The Making of the AMAZING Life Together Webinar

Dream Big, Dreaming  //  1st May 2013

It started with an email to our potential Love Inspirers and what it turned into was more than we could have ever imagined:

“We just wanted to let you know that we are inspired by your marriage and would love to invite you to be a Love Inspirer for our “An AMAZING Life Together: More Time for Love” webinar!

Recently, our minds have exploded with some super crazy dreams and ideas!!! As we have been thinking about our business and where we want it to take it, we have realized a huge passion for helping couples live a more amazing life together. Realizing this has set our hearts on fire with ideas. So far we have already started our AMAZING Marriage Project and created an AMAZING Life Escape. We are super excited about both of these projects and the impacts they will have on couples lives!

However, we have realized that with the help of amazing couples like you, we could have a much larger and more immediate impact! So, we have created the Make Time for Love webinar and we would be honored to have you as part of it!”

When we hit send, we didn’t know if any of the couples we contacted would actually be interested in participating. But when they pretty much all said yes, we knew we actually had to go through with it, which meant figuring out how to create such a webinar. The next forty-three days of our lives were going to be just a bit crazy.

First things first, we needed to create a website for the webinar. This wouldn’t necessarily be so hard, except for the fact that Liz and I are both pretty stubborn when it comes to design. Initially we planned to just grab a free WordPress template, customize it and create the site. Unfortunately we couldn’t exactly find any that we really liked. So naturally, I said, “Why don’t I just create, design and program it for us?” It sounded simple enough, and I always enjoyed a challenge, even if I would have to learn html5, CSS, and PHP scripting languages. (Note to self, next time you offer up learning how to create and build a website from scratch, make sure you have more than 2 weeks to do so!) Many sleepless nights later, the AMAZING Life Together Webinar Site was launched on April 1st.

Just 26 days until the webinar and we still hadn’t recorded a single session! Yikes!

Over the next few days we watched as many documentaries, Oprah Winfrey interviews, and Barbara Walters specials as we possibly could.

Camera gear in tow, having never recorded our own on camera interview, we were off to Portland, OR to meet up with Karen and Isaac. Our first recorded interview, which would actually be shown as the last session of the webinar, was definitely a huge learning experience.

After completing the interview, we flew back home to Baltimore, photographed a engagement session, then immediately packed up the car and drove to Chapel Hill, NC, on Liz’s birthday no less, for the next interview. As one of us drove, the other edited Karen and Isaac’s interview. This would be our routine for the next several days. Our car basically became our mobile production unit. In a span of three days, we made stops in Chapel Hill, NC, Richmond, VA and Portsmouth, VA. After a few moments back home in Baltimore, we got back in the car and drove up to New Haven, CT for the final interview.

Looking back, I am not exactly sure how we pulled it all off. Especially considering we didn’t exactly factor in how long it would actually take to render and upload over 15GB of video to the internet. With just a few hours to spare, the final interview finished uploading. What was once just a dream had actually become reality.

Being a former engineer, I am just a bit of a numbers geek. So for this behind the scenes post we thought it would be fun to share just a few stats we think are pretty cool.

 

• In total, to record all the Love Inspirer Interviews, we travelled 6849 miles, 5508 by plane and 1341 by car.
• 484 People signed up to watch the webinar in advance.
• Viewers tuned in from 83 Countries across the world!!!! CRAZY!!! Checkout the viewer map below!

• Combined, total video plays from the webinar were 2020.
• During the webinar 1714 unique visitors visited the AMAZING Life Together Webinar website.

Thanks again to everyone that made the webinar possible and to all those that tuned in to watch.

 

Live Everyday and Do Everything with Love

Dream Big, Dreaming  //  3rd April 2013

What if we could end the divorce rate? What if we were able to help couples live a more amazing life together? What if we could help couples have the same joy they had on their wedding day, every single day in their marriage?

