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June 30, 2011:  It Was a Like Totally Cool 80's Couples' Shower!

June 22, 2011: Check, Check, Check

Less than 90 days away from the big day now, and the check marks on our list are starting to outweigh the things to do.  Let’s recap:

Venue:  CHECK  Troon North Golf Club

Wedding Gown:  CHECK  Suzanne’s Bridal

Officiant:  CHECK  Timothy Schubert, friend of the bride

Cake: CHECK  Let Them Eat Cake

DJ:  CHECK  Ray the DJ

Florist:  CHECK  Flowers by Jodi

Favors:  CHECK  (a surprise for the guests)

Invitations:  CHECK  Ariva Event Planning

Music:  CHECK  Sunland Strings

Photographer:  CHECK   Colling Photography

Rentals:  CHECK  Munkeboe Linens

Transportation:  CHECK  Mirage Limo

Tuxedos:  CHECK  Dapper Dan’s Menswear

Wedding Coordinator:  CHECK  Ariva Event Planning!  (That’s us!)

We have a great team in place, and everyone is starting to get excited about their roles and delivering the best possible service to Katie and Ethan.  This weekend the bride and groom are getting their engagement pictures taken by Jeff and Rena Colling, which is a great way to get to know your photographer before the wedding day itself.  They are also working on song selections, getting their marriage license, purchasing accessories and other details.

We sat down with Katie and her mom this month for a 90 day consultation meeting.  We went over every detail of the wedding, from soup to nuts, so to speak, and figured out where we were and what still needed to be done.  We’re actually in great shape at this point, and will have another meeting 30 days out to finalize all the last minute details.

We ran into our first real snag this month.  The wedding coordinator that we had been working with all along at Troon North left, and another person has taken her place.  That wouldn’t have been too big a deal (this happens all the time in the wedding industry), except that the NEW person recently found out that she will be unavailable the night of Katie and Ethan’s wedding.  So a THIRD person is now our contact and go-to coordinator.   This could have been big trouble, and lots of important details could have slipped through the cracks, but for two things:  First, Katie has an independent wedding coordinator (US!) who can organize all the details, emails and conversations with the venue so that everyone is on the same page (just another reason to hire your own independent wedding coordinator even if the venue provides one)!  Secondly, Mollie Beale at Troon North is on the ball and on top of things.  She has planned a lunch for bride, mom, Ariva, Karen (the on-site person that night) and herself to go over everything, so there are no surprises. 

Another exciting event this weekend is Katie and Ethan’s Bridal Shower.  They have decided on a couples’ shower, which will have an 80’s theme, since that was the decade they were both born.  How adorable are these two future lovebirds???

                                                 

Ariva is handling the details of that as well, (we plan all kinds of milestone events such as showers, anniversaries, birthdays, reunions and the like).  A full recap and pictures will follow soon, but here’s a sneak peek:

                                          

April 19, 2011:  Flowers and Other Fun Stuff

We’re just under 5 months away from Ethan and Katie’s  big day, and things are kicking into high gear.  We added another important member of our team recently:  Flowers by Jodi as Katie’s wedding florist.  I’ve worked with Jodi so many times over the years, and have always been amazed by her creativity.  Her exceptional wedding flowers add the perfect touch to bride’s special day.                         

In keeping with Katie’s theme of Birthstones and Bling, her wedding bouquet will be a combination of Eskimo white roses, stephanotis, and mini white calla lilies, with an accent of dark blue belladonna delphiniums (for the sapphire...the month of her birth as well as her wedding).

                                                 

And check out the bling that will wrap them all together!

 

                                                    

The bridesmaids will carry the colors of the birthstones, with bouquets consisting of the dark blue belladonna, black magic roses, deep purple stock, dark orange gerbera daisies, accented by green coffee bean…Sapphire, ruby, amethyst, topaz and peridot, all wrapped in a pretty package that smells good too!

                      

There will be a little magic (and a lot of talent) in the way Jodi brings them all together to make a gorgeous bouquet!

Table arrangements will have loose purple dendrobium orchids, black magic orchids and orange gerbera daisies in vases with candles. 

                                             

Table linens will be crisp white with bright sapphire overlays. Fresh flowers in the bridesmaids’  colors will also be on the sand ceremony table and the cake.

Other activities going on right now:  Invitations are being custom made and hand crafted by Kristy Hellmer of Ariva Event Planning, and will include sapphire satin ribbons, rhinestone buckles, and patterned specialty paper, all mounted on rich blue cardstock.  A retro 1980’s couples’ shower is being planned for June (Katie and Ethan were born in 1983), with lots of fun surprises for the guests and bride and groom.  In the coming weeks, we plan to complete the vendor team, by adding the transportation company, the linen company, and a surprise vendor as well.  The countdown is on, and things are getting exciting…stay tuned!

