WE BELIEVE IN FREEDOM!

Make sure to turn off the music below before playing this film.
Created by: Marianne =) Enjoy...

UPDATE ON THE CLAN =)

Well... a lot has been going on with us lately! Heres an update:
Picture above is supposivley a King from Denmark. We might be related... dont know for sure though.... Marianne is getting into Genealogy more and loving it.

We went to Mt Rushmore South Dakota this summer and has a blast. Our Grandparents have an amazing Ranch there so we try and go every summer. This Summer we were able to watch the 4th of July fireworks! So fun and defiantly worth the 8 hour wait.

Group Shot of us wating the the evening to ome to watch fireworks.
From left to right: Christina & Ben (her husband) Cousin Wyatt and Aunt Marianne, Mamma, Me and Billy, Cousin Derek, Dad

Papa, Bill and Derek getting ready to do some fishing. Derek caught us tons of fish and we had a huge fish fry!

Wyatt and I by a stream trying to nurse a baby bat we found back to health. His Mom abandoned him.

I took these two picture of Christina (and tons more) to experiment a little with my awesome camera. I loved how they turned out and decided to offer Brides a thing called Trash the Dress... where after their weddings they can take some fun shots without worrying about their dresses getting ruined! Isnt Christina beautiful!

A fellow photographer friend of ours wanted to practice a little on working with his new camera... so Orrin and I had some shots taken of us.

Orrins turned out cool!

Thats all... I'll be better about keeping this updated. Love you all-- McLaws Clan

Update on the McLaws Clan....

Well, I figured it was about bloody time for an update.... so, here we go!
Recent extended family news: our cousin Derek Smith returned home from his Mexico City Mission. Its really fun to have him home and to have all the Smith boys together again.

Immediate Family News:

Dad is still working hard between Sheridan and Billings. Being a Bishop just makes him a little busier too.. meaning he's always busy! =) He's very happy though and even though he can never make it past 15 minutes into a movie, he always has time for a joke and a song =)
WE LOVE YOU DAD!
Mom just retired from Seminary from being a teacher for 3 years!! Being a Bishops wife is a calling all in itself! She loved Seminary, but I think she'll be very happy not to have to get up at 4am anymore! GOOD JOB MAMMA!
Mom visiting Derek at his homecoming!

Billy & Mar are just working like ants!! We don't stop! We are packing up our current house and moving up to Billings for the Summer (gotta escape this dang 115 degree heat!!) .. after the Summer is over we will be moving into our cute little Condo in Chandler that has had renters in it forever. We excited to live in something smaller! 4,700 sq feet was becoming a major pain! So were excited to up North this Summer. Billy's Real Estate continues to be good and Mariannes Videography business couldn't be better!!
(Jared & Mar dancing at Christinas Wedding - Feb 08)

Curtis... is back in Billings too!! He is working at Best Buy and is still taking college classes. He's liking being back at home with the family and out of dorm life.
He promises to teach his older sister dance moves this Summer, and promised Bill to play Raquet ball with him a lot this Summer, so were excited for Curt to get us into shape!!


Christina was married in Feb 08 and is truly loving every minute of it. In her words "I was made for marriage!" Ben has Celiac's which means he can't eat Gluten. Therefore, Christina has to make all their bread special for him, so its been fun but a lot of work. They are also in Billings, MT this Summer at Mom & Dads working and preparing to go back to school this Winter. If Mom and Dad were having empty nest syndrome..... well, there not gonna have it this Summer!!
Orrin is doing great! He has really learned to control his ticks. It takes amazing brain control and Orrin is just doing 110%! Im so proud of him. He's off all his meds and is such a wonderful boy! Always smiling and loving. Were rooming next to his room this Summer, we'll be excited to hear all his loud teenage music! ;) Good thing its all Christian rock!! Another exciting factoid: ORRIN JUST GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL! He graduated early!! What a smartie!
CONGRATS ORRIN!!!!!!



Ben has been running track this past school year and has done amazing! He went from Junior to Varsity!! His coach upgraded him because he is so good. So here Ben was, a Freshman running with Seniors! WAY TO GO! We have this running gene from our Grandpa Dale and Ben is using it to his advantage! He ran to 2 mile in 11 min 13 secs!!!! A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! Good job Ben!