At first these all seem like crazy ideas and dreams that we couldn’t possibly hope to accomplish. People have told us, “you’ve only be married 5 years, what do you know about the struggles of marriage” or “What makes you an expert on marriage?” The truth is nothing makes us an expert on marriage. And sure, our first 5 years of marriage have been pretty darn AMAZING. But the fact is, no matter what other people say about us, or our “lack of experience” none of it can affect our passion to help couples have a more amazing life together!

What is the chance that we can end the divorce rate? Absolutely zero if we don’t do anything!

In the wedding photography industry, and within the larger wedding industry in general, people are so excited and eager to give advice for an amazing wedding. There are countless blogs and magazines that share ideas from how to pick the perfect photographer to how to decorate your reception tables. Unfortunately, the thing that is not always at the forefront is how to actually prepare to be married to each other. It is actually difficult to find resources or inspiration for couples to help them stay in love as much as they are when they say, “I do.”

In business, people are quick to sign up for workshops, conferences and seminars. But in life, we often don’t see the need to commit to the same sort of investment. As Kid President would say, “This is your life, people!”

With all of these thoughts in our mind, we decided to do something. We decided that even if we can help one couple have a better marriage or one couple take time out of their busy week for a date night, then all our efforts would be worthwhile.

We sat together and talked about our passions. We talked about our business and our life together. We asked ourselves if there was one thing in our life that we could do that was truly worthwhile, one thing that we would be willing to give up everything for, one thing we would be willing to take criticism on, what would it be and would we still do it? The answer to this question was yes! That one thing we would do was to help couples live a more amazing life together.

As photographers, we have the amazing opportunity to work with couples that are in love, to capture that love in photos for generations to see 50 years from now. Each time we pick up our camera and photograph our couples, our goal is to create images that let their love shine through. But, in addition to photographing weddings and love, we have the opportunity to do so much more.

For the past month, these thoughts have been at the forefront of our mind. So we decided to take action. We decided to create a webinar for couples that gives them an excuse to take time to focus on each other, a time to have a date night, or cuddle together and enjoy breakfast in bed. We decided to create a webinar that focused on couples, love and marriage. But, we knew we shouldn’t do it alone. We knew that if we included other couples, other love inspirers with similar hearts, that we would be able to reach the lives of so many more! And it is for those reasons that we decided to create the AMAZING Life Together More Time for Love Webinar.

If you are a couple in love, planning your wedding, married for 6 months or 60 years, we would love to have you join us for free on April 26th – 27th.

Every couple has a story to be shared; every couple can learn from others experiences even if it is a simple reminder of how great their own marriage is already!

Since we launched our site http://www.amazinglifetogether.com we have received some amazing feedback on what we are doing! But, we have also seen criticism and been ridiculed as well. When I started writing this post today, my original thought was to address these criticisms, but then I realized, no matter what, “haters are gonna hate.” So, instead of worrying about people trying to bring us down, we are going to focus on lifting others up. Each day we have the opportunity to choose our own actions. Today and everyday, no matter what it is that we do, we are going to live everyday and do everything with love. How will you spend your day today?

 

Ideas for an AMAZING Life: 3 Steps to Kickstart Your Dreams

Dream Big, Dreaming  //  27th March 2013

I remember the exact moment at the What If Conference when I looked over at Lara and it seemed as though she was in a dream. She had this smile on her face that seemed to be permanent and certainly was not going away anytime soon! ;)  It was one of those smiles that made people wonder what she was up to!

At that very moment, Lara had let her mind wander and she was quickly reminded of a project that she had dreamed of starting with her husband four years ago. She had big ideas to start this business, but fears and doubts stood in their way. Their dreams were pushed to the back of their minds while they continued to live their lives day to day.

As this dream came to the forefront of Lara’s mind over and over again at What If, Lara realized it was time to make this happen. She went home and just one month later, Lara and Peter have officially launched Paper Boat Recording!  

The story behind Paper Boat Recording is pretty AMAZING and we hope that you will go read more on their site (and leave them some love on Facebook too)! Lara lost her mom a few years ago and one of the biggest things she misses is hearing her mom share the stories of her childhood. These spoken words are the kinds of things that so many of us take for granted! With Paper Boat Recording, Lara and Peter want to record the moments that make up people’s travels through life. They dream of documenting the special memories and everyday moments – “to keep them safe, so that you may travel forward, knowing you can always look back when you wish.”

