When we were up in San Jose earlier this summer for Keith & Janine's wedding, we had the chance to visit their Montebello property just outside of Cupertino, and it was striking to me to talk with the employees about the wine. They didn't talk about the berry notes or apricot tones or oakiness or any of that wine-dork stuff that really isn't all that important (in my opinion). Instead, they talked about the story of each wine and how they made it. They talked about the rainfall that came when the grapes were growing, then the temperature on that early crisp morning when they harvested the grapes - how it was an unseasonably cold & misty morning, and on and on. Then they motioned for me to taste it, and then they smiled proudly and asked if I liked it. We did this for a few incredible hours, and I can't wait to go back.

And that's what wine is all about - the story.

There's the story of the growers who planted the block of vines 60 years ago on a hilliside that they thought might produce some good growing conditions. Then the story of the caretakers of the vineyard who spent years pruning and caring for those vines. Then there's the story of the vintner who had a crazy idea to blend that grape with that grape from this certain vineyard because he had a hunch that it could make something spectacular. And there's the story of the vintner opening the first bottle of his creation and tasting it, with a smile on his face.

And finally, there's the story of you. When you purchase the bottle and wait to open it with your best friends over a special meal, and you slowly sip your glass over warm conversations about life, love, and dreams. And for me, that's the best part of the story.

Erin and I were so enamored with the stories of the Ridge wines that we're now members of their Advanced Tasting Program, and we just got our first shipment the other day! We were like kids on Christmas morning...so exciting! This is the 2007 Ridge Buchignani Ranch Zinfandal, and here's the story of the wine, straight from the back of the bottle. Seriously, next time you're in a wine shop, look for some Ridge and read the labels. There you will find the story that you will get to complete if you purchase that bottle.

07 Zinfandel, Buchignani Ranch, bottled Dec 08. The 2007 growing season got off to an early start at Buchignani Ranch; budbreak began the first week of April. Unlike the vineyard's cargnane vines, which set a very small crop, the zinfandel vines set a full, balanced one. A cooler-than-normal August meant fewer shriveled berries; sugar levels, therefore, were moderate. We picked this small, seven-acre block in three passes - August 30, September 3, and September 4. The grapes were fully crushed, and their juice pumped over the floating cap of skins every day during the seven-day natural-yeast fermentation. After pressing, the wine was racked to air-dried american oak for twelve months' aging. Firm tannins and bright, intense fruit mark the 2007 Buchignani Zinfandel. This rich - yet elegant - wine may be enjoyed now, in its youth, and over the next five years.

There's a lot that we can learn from a company like Ridge.

So here's your challenge: How can we, as small business owners, create this same sense of story for those we serve? If you're a bride and groom, how can you weave the story of your love into your wedding day? Into your engagement session? Into your home? Leave us a comment if this vibes with you as much as it does with us. We'd love to hear more about the stories you're creating, capturing and telling in your lives, work, and art.

1. Most commonly used phrase?

Lately, "Where is the sun?!" This unseasonably cool San Diego summer has me baffled.

2. Celeb crush?

Not even my roommate's US magazine subscription can clue me into the who's who of hollywood.  I'm awful at knowing and identifying celebs and a severe case of movie amnesia doesn't keep them in my memories for long.  However, Sawyer from LOST is certainly easy on the eyes.

3. Favorite thing to do?

Spend time with people who make me laugh.

4. Most played song on your iPod?

Dave Matthews - Crush.  Eight minutes and nine seconds of pure melodic delightfulness.

5. Most annoying habbit?

Just one!?  Come on now!  Lately it's been neglect.  I've neglected my laundry, the food in the fridge is now spoiling, my sweet potato is sprouting side plants, I owe my friends some phone calls, and my toes could use a pedicure.  Universe, I'd like a 25th hour in each day and perhaps an 8th day in the week, please (with a side of cupcakes)!

6. Most prized possession?

Photos.  I love revisiting memories of gymnastics meets, cardboard box forts, beloved pets, costume parties, and family holiday gatherings.

7. Had to eat one thing for the rest of your life?

Strawberries - I'm a fruit fiend!

8. If you were a type of dessert what would you be?

Although it's by no means my favorite sweet treat, I'm best summed up in dessert form thanks to Harry & David's Moose Munch (gourmet flavored popcorn snacks and caramel corn with nuts mixed in).   It's a mixed bag, like myself -  one part nutty,  one part savory, mostly sweet.  According to Harry & David, their Moose Munch "leads the pack in quality, taste, and value."  I like to think I'm that way - or I hope to be, at least!  I'm a little crunchy, a little soft, and sometimes rough around the edges. Popular at the office, perfect for friendly game night gatherings, or bring me home to your mom and dad - a safe and unoffensive treat!

