As many of you know we are a family business and last week Adam married Lindsey, the love of his life. We are still enjoying the after glow of having such a beautiful weekend full of love, family, and friends.
Here are what we found to be the five secrets to having the perfect wedding.
1. Listen to your bride and groom. The kind of day that the couple wants to have soon emerges after the engagement and the planning really begins. Our lovely Lindsey is from Arizona and it was important to her to celebrate what she loved about Scottsdale and the natural beauty of the area. Their first look pictures were taken along the trails they enjoy together. (Seriously how beautiful is this picture?!!)
2. Keep Organized. I was blown away with the use of Excel for doing seating and invitations (so much easier than moving index cards around the dining room table). Excel was also used to track the schedules for photos the day of the wedding. We also loved using paperless post for invites to bridal events and apps like Photocircleapp for photo sharing at the wedding. Instagram tags are also good, but it was great to have a private site to upload the pics (over 1,000 pics were shared in the first few hours) -- so everyone had the fun of seeing the pics long before the professional pics come in.
3. Work with People that Share Your Vision. We worked with the incredibly talented floral designer, AubreysPetals - she created beautiful floral designs for both the rehearsal dinner and the wedding. The event planner Melissa at the McCormick Ranch was grace under pressure (the threat of rain did not phase her) and she runs a rehearsal like a total pro! And our hats are off to the folks at J&G Steakhouse where we had the rehearsal dinner.
4. Bridal party gifts. You know we had this covered! Each bridesmaid received a monogrammed (with silver glitter) East West Bag. They used them the day of the wedding for all of their things. These are amazing women - they stood outside for pictures and the ceremony (where it was windy and chilly) with smiles on their faces.
Each bridesmaid also carried a Quilted Koala Luxe Metallic Clutch in silver to go with their navy dresses. The bride carried the same bag in blue metallic (as her something blue).
5. Above all, keep your sense of humor. It's meant to be a fun day to celebrate the beginning of a new family. There are so many moving parts, emotions and budgets on the line -- it's easy to lose yourself in the details. At the end of the day, if there are tears, you want to be sure that they're happy ones.
We are so excited to welcome Lindsey to our family!