The Ceremony Site

Zach and I just took a trip to Sedona for the first time to scope out where we want our ceremony to take place and to look at our reception site and possible accommodations for guests. The trip went really well and reconfirmed that Sedona would be the perfect place for our wedding.

When we first got to town Zach, myself, and his parents went on a jeep tour to look at all of the possible locations on the red rocks for our ceremony. The first location was about 45 minutes away on a rocky, dusty road at an elevation of about 6000 feet. The second location was closer and was a much shorter drive but was not as high so it had less of a view. We decided to have our wedding at the higher up, more adventurous location with the amazing view. Pictured below is the spot where we would get married, along with some of the views from that point.

This location is perfect for us, but there will be some challenges that we'll need to keep in mind. There is a short 5 minute hike to get to the site, so we won't be able to wear heels. Also, the jeeps are open in the back, so on the trip up you get a layer of red sand all over you, so I'll have to make sure I'm covered up so I don't get a layer of red on my white dress. Other than that though, this place is going to be perfect, and we know our guests will enjoy it too.

The Save the Dates

Zach and I have both been pretty sick and busy with school, so we haven't been doing much wedding planning. We have finalized our trip to Arizona in November though, so we'll be able to take a day and go to Sedona and scope out a final ceremony location and a good hotel for all of our guests.

To save money I'm going to make the Save the Dates and Invitations myself, and I finally ordered all of the supplies I'll need from a pretty nifty website called http://www.envelopperinc.com/. I want to play up the fact that we're having a destination wedding and want to make our Save the Dates look kind of like luggage tags. Here of some of the ones I was using for ideas:

The Wedding Colors

So I've been back and forth with wedding colors and was having a hard time making up my mind about what I wanted the wedding decor to look like. I could either try to match the beautiful red rock surroundings and go with deep reds and purples, or I could choose contrasting colors. I've been looking at a lot of pictures of the Red Rocks and I was kind of inspired by the wildflowers I saw around Sedona, so I've decided to go with blue and yellow for the wedding. My whole vision is centered around a wildflower bouquet similar to the one the girl has below, since I think they'd go really well with the red rock backdrop.


I'd like my bridesmaids dresses to be nice and simple, like the J Crew ones below. I think with dresses like these, smaller versions of the bouquet above, and maybe some yellow flowers in their hair, my bridesmaids will look really beautiful!


I'm going to run the colors by Zach, but he's pretty laid back so I think he'd be fine with anything. And now that I have a general color scheme I can start designing Save the Dates and send them out soon! I plan on doing a lot of the stationary on my own, so be looking out for a post about Zach and me slaving over do-it-yourself wedding projects!

The Jeep Tours

As I mentioned earlier, Zach and I really want to get married on a cliff with a beautiful view in the background. So in order to make that happen, we need to decide on a tour company to take all of our guests to that point, and then we need to decide on a location. We started talking to Pink Jeep Tours and they've given us two main options to choose from, and there are pros and cons to each.

1. Broken Arrow Tour - Get Married on Chicken Rock



This tour is the most adventurous out of all of the tours, as it involves actually riding on the red rocks and requires 4x4 Jeeps. This would be the most fun tour by far for us and our guests. However it is the longest and most expensive tour, and there would be a limit on how many guests we could bring on the tour. We would also be rushed with this tour, since they would only give us 30 minutes for our ceremony once we got to the location.

2. Scenic Rim Tour - Get Married on Merry Go Round Rock





This tour takes guests above the rocks and provides amazing views of the landscape. This is a milder tour than the previous one as it doesn't involve driving on the actual red rocks, and thus does not require a 4x4 vehicle. This tour would also require a short walk to get to the location, unlike the other tour, where they would be able to drive us right there. Though we do like this one because it is more affordable and there is no limit to how many people we would be able to take on the tour. Since this one is a little more affordable, we would be able to stay at our ceremony location for longer, unlike the last tour which limited us to 30 minutes.

Zach and I are hoping to visit Sedona in November and go on both of these tours and determine which one would be best for our wedding. I'd also like to look into some other companies and see what kind of packages they can offer us. I am a little partial to this company though, because their Jeeps are pink and really cute! We'll keep you posted on what we decide!

The Reception Site

Zach and I have chosen a reception site! We're going to be celebrating our wedding at Agave of Sedona.

Bonnie, the director of the reception hall, was very helpful on the phone and Zach and I are looking forward to working with her. She said she would help us with all of the decorating and planning for our day, so it's like we're getting a wedding planner without having to go out and hire one.

I'm just relieved to have found a good location since Zach and I were having a lot of problems finding a suitable place for the reception. One of the things that made finding a location hard was the sound ordinances in Sedona. You are not allowed to play amplified music outside past 9pm in Sedona. So we couldn't have the reception outside since we thought it would be awkward to have a music-less party. However, the majority of the Sedona reception sites are outdoors and all of the indoor locations we found were either too huge and expensive or kind of bland. The Agave was perfect because we can have our reception indoors and blast music, but still get the effect of the outdoors with the huge windows. There is also a terrace attached to the ballroom so guests can step outside if they wish. I'm really happy with this site and am hoping to lock down a ceremony site soon!

The Wedding Date

We have a finalized date! Friday October 1, 2010. More info to come, but for now my mission is to find whether 100110 translates from binary into anything interesting. Check it out below, I think the date looks pretty cool written out like that and it should be easy for Zach to remember...

The Wedding Location

Zach and I have been talking for months about having a destination wedding, but I never thought the location we would settle on would be in Arizona. Originally I thought we would follow the lead of so many other couples and get married on a beach somewhere in the Caribbean or Mexico, but I'm glad we were able to find Sedona because I think it's going to be perfect for us.

How we chose our location:

1. After researching island weddings we determined that it would be way too risky to have a wedding in the tropics. The weather there is too unpredictable (especially in the fall) and I wasn't too keen on getting married somewhere really humid with my already poofy hair. We also thought it would be strange to get married in a honeymoon-esque location, because then there would be little differentiation between our wedding and our honeymoon.

2. I started searching online for the most beautiful places in America, and that's how I found Sedona. According to this article, Arizona's Red Rock Country is the #1 most beautiful place in America. Once I saw this article I started searching for Sedona Weddings on Google and the following picture popped up. Once Zach and I saw that picture we were sold and now we're determined to get married on a cliff and get a similar picture taken of ourselves.



3. Lastly, we talked to Zach's parents and asked them to help us scope out the city of Sedona since they live less that two hours away in Phoenix. They were so excited that all of the festivities would be happening so close to their home and they agreed to help. So between the beautiful pictures, rave reviews, and convenience of having Zach's parents close by in case of any emergencies, the ultimate decision about where to have our wedding was kind of a no-brainer.

The First Post

Hey! We just started this blog so our family and friends can follow us while we plan our wedding. Thanks for all of your support so far and we look forward to celebrating our wedding with you all soon!

-Zach and Tessa