Whirlwind Start for 2009!

Hello one and all, an update here on all-things-Fat-Cat! I have finally added pictures to the long year end post below if you care to take a gander at a few dog pictures :)

Things have been moving along here at Fat Cat, slowly gaining on some of our delivery times with a slower winter as far as the shooting schedule goes, so if you are waiting on your spring wedding, we are working on those currently. Editing begins when we receive the final payment scheduled. We will be in touch with our brides as soon as their video is up and ready for edit.

The bridal fair was insanely busy. We passed out 400 of our newest Demo DVD's, all hand made, very personal and unique. The calls are starting to come in for the remainder of the 2009 wedding season. We only book one wedding per day, so if you are waiting to contact us don't wait any longer! :) Dates fill on a first come-first serve basis.

Come join us on FACEBOOK! Fat Cat has a new group! FAT CAT ROCKS! We will be posting some info on the business from time to time and you can see what we are up to personally as well in our crazy lives! :) Thanks to our past and current brides who are logged in, we really enjoy seeing what you are up to! Also, a big congratulations to several of our brides on new babies arriving or learning that they are expecting and on the way! Wow! So many! So don't forget about our sister website http://www.announcemychild.com/! A NEW Baby Announcement will also be online this week, so check back!

You can finally see the complete 28-minute Broadcast version of the work we have done for Hutchinson Community College Field Operations at this link from Paramedic TV! The video is getting great playback and increasing a wonderful stir for the college, agencies from as far away as the Bahamas are contacting the college to try to participate this year and see what all the fuss is about! Thanks to our wonderful friend Chy, YOU are the Bomb-Diggity! We can't wait to film this years installment in June!!!!

We mentioned at years end that Barry is pursuing higher education and is finishing pre-reqs for a nursing degree. Well, now I have the bug, and I have also recently enrolled and am finishing my pre-reqs as well! So please be patient with us as we now work school into our evening schedules!

Don't forget our Bridal Open House is quickly going to be upon us Sunday, February the 8th from 1-5pm here at the studio. 142 S. Meridian, Valley Center. So if you've hesitated about why you need a wedding video of one of the single most important days of your life, come see what all the fuss is about. This ain't your Uncle Charlies wedding video! :)

Everyone have a great 2009! More updates are on the way!

SG

Vossen/Damiris Wedding!

Before I describe what a great time Barry and I had at Amanda and John's wedding this past weekend, I must describe how we came about to work for the couple because it is just the coolest. In a nutshell, it's all Archie's fault.

Last year in May, two days after I searched the Greensburg tornado damage with my dog Clarice, I was feeling pretty down leaving her at home while I traveled to Corona, California for a videography workshop. She worked so hard and I had to turn around and leave her after that ordeal. So, there I sat in the gate area ready to board my flight. The layover location had changed from Denver to Phoenix. I wasn't happy. Soon in the same area, I noticed a young passenger with a mesh carry on case that looked strikingly similar to a doggie carry on case! I wanted so badly to go ask her about her dog, but decided not to. Chicken I guess :) Then when boarding the flight we were actually seated right next to each other! I was so happy! We briefly introduced ourselves and asked about each others travel plans and I voiced how jealous I was that she got to travel with her dog- you guessed it- Archie. Come to find out Amanda was a P.A. student who lived in Phoenix and was happy to be headed back home after visiting family here. We even had some mutual aquaintances! She asked where I was going and I explained what I did. She had mentioned that she was getting married in a year in Wichita and I offered her a demo DVD I had in my carry-on bag and she should take a look. The flight was great, we had a very nice conversation and when we landed I even got to briefly meet Archie the poodle, who started us in conversation! We each went our separate ways in Phoenix both of us fully expecting not to see the other again.

Fast forward three months. I receive an email from Amanda asking me if I remembered her from the plane trip and she had finally had a chance to look at the DVD and loved it and wanted to book Fat Cat for her wedding videographer! Too cool. I was very happy we were not yet booked for her date!