Why you ask? Well, because we've got two fabulous, amazing, incredible, lovable, sweet, and simply wonderful interns working with us right now, and they make me so happy I could just DIE with joy. When we asked for intern applications a few months ago here on the bloggy-blog we were OVERWHELMED with the response! We received so many applications that made us laugh with their wit, cry with their honesty, and humble with their experience that I had no idea where to start with actually choosing one. In fact, once we received the applications, I took the stack, gave it to Jeff and said, "Um, you decide." Then I ran like mad so I wouldn't have to pick out of all of them! Total sucker.

So out of that stack of pretty freakin' amazing awesome-sauce, we finally narrowed it down to two individuals - I mean did you really expect us to pick just one? - and they've been working with us in the heart of the Casa de Youngren office for a little over a month now. Its. Been. Amazing. I mean, it's a little scary allowing another human into the center of your madness business with all of it's strengths and faults combined, but these two took some deep breaths and dove right into the insanity pool that was once only occupied by me (the neurotic introvert), my hubby (the emotion tornado), and Gracie (the cardboard loving, phobic mess of a cat).

We thought it would be fun to have these guys tell you about themselves, so without further ado, I would like to introduce our very first Youngren Intern, the lovely and sweet Miss Heather. You may recognize this adorable smile from their fabulous engagement session up in Rancho Santa Fe where we hung out with her fiance Aaron and their son Jaden. Just a week or so after Heather began her internship with us, Aaron popped the question and we've been poring over wedding magazines ever since! Ha! I love this girl!

1. What is your most commonly used phrase?

Definitely a toss up between "that's crazy" and "that is so funny" LOL

2. Who is your celeb crush?

mmm David Beckham with a side of Matthew McConaughey

4. What's the most played song on your ipod?

Honestly, I don't really ever listen to my iPod... butttt when I get the chance to sit down for more than 5 minutes, I do listen to Pandora and it's always on the Hillsong station.

5. What's your most annoying habit?

Probably that I analyze things WAY TOO MUCH

6. What's your most prized possession?

My son Jaden! After him, my camera. Obvi.

7. If you had to eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Hands down, my mom's Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken

8. If you were a type of dessert, what would you be?

This is a hard one. But I'll go with a chocolate covered strawberry. White chocolate

With all of the traveling that Erin and I have been doing lately, we've definitely got our routines down - we can pack in our sleep and going through the security line is an exercise in muscle memory that makes makes me feel like George Clooney in "Up in the Air." So today I thought I would feature the set of iPhone apps that have been lifesavers in keeping us organized while on the go. After countless trips and kicking the tires on several apps, these three now play a starring role in our travel memoirs: TripIt, FlightTrack Pro, & GateGuru.

TripIt

The TripIt app works in conjunction with the TripIt website and is able to be used by anyone (iPhone or not). It's essentially a place to centralize all your travel plans - rental cars, hotels, flights, etc. After you sign up for an account, you authorize your e-mail address, which ties e-mails sent from you to TripIt to your TripIt account. So when we book a flight or hotel or rental car, we just forward the confirmation e-mails over to TripIt, and in a few seconds we get notified that they've processed the info and it's listed right there in our account.

Everything gets ported over and organized into separate "trips" - confirmation numbers, seat assignments, reservation locators, phone numbers, addresses - everything. So right now we're in Italy, and our TripIt account has grouped all of our flight and hotel information for our time in Italy into the same trip, so that when we stepped off of the plane in Pisa, we could instantly find our car and hotel information for this particular trip. When you've got a bunch of trips going on, one after the other, organization of all your info is KEY to staying on top of things, and this is a super helpful tool that keeps us sane and organized!

Once you've signed up for your TripIt account, be sure to add us as a friend, so we can compete for who's the most traveled. We're "theyoungrens" on TripIt.

FlightTrack Pro

After trying a TON of flight tracking Apps, this is by far my favorite. There's a "normal" version ($4.99) and a "pro" version ($9.99). Don't waste your time with the standard version - what you want is the pro version. With the Pro version, you're able to automatically sync all the data in your TripIt account with FlightTrackPro, so you'll always have all your most current flight info inside of FlightTrack.

The app also has "push" alerts, so as soon as something changes with any of your flights, you get instantly notified (gate changes, delays, etc). Almost every time that I've been using this app and there's been some sort of flight change, FlightTrack has notified me BEFORE the airline/airport actually notified me, which is incredible. The actual flight tracking features in this app are great - whenever I've got a friend or family in the air, I always put their info into FlightTrack and with the push alerts it makes picking someone up at the airport super easy since it lets you know when the plane is expected to arrive, if it's delayed or early, and as soon as the plane has landed.

