This will most likely make you feel better. Little kids have a completely superior imagination, and a natural talent for comedic timing! Oh, and more blog posts soon complete with photos of stuff! Enjoy! -Dave

As some of you may know, I’m in the process of planning my OWN wedding this year, and we’re late bloomers when it comes to calling people and making arrangements. Jenny is working hard on making sure the IRS gets what they’re asking for, so until tax season is over, I’m plannin this party solo! It’s actually alot of fun! One of my good friends and former brides Mishell explained simply:

“You haven’t been dreaming about this since you were 4 years old.”

And that is completely true. I dreamed about large, empty refridgerator boxes, bike ramp made of bricks and wood, and digging a hole to china. Yes, I DID almost make it in case you were wondering.

The beauty of it was that I can just make the call, say that this is the best spot and so it is…. awesome. It also doesn;t hurt that the first place I looked at was made ENTIRELY of aged red bricks laid a hundred years ago. And let me tell you, photographers loooove bricks. We just do. They provide color and a pattern at the same time! And they match almost everything, but they go especially well with plants.

At the Firehouse in Old Sacramento, thats exactly what I found: Bricks, and plants. Vines, growing all around, and Tall trees growing from the middle of the courtyard. I was ready to book this place on the spot, but the manager insisted I read the contract first…. strange, I thought. I haven’t really gotten into it yet, but I noticed the “cake cutting fee” of $2.00 per person…. so my first thought? Cupcakes instead of a traditional cake! Problem solved. Now I’m just worried about “Guests who wear hats fees” or “open-toed shoes fees” or some other silly charge. No matter what though, there is no other place like this in the city, and as I stood there in the brick courtyard, Sinatra bouncing off the brick facade, with a slight breeze blowing white flower petals from right to left across my field of vision, I thought to myself a few things:

1. I wish Jenny were here to enjoy this with me right now.
2. Any place that has bricks AND Sinatra is a place I’d like to be
3. I wonder if somebody is going to kill me here… it was just so serene. Don’t ask why that makes me fear for my life… maybe the circumstance was just too serendipitous. Too many cool things happening at one time. Yeah, I’m a nerd. So?

Here’s some pictures from my visit. Leave a comment and let me know if you approve!

Much <3,

Dave

Nike. Pepsi. Target. Disney. Dave Shilling? Someday, my friends, someday. My next action item in addition to booking more weddings this year is to refresh my blog and website with a consistent look and feel. Sounds easy right? Yeah, I thought so too. The quickest way for you to feel how intimidating it is to do this is to open up Photoshop, and just stare at a white screen. For me, it was a blank piece of paper, and a pencil. I was up for HOURS just sketching out potential logos and ideas… then one day, I was showing Jenny my ideas, and I just hap-hazardly sketched my current logo, which I personally love, but needs work. Trying to add that certain… how you say… “Je ne sais quoi” is much more difficult than it seems. I realized then that I’m going to need a pro. I guess that new camera gear can wait, which bums me out cause I love camera stuff…In all honesty I dont really neeeeed anything, just lust after some particular items.. D700, macro lens, super wide angle, softboxes, studio lights… ok its alot of stuff. Wish me luck on finding out what my digital self looks like! Since a blog post is worthless without a photo, here’s Indy and I out for a Saturday afternoon stroll (taken with my phone):