To check out more of Halcylon’s work visit him on Deviant Art.

Well, something interesting came out of our stop in LAX. While we were traveling down that conveyor belt for people with heavy bags we saw a couple familiar faces walking the other direction in the center aisle. Sick and I glanced at each other and I asked, “Is that…?” She cut me off by nodding her head and said “Yes, that was the RvB guys!” So… they actually ended up being on our flight to Seattle and we got a chance to ask them for a picture with us.

Our next point of interest on this day was a nice visit to the wonderful Bungie Studios. We happen to come say “Hi” not too long after the building was swarmed by “Kirkland’s finest.” It seems they spooked a local when carrying their well known (to the Halo fans anyway) Sniper Rifle from one building to the other. You can check their past Weekly Update for more details.

After sticking our noses through the door SickNdehed and I were surprised to meet Stephen Totilo of Kotaku (who actually flew down to cover our wedding.) After seeing him finish up, we got to poke around the studio lobby for a few. We snapped some pretty pics with some trophies, memorabilia, and even got a few friendlies to come out of their cave to meet us.

Click image for more pics!

I’d say we started our trip off with a -BLAM!- This day is well set in our memories.

Well this wraps up our first story surrounding our PAX visit. Be sure to keep an eye out, there’s much more to come.

It was a long day filled sweat and excitement. Psycho and I spent the day at the Earth Day Birthday concert we won tickets to back in February. It’s been years since I’d been to any all day event. I couldn’t believe how many women were walking around topless with nothing more than body paint to cover themselves. One woman had Sponge Bob painted on her, her boobs were his eyes. Unfortunately we didn’t get a picture of that. Though we were able to get a picture of a woman with a penis painted on her (you’ll have to search our flickr pics for that one.)

{More Earth Day Birthday Pics Here}

Part of our prize was a ‘Meet N Greet’ with a few of the bands. I was thankful the ‘Meet N Greet’ took place in one of the more cooler parts of the Venue. While there, we got the chance to shake hands with and take pictures with Static-X, Chevelle and Candlebox.

One of the bigger highlights of our day was getting the chance to announce Chevelle on stage. It was a new experience looking into the crowd over the heads of so many people. I was actually a lot more nervous about being on stage the night before.

All in all it was a fun night and a great event. Perhaps you’ll even see us at Earth Day Birthday again next year. Hopefully I’ll remember to wear more comfortable shoes.

A couple of weeks before the wedding, Psycho and I had the pleasure of being interviewed by William Richards from Central Florida Lifestyle Magazine. It was great speaking with him and we were honored to have him at the ceremony.

Sadly, we have not been able to get a copy of the magazine. From what I understand it is delivered to all homes in Winter Park. If you or anyone you know is willing to give up their copy, please email us. We’ll be happy to pay for the April 2009 issue.

You can check out the online version of “Central Florida Lifestyle: Teammates for Life” on their website.

Although we had been together for over three years, we had very few photos together and even fewer good ones. Thanks to Frank that is no longer the case. He was very easy to work with and completely open to all the shots we wanted to take with our Legendary Halo Head, which happen to be my favorite shots.

RF Photography was started over 15 years ago in Orlando. The naming of RF Photography is a easy one. ‘R’ for Roxanne (wife and boss) and ‘F’ for Frank (primary photographer). Frank received his first camera at the age of 13 and it was love at first sight. He immediately immersed himself into photography. He worked at several camera stores to support his ‘habit’ and photographed his first wedding at the age of 18. He worked in photography his whole life in one aspect or another. From hand printing color portraits for a studio outside of San Francisco to custom B&W printing for labs in southern California.

Our wedding photos were just as beautiful as the engagement shots. Frank was able to capture great photos of everyone at the wedding. Family and friends (curious Halo fans too!) are able to order prints of the wedding directly from the RF Photography website. I’ve conveniently set up the domain name DesiraiAndJohn.com to go straight to the images. Sadly, they will only be available for purchase online until March 30th. Please make sure to order your prints if you haven’t done so already.

Over the next few weeks, I will be using Frank’s photos to personally thank each vendor. Thank you RF photography for providing us amazing photos of our extremely unique and special day.

We’ve made several new friends which we’ve been playing with regularly, one of whom is graphic designer and B5D Moderator x Awal x. I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to x Awal x about graphic design and where I received my degree. After hearing all the good things I had to say about Full Sail, he decided to attend a Behind The Scenes tour.

PsychoVandal and I met up with x Awal x at the end of his tour to see what he thought. He was extremely excited. So will I be bumping into x Awal x in the Full Sail corridors anytime soon? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Out of all of our pre-wedding photos, the ones I enjoy the most include Augustus (affectionately named so by one of our bridesmaids.) Eventually I came up with the concept of photographing a romantic gaming scene with Augustus in the background while focusing on our wedding bands. Lacking equipment and photography skills, I called my good friend Tom Winn for help. The photos turned out great!

{ CLICK HERE to see pics }

Psycho and I were pretty torn about 3 different images. One showing Augustus, one with very focused wedding bands and blurred controllers, and lastly, an image of both our hands resting on a controller. After asking a few friends I decided to go with the last one. Our hands on the controller seemed like the most personal photo. We owe so much to our friends, family, and of course all the sponsors who helped make our wedding day possible. I’m hoping the Thank You card imagery helps convey our gratitude and sincerity.

