FINDING ARIZONA WEDDING PLANNING: MONTHS 5-0 TIMELINE

Seven days till Im a Mrs. It is slowly hitting me this week as we inch closer. From the sad songs on the radio to the final decisions to starve myself to fit perfectly into my dress, we are in the final days and everything is coming together- Duh! Here are some of the hiccups and highs from the last 5 months of planning the Finding Arizona Wedding.

Month 4

MAID OF HONOR DUTIES: I was blessed to have my best friend and maid of honor come out for a few dates in July to hang out, catch up and start her first projects as MOH. Stamping invites was first on the list (and of course photographing the drop off). Next she was able to provide a great resource to a caterer- which you can read all about this spectacular meal here. Most importantly she was able to give me some peace of mind and a few laughs. Plus we mastered the Lavender Lemonade Cocktail- YUM!

POOL PUMP AND SHED: After fighting a green pool for over a year I was over it! I was spending more in chemicals every week to keep up with all the dead pine needle debris. One day I went into Leslie’s Pool and they laughed at me because our pool pump model was older than I am; we decided then a replacement was needed. We also demoed the fencing around and constructed a new one. Learning how to anchor 4x4s x12s and build a custom gate brought Jose and I even closer together.

AISLE RUNNERS AND TABLE DECOR: When it came to decorating our aisle and tables we wanted something simple and most importantly repurposeful. I sourced clay pots for a while but we were finally able to start painting and decorating them. The pots range from 7 inch to 1 inch and after we painted them all white Jose and I custom decorated each one. I could not be more proud of how they turned out especially knowing we individualized every pot.

Month 3

WEDDING PLAYLIST: We finalized our amazing wedding playlist and shared an entire blog post on our inspiration and how you can get your ear on it here. But since then we have broke down even further into 3 categories. We are already jamming to these tunes on a daily and will continue after.

CUSTOM CORN HOLE: WOW! Okay- you know how my love language is gifts ? When I one of the presents I received for my 30th was a custom corn hole set and it is gorgeous! Mr and Mrs is hand-written along with the date of our wedding. My parents worked so hard and you can see their love in the craftsmanship.

LAYING THE SOD: I can officially say I know what it takes and HOW to lay sod! It is work- no joke. We ordered 960 ft2 and in 1 day had the grass down! All because we prepped like crazy. From tilling to prep the sprinkler system to evenly leveling out the ground to sprinkle manure and get the sod on in a particular pattern and patted down to perfection. My favorite part was the grass where Jose and I will say our “I Do’s” was placed with our 4 hands- together.

Month 2

POOL DECK REDO : After finishing the sod and the deck and the pergola and the gorgeous herringbone wall and the pool shed what stood out the most- in the worst way- was the deck around he pool. Every photo it takes center stage and something needed to be done. Thankfully my amazing parents sacrificed a weekend to come power wash and scrape for two days then re-caulk and repaint all 450 ft2 around the pool. It is stunning! After two coats of paint- that took a village to research we are so proud!

HAIR AND MAKEUP TRIALS:I am so lucky to have found a very talented makeup artist- Lois of the Hey Lo Company . She is not only skilled at what she does but she is also developing her own line of products launching 2020! I cannot wait to see what she does in the valley with her amazing efforts! Her contouring was my favorite- my makeup lasted all day- even through sweating painting a pool deck. Her talented sister did my hair and copied a pinterest photo to a T! I cannot wait to share more photos the day of.

Month 1

WHITE MARBLE: Seven days before the wedding and we will be finishing up our final project- the sprinkles on top - the rock! Of course like everything else in this project nothing comes easy. I love my handsome soon to be husband but he underestimated the square footage of rock we would need and after we both watched 2 tons get dumped into our driveway we were on the phone again with Red Canyon Supply to order more. Apparently white marble is a popular rock because it took over a week for us to be able to reorder some more. Thankfully we now have 6 more tons to work with and can finish up just in time!   

CAKE : One of my biggest fears days before the wedding is vendors not coming through. I lose sleep over it and unfortunately it happened to us. We held off on selecting a baker for so long. We got quotes from $50 to $450 and after taking a chance on a young baker one week before were re-evaluating the cake because unfortunately our baker has “allergies.” I think the only thing he is allergic to is a work ethic.