February 10, 2011:  Getting this Party Started…in more ways than one. 

The holidays are over.  The bride and groom have closed on their new house.  It is time to get this party started…or restarted, as it were.  Katie and Ethan were able to take care of a few details over the last couple of months such as sending out save the dates and registering, but not too much was accomplished on the vendor front, and that’s ok because we have had the luxury of time.  (See our earlier post about Checklists and their flexibility).  But the calendar page has turned to 2011, and we are just over 7 months away from their September 16^th wedding date.  It’s time to crank things into high gear.  Here’s a rundown of how things are coming together:

I’m thrilled that we recently have chosen two more important vendors.  Katie will walk down the aisle on her father’s arm to the beautiful sounds of the Sunland Strings. 

They’ll continue entertaining guests throughout the cocktail hour.  I’ve worked with Liz and Judy many times, and am always so impressed with their professionalism, good nature and lovely arrangements.  They will set the perfect mood for Katie and Ethan’s ceremony! (Sunland Strings photo by Moments Found Photography).

                                            

Once it’s time to start the party, the bride and groom will be in the expert hands of Ray Grace from Ray the DJ.  Ray is one of my favorite vendors, and is so great at what he does.  There is a reason he wins every award in the industry year after year!  So glad to have him on board!

Kristy Hellmer, our talented invitation guru, will be custom making Katie’s invitations as soon as Katie signs off on the final design.  They’re pretty labor intensive and take a lot of time to do, so she needs to start on them early to make sure they are perfect when it’s time to get them in the mail.  Hint:  expect sapphire blue and some bling!

On the fashion front, probably the most fun for Katie this month was that she decided on her dress!  Have to keep the details secret for now, but suffice it to say that she looks positively regal in it.  It’s definitely got the “wow” factor!  Bridesmaids dresses are chosen and will be ordered within the next couple of weeks.  (I’ll post a picture of them next time when that is a done deal).

Still missing from our vendor list is the florist, cake, transportation, menswear, rentals and favors.  We’ll be working on those in the coming weeks.  Stay tuned!

December 9, 2010:  Choosing the Photographer

One of the most important wedding vendor choices is the photographer.  I tell my clients that they should not only choose someone who is great at what they do, offers good value for the service, and can capture the most important day in their lives to perfection, but they need to really LIKE this person as well.  After all, you are going to spend the better part of your day with him or her, and if you aren’t getting along well, even the best photographer in the world will not be able to provide you with the photo memories that will last a lifetime.  That’s a pretty tall order, and also a good chunk of most bride’s wedding budget, so it is important to choose carefully.  As we do with all wedding couples, Katie and Ethan were given about 6 choices of photographers that I felt met their criteria.  They eliminated a couple of them online for various reasons, and set appointments for 4 of them.  Because I had relationships with all of the ones they visited, Katie and Ethan were offered “extras” to the packages they were considering.  This is a great benefit of working with a wedding planner.  We often get courtesy discounts and little added "somethings" from the vendors we recommend that can be  passed along to our brides and grooms.

So, after all this buildup, who did they finally choose?  I’m very happy to say that Katie and Ethan’s wedding will be photographed by Colling Photography.  Jeff and Rena Colling are an award-winning husband and wife team based in Chandler. 

 

                                                    

I’ve worked with them before, and they are not only very professional, but fun and engaging too.  Katie and Ethan are not only going to have spectacular photos; they are going to have a great time capturing them!

Now we have two major cogs in our wheel:  Troon North Golf Club as our venue, and Colling Photographers to record the day.  This month, Katie is working on her DJ selection, and after the holidays we will start with other vendors, such as ceremony musicians, florist, cake, invitations, and transportation.  Time will start flying after the first of the year, and I’d like Katie to have all her vendors in place by March, so that we

can focus on the details of the wedding and reception itself.  Oh, and we need to start planning the honeymoon too!  Lots of fun stuff ahead!  Stay tuned.

Next:  Who is going to get this party started?

November 7, 2010:  The Thing About a Checklist (or it's as easy as 1, 2, 3)

The first thing about a checklist is that if you are planning any kind of event, especially a wedding, you NEED one!  There are just so many details that are involved, and even so many lists:  there’s list for the wedding party, a list of guests, a list of rsvp’s, a list for the vendors, a list of songs for the DJ, a list of table assignments, not to mention the list of to-do’s.  It’s enough to make your head spin. 