With Lara being a photographer and Peter being a sound engineer, they are using their gifts and their passions to document stories in a special kind of way! We are so excited that Lara and Peter have launched this dream of theirs and are touching the lives of others along the way!

We hope that you will find your mind wandering today and leave you with that smile that makes people wonder what you are up to! Then follow Lara and Peter’s example and go and make that dream happen!

 

Ideas for an Amazing Life: Our Honorary Board of Influencers

Dreaming  //  13th March 2013

Influence.  It’s such a powerful word when you really start to think about it. Every single day we are bombarded with all sorts of messages from all sorts of people, products, businesses, etc.  The cool thing about life is that we all have the ability to choose the people that we let influence us on a daily basis.  And doing so is really simple…

Recently I read the book “The New Relationship Marketing” an idea author Mari Smith calls her Hollywood Squares.  The idea is to create a list of people that you would love to meet in real life and become connected with.  She shares that by creating your own Hollywood Squares list and then proactively following their work, you can truly meet anyone in the world.

This sounded like a really fun idea to us so we immediately set out to create our own Hollywood Squares List.  But as we were doing so, we begin to think more about why we wanted to meet each person.  At first we added people that we thought would be cool to meet, but once we did meet them, we thought how would that help make our life more AMAZING?

Still really liking the exercise, we began thinking about a topic we previously blogged about, our Board of Life Directors. We shared that the people you surround yourself by are the types of people you become.

And then it hit us.  Instead of creating our own Hollywood Squares list, what we really wanted to do was create a list of people that in one way our another was positively influencing our lives.  So, we combined the idea of a Hollywood Squares list with our Board of Life Directors and came up with Our Honorary Board of Influencers.  Instead of just a list of people we wanted to meet for no real reason, we created a list of people that if and when we do meet them, that our lives would be influenced in a more positive manner.

As you head into the weekend, why not take a moment to create your own Honorary Board of Influencers.  Not sure where to start? Think about the authors of books you’ve recently read that have had a positive impact on your life or career.  Or, think about some of your favorite hobbies and the places and people you look to for inspiration.  For example, I LOVE to cook and I am just a bit of a science nerd.  The perfect combination of both these passions is Alton Brown, chef and creator of Good Eats.

Still looking for more inspiration?  Below is our current Honorary Board of Influencers and why we choose each one.  So far we’ve only actually met a few of these people, but by creating this honorary board, we have intentionally thought about people who we have/would like to have be a positive influence in our lives and in our business.  As you create your board… remember it is your very own! You can change it up as often as you would like. That is the fun part! We move ours around quite a bit… Chris Guillebeau is one of those people that will always be a part of our board, whether listed or not!  It doesn’t really matter what your board looks like, just be sure to have a good reason for why you are allowing the people on your board into your life and make sure they are a POSITIVE influence on you.

Gretchen Rubin – Author of The Happiness Project – Through her book and blog, Gretchen shows that we can proactively work to make ourselves happier.

Seth Godin – Author of many AMAZING books including our favorites The Purple Cow and The Dip  – Seth is a genius when it comes to business, taking control of your lives, and making things happen.

Alton Brown – Chef and host of Good Eats and The Iron Chef – I just can’t get enough of the way he incorporates science into cooking.  Plus his recipes are AMAZING.

Richie & Natalie Norton – Entrepreneurs and Authors of The Power of Starting Something Stupid – We had the pleasure of meeting Richie and Natalie at the What if Conference and they are probably two of the most genuine, down to earth people we have ever met! Their hearts are incredibly inspiring!

Savannah Guthrie – Host of the Today Show – We LOVE the Today Show and especially Savannah!  She is just so bubbly and her love of life shines through and brightens our day each morning.

