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.

One-Year Anniversary Spent at a Wedding

On Saturday, June 26th Dan and I celebrated our first anniversary! Wow! Where has the time gone? Has it really been a year? Time sure flies when you're having fun! Really though, it has been an amazing year and I was kinda sad to see the "first year" to be over so quickly. Of course I know that with each year that passes we'll share more special "firsts" and make even more special memories along the way!

Saturday morning we were surprised to find a lovely package waiting for us at our apartment! Turns out it was a super awesome package of chocolate covered strawberries and chocolate covered chocolate chip cookies from Melanie and the rest of the Troyer family! Yikes, that's a lot of chocolate... yep, I think I can handle it. Truth be told, I am a difficult person to surprise, but Melanie managed to surprise both of us! What an amazing treat for your one-year anniversary... and yes, Melanie, everything was delicious!

Later that day we drove up to Harvard for our friend, Rose's wedding. It was a lovely outdoor wedding and they were blessed with plenty of sunshine and a soft summer breeze. The ceremony was sweet and simple. The reception had a lot of delicious food... and of course, since it was Rose's wedding, there was dancing! It got pretty hot, but no one seemed to really mind. There were still lots of guests out on the dance floor bustin' some moves!

Cutting the cake got a little messy for the bride and groom. Rose seemed to get most of the cake on her face, but of course the groom took his time carefully cleaning up the frosting off his wife's face.

Rose and I met at Phantom Ranch and grew up attending camp together as campers. While working on staff we grew really close. So it's pretty cool that we now share the same anniversary... only one year apart!

Of course, no meeting would be complete for Dan and Erik if it didn't conclude with a couple of rounds of "The Rock Game". If you can't tell by the title or by what's going on in the photo... ask Dan. He can explain this crazy game! I've got to admit though, they're pretty silly to watch. Kinda entertaining.

Yes, Dan and I did go out to celebrate our wedding anniversary... but I will post that one at a later date. Stay tuned!

Kathleen & Brad's Shower in Moorhead, MN

On Friday, June 18th Dan and I got up early to begin our long drive to Moorhead, Minnesota. I started out as our driver. Apparently we left at just the right time, because we made it to the Saint Paul/Minneapolis area [to pick up Kathleen] with no traffic issues. My parents on the other hand... well, they left a bit later then us and did not have the best luck. They hit quite a bit of random traffic along the way, including delay from an accident. I told them, just be grateful that the accident wasn't because of me and Dan.

Kathleen, Dan, and I grabbed some lunch and hit up an outlet mall while we waited... and waited... and waited for my parents to catch up. Once they did catch up we took some time to let my parents stretch their legs, but then it was back into our cars for another 3 hours! Dan took the wheel from there.

When we finally made it to Brad's house, his family had dinner all ready for us! It was amazing! Oh, and their new home is gorgeous! I'm talking, "Bus driver, move that bus" gorgeous! Seriously, I know who I'm calling when I need help designing a home. Brad's dad did a beautiful job creating such a lovely home.

Saturday, June 19th Kathleen and I took our parents out for breakfast in honor of Father's Day. It was nice to spend time together, just the 4 of us. The boys were out golfing, so they didn't mind missing breakfast.

Later that afternoon we had a second shower for Kathleen, hosted by some family friends - and soon to be real family for Kathleen. Laneil and Jenna (mother and daughter) put together a lovely shower for Kathleen at their home. The shower was sweet and personal... the food was delicious... and the weather was amazing!

One of our hosts, Jenna (who is also Kathleen's former college roommate and former Moorhead roommate and is also Brad's second cousin), read from the book of Psalm. To count down their wedding, Kathleen and Brad have been reading a Psalm each day, starting with book 150. So that day Jenna read Psalm 42.

The mother of the groom, Esther, shared a lovely devotional with the group. She shared some warm and witty words with Kathleen and her guests. Kathleen is very lucky to have such a fun-loving soon-to-be mother-in-law.

After the devotional was complete, we placed our hands on Kathleen as both mothers led us in prayer over Kathleen and Brad's upcoming marriage. It was a very special time.

You can't tell from the photos, but Kathleen had hardly any voice all weekend. Thankfully it didn't hurt her when she attempted to talk, or whisper. When it was time to open presents Brad arrived and was able to do some of the talking on her behalf. What a guy!

In the end, it was a wonderful day! Kathleen and Brad were blessed with so many wonderful gifts to help them start their lives together.

Since Brad was there, we used him to take a group photo of all of us. I did notice that there is one girl missing (oops!), but it is still a nice way to show who made it to the shower to show their support for the happy couple.

Here is also a nice photo of Kathleen and I with our mom... and no, Kathleen and I did not coordinate our outfits. Ha ha!

While Kathleen and Brad were looking so nice, I took the opportunity to take their photo so that Brad's mom could use it for their engagement announcement. They're so cute together!

Later that evening, a bunch of us went to downtown Fargo, North Dakota to hang out. It was a blast and a nice opportunity to get to know some of Kathleen's friends better as well as Brad's brother, Brent. Below is a portion of our group from that night.

Sunday, June 20th Dan and I left Moorhead in the morning so that we could stop and visit with his sister, Stefanie, and her husband, Thomas. We got to their place just in time for lunch. We ate out at Granite City and then did a little bit of shopping. We left Minnesota around 6:00 p.m. and started our drive home. I drove home since Dan had work in the morning.

Well, Moorhead may be quite the hike, but it was worth the drive! Hopefully Dan and I will be making some trips back up north in the not-so-distant future. It'll be hard with Dan going to school full-time, but it'll be worth it if we can find the time.