Jennifer gave Darren custom-made map cufflinks as a wedding gift. One cufflink shows a map of Jennifer’s hometown, Seattle, and the other shows a map of Darren’s hometown, Perth, Australia. They were custom-made by  Tomatomade (on Etsy.com)

Jennifer and Darren chose greens with accents of plum and incorporated native Australian flowers to reflect Darren’s home country. How much do you love that?! Jennifer explains more:  Our colors, flowers and passion for travel also translated throughout the event including table cards identifiable by favorite airport codes and photos from each destination (which we made ourselves), and our green suitcase wedding cake by Sedona Cake Couture. Afterwards, we realized one of our favorite take-aways from the wedding were the “GuestLibs” we created for our guests to sign instead of a traditional guest book. We prepared fill-in-the-blank cards for our guests to fill in blessings and wishes for us. They were overwhelmingly, unexpectedly thoughtful and creative in what they wrote. We plan to make a framed word collage of the key words and phrases to display in our home as a constant reminder of the good wishes and blessings from our friends and family

The thoughtful touches continue…since our ceremony location was naturally beautiful, we wanted everything else to be very simple so as not to detract from the view. We made our own, simple chuppah, topped with chofa at the corners for good luck (brought from Thailand by a friend especially for the occasion), and it was carried down the aisle by the wedding party. We wanted to include our immediate family and close friends in the ceremony and asked several of them to write blessings for us, which they read during the ceremony. We also performed a sand ceremony symbolizing our union, using beach sand from near Darren’s home in Perth, Western Australia, and Jennifer’s home near Seattle.

I asked Jennifer about the Ketubah in her ceremony: We signed a beautiful watercolor interfaith wedding ketubah (Jewish wedding contract) that we found on Ketubah.com. We read the ketubah to each other as our vows during the ceremony, and it will hang in our home as a piece of artwork and a reminder of our commitment to each other.

How much do you love this cake? Sedona Cake Couture always impresses me…

I’m not sure if you have noticed but beer, especially homebrew beer, is very popular in general but particularly at weddings these days. Jennifer and Darren cleverly incorporated beer at their wedding in a meaningful way: As part of our reception, we created a beer tasting with an interactive, multimedia slideshow telling the story of our journey together. We featured five beers that represented our travels: our favorite local beer (bottled for us by Jim from Oak Creek Brewery), a beer from the first place we traveled together (Jackson Hole, Wyoming), the national beer of Thailand (one of our favorite places), a custom wedding IPA made by a friend (who also grew the hops for the beer), and a stout from Western Australia (which was transported by Darren’s family).

KG: What was your favorite part if the day?

J/D: Our favorite part of the day was being able to share a very personalized reflection of us with our family and friends. This started with our choice of ceremony location, Spirit Song at L’Auberge, overlooking one of our favorite places, the red rocks of Sedona. With the help of our officiant, we created a very meaningful ceremony. It was not overly traditional, but every aspect of the ceremony had personal significance. We particularly liked our homemade chuppah (Jewish wedding canopy), seven blessings written and read by our family and close friends, and the sand ceremony.

KG: Did you go on a honeymoon?

J/D: Darren had several family members who traveled from Australia to be with us, so instead of a traditional honeymoon we took two weeks and traveled all around the west coast while Darren’s brother, sister-in-law, and parents were here. We hiked Yosemite, tasted wine in Napa, explored San Francisco and Monterey, drove the Pacific Coast Highway, and ended with a trip to Disneyland, including lunch at Club 33. We plan to take more traditional solo honeymoon in Thailand or elsewhere in Asia the next time we venture down under to visit family in Australia.

KG: What advice do you have for couples planning their wedding?

J/D: A bit of advice is to chose really good vendors, clearly convey the key elements about what you want, and let them do the rest! We chose really great vendors that all knew each other, worked well together and knew the venue. Prior to our big day we conveyed the most important elements to the vendors, allowing them the freedom to do what they do best and allowing us to focus fully on enjoying every aspect of our wedding.

Jennifer and Darren, CONGRATULATIONS and thank you for sharing your wedding day with us!

Jennifer and Darren’s Real Arizona Wedding Team:

Ceremony Site: L’Auberge de Sedona, Spirit Song

Reception Site: L’Auberge de Sedona, Creek House

Photographer: Sedona Bride Photographers

Bridal Gown Store: Suzanne’s Bridal Boutique

Bridesmaids Dresses: Macy’s

Tuxedos: Jos A. Bank

Florist: Events by Showstoppers

Invitations: Minted

Cake: Sedona Cake Couture

Ceremony Music and DJ: Sedona Sounds

Jeweler: Diamond House

Make-up Artist and Hair Stylist: La Petit Spa, Patricia Vega

Officiant: Patricia Ballentine, family friend

Hotel Accomodations: L’Auberge de Sedona

Rehearsal Dinner Site: L’Auberge de Sedona, Creek House

Happy Planning from your Arizona Wedding Blog!

