Family Heirloom Videos

Tucked away in the camera roll of your phone, you've got evidence of the magic you’ve created for your family. You've got videos of the milestones you don't want to forget and of mundane moments that are more special than you think.

Let's get those videos off your phone & into a format you can actually watch and treasure.

Here's what a family video looks like:

This is a family heirloom. (In my household, we watch our new video and marathon the previous ones every January.) You'll have these videos in a year when your kids already seem so much bigger and in decades when this stage of your life feels like a dream.

But there's something so important about these videos beyond the nostalgia and the one-day-we'll-be-so-glad-we-have these: they're also evidence, right now, of all the magic you create with your family.

It's your toddler's raspy voice asking for more juice and your kids playing in the dirt at the park. It's your best friend coming by to read to your baby and everyone piled together in bed on slow mornings. It's your big kid curled on the couch lost in a book, and it’s dance parties in a messy kitchen after dinner.

You're the maker of these moments, and sometimes, when you haven't slept uninterrupted for months (years!?), and the endless-seeming nature of caring for your family starts to whisper that you aren't doing enough...these videos help show you that, yes, there's so much magic in your time together, exactly as you are right now.

We can find and celebrate that magic together.

Here’s a glimpse into my own family’s DECADE of year videos. Please excuse me while I simultaneously sob into my pillow at how big kids crop up overnight and thank my lucky stars I got to witness it all.

Which moments do you want to hold close? We can celebrate both the milestones and the everyday with videos commemorating:

The details:

  • Your family’s adventures over the last calendar year

  • Baby’s first birthday, and all the moments leading up to it

  • Any age birthday, with clips from across the years/decades

  • Beloved pets, of all sizes

  • Anniversaries, including videos from throughout your time together

  • Mother’s and Father’s Day, to celebrate a partner or parent

Process:

One.

You hand over one big folder of your video clips from the time period you want to celebrate.

Two.

I sort through it all to find the very best moments and then assemble them into a 3-5 minute video.

Three.

You get a fun, nostalgic, adorable, tear-inducing love note to the magic that is your family.

Price: $380

Ready to start your video?

  • I'm here to celebrate families in any form, including those with older kids or no kids at all. If you have moments you want to find, treasure, and remember—whether you’ve got a gaggle of kids or you’re traveling the world solo or you’re a cozy, dog-loving homebody—I'd love to help you do that.

  • Maybe. The use of any copyrighted music in a video requires a license. Luckily, music licensing options are pretty great these days, with high quality, royalty-free music made just for these purposes and more popular music than ever available for licensing, too. Music licensing is a nuanced topic, though, so if you have a song in mind, let's chat about it specifically and see what's possible for you.

    My preferred method is for you to give me 10+ songs that are meaningful to you, then I choose a song either from that list OR find a song with similar characteristics to bring your video to life. Regardless of copyright and licensing, some songs will match your video better than others, so I'm here to help find the best option for your video.

  • I recommend around 150-300 clips for most types of heirloom videos. If you have way fewer or way more than this, let’s chat!

  • You can send me a Dropbox link to a folder containing all your videos or grant me access to a Google Photos album. If you don’t have access to those, you can mail me a USB instead.

  • Phone videos will work great. These days, my own family videos are shot exclusively on my phone.

    As for your finger ending up in the shot…I can relate. I'm the sort of camera wielder who couldn't capture a straight horizon line to save my life, and I do a lot of excited mom squeals behind the camera that blow out the audio of my clips. It’s not a big deal. There are still scores of moments to choose from, and sometimes I include the wonky bits on purpose, because it's endearing and real and only adds to the feel of your video being uniquely of you & your family.

  • I was afraid of this once. I sat down to begin my own family's 9th annual year video convinced that, this time, I wouldn't have enough good memories (and therefore video clips) to include. Maybe I could squeak by making a super short video? But something really cool happened when I actually looked at the videos I'd recorded that year: there were surprise moments I didn't even remember happening, let alone capturing on video. It was my most sleep deprived year--tip of my hat to my sleep-repellant third child--and also one where I struggled to feel like I was "enough" as a mom/wife/human.

    That video turned out to be one of my very favorites, and I was so grateful to have the ritual of creating our family year videos so that I could see the magic that had always been there, even if my mushy sleep-deprived brain couldn't remember on its own.

    The secret is that there's inherent magic in any household full of people doing their best, including yours. Sometimes we need a little help finding it, which is what I'm here for. (I am, after all, a professional moment finder.)

    If you're interested in a year video but still aren't sure if you'll have the moments or the videos to make it happen, schedule a call with me. We'll chat, and I'll look at your videos, and we'll decide together what's possible as a next step.

  • Yes! Sharing your family moments is a vulnerable, tender thing. I hold them with care, and I stand by the words earlier on this page: I see so much beautiful magic in the days you facilitate, even when your house is a mess or the kids are disheveled or your biggest outing of the month was going to the park.

    That being said, if there are certain types of moments you’d like to exclude from your video, please let me know! I’m happy to edit around things like baby tushies at bath time.

  • Absolutely. It’s up to you whether you’d like me to host your video online or not, which privacy settings you want, and if you feel comfortable with me using your videos as examples on my own site.

Questions & Answers:

I can’t wait to celebrate your family with you. Get the process started here.