Jillian and Desi are getting married in Portland, Oregon this coming July, but are currently living and teaching in Turkey! Since their photographer, Evrim Icoz, is from Turkey and had a trip back home planned, they got to do their engagement shoot in Turkey!!

Meet Jillian and Desi….

Photo by Evrim Icoz Photography

How they met:

We met in Phoenix, AZ while Desi was teaching in Izmir, Turkey. I had recently moved to Phoenix to teach, and the year before Desi left Phoenix for Turkey. So when I moved into my new classroom, I moved into the hallway that Desi left. I inherited all of Desi’s closest colleagues and friends as my own. They really took me under their wing to teach me the ways of the school, and take me in during holidays since I moved there alone from Portland. They started telling me about their friend, Desi. Apparently, they were telling Desi about me too. So eventually, Desi came back to visit one January, on holiday from Turkey. He strolled into my life, that one, late school night in January, on a Parent Teacher Conference night. We went on some dates that weekend, and enjoyed our new, united group of mutual friends. He flew out of my life for the rest of his school year in Turkey. But of course we stayed in touch with the help of skype and msn messenger. He flew me out to Turkey to visit too that year. It seemed like a fairy tale…

Photo by Evrim Icoz Photography

Photo by Evrim Icoz Photography

How long they’ve been together:

5 years

Photo by Evrim Icoz Photography

The day he proposed:

December 28th, 2009

Photo by Evrim Icoz Photography

Photo by Evrim Icoz Photography

How he popped the question:

We were in Nha Trang, Vietnam on winter break. I had just gotten over food poisoning, and it was my first time eating and going out. I was asking him a trivia question as we walked on the beach after dinner, literally under the moonlight, and he kept refusing to answer. I kept bugging him about my question. Then suddenly, he fell down. I thought he had hurt his knees. I asked him if he was okay and if his knees hurt. He asked me to marry him. I didn’t believe him (we had recently talked about marriage, and we decided we were content with not rushing. Plus, Desi is quite the prankster)! I kept saying, “You’re joking! You’re joking!” Desi was definitely not amused. That was not the reaction he expected out of me. He reassured me he was completely serious. So then of course, I agreed! It was definitely a rush of emotions thinking he was injured, to thinking I was the next victim of one of his antics, to be planning a new life together!

Photo by Evrim Icoz Photography

At what moment did you know he was the one?

I think the support from our mutual friends was a huge indication those first two years, and that feeling reminds me everyday of how lucky we are to have each other and what we’ve worked for. However, maybe a larger realization occurs, and that is the tough time that life brings. I know he is the one when we, unfortunately, have to conquer arguments, sickness, injuries, loss of loved ones…there’s no one else that I trust more with my emotions and well-being than Desi. And there is no one else that I could support so unselfishly and effortlessly during these obstacles than Desi. When life is good, it’s easy, enjoyable. But when life takes a turn for the worse, you need that reliable, best friend and partner that stays and supports you. Those are the moments that I always know he is for me.

Photo by Evrim Icoz Photography

At what moment did you know she was the one?

I knew Jill was the one for me when she was okay with teaching overseas. Not many people are willing to leave their friends and family to go traveling around the world, especially with me. My mother had passed away while we were in China and Jill was my pillar of strength during one of the most difficult times in my life and I am so thankful for having her in my life. Jill is the most compassionate and caring person I have ever met, being with her makes me wants to be a better person.

Photo by Evrim Icoz Photography

What are you most excited about on the wedding day?

Jillian: We have lived in Arizona, China, and now, Turkey together. We have never had the chance to settle down together in Oregon or Ohio (where we are each from) and for this reason, have had to leave behind our friends and family for the better part of each year. When we start over again in a new place, we have always been fortunate enough to build up a group of lovely friends that functions as our surrogate family while we are far away. On our wedding day, our family and friends from home and overseas are coming together for us (and some have quite long journeys). I am just beside myself to have them all together in Portland! We get to show them my favorite city on Earth AND share our commitment with them. I am a lucky girl all the way around.

Desi: I am most excited about celebrating our commitment to each other with our close friends and family.

Photo by Evrim Icoz Photography

Champagne: Thank you, Jillian and Desi for sharing your love story with us! We feel honored that you chose to work with us and can’t wait to be a part of your wedding day!!

