A Glamorous Black Tie Arizona Wedding, 15 Years In The Making

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Feeling impatient about your wedding plans? Take a look at what wedding beauty comes from fifteen years together. Elegant and inspired, this black tie Arizona wedding had plenty of time to come about, and the results are absolutely gorgeous.

First high school sweethearts, then parents, and finally, a married couple. Meagan and Alex’s beautiful love story had us hooked from the start. And with plenty of time to dream about a wedding, the venue, design and vendors seem to come together flawlessly in Saje Photography‘s images.

When speaking of her wedding design, bride Meghan admits, “While I love a trend just as much as the next girl but wanted it to stand the test of time as well…” Cut from the same cloth, we wholly agree. We see so many free-spirited boho desert weddings which we absolutely love. But, just as exciting, is when our couples steer their wedding aesthetic in a different direction. Much like this striking Palm Springs wedding with black and white details, Meagan and Alex juxtaposed the rugged Arizona mountain views with clean lines, black details and timeless elegance.

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Our Love Story

We met in high school. Our first time we officially hung out was at our school Valentine’s Day dance. Three years later, in 2010, we welcomed a daughter together and focused on raising her. She’s now 12 and it was so much fun having her there to witness our big day and have such a big role (Maid of Honor!). Alex proposed on a fly fishing trip in the waters of Horseshoe Bend.

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The Planning

I (Meagan) tried planning the wedding myself without a planner. I got about halfway through it all when I realized I was in over my head and needed some professional help. I researched different wedding planning companies here in Arizona and came across Revel Wedding Co. Again, looking at their past work I could see that they had worked similar styles of wedding that I had the vision for. Once we got them on board they really helped to tie everything together.

“Clean, black and white” was our vision from the start. I wanted a touch of glam but also to keep it classic and timeless. I love a trend just as much as the next girl but wanted it to stand the test of time as well. Mirrored elements were what I wanted to bring in to step up the glamour of it all without adding glitter or extra colors. I had saved photos for days of different elements I wanted to mesh together to get the desired effect. Looking back now, I could take pictures from our wedding and add them to the mood board I made before the wedding and they would fit in seamlessly.

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The Venue

The first thing we booked was the venue. Funny enough, it’s the only one we looked at as well. Mountain Shadows Resort is backed up to Camelback Mountain, so the ceremony site has the most gorgeous views of the mountain. The resort itself is very well designed with an amazing restaurant with beautiful furniture. So from the moment the guests arrive, it has a wow factor almost mid-century modern feel without even having to add anything to it.

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Favorite Moments

My favorite moment was saying our vows to each other. We each wrote our own and it was such a special moment that I think was truly heartfelt not only for us, but also for our guests. There were many tears in the audience. Which, at the end of the day, was a goal. We wanted everyone to feel the love and emotions of the day!

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Special Details

Our seating chart by Details Duo is another fun element that incorporated our engagement story and also the aesthetic of clean lines, modern vibes, and black and white tones! It was composed of three acrylic pillars with all of our guests’ names and the phrase “My greatest catch” with a little hook to commemorate how we got engaged on a fly fishing trip. It was pretty large and I think visually it had a great impact.

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The Photography & Videography

We chose our photographer, Samantha of Saje Photography, for her beautiful fine art aesthetic. Funny enough, our daughter and her son have gone to school together since kindergarten. We would see each other at school functions and she would tell me she was a wedding photographer. I really didn’t think much of it until one day when I came across her work on Instagram and was floored. Beautiful aesthetic and creamy colors, everything we were looking for and more.

Our videographer, Ryan Noel Films, also had that beautiful fine art, bright, creamy color aesthetic that we were looking for. At the consultation, their personalities truly solidified the choice. They were bubbly and happy, truly passionate about their craft and exactly the type of people that you want on your team on your wedding day.

Both delivered above and beyond what we were expecting, we were blown away by our video and photos!

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Advice to Other Couples

Make sure you put a team of people together that you can really trust and enjoy for your big day. You don’t really have any control of how things happen on the actual day so you have that vulnerability of trusting in how everything was planned and set up. Our day-of coordinator was a rockstar and had the most chill, calm energy which I think helped us to be the same.

I absolutely recommend all of our vendors! We didn’t have one issue with any of them and I really felt like they had our best interests at heart and truly cared!