Alexandra Beauregard – Editor at Heart Love Weddings – Alexandra is such a breath of fresh air! She is the one behind Heart Love Weddings, a blog dedicated to celebrating love stories… all kinds of love stories!

Austin Gutwein – Author of Live to Give and Founder of Hoops of Hope – At just the age of 9 Austin created a charity to help support orphans in Africa that lost their parents due to AIDS.  Since then the charity has raised over 3 million dollars. AMAZING!

Bob Goff – Author of Love Does – Bob is a true example of how putting love above all else can positively impact the lives of those around you. His book seriously lit our hearts on fire!

David Jay – Founder of Showit and PASS – DJ is a visionary when it comes to the future of the photography industry.  But most importantly, DJ is an AMAZING example of an incredibly generous and selfless leader!

Grant Peelle – Director of I’m Fine, Thanks – Grant decided to take action and follow his dream of producing a film.  In doing so he created I’m Fine, Thanks, a move that sheds light on how we so often live a complacent life but we can make the choice to follow our dreams instead.

We can’t wait to hear about the people you choose for your very own Honorary Board of Influencers.  And if any of our influencers happen to read this post, we can’t wait to connect more with you in the near future!!!

AMAZING Life Escape | Sign Up Now! This Getaway is Happening!

Dreaming, Our Dreams  //  6th March 2013

We have had this crazy Stupid (as Richie Norton would say) idea for quite some time. As with any crazy idea we come up with, we get super excited and dream about it on a regular basis! As you may have figured out by now… these are the kinds of things that have us smiling without even realizing we are smiling! Some of those crazy ideas come and go… but, this one, stuck. It really wasn’t going to leave our minds and it was our choice to do something about it or let our dream fade away into that black hole of fear.

“So what do we do? Anything. Something. So long as we just don’t sit there. If we screw it up, start over. Try something else. If we wait until we’ve satisfied all the uncertainties, it may be too late.” -Lee Iacocca

For us, too late means that a marriage or relationship we could have positively impacted ends up in a divorce. Or on a lighter note, but still so significant!, too late means someone lives another day of their life not recognizing the AMAZINGNESS that surrounds them every day. We don’t want to see that happen! In fact, we see it as our responsibility to do everything that we can to keep that from happening!

So, with a huge amount of fear and nervousness, but with MEGA passion and excitement, we are so incredibly pumped to be announcing our first ever AMAZING Life Escape!

This fall, November 11-14, 2013 the very first AMAZING Life Escape will take place in Newry, Maine. We will be hosting 7 couples for a 3 night-4 day getaway to the mountains of Maine. It is our goal to provide an experience that will give couples an excuse to escape the everyday craziness of life and focus on the AMAZINGNESS that surrounds them daily!  Between breakfast in bed, AMAZING Life inspired sessions, a mini photo session, a cooking class to enjoy cooking together, and many other super fun experiences, we are planning plenty of additional time to just relax and soak each other in!

 

 

The location we have chosen for this first escape is a gorgeous estate in the mountains of Maine. Every couple will enjoy the luxuries of their own bedroom suite and a spa inspired bathroom! There are many additional luxuries that come along with the estate, that include, but are not limited to: a state of the art movie theatre, 2 hot tubs, a game room, outdoor fire pit (perfect for s’mores, of course! ;) ), and a 3 acre property within the gorgeousness of Maine! ;) AMAZING, right?! We promise you, it will be nothing short of AMAZING!

If you are interested in joining us for an Escape, please check out more information on the AMAZING Life Escape website… or click here to sign up! Registration is open NOW! Space is VERY limited!!! So, please don’t delay!

We thank you for all of your support and for giving us the opportunity to crush our fears and pursue our dreams! ;) We are so excited to be creating this experience that will without a doubt leave us all celebrating the AMAZING lives that we live with the ones we love! Hope you will join us for the celebration!

P.S. If you can’t make it this time, but you are excited about the idea… please let us know! This is the kind of project that lights our hearts on fire and if we know there is a demand for it- we are going to do everything that we can to meet the demand!! Please spread the word to your friends too! We would appreciate it so much!!