Cheers,
Mandi & the Champagne team

One of our favorite parts of getting to know our couples, is to hear all about their love story and proposal! We’ll be interviewing a few of our couples over the next few weeks and sharing with you, a little glimpse inside their love story and a peak at their engagement photos! Today, Lexi and Nick are sharing their story! Enjoy!!

Photograph by Tyler Gould

How they met:

Sixth period Spanish class freshman year at Jesuit High School, the seating chart gods put Nick right in front of Lexi, where in his attempts to make conversation with her, he found himself getting kicked out of class. The moments when he was able to stick around for the whole period, the two began a friendship. Though he thought his chances were good, it turned out he needed to “grow up” (Nick 5’2” while Lexi stood a towering 5’3”) a bit and wouldn’t get a real opportunity for another year.

Fast forward a year later, Spring Break of Sophomore year: A taller, more confident Nick hit it off with Lexi as their families were both vacationing in Palm Springs.  Lexi decided to give Nick a chance, and their relationship began as high school sweethearts.

After luck brought them both to Gonzaga University (Lexi knew it was her first choice, while Nick flipped a coin in May), their relationship grew.

Photograph by Tyler Gould

How long they’ve been together:

Almost 9 years.

Photograph by Tyler Gould

The day he proposed:
6.26.2010

Photograph by Tyler Gould

How he popped the question:

Hoopfest: The largest 3 vs. 3 basketball tournament in the world, hosted on the streets of Spokane, WA, around the corner from Gonzaga University, was the site of the proposal. It was there after a full day of basketball, Nick asked Lexi to marry him. She would later say that with all the male-oriented distractions, the thought of proposal was far from her mind.

Per Lexi’s suggestion, Nick “ordered” a pizza for dinner from a place next to the campus. He acquired the help of friends to create a ploy so that he could get Lexi’s help alone to pick up the pizza.  After strolling around the campus, reminiscing about the great times they had at Gonzaga, Nick walked Lexi to the proposal spot and had her sitting there talking about their favorite Gonzaga memories. The spot (Aluminum Jesus, aka AJ) was directly between Nick’s dorm, DeSmet, and Lexi’s dorm, Welch, and it was there that Nick asked Lexi to marry him.

Photograph by Tyler Gould

At what moment did you know he was the one?

I knew Nick was the one when he would insist on walking to downtown Spokane (before we had cars our sophomore year at Gonzaga) in the dead of winter in a foot of snow so I wouldn’t have to walk back from work alone in the dark. Nick is still as sweet, selfless and generous as he was 5 years ago, and will bend over backwards to put my needs in front of his.

Photograph by Tyler Gould

At what moment did you know she was the one?

My sophomore year in college one of my coaches asked me if having a girlfriend was distraction to me during soccer season. I explained how supportive she has always been with my soccer career and studies, and how natural our relationship is. I told him that she was really the best friend I could ask for and that I loved having her around. In short – she was not a distraction, but a positive influence on my life. As I think back on that conversation now, I realize I was describing some of the best qualities of her and our relationship, and really it just reaffirms what I know now – she’s an amazing person who I love with all my heart and can’t wait to marry.

Photograph by Tyler Gould

What are you most excited about on the wedding day?

Lexi: Where to start? There are so many! To see everything put together… My wedding dress! And to be married to Nick of course : )

Nick: The words “I now pronounce you husband and wife” making it official. While we’ve been to lots of parties together as a couple, I can’t wait to celebrate at the reception with Lexi as my wife for the first time.

Photograph by Tyler Gould

Champagne: Thank you, Lexi and Nick for telling us more about your love story! We’re honored you’ve chosen Champagne to be a part of your wedding! This summer their wedding ceremony will be at Our Lady of the Lake and the reception will be held at the Oswego Country Club!

Cheers,

Danielle & the Champagne team

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again and again, your wedding day flies by and having a videographer to capture the moments that you may have missed or want to remember forever is necessity! Having a professional photographer is one thing you can’t go without, but when you want to go back and hear your vows and the sound of your grandmas voice, there’s nothing that preserves that better than a professional videographer. Ambient Sky is sharing with us today a little about why video is so important and some to die for samples! Enjoy!

Champagne: How would you describe your videography style?

Ambient Sky: Highly stylized, artistic with a cinematic flair.  Engaging, heartfelt and timeless.