MARRIAGE LICENCE: With everything else going on we almost forgot to get a marriage license. Thankfully our planner reminded us and we booked an appointment at the County Clerk’s Office. We now have a fancy piece of paper that makes it feel a little more real.

I am almost able to count the days on one hand and the last minute details are coming in. We are approving the timeline with our planner and scheduling the rehearsal dinner and somehow finding time to dust the floors and clean the bathrooms all in time for the guests to arrive. Oh yeah- I have to make sure to exfoliate 3 times this week to have the best skin! And sleep? What’s that?

XoXo

Britt

FINDING ARIZONA WEDDING PLANNING: MONTHS 8-5 TIMELINE

Wow! We are less than 6 months out from “I Do” ‘s, so it is time for a recap on the last few months and how we have been preparing for the preparations. These passed few months my menality went from planning a wedding to planning the best damn party and wait till you ready what we got cooking!

Month 8

INVITATIONS : After finalizing our guest list and organizing everything via spreadsheets, its time to invite! We are fortunate to be partnering up with Design Squeeze! We met Brittany through the Honey Book and after having coffee, hearing her story, and connecting on so many levels we began production. After a few proofs and such a streamline editing process we are headed to production. I will be sharing a full blog post on our invites and the amazing process of working with Design Squeeze on the blog very soon.

HOME PROJECTS : We began tackling some outdoor projects starting with a custom 14’ x 18’ deck! Jose’s dad and business partner took 3 days and installed a gorgeous deck right off our back patio. It is Jose and I’s turn to sand and stain next! Also, I started and completed my wall! Completely repurposed pallet wood and designed a herringbone feature wall. You can read about the entire process on the blog now!

PLANNER MEETING: We had a follow up meeting with Paige of Front Paige Events to talk timeline and the next steps! We were told we were ahead of schedule. I laid out my vision board and we game planned how to turn dream into realities. We also laid out EVERYTHING we have started stock piling up, glass ware, table covers, tree stumps. She opened up my eyes to questions I didnt even think about. Like what would be in the line of sight during the ceremony photos and how to reset the space amongst the chaos. She has been a pleasure to work with and up next is picking out a caterer and she graciously invited us over for take out and taste testings, more to come on that!

Month 7

WEDDING WEBSITE: After getting engaged I was bombarded with ads to create your own site, link your registry, and download this app. I was not onboard for any of this. Instead we began creating our own website through the FInding Arizona page! First, I googled top wedding websites and screenshotted some of my favorites. Then we recreated it. We not only wanted to give the basics: location, registrations and where to stay, but we also wanted to highlight the amazing vendors we have a pleasure of working with. It officially went live and you can check it out here. We share places we LOVE in Phoenix and will be adding details throughout the entire wedding planning process.

HAIR AND MAKEUP: I found another amazing partnership with Lorissa Kyle through the Honey Book! She goes by What Lois Likes and not only is she a phenomenal MUA she is also developing her only line of cosmetics! I have been pinning inspos on my board you can check out here. We will be meeting up soon and talking details of trials.

Month 6

MUSIC : They don’t call me DJBJ for nothing and yes, I will be DJing our wedding. No, not like that. BUT I am curating an amazing Spotify playlist to capture tunes for all audiences to groove to. You can follow the playlist here. We are taking requests now and will be adding as the time gets closer.

CUSTOM JEAN JACKET: One of the pins I was obsessed over recreating was the custom denim jacket with “Mrs.” and Roman Numerals of the wedding date. Ask and I shall receive. Thanks to my amazingly talented soon to be mother in law, she made my pinterest board come to life. I, of course found the black denim jacket at the goodwill bins paying no more than $1.15 for it. I sent her photos for inspo and days later it was in my hands. I cannot wait to take some stunning photos in it on the big day. Who wears a jean jacket over a couture gown? A girl who will be stylishly cold on her wedding day.

Month 5

BLOCK WALL: As I mentioned in the last timeline post, our budget primarily went to our venue/our house- and first priority was removing our chain link fence and replacing it with a block wall. Over the last year we have a handful of contractors come by give us quotes and after meeting with Dan from Toro Construction and of course loving his prices we decided to go with their team. Four days and minimum of four guys per day went to work and completed the goal! By the end of the clean up I never thought I could love my house even more than I did, but wow, what a difference. I feel like I finally live in the Castle I deserve to be in.

