I don’t know if I give enough public credit to our couples for how well they plan their weddings.
If you haven’t had a wedding yourself yet, I guarantee you that no matter how prepared you are for it, you will still be totally shocked by how much time, energy, thought, and let’s not forget money of course- go into wedding planning. I’ve now had my own wedding and been to hundreds of others and it STILL surprises me how difficult the planning can be!
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I say all this because I want to make sure I take the time to give mad props to both Tonia and Jay, as well as their wedding planner, Sandy Walker from In Awe Weddings and Events, for the incredible job they did making their wedding uniquely them.
Let me first tell you a little bit about Tonia and Jay so that you can get a better feel for how well their wedding fit their personalities.
Tonia and Jay are both in the medical field and are currently living in Indiana. Their families are spread out all over the country so instead of choosing one family hometown or the other for their wedding, they decided to throw caution to the wind and choose an entirely different place for their big event so that it would be a great vacation for everyone involved. Sedona, Arizona was their destination location of choice, and good thing too because the location (at L’auberge de Sedona) was spectacular!
When I think of Tonia and Jay, the first thing that comes to my mind is F-U-N. These two have the best dry sense of humor ever and they’re like the perfect comedic duo when joined together!
I could just sit back and listen to their little snippets of conversation while watching them interact together and be totally entertained for hours!
They love to laugh together, and if I’ve learned anything from sitting through hundreds of speeches at weddings related to marriage and love, it’s that laughter is one of the main ingredients for a successful and happy marriage… so if all those well-wishers were speaking the truth, I’d say they’re all set to have a great time for the rest of their lives!
Which brings me to the part about how their wedding fit their personalities. Tonia and Jay, with the help of Sandy, were able to create this perfect mesh of elegance and fun. It started with their wedding ceremony where the pastor read the vows they had written to one another… and those turned out to be some of my favorite vows of all time.
Again, it fit so well as the perfect blend of funny, yet beautiful and quite sentimental. They both wrote about living real life with one another and how much they love all the little “peccadilloes” about one another (to quote Robin Williams in “Good Will Hunting”).
On top of those great vows, they also had another reading that blew my mind with it’s amazingness! They combined pieces of about love from each of their favorite sources into one reading and it flowed together so incredibly perfectly that I actually asked them for a copy of it!
Apparently, they had a hard time choosing just one source to be read at their wedding, so they just went ahead and picked them all! It was such a cool idea that just reflects again, how many personal touches went into this wedding!
To top off the personality of the ceremony, Jay’s mom had a song written especially for the happy couple and then she sang it to them herself during the ceremony… how cool is that?! What an amazing wedding present! Also, what a great way to get every single person within a mile radius to shed a tear!
And now on to Sandy’s part in all of this… Sandy is the kind of planner who listens to the dreams and visions of her clients and then figures out how to make them happen. This works out amazingly well because it allows the couple to focus on the fairytale/fun side of the wedding and then leaves all the harrowing details and hard work in hands that are experienced and capable of pulling them off without a hitch.
I’m totally convinced that Tonia and Jay enjoyed their wedding 10 times more than they would’ve had they been trying to do Sandy’s job themselves.
They were able to cast their vision and then catch their breaths as they walked onto their wedding site to see everything they had envisioned actually come to life in a way that seemed to just happen magically (of course that magic actually came from the magician otherwise known as Sandy).
So when they look back on their wedding, they remember the beauty, fun, elegance, and relationships more than the stress, worry, frustration, etc., etc. that Sandy was able to take off their shoulders.
And now about the reception. If you were a guest, wondering if you were in the right place, you seriously only had to walk in for like 2.5 seconds to know that this reception was definitely for Tonia and Jay. There were so many details that reminded you of them. The most noticeable was that there was pizza on everyone’s plate.
Yep, you heard me right… they served pizza at their wedding reception. Though I’m sure Tonia and Jay got some interesting reactions when they first told people about their culinary plans, but they held firm to their love of gourmet pizza and I think all their very full and satisfied guests were happy they did in the end!
Other noticeable aspect of the reception were the table names.
They were all named after various movies that Tonia and Jay loved and all the name cards included quotes from the movie (which is why I put in a movie quote above… that’s called “foreshadowing”. Admit it, you’re impressed with my literary ninja skills).
There was another card with a quote on it that was placed near the guest book to tell guests that in lieu of favors, Tonia and Jay were donating to the humane society. I have to mention that part because the quote on that card was such a great one: ” Getting a dog is like getting married. It teaches you to be less self-centered, to accept sudden, surprising outbursts of affection, and not to be upset by a few scratches on your car”.- Will Stanton.
Alright, I could go on and on about all the personal touches to Jay and Tonia’s wedding but I’ll stop there and let you see the rest for yourself in the photos!
Click here to see the rest of the photos from Tonia and Jay’s wedding!
Congratulations Tonia and Jay, we are so happy for you guys and we are so happy that you are so happy together! Keep laughing and enjoy the rest of your lives together! Thanks so much for giving us the honor of being a part of this great day in the story your lives together. We loved every second of it!
