Over the past year, I’ve had the itch to do other things from a creative standpoint. I still love photography, but, I don’t get as excited about doing it as I once did. I’m still constantly wanting to create something, though. I love to write, even though it doesn’t come easily to me. I’ve been getting more and more interested in the video aspect of things, but have largely shied away from it due to it feeling like everything requires a big budget to do and do well – not to mention a lot of gear I don’t own already. Then, I’ve taken an interest in the world of voiceover work, and have begun learning about it. On top of all this, music and learning to play my sax to the best of my ability has become somewhat of an escape for me – and an obsession.

This video that I created for my beautiful bride as a one-year-anniversary present to her has been a cumulation of those interest. It started out with the idea to record a simple track – just audio – and turned into something that was beyond my ability to have done by myself. That being said, I owe a huge thank you to a few people for their contribution to it:

Kirby Oliveras for helping move furniture for it, record it, video it, & then moving furniture back into place before Julia got home. Then you mixed the audio, edited the video, and went above and beyond to make my vision for it as much of a reality as possible with the time and resources you had to work with. You’re definitely a true Jedi.

Mace Hibbard (www.macehibbard.com) for being willing to teach me, being willing to transition into a backing track recording piano player for me, & then enduring the process of recording both the audio & video content for it as my pianist. I promise to have more fun with music now that this is done – and am truly honored to have learned from and worked with a musician of your level on this project.

Scott Moore for being willing to come over with very little notice to make certain the hot lights used didn’t get too hot & set something on fire while filming it, and for taking that one step further by helping me get everything back into to place before Julia got home. You are one of the most kind-hearted people I know, & I have much respect for you for it.

Lorene Evans for recording usable iPhone video footage of mine & Julia’s first dance at our wedding. I can’t tell you how happy I was that you not only recorded it & held the camera steady in the process, but that you also shot it in the correct horizontal format. Most iPhone / smartphone users tend to record in vertical format with no regard to keeping the camera still or their movements steady and deliberate. As somebody that gets paid to run video cameras, I salute you for shooting usable footage, even though you had no idea it’d be used for this. Please forgive me for not asking you for permission first.

Alicia Evans for getting the video from your mom, and for keeping my TOP SECRET project – top secret. Now you know why I kept it all on a need-to-know basis, but, it has now been declassified for your viewing pleasure as well as anybody else that cares to watch it.

Tress Ritter (www.tressritter.com) & Regan Powell: Thank you all for the great job photographing our wedding. No, I didn’t ask for your permission to use the images as I have in this video, but, I’m thinking you all will be okay with it since they still look great & represent your talent pretty well cropped into as they have been to fit the video format.

Mary Kitchings for unintentionally inspiring how I wrote the letter/voiceover portion of this video. Your interest in genealogy and prodding for me to document various aspects of my families history led me to document my love for your daughter for any of your future grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, etc. that are born into this world as a result of that love. I wrote it so they (and even those that don’t even know Julia and me) could watch it and know who I was, what I was doing, why I had done it, and most importantly, give them an idea of how much I loved your daughter, my wife, and their mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, etc once I’ve died and moved onto the next life.

To our neighbors for enduring hearing me work on longtones, overtones, and me playing the same song countless times for a whole year. To my knowledge, you all didn’t complain a single time, and for that, I think you all may deserve a medal of some sort.

To The YouTube Creators for creating great content that I’ve learned a lot from. I’m a YouTube junkie & learn a lot from watching various videos on it. For this project, I soaked up info in regards to music & playing the sax in an effort to become the best sax player I could be by the time I recorded this. Those people in no particular order are: Johnny Ferriera, Nigel McGill (McGill Music Sax School), Mister Big Dave, Dan Forshaw, Michael Lowenstern (Earspasm Music), Donna Schwartz, Bob Reynolds, Randy Hunter, Chez Taylor, Stantwan Kendrick, and of course Mr. Aubra Graves’ playing which can be heard on his channel (jazzsaxtenor). Additionally, I want to thank Mike DelGaudio (Booth Junkie) for creating such fantastic videos relating to the voiceover business. From your videos, I learned the basics of recording/editing voiceover tracks and using Reaper in general as a DAW. My friend Kirby did all the final polishing/mixing of the track(s), but what I learned from your channel enabled me to create a good working timeline for the project & give him the best tracks possible to work with. I appreciate all of you for sharing your knowledge/talent that people like me have benefited from greatly.

Again, thank you all so much for your help or contribution to this video. I hope you get a sense of happiness out of knowing you helped create it as you watch it.

-Keith