Thursday, November 29, 2007

Excerpts from an Interview

Here are a few clips from an interview we filmed last week (more on that later!)...but we wanted to go ahead and put this part up because a lot of our friends are working on getting in shape this winter and we thought they might be able to use the recipe from Mary's Signature Salad! And if you're a big salad fan, you can also check out Steve's blog for another recipe from him.

btw...Don't you think my hottie wife should have her own show?? Somebody should call up Rachel Ray :)

Grocering!


Grocering!, originally uploaded by justinmarantz.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Love & Family

These are some pics of a shoot we did last week for Michelle (another bridesmaid of Lisa!) and her family. You've got to love days like this!

Monday, November 26, 2007

Clients to Friends

The core of mine & Justin's business has always been about relationships- our relationships with other vendors, other photographers, and especially the ones we have with our clients. It is 100% because of these relationships that our business has been able to grow as fast and as much as it has in the past year or two. When I think about where we were even two years ago vs. where we are now, it's really overwhelming (in the best way possible) to realize all that's happened.

And ALL of that goes back to one important principle that has become the foundation of our business: our clients are our friends. We spend so much time just hanging out with our clients and really getting to know them. I gotta say, I don't know how we keep getting this lucky, but we have the BEST clients in the world book us!! And we just come to care for each of them so much that we could never imagine not keeping them in our lives once the wedding is over. So what's really great is when these clients turned friends of ours refer *their* friends to us and then the weddings are like a big reunion for everyone!

That was exactly the case this weekend when we shot Cat & Dan's rockin' wedding in Tarrytown. Cat was a bridesmaid at Lisa & Rob's wedding that we shot this past September and she & Dan booked us shortly after that. We just love all these guys so much, and it's so great to show up to a wedding and feel like you're already surrounded by old friends. They're the kind of people you hope you can always call friend!

One thing these guys definitely all have in common is that they really know how to put on a good party! These were two of the most exquisite weddings we've ever shot.

Meet Cat & Dan!











We had the adorable Candace Jeffery along to second shoot with us and she grabbed this super fun shot!


And Lisa & Rob!!




and of course lil' Louie!


This rockin' shot is owed to Miss Harris!







We call this one "receiving line"!!

Monday Board Meeting


Monday Board Meeting, originally uploaded by justinmarantz.

Monday morning = our weekly business meeting here at Justin Marantz
Photography where we write out all of our (big hairy audacious) goals for the week.....and
that requires a LOT of sugar n caffeine!!!

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Ohhhhhh yea!!!


I'm just waiting for some cards to download at an awesome two-day wedding we're shooting in Westchester County, NY... and I gotta say, I'm LOVING this headline:

"Pat White has No. 4 West Virginia on the brink of playing for a national championship!!!"


Saweeeeeeet!!!

WVU just ROLLED over UCONN 66-21 (sorry Alana & Dan!! they were so awesome and called us to come watch the game with them today, but we were previously engaged :) to take the BIG EAST CHAMPIONSHIP and a shot at a national title. How hot is that?! EEEEEEEEEE!!!! Let's GOOOOOO.....Mountaineers!!!

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Outsourcing Thanksgiving

Dinner is Done! :-) It's our first married Thanksgiving...aren't we so domestic?




We got up early this morning cheer on the awesome Carla & Steve who were out raising money for PH at the Branford Y 5K.

It's the eye of the tiger....


it's the thrill of the fight


RA! RA! RA!


Ok this is my new favorite picture of the four of us!!

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

There is no limit...

to all of the AMAZING ways people are coming up with to raise money for Portrait House!!!! Two of our best friends and Portrait House Advisory Team members (PHAT...and as always, they're pretty hot & tempting too!!), the dynamic duo of Carla & Steve are donating their time to run in a 5k on Thanksgiving. They're asking for people to sponsor them per mile or k and all of the proceeds go to PH!!! How awesome is that?! You can go HERE & HERE to read more about it! Thank you guys so much! Jus & I will definitely be there with water cups and pom poms cheering you on!!!

Friday, November 16, 2007

The Lovely Miss Barlow (is AMAZING!!)


A couple of days ago we got the most AMAZING surprise. I remember I was sitting on the couch going through mountains of email and I think Justin was doing something super exciting like paying bills when the doorbell rang. J goes downstairs and comes back with the most ginormous box I've ever seen! We open it only to find that it is packed to the brim with all sorts of wedding present goodies from our incredible friend, Sarah!! It had candles, oil sticks, cookies, a coffee mug with an "M" on it, chocolate, the most beautiful wooden salad bowl and forks, a gift card for a dinner date, a beautiful picture frame with an even more beautiful picture from Sarah in it, lovers vouchers for bubble baths, massages and such, and these AWESOME post-it notes that say "Great Job on..." and then you have your choice of "that project", "being you", "your recovery", and my personal favorite, "that outfit!" Oh! and then there's a check box at the bottom that says "I really mean it!" I love it!!

Can you believe how wonderful she is?!? We are so, so lucky to call her a friend!! That's one of the things that amazes me most about this job of ours: the incredible people that come into our lives because of it! Sarah is one of those lifelong kind of friends and she inspires us and believes in us with her WHOLE heart. But that's just the kind of person she is...the whole heart kind! I can't tell you how much she blesses us! We love you so much Sarah!!!!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Announcing...the "How to Plan a Life" Contest Winner!!!

ok we're blogging from the gym to *finally* announce the winner of our how to plan a life contest! omg this was REALLY hard for us because ALL of the comments were so darn awesome! I can't tell you how many times we read and re-read them! We have some serious gold star stickers for all of you (just send us the $19.95 for s&h and we'll get those right out to you. Sorry no COD), but at the end of the day someone had to come out victorious! So without further ado......