As part of our full service option, Ariva Event Planning provides a monthly checklist to all of our clients.   This checklist is customized for each bride, and gives them a monthly snapshot of what should be accomplished in any given month.  The operative word here is “should”.  This brings us to the second thing about a checklist. The world will not come to a crashing halt if item #7 on the September checklist is not accomplished until October, or even January.  For example, Katie and Ethan had “choose the photographer” on their September list.  Since negotiations with Troon North took up most of the energy for that month, we moved the photographer choice to November.  This gave them the time to set up interviews and feel comfortable that they were not rushing the choice of one of their most important vendors.

The third and most important thing about a checklist is that it helps to bring the big (and sometimes overwhelming) picture into a smaller, more manageable focus.  Rather than being completely stressed out about the myriad of lists and “to-do” items, breaking down the chores into monthly tasks makes it all seem so much easier.  The whole point is to keep busy brides on track and give them small bites to chew off of a big apple. 

Next: Choosing the Photographer

 

October 12, 2010:  The Choice

Imagine that you are one of the lucky ones to be invited to Katie and Ethan's wedding next September.  You follow the directions on your invitation to north Scottsdale in the middle of the beautiful Sonoran desert.  You park your car and follow the walkway towards a cascading fountain at the entrance of a modern, beautifully stylish southwest Club.    Your anticipation growing, you follow the lush pathway to the rear of the building, and you see the secluded ceremony site with its emerald grass and stone stage area where the bride and groom are about to exchange their vows.  You take your seat and enjoy the gorgeous landscape of boulders surrounding you on three sides, along with native vegetation and flowers.  The look is both golf course and desert, which is just what Katie and Ethan had hoped to find.

                                              

After the intimate ceremony you are treated to cocktails on the terrace, as you watch the amazing Arizona September sunset.  It will be followed by the beautiful lights of the greater Phoenix area twinkling on the horizon.  It may still be warm in mid-September, but you and the other guests will be comfortable dining in the air-conditioned comfort of the Club's ballroom.  The view will not be forsaken, however, as the floor to ceiling glass windows overlooking the landscape and city lights will offer breathtaking panoramas throughout the evening.  You will dance the night away as the temperature cools and the romance of the evening and the desert work their magic on you. 

                                                   

 

If you are one of those lucky ones, you will be at Troon North Golf Club, Katie and Ethan’s choice for their wedding of birthstones and bling.   Amber Riley, the wedding coordinator at Troon North, worked with Katie and her parents to design a proposal that met their needs and budget, and we all look forward to working with her in the months to come.

It’s a spectacular venue for this very special wedding.

Next:  The Thing About a Checklist

September 16, 2010:  Where, oh Where?

Today, we are exactly one year away from W-Day.  So this month, we’re getting down to some serious business.  Two of our goals for September are to choose the venue for the wedding and the photographer.  Venue searching can be time-consuming, frustrating, confusing and make your head hurt.  Sounds like fun, huh?  There is a way to save your sanity and even make the process enjoyable, however: have a plan and stick to it.  With budget in one hand and concept in another, start researching venues on the internet.  Katie and Ethan will have the ceremony and reception at the same place, and they wanted something with a golf course feel.

           

But since we live in the desert southwest, and a lot of Ethan’s family is from out of town, a desert look would be great as well.  Maybe we can combine the two? With their guest list hovering around 150, we also need to find a place that can accommodate that many people in one room.  Another consideration (and a big one) is the weather.  Our bride and groom will be married in September in Arizona, when temperatures can still hover over 100 degrees.  We need a place that not only has a beautiful, romantic and classy outdoor ceremony site, but a cool (literally) indoor reception area. I sent Katie a list of venues that from my experience would match their needs.  Together with mom and dad, Katie and Ethan researched online, and we requested wedding packets from their top choice sites.  This is when Excedrin Headache Number 1 usually hits.  No two packets are alike.  Some venues include the dance floor, some include the cake, some charge for a water station, some have linens, but they don’t reach the floor.  Some have bar packages, some charge by consumption.  Comparing apples to apples is a very tricky thing to do, and having a professional wedding planner sort it all out can save you from running to the aspirin bottle after each venue inspection.  For each visit we were armed with a questionnaire, and then we compared our pros and cons immediately after each visit (this is a good time for a cool beverage in a nice establishment).  Bonus:  After one such barnstorming session (and beverages), Katie and Ethan may have discovered the signature drink they would like to incorporate in their reception!

I also highly recommend taking pictures at each venue you visit; you will never remember if the banquet chairs at a given location were beige, circus colored or really, really ugly. 
                                                                                                               

And if they’re really, really ugly, add the expense of renting different chairs or covering the ugly ones to the budget for that venue.  (Excedrin headache #2)

Katie and her parents have visited about 5 venues.  (Ethan came along to several as well...I love it when the groom takes an interest in the planning process!)  Two they eliminated right away for various reasons, and have now narrowed their decision to two, possibly 3 sites.  Some hard number crunching (Excedrin headache #3) and a comparison of all those apples will make the final decision.  They should be ready to sign a contract soon, and that will give them a great sense of accomplishment, as well as relieve those headaches.  One of the hardest choices of wedding planning will be behind them and they can get on to other cool stuff.  I’m anxious to see what they decided.  Stay tuned.