We were able to meet up again the week of the wedding to discuss her day and this weekend, the rehearsal, and the wedding day seemed to fly by! We met up at St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral for Amanda and her bridesmaids to get ready. She had chosen some great bridesmaid dresses in a spring green, tea length with a yellow sash that tied around the waist. This of course matched all the yellow and green flowers by JR Koontz. Amanda chose a strapless ivory gown with embellishments to the bodice, souffle skirt and lace up back! She knew exactly what she wanted after working in a bridal shop in high school. The guys were donned in classic black tuxes and the grooms tux was purchased and custom tailored for him- and of course, it looked perfect.

They shared a private moment together before the ceremony to get as many pictures done as possible to save time for the party later! I believe I heard John quietly say "Wow!" as he saw Amanda for the first time.

A close friend of the grooms family officiated, Fr. Nicholas Vieron from Cleveland. Fr. Vieron was awesome. He was so personable and humorous, we thoroughly enjoyed meeting him and wish he lived here in Wichita!

The groom's family is of Greek heritage and the ceremony was very different for us, it was our first time being at a Greek Orthodox Ceremony. It is so symbolic in so many ways. The Betrothal, Candles, Joining of Hands, The Crowning, Common Cup and Ceremonial Walk. Most everything happens in threes and it really was something special to be a part of. And what a gorgeous backdrop to film against!

As soon as the bride and groom left the church after being declared husband and wife, the guests were being ushered out to head to the reception while Fr. Vieron kept them entertained with jokes!

I rode in the limo with the bridal party to the reception at The Ville in Andover, another amazing backdrop. Amanda and John were introduced with their bridal party down the grand staircase and mingled with guests a few minutes prior to opening the festivities with an Italian dinner, toasts and the cutting (and smashing) of the cake. The groom also stole a chocolate covered strawberry off his cake decorated with the Ohio State emblem.

The newlyweds started the dance with "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" and shared time with their parents on the dance floor before really letting go and partying well into the evening with all their guests! We especially enjoyed John's grandfather who shared some traditions, dancing to several Greek songs and getting the crowd to join him!

To John and Amanda, thank you so much for letting us share your special day with you this weekend! It was not only a pleasure getting to know you and your amazing, wonderful families, but an honor as well. Have a fabulous time in Australia after school- it will all be worth it! Take tons of photos, we'll get there someday! And don't forget- Love on Archie for me :)
Click below to view Amanda and John's wedding day Prequel!

Gearing Up!

Well, we are officially in the midst of the "busy season". Busy with not only shooting weddings all summer and catching up in the edit que, posting new prequels, but also gearing up for the upcoming Bridal and Prom Expo at the end of the month at Century II! Come see us at the booth! The show runs July 28th and 29th, we will have representatives there to talk with you on Saturday due to a wedding, but we will be there to meet all of you on Sunday!

If you are considering booking Fat Cat for your upcoming Fall 2007 wedding or for the busy 2008 wedding season, contact us now as we are booking steadily into the 2008 season and will continue booking at the Bridal Show. FCP only shoots one wedding per day, so don't delay-secure your date today!

To update you on our latest projects, the edit-bay has been hoppin'! We have been shooting two love stories the last couple weeks, editing those, working on old projects, and of course booking new weddings. Personally in our lives it was that time in life where we had to clean up the basement floor and lug an old water heater out of the house and replace with a new one (don't you just love that?) and then there is a new addition to the Guinn Family...

Barry purchased a puppy this week and he is settling in nicely, I obviously haven't had too much time to play but I get some snuggle time in when I get the chance! His name is Bruno, he is a Rottweiler from Florida and we are very happy to have him here in Kansas! Although he won't replace our Gunther, we hope he gives us years of happiness!

(He so rocks.)

The second picture here was taken by his breeder Theresa Robinson of Darkstarr Rottweilers and Canine Photography.

Stay tuned for more of what we've been up to, we will be posting one of our Love Stories in about a week after it debuts at the couple's wedding first. More info to come this month regarding the "KSN Throws A Wedding!" contest and there's a new web site announcement coming we are very excited about, so check back soon!