Wedding Day Highlight

Champagne: How did you get into videography?

Ambient Sky: Our backgrounds are pretty varied.  Between the two of us we have extensive experience in Fashion Design, Graphic Design, Event Planning, Photography, Audio Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Music Theory and Composition.  About 8 years ago Scott decided to go back to school where he studied Multimedia, Graphic Design and Filmmaking. Amanda’s love of weddings and events lead to the idea of creating wedding films.  The more we got into it the more we realized it was the perfect blend of our talents and our passions and we love working together.

Wedding Trailer

Champagne: Often times we have people tell us, well my parents have never watched their wedding video, I doubt I would. What’s your response to this?

Ambient Sky: Wedding video as an industry has evolved incredibly fast in the last 10 years from virtually unwatchable home video, fly on the wall style wedding videos, to a true cinematic experience like we offer with our Couture Wedding Films™.  With our films, the days of the wedding video that never gets watched is over.  Our clients regularly rave about how many times they watch their wedding film.  We pride ourselves on the timeless experience we create for our clients and their families.  We spend a great deal of time and effort on each wedding film making sure it’s something that they will want to watch again and again.  Our advanced style of shooting and our engaging edits make our vision of a wedding film unlike anything most couples have ever seen before.

Same Day Edit
The short highlight of the wedding day that we show at the reception.  One of our most popular offerings.

Champagne: What sets you apart from other videographers?

Ambient Sky: Everything!  Our creativity in storytelling, in shooting, in editing.  Our sense of the moment, and capturing the really important ones when they present themselves thru-out the day, then weaving these together with the rest of the days events into a feature style wedding film.

Being the trend setters of the wedding film industry in the area, it is somewhat flattering to see our style and techniques show up in the work of many of our competitors.  However, it’s our internal drive that keeps us always learning, evolving and pushing the envelope in our wedding films.  We are always looking for a better way to shoot, to edit and to tell our clients stories in a more engaging way.  We introduced the Portland/Vancouver markets to the concept of a highly stylized and enthralling Same Day Edit video shown on a big screen at the reception.  It provides the couple, their family and friends with an entertaining vignette of the days events that is unparalleled.  We were even the first wedding filmmakers in Portland to blog!  Check ours out often, as we are proud of every film we produce which means we are always filling the blog up with our latest and greatest.

All aspects of our company focus on the style and elegance that we portray in our films.  You won’t see pictures of our cameras or our gear in our advertising.  The majority of couples we work with simply want a great wedding film.  While we do use some of the most advanced visual and audio capture equipment in the filmmaking industry they are all just tools that help us create better wedding films.

Our expertise in showing our brides in the most flattering and elegant way garnered us a WEVA Creative Excellence award in the highly competitive Bridal Spotlight category, making us the only studio in the Pacific Northwest to ever win this incredibly difficult category.  WEVA (Wedding and Event Videography Association) is an international organization that is the most prestigious in our industry to win an award from.  It’s basically our Academy awards. We’ve also won a variety of other awards including a Telly for our Fashion Style Video of Miss Oregon 2007, Kari Virding.

Bridal Elegance Film

Champagne: What do you do when you’re not doing what you do?

Ambient Sky: Try to keep up with our 3 year old daughter who is quickly becoming a force of nature.  Spend time with our friends and family.  Discovering new music and watching movies (but that’s “research” for us)!  Dancing and playing Hockey (not at the same time)!

Engagement Film

Champagne: What’s one tip or advice you have for couples as they plan their wedding?

Ambient Sky: Don’t skimp on preserving your memories.  You put so much time, money and heart into planning your day and it goes by in a flash.  Photography plays an important role but it serves an entirely different purpose in the moments it captures.  The truth is, people rarely have the emotional connection to a photo that they do to our finely crafted wedding films.  It’s not uncommon for couples visiting us to tear up while watching one of our previous clients wedding films.  And it’s not often, if ever, that people do the same looking at wedding photos of people they don’t know.  We always recommend to couples that they should prioritize both photography and a wedding film in their budget.

Champagne: Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know?