We did not expect this much rain this reason and it has pushed back some projects that we are looking to tackle ASAP! Also, we are thriving with the podcast making sure to stay consistent in episodes and even planning out very own LIVE Create Your Own Podcast Event, teaming up with The Forum, an amazing co working space in Chandler!

XoXo

Britt

FINDING ARIZONA WEDDING PLANNING: MONTHS 12-9 TIMELINE

Alright, its time! A wedding planning post! I know… long overdue, but I promise we have been putting in work behind the scenes. We are not planning your average wedding. I am sure you have heard others say that in the passed, but I’ll break down the traditional chronological wedding planning timeline and show you we are putting our FInding Arizona spin on it!

Month 12

ANNOUNCE & SET A DATE: Our engagement was in Dec 2017 and you can read the post all about it here. We did not set a date right away as we wanted to enjoy the engagement and take out time. After buying a house / our venue we set the date for October because in Arizona you get Spring or Fall Weddings. So 12 months prior to the “I do’s” our friends and family had already heard the announcement.

CHOSE PRIORITIES & SET A BUDGET: We are fortunate to have the wedding venue taken care of because I have always dreamed of a backyard wedding and could never justify spending tens of thousands of dollars on one day when you can invest it into the rest of your lives! But, our backyard has a ways to go before it’s featured in Phoenix Home and Garden Magazine. We call our situation unique to our wedding planner because when she wants to talk budget, we want to talk home rennos! Our biggest purchase for the event will be the block wall we will be installing in the next few months!

PLANNER & THEMES: Our wedding planner is Paige of Front Paige Events and we couldn’t be more fortunate. She is detail oriented, determined and of course a Finding Arizona Podcast Alumni! You can listen to our episode with Paige here. She is sending us emails to keep us on track and when we have meetings with vendors she has questions prepared for us. She is amazing! Speaking of questions, one thing we are figuring out is how to word our theme on our invites! No children - I love them, but this is an adult ONLY party and Black and White Attire ONLY- we want everyone part of the wedding party!

Month 11

CREATE AN INSPO BOARD: I already shared that I was never the type who had this day already planned out. I don’t dream of a fairy tale wedding and when I switched my mind from planning a wedding to planning the best party ever, things became fun! I am constantly adding pins to my board which you can follow here. But, after meeting with a medium she said I need to see what I want everyday to manifest it! So I printed out my pins and took it old school with a vision board- constantly adding things!

DRAFT A GUEST LIST: I feel like I should do an entire post about this because WOW! Between asking for lists from the parents and us figuring out how many we can fit in our backyard without ordering a port a john we solidified on 75 including ourselves and the vendors! We know we will break hearts sending out the invites!

Month 10

BOOK A PHOTOGRAPHER: With the unbelievable support from this community and this beautiful group called the Honey Book we found Matt Vivanco of MVivanco Photography! We met over brunch getting to know him and sharing our story! We know for sure he will be more than our photog, but a true friend!

HAVE ENGAGEMENT PHOTOS TAKEN: We have done so many great shoots with photographers from the podcast that we have sessions of engagement photos to choose from. Starting with a couples boudoir shoot we did before we were even engaged With Katrina Call and from an engagement shoot with a photographer who flew out from Ohio to shoot a wedding and needed some real life models! But on of my favorites are the photos featured in this post are from Jen Jenkins. You can hear the entire episode here.

Month 9

START SHOPPING FOR THE WEDDING DRESS: Okay, I promise this will be my next post because let me just say I WON IT & it is everything I could never imagine!

BUILD YOUR GIFT REGISTRY: Being homeowners has allowed us to start filling up our gift registry from day 1. Power tools, kitchen gadgets, even furniture! We have an amazon list going and everytime we think of something we need we add it to the registry!

Weekdays are spent sending emails and prepping for weekends. Weekends are spent pulling weeds and scheduling meet up with vendors. We are enjoying the journey and I love being able to share it with you all. Looking forward to months 8-5 !

XoXo

Britt