneva ChopHouse.

Dan and I were very relaxed at this outdoor fire pit. We spent about three hours there! The whole time we just sat, talked, and occasionally just watched the fire. Very relaxing! I want one of these at home!

On our way back to our room we stopped by the front desk to let them know that our bathtub wasn't draining properly - something that we didn't need fixed right away since we would be leaving in the morning. However, we still thought it would be good for them to know.

Shortly after we got back to our room a man knocked on our door. He had come to fix the bathtub! Such fast service! After he was done he gave us some coupons to use at the hotel, to apologize for the inconvenience. Wow, how nice!

The next morning Dan and I got up to go have breakfast at a nice restaurant in the lodge. The food was delicious - as usual. We were among the only people, so setting and service were great! Ha ha!

Later, Dan and I went back to the spa to use up our remaining spa credit. Together we got mini manicures - Dan's first manicure! Again, it was a relaxing treat and I always feel pretty when I have French-tip nails! Dan enjoyed his first manicure, but he had to choose between a manicure and golf... golf would always win. Ha ha!

As we prepared to leave the Grand Geneva, we stopped in a coffee shop at the lodge and decided to use our coupons to get some fruit smoothies for the drive home. As we handed over our coupons to the lady behind the counter a gentleman who worked at the lodge stepped in.

"Can I see those?" he asked the lady who took our order. She smiled and handed them over. He then took a brief look at them and then handed them back to me and Dan. "Hold on to these and use them later," he instructed us. He then looked back at the other lady. "These guys had dinner and breakfast here... these are on me."

Dan and I were in total awe of his kind gesture. I mean, all of our dinning and spa treatments were already included in the cost of the room - which is what made the whole experience such a good deal. Yet, he still insisted that we were due an additional treat for our efforts.

So, can you tell that Dan and I enjoyed our stay at the Grand Geneva?! I would recommend this place to anyone! If you can go during the week, do it! It is significantly cheaper! Plus, I think that it would also make for a great couples getaway or a girls only vaca! No matter how you made decide to give the Grand Geneva a try... I hope that you have a pleasant experience, just as we did.

"A Perfect Manhattan" Wrap Party

On Sunday, June 27th, I returned to The Long Room in Chicago for a wrap party. In August 2009 we filmed "A Perfect Manhattan", a short, independent film that took place in The Long Room. So, naturally, that was where we had our wrap party.

Dan came with as we spent some quality time with the cast, crew and their families. There were two viewings of the short film. Just before the first viewing we got the exciting news that our film was accepted into the LA Shorts Fest! Very exciting! The actual viewing took place on Wednesday, July 28, 2010.

I brought my camera along to snap a few photos. While I was really there to have fun and mingle with friends and fellow film makers, I managed to take a few photos to help capture the evening.

Back Row: Laura Szymber (Producer), Dean Berdusis (Director), Bradley J. Taylor (Writer), Brian Kallies (DP/Editor), Danny Goldring (Actor), and Sitting: James Anthony Zoccoli (Actor)

Producer, Laura Szymber, and Director, Dean Berdusis, take a moment to thank everyone who had a part in making this film so successful.

Here is a nice photo of Dan and I at the party. We had a few people offer to take our photo. Brian took this one and he made sure he got the movie screen in the background.

Actors, Lawrence Grimm as Jimmy, the bartender and Danny Goldring as William, the patron.

Some of the cast and crew that was still at the party. I think that this photo only contains about half of us.

Below is a trailer from the movie. There is some strong language, so please don't watch with small children or at work where people might wonder what you're watching. Otherwise, enjoy!

"A Perfect Manhattan" Teaser Trailer from Laura Szymber on Vimeo.