Kelly

You are just going to love the quiet elegance and modern styling of this Arizona Biltmore Wedding

I love Samantha’s bouquet for it’s simplicity but also for it’s femininity

And the bridesmaids bouquets are so gorgeous too- the shades of pink and coral with greenish-gray flora balance nicely with the gray dresses

You would never know it, but the weather put a damper on Samantha’s outdoor wedding plans and what you see here is “plan B”!

Originally, I had envisioned a romantic outdoor “garden party” theme for the reception, complete with a tent structure and al fresco lighting to set the mood. To our great fortune, the Arizona Biltmore had perfect outdoor spaces and was able to accommodate both our outdoor ceremony and reception requests. Usually, April weather in Arizona is pretty reliable, with warm temperatures and sunny skies. The weather gods had a different plan for us, however, as it decided to pour the day of our wedding and was freezing cold (ok, it was in the 40s, but that’s freezing for us Arizonans!)

We made the decision to move everything indoors the morning of the wedding and I was a little concerned that our Plan B back-up space would end up looking like a generic ballroom. However, through sheer determination and incredibly hard work, our design team, Avant-Garde Studio, and our event planner, Rhonda Rush, were able to “recreate” my garden party theme indoors. Avant-Garde even built the entire tent structure inside the ballroom and draped all of the walls. They made the ballroom incredibly unique looking and beautiful.

We moved the ceremony into the architecturally stunning Aztec Ballroom and it turned out better than we could have ever imagined.

Samantha and Christopher, thank you so much for sharing your day with us and CONGRATULATIONS!!

Samantha and Christopher’s Real Arizona Wedding Team:

Wedding Coordinator: Impact Events

Ceremony and Reception Site: Arizona Biltmore

Photographer: Elyse Hall

Bridal Gown Store: Monique Lhullier, Mon Amie

Florist: Avant Garde Studio

Invitations: Bella Figura

Cake: Arizona Biltmore

DJ: Power Now Entertainment

Band: The Hamptons Band

Ceremony Musicians: String Serenade

Make-up Artist: Barney’s, Maureen Cosovich

Hair Stylist: Spark Studio Salon, Mandy Samford

Officiant: Rev. Jody Krantz

Happy Planning from your Arizona Wedding Blog!

Kelly

The 2012 Sedona Wedding Bootcamp, on February 18th,  promises to be even bigger and better. Since it was so fabulous last year, I’m not sure how they will pull this off but if anyone can do it, it’s the Sedona Wedding Studio crew.

Here’s a blurb from their website about what to expect: Brides will quickly discover that this is no ordinary wedding show. No typical booths here. Brides will stroll among gorgeously designed table settings, get creative ideas, sample great cuisine, taste sensational cakes, meet Sedona’s top experts, attend informative mini-seminars, take venue tours, win valuable prizes, and enjoy numerous displays and demonstrations… all in one fabulous day.

Oh, and they are featuring an “Inspiration Pavilion”. AND they are taking attendees by shuttle to visit wedding locations in Sedona. AND there will be samples of food and sweets galore. AND there are giveaways to boot! Can you tell I’m excited? I seriously want to go incognito as a bride.

Don’t miss this opportunity to canoodle with Sedona’s talented wedding vendors. To register, click here.

Want to earn a free ticket? Well…all right! We’ve partnered with the Sedona Wedding Bootcamp to offer free tickets to 3 people who leave a comment on this blog post telling us which Sedona Wedding Bootcamp sponsor you can’t wait to chat with. Three comments will be chosen randomly on February 3rd- you will receive an email notifying you that your comment was randomly chosen along with instructions telling you how to claim your free ticket.

Happy Planning from your Arizona Wedding Blog!

Kelly

From our house to yours, may 2011 end on a note of happiness, peace and gratitude.

May your new year begin with raucous laughter, exciting possibilities and grand dreams.

(That’s actually my house but we will all claim it for today!)

Your Arizona Wedding Blog,

Kelly

To celebrate the  release of their newest colors (mustard, raspberry and indigo), we’ve partnered with Urbanears to give a set of Raspberry Bagis Headphones to one of our readers!