A Game of Cat and Mouse!!!

Today was fun. We were edit fools in the morning then had a Love Story Shoot this afternoon with Tamaira and Jonathan who will be getting married this September. What a fun couple! We started out at Bradley Fair for some B-roll, made our way to Tamaira's workplace for some shots and ended up at Riverside Park for the interview portion of the story. We set up in the area with the large stones and the sun dial, so we had a really unique backdrop. We had an even more unique subject to film. Although Tamaira was great, her pets stole the show!

Tamaira brought her cat Phoebe and some of her pet mice. Yes, I said mice, like as in M-i-c-k-e-y, why? Because she loves them! They are actually fancy mice and not at all like a "wild" mouse. Yes, they were all outside and well behaved! After the shoot, being the critter lover that I am, I couldn't resist getting to "play" with the cat and mice! (They actually get along!)

So I posted some fun shots before we called it a night. The animals are pretty integral to their story, but you'll have to wait till this Fall to see the completed story! The black and white mouse you see is "Split Decision" and the gold mouse is "Niblit", I'm sure I spelled it wrong, sorry Tamaira!

We still get to hang out with Tamaira and Jonathan again before the wedding to get more needed footage, we'll let you know if anything interesting happens then! And yes, I actually kissed the mouse....

Stay tuned!

Fat Cat Goes to the Dogs!

Yesterday and today we spent some time in the morning filming for a very different type of project. J. Mannebach of Oz Cow Dogs in Colwich, Kansas has asked Fat Cat to produce a working dog training video for them. The video will cover how to choose the right working dog and specific training methods to work a dog on stock (cattle). This is not the type of herding you see at AKC competitions with cute little geese, fluffy white sheep, and bouncing baby goats running circles and pretty patterns through gates in record setting times. This is training for real working ranch dogs. High drive dogs. The kind that will run the cattle all day if you would let them, think on their own, get rolled by and kicked at by 800 plus pound cows and they keep on going, live and breathe for the opportunity to chase after and nip at a cow- and love every minute of it. They are the take charge type dog that will bite at the heels and nose of the cows to get them to move and not blink an eye. They aren't your pretty competition show dogs either, after a good work out with the cattle they enjoy rolling in the mudholes for a job well done!

So off we went with our nice clean shiny tripods and expensive cameras we spent our hard earned money on, into a pasture full of cow pies and mudholes and about 6 or 7 head of cattle to film the dogs at work, hoping the dogs were in control enough to not cause a stampede right over top of us. Needless to say it was the most fun we've had in a while! Being the avid dog lover and trainer that I am, I even picked up a few pointers!

Filming will continue for the next couple of weeks off and on, as weather permits and this summer we will be editing the complete DVD Training Video Set, target completion date is sometime this fall. When it is completed, we will post a short clip to show you how exciting it was. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take pictures as I was busy filming!

Until then, it's time to keep Moo-ving on in the edit que. Things never seem to slow down around here!

Gunther D. Dog

Happy Easter to everyone. We celebrate Easter today with a mix of emotions after losing one of our greatest dogs ever yesterday morning, Gunther. Gunther was our Rottweiler of 9.5 years. Everybody was scared of him because of his breed but he was absolutely the sweetest. “Gunni” as he came to be known was the million-dollar dog, receiving surgery for hip dysplasia when he was 8 months old from the best Vets and Vet students in the world at K-State University. Later he had knee surgery in the opposite leg.

Through all that he remained a certified Search and Rescue Dog locally specializing in both Wilderness Search and Cadaver Search. He was a Certified Therapy Dog and had his Canine Good Citizen Certificate for many years. He got to meet the Governor years ago when a Bill passed for protection of Search and Rescue Dogs, as well as being on some notable search and rescue missions here locally. He retired from his working life a few years ago and enjoyed sleeping on the couch and in the bed and eating anything in sight. We eventually lost Gunther to bone cancer, and he was euthanized with us by his side and his two biggest "fans”, our great friends Wade and Carol. Thanks to all our friends for your support, you mean the world to us. Pictures of Gunni's great life are pictured here. He loved children, swimming (AKA "The Shark") and of course his Daddy!

