With our wedding just over a month away, I’ve actually found myself reflecting a lot on my childhood. I think it’s a combination of writing out invitations to family members who live far away that I haven’t seen in a long time as well as the fact that soon I’ll be changing my last name &shedding the girl I once was to become the woman I now am. But as I sit & write out addresses, memories come flooding back in little snippets.
I wanted to see some of those family memories, so I asked my Dad to lend me some of our home movies. Unfortunately, they’re all on VHS we haven’t owned a VCR in years. So I knew it was about time we transferred our tapes to DVDs!
It was hard picking a movie at first- as you can see, my Dad has more than a few {and this is just some of them!}. Luckily, he knew which ones had which memories & he picked one that was from another major transition in my life- when I moved here to Vegas when I was six. It doesn’t have any Vegas footage, but it does have me saying goodbye to everything in Chicago, where I was born & raised until then.
I was really excited to see this tape since I was six & I actually have some memories from then, and I really wanted to see how accurate my memories were! So I took my tape to CVS to have them send it in to YesVideo. The form was only a couple of questions long, and I had several options. I could choose a specific theme {including wedding, baby, and more} or just leave it plain, which is what I opted to do. I also had the choice of a title & how many copies I wanted.
I was shocked at how cheap the transfer was- I literally expected it to be twice as much. For just over $35, they shipped my tape in, converted it to a DVD, sent me a link to view it all digitally & then sent me back two copies of the DVD along with the original tape. I can’t believe it was so cheap- if I would have known that, I would have brought way more movies! In fact, I actually plan to as soon as my Dad picks some more tapes.
After just a couple of weeks, I received a call from CVS that my media was back & ready to be picked up! I just went to the photo counter & picked it up like I would a roll of film {if this was 1998}. I couldn’t wait to get home & watch it!
I have to admit, I may have teared up a few times. I got to see my Grandma, who moved from Chicago to Vegas just a month before we did, but passed away in August 2008. It was so amazing to hear her voice again. It also had my childhood dog Max on it, and to see him again was so touching.
The video also had some fun things that I barely remember, like when I met Sandra Bullock {“While You Were Sleeping”, one of my favorite movies ever, was filmed two blocks from my house in Chicago} and an Easter morning when I was little. It even had clips of me playing with my first true best friend, Amanda, who I am still friends with to this day!
Each video includes 3 custom 60-second “music videos” that include highlights from the tape set to music. They also include chapters with a menu for easy scene selection!
If you have family movies that you have been wanting to watch, be sure to check out YesVideo! You can go to any of their retail partners, like CVS, and send in your media- or you can request an EasyShip Kit for $19.99 including shipping. In just a couple of weeks you’ll be watching {&sharing!} those memories!
What family memories have you been wanting to rewatch?
Note: This post was created in connection with my appointment as an Ambassador for YesVideo. Visit www.facebook.com/yesvideo to join the conversation.
Robin Gagnon {Mom Foodie} says
I have very few old videos, but great for those who do.
Mellisa says
I really need to look into this. We have so many old VHS tapes.
Crystal @ Simply Being Mommy says
We really need to do this.
Courtney says
So special to be able to preserve these memories!
Jennifer says
Wow, that’s a lot of videos. I love that this kind of technology is out there so no matter how much things have changed we can still see all the memories that were made on old VHS tapes.
Theresa says
This would be so awesome to have on hand.
Ty @ Mama of 3 Munchkins says
We definitely need to do this!
Stefani says
This is such a great idea, especially for gifts.
Emily @FamilyNLifeLV says
OH my look at little you!! Super cute!! I love my old movies. Thankful my mom transferred them. 🙂
TRICIA Nightowlmama says
I have several old home movies that I’d luv to get put on dvd but i have no way to see whts on them to even find out if it would be worth putting them on dvd. but what a wonderful idea and i lov that you can go to CVS to get it done too
Katie says
I would love to do that with some of our old VHS tapes!
Kathleen says
This is awesome! I have a few tapes I would love to transfer over.
Anne says
Wow, that is a lot of tapes! Sounds like a great way to get them converted
Sheri says
He has a lot of home videos!
Vanessa: the queen of swag ! says
so great for the kids in my home. thanks for sharing.