I know that $10 might seem like a lot to folks for an app, but let me tell you - after the first time that this app saves you from an overnight in an airport, you'll be sold. On a recent trip that Erin and I were on, I turned on my phone as soon as we landed and FlightTrack sent me a push notification that my next flight was delayed by two hours which was going to cause me to miss my following connection. So instead of going to the gate to find out what was up, I just went straight to the customer service desk to talk to them. This got Erin and me the last two seats on a flight that was taking off in the next fifteen minutes! To me, that one experience made the app COMPLETELY worth the $10 price tag!

One other thing to note is that the Pro version also works on both your iPhone and iPad (but you only have to pay for it once). The iPad version is basically ridiculous with how awesome it is!

GateGuru

I was hanging out with a buddy the other day who also travels quite a bit, and we were laughing at ourselves because we were able to talk about our "favorite" places to eat, relax, or play at different airports around the world. GateGuru is essentially your "well traveled" friend that you take along with you that is able to give you all sorts of recommendations while you're waiting for your next flight. It's kind of like a Yelp for airports, if that makes sense.

Using the iPhone's GPS, GateGuru shows you all of the closest restaurants to your current position, or you can search by your gate to get a run down of where the closest sports bar is to gate D13 in ATL (my suggestion: Chili's) or where to get some good Texas BBQ while stopping in DFW for a short layover in terminal C (my suggestion: Dickey's in the C terminal). In addition to food spots, GateGuru also gives you tips on finding the closest ATM, free WiFi, shops and shoeshines (what, you don't get your shoes shined in the airport?).

Happy Travels!

-Jeff

And they're for reals.

When it comes to blogging about style and fashion, a writer could easily hide behind the internet's wonderful and scandalous veil of anonymity. What do I mean by that? Basically, we could all be taking fashion advice from a nun and never know it. But when it comes to the Villa sisters, we've got the real deal peeps. How do I know? Let's explore that for a second...

Meet Stephanie Villa. Again. Jeff and I met the wonderful Steph and Sean almost two years ago, and these two have never been anything short of amazing friends and fabulous fashionistas. Since their beautiful Pasadena wedding in 2009, these two make appearances around Casa de Youngren, Queensberry albums, and Pictage marketing so regularly that you, dear reader, are probably on a first name basis with them by now. So after the cute and stylish wedding that she put together a year ago, I can say with uber confidence that Steph is one stinkin' fabulous girl. In fact, every time I see her at parties and weddings and, well, basically just in real life, I wonder to myself just how in the world she gets her makeup so even, her hair so glossy and voluminous, and her outfits so stinkin' cute. Well, sharpen your blog-stalking skilz folks, because she has started divulging her secrets...

Now meet Lizzy Villa. Lizzy is the younger sis of Stephanie and she's got enough smiles and hugs to fill an olympic pool, and that warm personality is stamped all over her writing. Between the two of these sisters, there's plenty of cocktail recipes, makeup secrets, fashion advice, party ideas, and life stories to keep you entertained for weeks. Together they began a new blog called The [Un]Experts, a place where they talk about their lives, loves, fashion, and style with the premise that they are no experts. But prepared to be duped ladies, because these girls are definitely experts at the things they talk about - I've already learned how to keep my blush from streaking, how to mix the perfect pomegranate martini, and how to apply my foundation the right way. (Buh-lieve me. The first time I applied my foundation the way Steph teaches on her blog, Jeff asked why my face looked so much better than normal....uh, thanks?)

So I am more than proud raise my glass and toast these two ladies and their blogging ventures here on our very own blogosphere at The Youngrens. It makes me so proud to see past clients take flight in their own ways... (sniff, sniff)... So go check out the Villa sisters and prepare to be hooked on The [Un]Experts! And leave a bunch of comments asking how one would conceal, um, blemishes... you know, for a friend of mine...

Hugs,
Erin

So starting today, I'm beginning a new series here at Casa de Youngren where I'm going to highlight cool people. And that's it. That's basically the only premise. If someone is cool and is doing something interesting/different/good/thoughtful or just plain social-media-shoutout worthy, then they could end up with their faces plastered all over the bloggy-blog here. In a totally good way.

And we even came up with a name. Its called Limelight. Get it? Limes? Hee, hee.

So who get's to be our first little Limelight guinea pig? Why its Miss Melissa of Operation NICE! I stumbled across this blog in the best way possible - exactly how Melissa wanted me to stumble across her little world of NICE. I was browsing the blog of the adorable and sweet Kate of Simply Said and she had a curious little button on her blog that said "I'm Very Nice." Well of course you are, I thought. You're Kate. You're one of the nicest people I know! But this button was a link that led me straight to Melissa's corner cafe of the internet neighborhood, like a street sign that said, "NICE this way." Well, needless to say, I promptly walked in, ordered a double latte, and cooled my heels in the big leather chair that is Operation NICE.

To see what Operation NICE is all about, check out Melissa's daily blog - and don't forget to hold the door, say hello, smile, use please and thank you, offer to help, be polite, and pay a compliment to someone today!

Hugs,
Erin