There's a Mac in the House!

Well, we have a new addition at FCP...
It's big, it's red, and it's LOUD!
It's actually 5 and a half months old...
The newest addition is a Greenwing MACaw :)
And you thought I was talking about a computer! HA!
Louie is the newest critter at our place and we just love him. Very sweet and adorable. He is the largest macaw at our place and the second largest of the macaw species with a wing span of 4 feet when fully grown! The next time you are all at our place, hopefully you will get a chance to meet him!

Ok. Ok.
There's more news.

We crumbled.

We crumbled like a stale crunchy cookie.

There actually is a Mac in the house, a real Mac :) Yep, like of the computer variety.

We'd had our fill of one of the PC's crashing when we need to get projects out so we decided it was a good as time as any to update to a Mac. OK, Jeff we eat our words...this seems to be just the beginning of a slow cross-over at our place. As painfully as we hate to admit it. We will see how everything goes in the coming weeks and keep you posted. Although it did help that I was sold on the operating system named Tiger and Leopard and such and the internet browser is called Safari. It's just up Critter Alley here! (Ask Barry it's how he sold me on my current vehicle! "Oh, you can haul the dog where ever you want" - SOLD!)

The next update comes Monday! Watch for more exciting news here at FCP!
Steph

We're Baaaack! (From a much needed vacation!)

Well, the blog has been quiet lately due to the fact that we have been rushing around getting ready for a big vacation! We just got home late Friday night from an 8-day Cruise to the Mexican Riviera on Norwegian Cruise Lines, The Norwegian Star! We went with 6 other friends and had a smashing time (as our Captain mentioned daily)! All I can say is "Wow!" (and then yawn)! We took the trip to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary- we had not been on a cruise since our honeymoon!

We left Doo-Dah early on the 29th of November for a flight in Denver connecting us to LAX to spend the night, just in case of layovers, etc. - we did NOT want to miss that boat on the 30th! They wait for no one!

After being de-iced at the gate here at home in a sleet that led to 8 inches of snow later in the day, we landed in snowy and icy conditions in Denver's airport. We had plenty of time to make our connecting flight to LAX! We spent the night at a "quaint" little hotel that barely had a one star rating! Oh well, it was an interesting night and all I know is that I don't much care for Los Angeles. We like to live adventurously I guess. We were just happy to get away from the cold and none too soon! But dinner and breakfast at a local diner was fabulous!

Then off to the dock the next day to board the boat. A swift and painless process by registering early online! I can't belive they run 2000 people through in such short time!
The boat was absolutely beautiful! Lots of things on board to see and do. Our first 2 days at Sea were spent learning our way around and finding out which hang outs we liked best, browsing for treasures in the shops, and napping on our private balcony :) Not to mention drooling over the dishy crew on board! Some of the shows at night were better than others, my favorite were comedians "The Black Street Boys" and the "Jean Ann Ryan Company" muscicals and on the last night "Sharkbait", 2 former Ringling Brothers Circus clowns- very talented guys!

But anyways, first stop was Aculpulco where we did some fabulous snorkeling and hiking on a nearby island, I got a massage on the beach and started my journey of a great sunburn. The snorkeling was quite fun once I got my sea legs underneath me and just relaxed. We saw puffer fish, needle fish, and lots of other kinds of fish that I have no idea what they were other than cute and beautiful! I almost forgot- that night we did some shopping (yeah!) and went to see the infamous Aculpulco Cliff Divers! Those guys are NUTS! Yes, I have video, but I have to edit weddings now and not home video, sorry! Go see them sometime, these guys deserve a medal of honor!