Next:  The Choice

September 1, 2010  Budgets, Birthstones and Bling

So now, the fun begins.  I sat down with Katie and her mom last week for our first long range consultation.  We began with an overview of Katie’s dreams and wishes, together with an overall discussion of their budget.   Since Katie's parents are paying for most of the wedding, it is important to keep their  dreams for their only daughter front and center as well.  Trying to balance the bride’s ideas with mom’s ideas can sometimes be tricky (if not downright confrontational); however Katie and her mom have a great rapport and a common purpose in making the day special for everybody.  

Prior to our meeting,  I emailed  Katie with a Priority/Budget Planner questionnaire, so that she could rank those items of the wedding that were most important to her.  Her top three choices were the reception, the ceremony and the photographer (smart girl), so that is where we will concentrate the most money and effort.

Katie has decided that her primary color will be sapphire blue.  It's meaningful to her because it is the birthstone for September, which is not only her wedding month, but her birth month (Happy Birthday, Katie!) and the month she and Ethan met. (Note to Ethan:  Birthday/Anniversary + same month = Start Saving!)  She wants to incorporate sapphire and September into her wedding to personalize it as much as possible.  She also wants some "bling"!

After our meeting, it was my turn to go to work.  I prepared a proposed Budget for Katie and her parents, emphasizing those things that were most important to them and assuring them that numbers could be moved around in the months to come to accommodate any changes or surprises.
Okay, enough of boring budgets; now let's move on to the fun stuff! 

Taking Katie’s vision of sapphire and September I suggested a birthstone theme.  The flowers would be jewel tones of rust, gold, burgundy, purple, green and blue, much like a rich September sunset, perhaps something like these:

                            or these        

We can translate the flower colors into the overall  concept of birthstones and call them topaz, ruby, amethyst, emerald, diamond and of course, sapphire.     Now we’ve got our Bling!   We have months to decide on how to fully execute this concept, but Katie and her mom both loved the idea, so we are ready to run with it.  Why choose a concept so early, you might ask?  Well, there are tons of reasons, most of which make it easier to plan the entire wedding, from invitations, to favors, to food, to even the honeymoon.

Next:  Where,  oh Where?
 

August 26, 2010: Our Couple
 

I’ve been planning events for many years, and I’ve always had a passion for writing.  So, I can think of no better way to combine these two loves than with a blog about my experiences as an event planner.  I thought it might be fun to follow one couple on their wedding planning journey– from the days following the engagement through the very last dance.  While every bride and groom is different, every wedding is unique, and the planning can be leisurely or hurried, this behind the scenes look will hopefully be useful..

With their permission, I am going to chronicle Katie and Ethan’s journey towards becoming husband and wife.  I will cover every last detail (as all wedding planners do!), throw in some advice, and hopefully have a lot of fun along the way. 

First, let's meet them.      

   
                                                                    

Katie and Ethan met through mutual friends a few years ago, but began dating this past November. Both are self-employed and are looking to grow their businesses together.  They love spending time outdoors, trying new things, and are most excited about traveling.     Ethan proposed to Katie while on a hiking trip to Sedona, which not so coincidentally was the same way Katie's older brother proposed to his wife a few years ago.

Katie and Ethan are planning a September, 2011 wedding in the Scottsdale/Phoenix area. They especially look forward to their honeymoon in Europe.  (I will help them plan that too, utilizing almost 30 years experience in the travel industry!)

Katie and Ethan came to Ariva Event Planning at the very beginning of the process, which is such an advantage, both for them, and for me.  According to a recent survey, 72% of brides who did not use a wedding planner said if they could do it over again, they would hire one.

The first order of business: choosing the wedding party.  Katie has a maid of honor and 5 bridesmaids; Ethan has the same number on his side.  Katie's 3 year old nephew will be the ring bearer, and she also wants to include her cousins' small children, one of whom will be 20 months, and one of whom will be 12 months (he's not even born yet!) Hmmm.  This might be a little challenging - but, Katie is very family oriented, and since this is what she wants, we will find a way to make it happen.

I'm charged with planning a ceremony and reception full of bling, but on a budget, refereeing any potential stylistic disagreements, and executing a flawless evening for young adults as well as elderly grandparents.

Lace up your corset, grab your bouquet, and get ready to say “I do.”  This is going to be a fun trip down the aisle.