When you check out the Urbanears website, play around with the color selector, it’s pretty cool! Here’s a screenshot of the 3 newest colors (mustard, raspberry and indigo) and the 4 styles available:

For your wedding, I’m thinking these headphones would  make great bridal party gifts since you can either chose your attendants’ favorite colors or choose colors that match your wedding AND they are one of those gifts that people really want (as opposed to the default gifts: a flask and flip flops).

Urbanears Giveaway Details:

* Go to Urbanears to browse the colors and styles

* Click on this giveaway entry link to enter to win by December 31, 2011

Before you know it, you will be rockin’ out with the most stylish headphones on the block!

 The giveaway period has ended for this giveaway

We can all appreciate pictures of a bride with a flowing veil but when the wind kicks in, it gets a little out of control. Since you can’t have someone stand with you at all times to tame your veil, you are stuck with a crazy veil situation . Check out this bride (I have to say, she’s handling the weather and her unruly veil pretty well):

(Image by: Eyes2See Photography)

Brides used to be out of luck if their wedding happened to be on a windy day but now you can actually tame your veil in a pretty way. Save the Veil is a set of 6 magnetic veil weights, in either Mother of Pearl or Swarovski Crystal (oval or round), that simply hold your veil in place. This is the kind of thing you buy and have on hand just in case; in other words, a Great Find! Check out the video:

 Think of how smart you are going to feel if your wedding falls on a windy day and you whip these out!

Happy Planning from your Arizona Wedding Blog,

Kelly

My Love Wedding Ring wants to know what you would choose to have written on the inside of your weddings bands. All entries will be available for voting via Facebook (this is where you get your friends and family to vote on your entry),  the top 3 are then entered into the final review. If you are chosen as the winner (12.22.11), you get the rings for free!

I like that the entry requirements are easy to follow but you have to enter NOW (entry time period ends 12.8.11)!

I could have shared about 15 photos of the dogs with you. They are just luscious! Scott tells us about these adorable babies: Dillon aka Dilly is the all white bulldog and Rachel’s pride and joy. The two of them are inseparable and have an incredible bond. Payton is my brindle bulldog and is more special to me than I know how to convey over email. These girls are basically our children and we couldn’t imagine not having them as a part of our big day.

Consider your stationer a person to make friends with. Since both Rachel and Scott’s families traveled from out of state for their Arizona wedding, Stephanie at Celebrations in Paper created a custom invitation suite that included boarding passes, luggage tags as place cards, hand-drawn postcards from the towns they had visited when they were dating and corresponding table names. What a fun way to incorporate travel into your wedding!

The reception decor is simply exquisite. Somehow, Rachel and Scott (and of course their florist, Table Tops Etc.) were able to design an understated yet dramatic aesthetic. The colors are not super bright but by using tones of pink, purple and white, they managed to make the elegant arrangements anything but boring. In a large room like the Valencia Ballroom, you need to have statement centerpieces and I think these tall, airy and lush designs do the trick. Also, notice how the linens work to create a seamless palette for all those gorgeous flowers to shine. Can you tell I’m just a little bit in love with these tables?

This bridal party was super fun…their entertaining entrances crack me up

In response to my question, “What’s with the gloves?”, Scott graciously answered: “My side of the family is very musically talented and put together a slide show and choreographed a remix of Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson. Each family member had one sequined glove and sung a part of the song to both Rachel and I. It was more of a “welcome to our family” moment. We were both so overwhelmed and surprised. The gloves made their way around to the dance floor and made for great photos.”

Love these sweet custom forks

I had a little post-wedding chat with this lovely couple…

KG: What was your favorite part of the day?

R/S: There really wasn’t one favorite part for either of us- every second was very humbling and special. If I had to pick my favorite moment-it was the part of our ceremony in which our Officiant, Mark Culbertson, read “I love you because” phrases that Rachel and I wrote weeks before. Some were funny. others sentimental. Neither of us knew what each other wrote until they were read aloud.

KG: What are your plans for a honeymoon?

R/S: Rachel and I are taking our honeymoon in May of 2012. We will be taking a Mediterranean cruise for 10 days!

KG: What advice would you give couples planning their weddings?

R/S: It is completely normal to not have every detail worked out, and plans will change! Surround yourself with vendors that you feel comfortable with and that see your day as you do. We were so incredibly fortunate to have found the vendors that we did. From the venue, to our stationery, to the band, to the florist to our photographers- we truly walked away with a group of new friends that will always be a part of our lives. Each one of them made our day that much more amazing.

 KG: What are your favorite things about each other?

S: My favorite thing about Rachel is how sweet, honest and funny she is each day.

R: My favorite thing about Scott is his desire to achieve, grow and be something every day, he makes life so important and memorable.