.....




......


The winner is................................................ dot dot dot....Derek!! we awarded him bonus points for his use of both Cal Ripken AND WVU towels and we also gave him a 10 for the dismount, giving him the highest overall score of 4 1/2 out of 5 kitchen aid mixers. His $50 gift card to Williams Sonoma is being sent to him by carrier pigeon. Congrats Derek!

As in all great contests, there is also a runner up and we decided to award this prestigious title based on a people's choice award. And this year's winner, for her entry entitled "If my husband were a sitcom character" is Miss Carla Ten Eyck! She will be receiving her $25 gift card via pony express.

Thanks to everyone who played!! I can't wait for the next one! clearly the endorphins are kicking in...y'know and endorphins make people happy ("and happy people just don't shoot their husbands!" -Elle Woods)

Monday, November 12, 2007

How to CHANGE a Life

So we mentioned earlier that we have a lot of exciting things coming up and we just wanted to share with you guys what they are and how they came about...


The honeymoon for us was a time of fun & relaxation, but it was also a time when the world around us was finally quiet long enough for us to hear some really important messages that hadn't quite been getting through the noise. We had gone to St. Lucia exhausted, overwhelmed, and just generally conflicted about where we were going (y'know, in life as opposed to the Caribbean :) and a LOT of things became clear while we were away.

While we were there, I was reading Your Best Life Now and Justin was listening to the 4 Hour Work Week. And at the end of every single day, over dinner we would talk about what we had been reading that day... and time after time, chapter by chapter, we kept coming up with the same overarching themes: take big risks, don't be afraid to ask, enlarge your vision. It was the craziest thing!! This continued on for several days and then about six days into the trip, as we were walking up the hill to dinner, we both got hit at the exact same time with one of the strongest callings that either of us has ever felt: that we should commit ourselves and our whole hearts to making Portrait House a reality. And that's what we're gonna do.

Probably the craziest thing about this whole story was that the very next morning when we went down to the lobby to check our email, we had a message out of the blue from our amazing friend Shyla telling us that she wanted to get involved! If that's not a sign, I seriously don't know what is!

So that's what's in store for us in the road ahead. We came home and got right to work (well after those couple of days of being in denial that we were actually back!) And one of the very first things that we decided was that we're going to return to posting about the PH on this blog instead of just on the official portrait house blog. We just know it's going to become such a big part of who we are in the next year that I can't imagine keeping the two separate anymore. But don't worry, we're not getting rid of the PH blog either...in fact we've made it even better than before by adding the members of our Portrait House Advisory Team (ahem, PHAT!) to the contributors list so that they can all be posting there too! Make sure you add it to your reader so you can keep up with everything going on over there.

Yesterday Justin created the Portrait House Group on facebook and in less than a day we had over 80 members sign up!! Crazy! We've been so blown away by the outpouring of support in emails and messages and phone calls that we've been getting...everyone saying the same thing: whatever it is you need, just ask and it's yours! We know that none of the things we want for PH can happen without you guys, so it really means the world to us! Seriously, thank you!! And if you want to get yourself signed up for the PH group just send us your email and we'll make sure you get an invite!

ok, that's it for now
so much love!
M:)

PS: hey guys! please go check out the comments from Julie & Damion for some information on a really great project that they're starting called Wells of Life.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Simple things

Yay for the first red cup of the season!!! ETA: omg, have you guys seen this?! www.itsredagain.com


Simple things, originally uploaded by justinmarantz.

Sent from my iPhone



The return of the red cups can only mean one thing...Christmas is well on it's way!! And that's just fine with me because it is my second favorite time of year and all, but I couldn't quite let fall go without one last hurrah! So without further ado, here are some pictures of a haunted hayride we went on with Joey & Brian right before the honeymoon



Chillin at Pizza Hut before the hayride


Yum!


Hey is that Ben Affleck in the picture?

Crunch

This is what happens when you try and do Goodwill :-) Yup, a giant Silverado truck backed into us in the Goodwill parking lot. Crunch!


crunch, originally uploaded by justinmarantz.

Sent from my iPhone

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Catchin' up!!

Ok...so even tho it's pretty obvious that we've been back for a few days, I guess it's time to announce our official return from the honeymoon! We've really been puttin this off to be honest with you because we just wanted to hold on to it a little longer before real life took over again.

But we're back! Ready and raarrring to go with some really exciting things on the horizon. Much more on that coming up, but first we have some serious catching up to do with this blog! Sooo...expect quite a few posts over the next few days! Not the least of which will be finally getting around to announcing the winner of the "How to Plan a Life" contest. We're extending the contest through Monday night so make sure to go HERE and place your comment if you want in!! The winner will be announced Tuesday morning!

Ok...see ya in a few

Friday, November 09, 2007

Late Halloween

While we were away Mary and I missed one of our favorite hoidays, Halloween! To try and make up for it we had a scary movie night with Joey & Brian. The four of us carved pumpkins while watching The Pumpkin Carver. (the movie was pretty bad, so save your money!) Check out the WVU carving that we did!


I love this one of Cooper wondering what I'm doing


Besides the carving we also missed out on the costume fun... so I thought I'd share last year's costume:



yea...we're just that cool.

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Friday, November 02, 2007