Ambient Sky: Our overall professionalism, passion and creativity that we bring to each wedding and event we shoot comes thru in the experiences our clients have with us and in the final movie they get to enjoy.  We are also a husband and wife team and we have great respect for marriage and family.  Having been married for 10 years now with our wedding a very distant memory, we have a very intimate connection to the value of what we provide to our clients.  Needless to say we don’t have a wedding film from our wedding because there was no one in the area creating anything worth paying for when we got married.  We don’t remember our vows, we don’t remember Amanda’s father’s performance during our ceremony, we can’t remember the toast my brother gave that brought us to tears.  If we could somehow go back and shoot and edit our own wedding film with all the experience and knowledge we have now, it’s value would easily be priceless to us.

If you are unsure about videography for your wedding day, simply watch our work and we would love to talk with you more about creating a timeless wedding film for you!

Champagne: Thank you, Ambient Sky, for sharing more about videography and your company with us! We look forward to working with you soon!

Cheers,

Mandi, Rachelle & the Champagne team

We had so much fun reading the love story entries last week that we couldn’t help but have another contest! This time we want to hear your proposal stories! Whether you’ve been engaged for 5 days or married for 50 years, we want to hear how he [or now days maybe she : )] proposed! We will pick a winner on Saturday, March 6th, 2010 and announce the winner soon after. We encourage all of you, who entered our love story and everyone who was too shy to tell their story, to share with us the day you got engaged!

We can’t wait to read your stories!!

Details:

How to enter:

In the comment section of this post answer the following questions:
[1] Your name:
[2] Your fiance/spouse name:
[3] How did you meet?
[4] When did he/she propose?
[5] How did he/she propose?

What you win:*

A $50 gift certificate for a local Portland restaurant. Who doesn’t love going out to dinner?

When to enter:

Now until Saturday, March 6th, 2010 at 10:00 pm.

Who can enter:

Engaged and married couples.

We will be picking a winner by the following Monday, March 8th, 2010.

*Entries only valid in the United States. 

Cheers,

Mandi & Rachelle

Make sure you mark your calendars: Perfect Wedding Guide is having a wedding show at The Heathman Hotel and Restaurant on March 20th, 2010 at 12:00-4:00pm. Giveaway’s every half hour including a wedding dress from AniA Collection, diamond earrings from Joseph K! We look forward to seeing you there! Details here!

Thank you for stopping by our blog! We’d love to meet you! We offer free no obligation consultations so you’re able to see if you’re in need of a wedding coordinator and if we’re the right match! .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) now to set up an appointment! We have a few basic packages and also offer custom packages to fit your needs!

In honor of Valentine’s day coming up this weekend, we decided to put together a fun little giveaway to celebrate love and continue with the theme of love all week! Though I’ve never been one to be too excited about Valentine’s day because for one I think you should do nice things for each other all of the time. Secondly, it ends up making singles wish they had someone [I’ve been there…We’ve all been there!], but we couldn’t help but spread the love!

We partnered up with Paul Rich of Paul Rich Studio who is giving away a photo session! Check out a sampling of some engagement and family sessions below and at the bottom of the post you’ll find the rules and how to enter in the giveaway!

What you can win:

Complimentary engagement session (up to 2 hours of photography).  Session to be scheduled with Paul Rich Studio based on availability and in the Portland, Oregon area.

OR

Complimentary family photo session of up to 5 family members.  Session to be scheduled with Paul Rich Studio based on availability and in the Portland, Oregon area.

What you have to do to enter to win:

All you need to do is, in the comment section in this post, answer the following questions by Saturday, February 13th, 2010 at 8pm and we will pick our favorite story for the winner on Sunday, February 14th, 2010 [Valentine’s Day]!

[1] Where did you meet?
[2] How long have you been together?
[3] What do you love most about the love of your life?
[4] Your love story:

Who can win:

Anyone who is in love and has a story to tell! Whether you’re 20 or 70, we want to hear your love story!

Rachelle and Donny [and their adorable beagle, Sugar] engagement photo by Paul Rich Studio
Later this week, we will be featuring a few images from Champagne’s Rachelle Bell and her husband Donny’s wedding as part of our “week of love”.

We can’t wait to read your love stories! Ready, set… go enter! : )

Cheers,

Mandi & Rachelle

Thank you for stopping by our blog! We’d love to meet you! We offer free no obligation consultations so you’re able to see if you’re in need of a wedding coordinator and if we’re the right match! .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) us now to set up an appointment!