We love our life. We truly do.

We always mention how we live "the good life." Sure, there are certain aspects we want to change, like our laundry piles, or the fact that we regularly wait so long to load the dishwasher that we run out of spoons , but in general we are pretty blessed.

We're going to try to blog more regularly about our life - just our life. Before we were wedding photographers, we had a blog that we posted in that was nothing but stories about our life. Now, our blog is mostly stuff about our business, whether it be telling wedding stories, mentorships, engagements, etc.

But I know that I connect most when I read blogs about people... not just pictures. Sooooo.... here's our first blog about 'the good life.'

"But I don't even know how to load film."

Can we admit that? Here we are, photographers. Yesterday, I couldn't wait any longer so I gave Luke his birthday present a whole month early. He was just like a kid on Christmas as he opened his gift and saw a black box with gold lettering that said, "Canon EOS 1V."

But then, doubts took their place.

"But I don't even know how to load film."

Thank goodness for instruction manuals and YouTube! A few minutes later, we were loaded up with Fuji 400H and were headed out the door with the new film camera.

I knew getting a film camera would be a great present for my partner in crime, because some of his favorite photographers to follow shoot on film. We have always shot on digital in our business, so as strange as it might sound, while film is an older medium, for us, it is brand new.

Luckily, I did quite a bit of research before choosing this camera (Canon's flagship film camera - first produced 10 years ago) and knew that a few things would be in our favor. First, it can use the same lenses as our other cameras we have (Canon 5D Mark II) and second, it looks almost the same.

Well.... almost. There's no viewfinder. After the first couple of shutter clicks, Luke had to stop himself from immediately turning and looking at the back of the camera to check how things looked.

Luckily, shooting a film camera in manual isn't much different at all than shooting a digital camera in manual. It took us quite a while to fill up that roll of 36 exposures, because each picture felt so *important.* It's not like our digital cameras where we take a test shot, make slight adjustments, reshoot, and throw away any test shots. Each shot has a heavy weight to it, each shot, takes concentration, thinking, double-checking exposure and focus, and finally, clicking the shutter.

We love it.

Now the hard part. Today we will ship off our 1 roll of film to Montgomery, Alabama to be processed by Indie Film Lab. It will be about 3 weeks until we receive the 'scans' from the lab. They will make a custom profile to use when they develop our images so that they will look like 'our images.'

That being said, we're very aware that the pictures on this film will be seen by whoever is processing them... and when you work with a lab like Indie Film Lab, they're going to get to know us on a personal basis. So basically, no film pictures of our outside cat Buttons Neumayr digging in the flowerbed and pooping.

Last night to celebrate the fact that I was wearing makeup and that Luke got his birthday present, we went out to dinner. Over dinner we were rehashing all of our film shooting experience (~75 minutes, at that point) and realized that probably most photos of us that are from our childhood were taken on film. Whoever shot our parents' weddings shot those on film. Film is such a big part of our life, even though, right now, it feels really new.

We can't wait to keep shooting on film! Stay tuned for the photos. And happy {early} birthday, Luke!

Yesterday we celebrated Cat's birthday, even though it isn't until July 7th! Her gift arrived and I (Luke) couldn't wait to give it to her!

Each year it is a competition of sort, or maybe a quest, to find a great birthday present for my lovely wife. The tricky part is, Cat isn't really a fan of surprises. Ideally, she would like to say "Here is what I want" and then have me get that. However I am not that type of gift giver! I like to think and get something that is off the beaten path, or at least not on Cat's Pinterest board called "Wish List!" That would be a little too predictable for my taste!

So, Cat and I know an amazing young lady who founded a new and pretty revolutionary business. Her name is Emily Huskinson and she founded a company called Ring Wraps. Emily makes the most beautiful diamond ring wrap that accents and accompanies your class ring. Emily and I had been working on this little secret for a few months since each Ring Wrap is handmade and takes about 3-5 weeks to create, and trust me, I would have waited years to get one of these! They are just flat awesome.

Since Cat and I both graduated from Texas A&M University, we adore our Aggie rings. Cat and I had conversations about how she would like to have other rings to wear, but she doesn't want to get rid of her Aggie ring, so her options were rather limited. There must be other lady folk that feel the same way, and Emily created a product to fix that very problem.

That leads us to this. Cat opening her present!

When Cat saw the gold "RW" on the box, she knew exactly what it was. Emily has just posted an Instagram that showed her orders going out, and Cat remembered what the boxes looked like!

I was a little nervous at this point. I had to sneak Cat's Aggie ring away from her and try to measure it. She didn't remember the exact size of it, and I hope that my size chart I printed off the interweb was pretty accurate. It fit perfectly!

Here are a few close ups, so you can really see the awesomeness of a Ring Wrap!

Isn't that beautiful!

Feel free to take a look at the Ring Wraps website to learn more! They can do custom work and fit any class ring!

NOW FOR SOME GREAT NEWS!

If you are interested in purchasing a Ring Wrap for you or your special someone, and you enter the code "lukeandcat" you will get $250 off your order!

HOW AWESOME IS THAT!!

Now, go out and buy you one!

The other night I had a craving for hot chocolate.

So naturally since we didn't have any, I asked Abby (our studio assistant) to see if her mom had any. Let's face it, mom's always have a stocked pantry that includes hot chocolate. Sure enough, Abby's mom came to my hot chocolate rescue!

Then, when I was making morning coffee, I thought what if I add a hot chocolate packet to my coffee. The result was pure genius and is now my drink of choice!

All you do is brew your coffee (we use a Keurig!) and then add a packet of hot chocolate mix, and if you want to get fancy, a splash of milk!

Hopefully everyone will be able to have a lazy Saturday morning tomorrow, and if you need a little hot chocolate, just go to your mom's house!