Rachel and Scott, CONGRATULATIONS and thank you for sharing your day with us!

Rachel and Scott’s Real Arizona Wedding Team:

Ceremony Site: Montelucia Resort and Spa, Valencia Lawn

Reception Site: Montelucia Resort and Spa, Valencia Ballroom

Photographer: Jason + Anna Photography

Bridal Gown Store: Vera Wang

Bridesmaids Dresses: Nordstrom

Tuxedos: Men’s Wearhouse

Florist: Table Tops, Etc.

Invitations: Celebrations in Paper, Stephanie

Cake: Julia Baker Confections

Band: Nate Williams Band

Ceremony Musicians: Got You Covered Music

Make-up Artist: Joya Spa at Montelucia, Glenda

Hair Stylist: Joya Spa at Montelucia, Demitria

Officiant: Mark Culbertson

Linens: BBJ Linen

Rehearsal Dinner Site: Patsy Grimaldi’s Pizzeria, Old Town Scottsdale

Happy Planning from your Arizona Wedding Blog!

Kelly

What we found is a simple approach to an often complicated process. The bold move to create 4 distinct wedding experiences for brides is nothing short of genius since the focus is on the bride and her priorities. This approach screams “Destination Wedding” to me since the planning seems very streamlined.

The first experience is  “Green” and although we hear this term often these days, the entire experience is designed by Troon for a couple who seeks an eco-friendly wedding. Many of the menu items are from locally grown sources such as Four Peaks ale mustard, Arizona Heritage beef and Fossil Creek goat cheese. The bar options are all organic and/or practice sustainability; the “One Bottle, One Tree” program sponsored by Trinity Oaks winery tells you Troon is serious about maintaining the green elements brides want.

Next is the “Modern” experience which is for a couple who wants a cutting edge and trendy wedding. With this choice your guests enjoy food stations that include a Bruschetta Bar (yum!) and made to order Caprese Salad  station. The trendy vibe continues with swanky liquor options and a “Prohibition” Cigar and Cocktail bar.

If you are more of a laid-back and fun type of couple, the “Social” experience may be right up your alley. This is for the couple that wants to have a great time with their guests at a beautiful location with delicious eats but doesn’t want to fuss over the details.

(All Images Courtesy of Emily Carroll)

And finally, there’s the “Traditional” experience that caters to the bride who wants no classic wedding detail forgotten. It’s a pretty straightforward experience but there are cool enhancements like the Bubble Bar (a champagne bar that offers fruit purees to add to your bubbly) and a Venetian Table, which is a decadent sweets spread.

So one questions lingers: what if you want the appetizers from the Social experience, the bar from the Green experience and the enhancements from the Traditional option? Don’t worry! Troon wants you to have the wedding you envision so they have created an option to mix and match! Perfect.

Happy Planning from your Arizona Wedding Blog!

Kelly

Hello hot shoes!

The balconies at the Valley Ho make for some great photo ops

This is in the lobby where there are lots of bright colors and warm nooks

Many couples choose to get married “in the round” at the Valley Ho. The ceremony space lends itself well to this shape and couples like it for the intimate atmosphere you get from being surrounded by your loved ones

The bride’s bouquet, composed of anemones, had the right colors and vintage flair

To make their ceremony extra special, Krissy and Mike placed a bottle of wine and letters written by each of them and their parents in a wine box to be opened on their 5th Anniversary. They plan to open the box, enjoy the wine, read the letters and do it all again for the next 5 years. LOVE this!

The reception was on the rooftop of the hotel; it has spectacular city and mountain views

Inspiration can be found anywhere and Krissy and Mike prove this to be true- the vases were spotted by Krissy at Z Gallerie and nothing else would do. They dictated the color scheme and retro vibe for the entire day!

The couple wanted to keep things simple but this sweets table is anything but simple! Look at the fun candies, chic decor and tufted 3 tier cake

Krissy and Mike, thank you so very much for sharing your day with us and congratulations!

Krissy and Mike’s Real Arizona Wedding Team:

Ceremony and Reception Site: Hotel Valley Ho

Photographer: Sedona Bride

Videographer: Cine Verite Films

Bridal Gown Store: J Crew

Bridesmaids Dress: J Crew

Tuxedos: Mr Formal (dads and brother), Groom’s suit was his own

Florist: Table Tops Etc.

Invitations and Paper Products: Celebrations in Paper

Cake: La Dolce Pesca

Make-up Artist: Azure Schaffer, MAC

Hair Stylist: Hotel Valley Ho Spa

Officiant: Pastor Herb Isenberg, the Bride’s Father

Happy Planning from your Arizona Wedding Blog!

Kelly