Second stop was Zihuantanejo/Ixtapa where we had to tender to the dock from the boat in the Star's lifeboats, very fun. Once on shore we met up with a group from the boat and took a shore excursion swimming with the dolphins in Ixtapa at Definiti Ixtapa! This was one of the highlights of my trip as I've always wanted to get up close and personal with the dolphins! Even Barry had a good time! We spent nearly an hour in the water with them. Our group of 20 was split in half and each group spent time with 2 of them swimming and posing for pictures, getting a belly tow and learning the "foot push" (being propelled in the water by two dolphins pushing their nose only against the bottoms of your feet!) It really gives you a new appreciation of the power not only the dolphins have, but what the killer whales at places such as Sea World must be like to work with!

Next stop was Puerto Vallarta where we got to do more snorkeling near some huge rocks off the coastline. We tendered out and we donned our gear and jumped into the water with tons of fish surrounding us munching up bread the water taxi drivers threw out of the boat to attract the fish. After I grabbed a piece to try and "feed" them, one came at me and snatched it right out of my hand! OUCH! I didn't know that some fish had teeth! I'll know better next time! (I'm healing nicely) This was an awesome spot where some friends of ours pointed out more types of brightly colored fish and a STINGRAY! He was HUGE! Gorgeous! The only thing running through my mind was Steve Irwin! But he was swimming away from us near the bottom and posed no threat, everyone left him alone and I was in hog-heaven with the critters, more needlefish, schools of fish this time that were awesome to just watch move with the currents and a manta ray! Time flew by fast and we were off to do some shopping of course and hit the boat and head out that night to our last stop, Cabo San Lucas!

Cabo by far was the most beautiful stop, fittingly so, our cab driver told us it was the most expensive place in Mexico to live (just my luck- I need to book LOTS more weddings to retire there!). So again we tendered to shore, found a water taxi and headed to heavenly snorkel-land! We spent time right by the famous rock arch and the sea lions! It was like swimming in an aquarium (this just kept getting better and better!) TONS of puffer fish, angel fish, starfish, BUPF (big unknown pretty fish) and I found myself wanting to follow the creatures so bad I kept going under and getting my snorkel full of water! I don't know how to free dive, and can't hold my breath long, so decided it was time to take Scuba Diving lessons here at home somewhere and go back! It really was awesome!

The last day at sea headed home was nice just to repack all the dirty clothes and all the junk we bought (the picture below is Barry's Diving Watch manual!) and nap and recoup before spending the whole following day in customs and immigration, and the LAX airport with a delayed flight. So delayed I have never sprinted so fast to our connecting flight in Denver that we had just under ten minutes to catch on a separte concourse and the opposite end! People must have thought we were nuts busting through there! But we made it and it was nice to be home later Friday night. The weather wasn't terrible considering, but a rude awakening to what we were used to the past week!

Enjoy the photos, I couldn't decide which ones to post, I only had 574 to choose from! (Literally, don't laugh- we are videographer/photographer types remember?) 4 hours of video that will sit to be edited about a year from now :)

Well, that's the cliff notes campers and bloggerheads, there was lots more but it would never fit, plus I have to go edit many of your weddings! So we'll just have to visit with you all some day about it. Take care and it's good to be home to talk with you all! Steph

In Memory of Grizwald

Many of you may have met Grizwald at one time or another over the last seveal years as Fat Cat Productions has grown, others have only heard of him because the business was named after him (his nickname actually).

It is with great sadness that we post today that Grizwald passed away this morning.

He had been ill recently and sparing the details, we ultimately lost him to cancer. He was humanely euthanized just shy of 11 years old. As I promise all of the creatures God has entrusted to my care, I stayed with him, holding him and hugging him and telling him how wonderful he was and how much we loved him. Such the stoic guy that he always was, he remained purring till the last. He now resides with other loved animals we have lost, waiting for us someday at Rainbow Bridge.

This is not the blog entry I planned on posting today unfortunately, the blog I wanted to post I will get to later about our fun day in Little Rock, Arkansas yesterday!

It will be different around FCP for a while as we still have 2 beautiful cats that remain healthy here at home, and make our guests and clients feel welcome, but none will replace our Grizzy.