We hope everyone is doing well.. We love you ALL!!!!!

Gypsy Greek Orthodox Wedding...

Yes, it is true. You can combine these two!
I filmed a Wedding last night...

They were Greek Orthodox which in itself means that the Wedding and Reception is going to be totally decorated to the max and the Wedding and Reception will be nothing but fun! Second, all of these people are Gypsy’s!

No, I am not calling them Gypsy’s… they told me that what they preferred I called them. With those two facts, Greek Orthodox and Gypsy’s, I knew I was really in for a treat & culture shock.

And I was right! It was quite a wild celebration! Let me tell you a little about how Gypsy Greek Orthodox families party.....

Well first, the Reception takes place before the Wedding. Now I understand that this is not true for normal Greek Orthodox people, however, this is true for Gypsy Greek Orthodox families.

During the Reception there is tons of dancing. And when I says tons of dancing, I mean, they don’t stop dancing for literally 4 hours straight. I saw this lady dancing the same way, with a type of Maypole in one hand and a huge diamond crown with a veil in the other hand and about 3 hours into her dancing I asked her “Why have you been dancing so long without a break and what are these things your holding?” She told me that she was holding the crowned veil and dancing with it because it is tradition for her, one of the Aunts, to dance around with the crowned veil in her hand because it is to bring them good luck and that at the end of the dancing she will crown the Bride and will pray over the crown and will put a blessing on her and her new husband marriage.

As for the maypole, she told me that it was because May 1st was the Greek Orthodox Easter and this was them celebrating this Easter season of their traditional heritage. I really enjoyed learning all of this culture information. How fun to have something a little different at a Reception.

So the Reception continues and everyone is dancing. All of the sudden, after 4 hours of dancing, the music stops suddenly. It was quite jolting to my system because I had been hear and the same song played over and over again for literally 4 hours. It was fun. But when the music stopped I was thinking to myself, “What’s going on?” Everyone rushed over to the tables and started munching away on what I really thought was a feast; gourmet steaks, potatoes, salad, cheesecake, casseroles, etc. The menu went on and on. I couldn’t believe it. Dinner seemed to be over quickly.

Once it was done a few men including the Grooms Father, Grandfather and a few of his Uncles went around to each table carrying a single bread basket asking for a donation for the Bride and Groom. Each person gave a t least $200! I couldn’t believe the generosity. Quickly the bread basket because a mobile savings account, and when it was all said and done, the Patriarchs had collected thousands from the guests. It was quite amazing.

So, I thought that was the end of the evening. The Reception was to go from 6-11 pm & it was 15 minutes to 11pm. So I start to wind down when all of the sudden the traditional Wedding March song started playing on the overhead and all the sudden down the stairs come the bride in a beautiful white dress, which was a surprise to me because the Bride was dressed in a pink gown all night. With no advanced notice the Bride and her Father start walking between all the guests and walk to the dance floor. Once they arrived at the dance floor the song changed from the Wedding March to Butterfly Kisses, which is a very popular Father-Daughter dance song right now. They dance for about one minute, and during the rest of the song the Bride gets passed to over 25 guys from her Groom, to Uncles, Cousins, Friends, you name it! She dances with so many people, it was like a whirlwind.
Once that was done, everyone at the Reception gets in a circle and dances one last time to the tradition Greek song and goes in circle singing “Op” and “Opa” every now and then.

Once the songs ends all the Aunts and girl Cousins run over to the Bride (literally...run!) and bobby pin the huge crown to the Brides head, once that’s done they run over to the cake, cut it, feed each other a slice, take a sip of wine, and all the sudden a Greek Priest appears, pushes his head to the Bride and Grooms, whispers something in their ear for about 30 seconds and then pronounced them married. Everyone screams, the Priest ties a red ribbons around the Bride and Grooms arms to show them joining together.
All of the suden family members push the newlyweds over to a leafy arch and tons of people take pictures with them within 3 minutes.
After pictures, the Bride and Groom suddenly run off and jump in a limo and then the party totally dies.

Literally from the end of the bread basket to the limo taking off, they did all of that in 15 minutes. I could not believe it!

