“I’m lucky because I loved seeing her smile at me when she got down the aisle and I get to see that smile everyday.”-Jason

“Walking down the aisle and seeing just how many people wanted to celebrate with us. It was a warming feeling to see so many people who wanted to be there to celebrate with us.”-Jason

“My favorite time of our wedding day was our ceremony.  Jason and I decided to not see or speak to each other after our rehearsal dinner, we did not do a first look and it was honestly one of my favorite decisions that we made and probably the only traditional thing we did.  We said good night to each other at about 11PM the night before the wedding and we did not see each other, talk or even text each other until I walked down the aisle.  Our ceremony was very personal, my sister in law, Jen. and Jason’s cousin, Kelly, did our readings.  We asked them to choose whatever reading that they wanted, it could be from the Bible, a poem, their favorite book etc.  The only stipulation was that we did not want to know what it was until they read it at the wedding.  My cousin, Joseph married us and he did such an amazing job telling our story.  I can not even count the amount of times that we laughed during our ceremony.  It was very ‘us’ and that was exactly what we wanted.  I remember being so nervous the week before our wedding about walking down the aisle, and when the time came, I was so relaxed and happy and I was SO excited to see Jason.   The spontaneity and relaxed vibe of our ceremony was incredible and we were both smiling the whole time, I would not have changed a single thing. I remember seeing Jason for the first time while walking down the aisle and thinking to myself “How did I get so lucky to get to marry this man”.  “-Michelle

“My group of guys are my best friends. My best man knows me so well that he gave a speech that made my brother tear up as it summed up 20+ years of all our lives. I lived with another member for over 3 years and it was some of the most fun (and possibly craziest) times I’ve had in my life. I’m lucky to have a group of guys that keep me grounded and are such great dudes.”-Jason    

“There were so many times that day where we were both just cracking up!  We just had such a fun time and a lot of it was due to our amazing Family and Wedding Party.  Our bridesmaids and groomsmen were amazing and they all helped to make the entire week so fun and special.  Everyone that attended our wedding definitely came to have a good time.  We really wanted all of our family and friends to mingle with each other so we split families up and sat people at tables where they would not know everyone at their table and so many people told us that they loved where they were seated! We took a big gamble doing that and everyone seemed to have a great time.  After the reception, we all took over the hotel lobby until 1am, and then myself Jason, Jason’s brother in law and his fiance went on a late night food run, we got back to the resort at 2am and ate burritos and our wedding dessert, it was such a fun sibling moment and we danced and partied in the car the whole way.  The party just didn’t want to end, from ceremony, to cocktail hour, to the reception and the late night trip for burritos, it was the perfect day!”-Michelle

“Jason and I knew that we wanted to get married and have our reception outside and since our whole story revolves around Arizona and the outdoors, we wanted to find a place that was beautiful on its own and didn’t need a ton of flowers or decorations to make it beautiful.  The second we walked into the Hyatt Regency at Gainey Ranch and saw how open and naturally beautiful it was, we knew it was the spot!  While touring the venue with Mallory (the wedding coordinator) we realized that she really understood us and how we wanted our wedding day to go. When she showed us one of the ceremony sites, we saw that it overlooked the mountain where Jason proposed, there was no question after that, we did not even look at another venue!  We kept everything very simple, Jason wanted to wear a light gray suit and my favorite color is blue, so we chose Light Gray and Navy.  Since our ceremony was facing the golf course, we liked the dark blue to offset all of the greenery and add a little fall vibe to our sunny, desert wedding.  I chose my bouquet in a very particular way, I took elements from my sister and two best friends wedding bouquets and blended them together.  For the ceremony and cocktail hour we kept it very simple with rose petals down the aisle, some lanterns overflowing with our flowers, two statement pieces at the end of the aisle and small arrangements on the tables. We loved all the palm trees that surrounded us and wanted the focus to be on the beauty of Arizona and the backdrop.  Our centerpieces for the reception were in gray/whitewashed boxes and were the same types of flowers that were in the bouquets, we wanted everything to tie together.  We are both ‘less is more’ type people and wanted to keep decorations etc. to a minimum, we wanted our 120 out of town guests to really enjoy the natural beauty of our venue.  Some of our decorations were actually handmade by my best friend and that was very special to us!  We can not thank our florist enough for doing such an amazing job!”-Michelle 

“After the wedding was over, all the families met up and spent time talking in the lobby bar. It was the first time all day that we got to spend time with all 3 sections of the family (and our wedding party) all at once. That feeling of relaxing, seeing all the family get alone, and drinking a good scotch was wonderful!”-Jason

“When it comes to planning your wedding focus on what is important to you and your fiance and put your time and energy into those things.  Jason loves food and music, so we put a lot of time into our food choices and dinner/dancing music.  One thing that I found helpful was making sure we were choosing things that we liked, not the latest pinterest/instagram fad, you want your wedding day to reflect who you are as a couple, not a fad that will change and go out of style.  We did not do a garter/bouquet toss or cake cutting because those things were not important to us, we wanted to use that time to walk around to every table and talk to people, dance with our family and friends and actually eat our amazing dinner (which we actually got to do!) Jason and I would go out for wine and work on wedding tasks, we even sat at our favorite wine bar filling and stamping envelopes just so we could make sure to really enjoy ourselves and not feel overwhelmed!