We rushed out the door and somehow still managed to get there just in time. We bumped into Supa Dave, Crash and Jenna the intern in the elevator. ‘The halo couple is here!’ she exclaimed. We rushed to fill out some forms and then patiently waited for the contest to begin.

At 11:30 we all picked a spot to stand and started smooching. It didn’t take long for my neck to start cramping and my feet to hurt. I started counting down the minutes until our first 5 minute break. We were told we’d get one every hour. When break time finally arrived Crash & LT went around the room interviewing the couples and which point John quickly rushed off to use the restroom. I surveyed the room. When he returned I pulled him aside and whispered to him. My exact words were “It’s going to be a draw between us and the Trailer Trash couple. They’re going to put our names in a hat and we’re going to win.” I don’t know what made me so sure. But from that moment on our goal was to make it till 8pm; the time which they’d officially declare a draw.

Note: They referred to themselves as “Trailer Trash Lot 420″ and proudly wore t-shirts that said the same. I believe it was the name of their band, not something I made up.

Couples dropped out of the game in almost every round, and often in pairs. The first two were disqualified for not returning from their smoke break in time. The next couple was quarreling and biting each other. The bickering escalated to the point where the guy was kneed in the privates. WTF? They broke apart and left cursing each other out the door. Another two couples lost because they misheard the DJ and pulled away from their partners 5 minutes early. At this point we’re heading into the 5th hour, losing another two couples because of a balloon pop. This one kind of cracks me up.

Apparently one of the guys thought he would be slick and eliminate other couples by scaring them. From what I understand he even told his girlfriend he was going to do it. Regardless, when the balloon finally popped he scared his own girlfriend and one other couple. Tsk…tsk…tsk. Thank god it wasn’t us. It definitely scared me. Thankfully though, I leaned closer to Psycho instead of away from him when I flinched.

Heading into the 6th hour, there are only 3 couples left. They started to bribe us with all sorts of gifts certificates and concert tickets. I must say a question mark rose above my head when I heard they were offering Slipknot tickets. But even still, Psycho and I were ‘in it to WIN it!’ and so we chose to pass up the bribe. The DJs eventually called ‘the banker’, adding more to the bribe. I can’t remember everything they were offering but the third couple just couldn’t resist. They took the bribe and headed out on their merry little way.

It was now only two hours left until 8 O’clock. It was us and the Trailer Trash couple. “You guys should just give up.” They said. “We’re pretty Lucky.” Oh… but they had no idea who they were dealing with.

“They let me pick…did I ever tell you that? …choose whichever spartan I wanted. You know me. I did my research… watched as you became the soldier we needed you to be. Like the others you were strong, and swift and brave, a natural leader. But you had something they didn’t. Something no one saw but me. Can you guess?… Luck.”

We both made it to 8. They put our names in a hat and… It was Halo Team FTW! It all happened exactly as I had predicted.

{ CLICK HERE to listen }

{ CLICK HERE for more pics }

Due to the customized nature of the project I once again searched for vendors on Etsy. We were then able to get in contact with Christine Gravot from HeartfeltGiver.etsy.com. The Heartfelt Giver shop is a family-oriented business that specializes in quality custom wood and glass work. All of their non vintage items are created at their home wood and glass studios.

Christine hand etched and generously donated our custom toasting flutes. Don’t they look sweet?

Be sure to check out more of Heartfelt Giver’s custom quality merchandise by visiting their etsy shop: http://heartfeltgiver.etsy.com

Side Note: T- 8 days. Oh my! We’re both starting to get really nervous. Today we’ll be visiting Enemy Ink to get PsychoVandal’s ties screen printed, more on that later.

After taking a look at other custom cuff links I convinced myself I needed to use resin. Although that would have probably produced a much higher quality piece, I don’t think now is the time to be experimenting with resin. In addition to being expensive, it’s hazardous if inhaled and lord knows what else happens when mixed wrong.

I spent days searching for an alternative and yesterday I found one. I kept thinking I needed something to encase the image which I would then glue the blank to, but I couldn’t find any in store that would work. I later realized all I needed was some varnish or a flat clear marble, anything I could use the protect the image with. What we found were clear epoxy circles for $2.50 that looked just the right size.

I printed up some tiny circular images. At first we weren’t sure which ones we wanted to use. Since the UNSCDF ones appeared the most elegant we went with those. I then cut out a strip of 10 and ran it through my Xyron which added adhesive to the backside. Cutting out the tiny half inch circles was the most time consuming part. It was important to cut it as perfect as possible since any error would reveal the silver disk on the blank.

After placing the stickers on the blanks I covered them with the Epoxy circles (which were a lot softer than I expected.) It’s very easy to cloud them with fingerprints so you may want to use some kind of plastic to press them down with. I just used the plastic film they came on.

So there you have it. 5 sets of UNSCDF cuff links for under $10. Again, they aren’t the quality I was hoping for, but considering the time constraints and our limited budget, I think they’ll do.

{More Pictures Here}