At the end of those 15 minutes I remember thinking, “Geez, this is not romantic! They just rushed though all the important romantic stuff, but spent 4 hours dancing to the same song.” However, I remember looking at all the guests and seeing how happy they all were and I thought, “Humm… you know what? This is their life, it is their culture and is who they are.” After that I was so happy for them and learned to enjoy the whole night and just soak up all the different culture things I was being exposed to.

Every religion, family, etc. has different ways of doing things. Sometimes when we are in our little world doing all of our little things everyday we forget sometimes that we are apart of this big wonderfully multi-cultural world. So, live your life the way you want but enjoy all the positive differences amongst us!


LOVE, Mariannie ~

Zoo Walk...

Well Mamma was in Gilbert, AZ this last week visiting Marianne and Billy! It was really fun. One morning Marianne and Mamma decided to visit the Phoenix Zoo, it was beautiful, so much fun and good exercise! The most exciting part was the Orangutan's. The Dads of babies ususally take a while to warm up to the baby. Well now, the 2 year old baby Orangutan's Daddy has now accepted the baby into the "clan" and was even playing with it when we were there. To cute!
So it was fun! We miss you Mamma!!!

Whats Billy & Mar Up To?

Well, we havent posted anything for a while! Sorry!! :) Billy & Mar are just hard at work. Marianne recently flew to Billings, MT and filmed some commercials for the Foot Care Centers. It was a lot of fun. Those commercials will be posted as soon as I get them up. Other than that, Marianne is just working a lot on videos and trying to make her business grow. Its a tough job! Bill is having a tougher time though... Real Estate is really cruddy right now. So were just working hard everyday. Thats all! :) We're happy and that all that matters!
These are pictures from some fun we had last night with our friends.
Enjoy...

Group Shot :)

Leah loved that Doggy!

Bill & Mar playing Baseball on the Wii... Marianne sucks by the way! :)

Brittany, Amber, and I
I spy a little pregnant tummy with yellow and white stripes!! :)

Brittany- The Crazy, Amber- The Mom, Mar- The Wonderer

Amber & Doug in a boxing match on the Wii... it was funny to watch!

Brit & Amber punching it out!

MC Video Production **NEW** Website

Just wanted to inform you that my new website is finally up.
See the side tab that says Phoenix AZ Wedding Videos under my favorites and click the link.

There you can watch videos of Families and Weddings that I have made.

We are still not finished with the website... now that I have the video pages up, I will be adding my Photography Pages & Photo Galleries as well.
The Pricing Page will also be put up soon, however if you want video or photos taken, and don't know the price, email us at mcvideopro@gmail.com and I will give you a quote.
So in a few days be on the lookout for those additions to the website.....

If you are interested in having a video done of your life, whether it be: births, baby moments (the growing years), children moments, family moments, family parties, kids parties, office parties, baby showers, baptisms, confirmations, weddings, religious ceremonies, BBQs, awards/ceremonies, graduations, prom events, music videos, commercial/business, funerals, etc... we do it all!

We take the shots/video record the event and give you the original footage or we can spice it up and make it into a cinematic movie or both!
Either way, it will be something that your family can enjoy for years to come!

Another option; we can take your home videos on VHS or Mini DVs, and transfer them to a DVD for you. We can either take the original VHS footage and
transfer it onto a DVD for preservation purposes or edit it and spice it up into a Cinematic Movie... or both!


Also, if you know anyone that would be interested in our services, please pass our name along.
We really appreciate referrals and offer discounts on our packages if a referral books with us.


Sincerely,

Marianne McLaws-Cotter
Owner/Videographer/Editor

Wedding Teaser....

Hey All! :) I thought I'd show a few shots of Christina & Bens Wedding day and tease you a bit!!
PS--> MAKE SURE YOU TURN OFF THE MUSIC BELOW BEFORE YOU PRESS PLAY ON THE VIDEO!!
Enjoy..... Lv, Marianne :)

Huh!?

Only great minds can read this
This is weird, but interesting!

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too
Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.
i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

New LDS Presidency

Our New Presidency!
Dont they look refreshing!?!
I want to look as good as President Monson when Im 80!
What an amazing group of men. We are so happy to have this new presidency put together.

Updates....

Well its almost time for the Richards/McLaws wedding!
We're very excited. Marianne will be filming the event so be on the look out for
the Wedding Video soon!
In the mean time... enjoy this video of our families summer of 2007.
Finally finished it! :) Enjoy....
Lv, Marianne :)