Jill and Matt’s modern wedding at the Venue on Washington in Phoenix, AZ.

April 1, 2021 Shiloh Abbott

I met Jill a few years ago when she was working with my mother in law in Seattle. She helped me plan Donna’s (my mother in law) surprise retirement party and was a blast to work with. Fast forward a couple of years after she moved to Phoenix with her then boyfriend, Matt, and they became engaged!

Jill reached out to talk about the possibility of me traveling down there to help with their wedding and we hit it off again and so started our wedding planning adventure!

Jill and Matt’s venue, The Venue on Washington, is a huge open space which is amazing. The hardest part was figuring out how to outfit it. But Jill came with her ideas! She had portable restrooms come in (that were really, very nice), an awesome photo booth bus and some beautiful lounge areas.

I flew down in October to do a walkthrough of their venue to get a feel for where everything was going and how the wedding day was going to flow. because you know that’s included in our packages! It was great meeting Brittney and then Sarah, who was the head of the catering team with Creative Hands Catering. Pro tip: If any of your vendors are new to your venue, invite them along when you do your walkthrough of the space. They like to know where they’re going to be ahead of time as well.

Luckily, we were able to get into La Tavola Linen when I was down there to hone in on their linen selections. Because of covid, our local design room wasn’t quite open yet so it was really nice to get in there to play around some!

Once I was back in Seattle, we kept plugging away at their wedding planning, making sure all of their details were covered and accounted for. Carl and I flew down two days before the wedding so we could run their rehearsal on New Years Eve (the wedding was on New Years Day) before heading back to the hotel to get some rest.

Their wedding day was a beautiful 60 something degrees outside and dry, which was a lovely change from the cold Seattle rain. We hit the ground running with deliveries coming in from I DO Rentals and Material Girls, and managing the vendor arrivals of the florist (Array Designs), DJ (Rock You Entertainment) and the bartenders (Couple of Bartenders)

Cam and Larisa photographed the event and were a pleasure to work with, as was Dakota McBrides Film, who did their videography.

The couple got ready at The Camby hotel in Phoenix and had their first look and wedding party photos taken there. The bridesmaids all chose their own black pantsuit to wear and Jill provided the fun addition of jean jackets to go along with. Her sister wore a terracotta dress as she was officiating the ceremony.

Upon arrival, the guests had a glass of prosecco from the prosecco wall (with our Cheers sign on it). After the ceremony, they had cocktail hour outside near the bar with appetizers and signature cocktails named after their dogs. Creative Hands Cuisine made a dinner that was beautiful and amazing, complete with multiple stations including a smoked salad!

During the reception, guests had the options of socializing in one of three lounge areas or by the firepit. They also had the photobus, lawn games and a kick-ass DJ inside playing anything and everything.

Late night snacks came out with a mac and cheese bar, a pretzel station and passed fish and chips.

An amazing dessert spread and to-go boxes ensured no one left this party hungry!

It was so much fun watching Jill and Matt on their wedding day. You could tell they were both so excited to make things official and start the new year off as husband and wife. Talk about starting 2021 off in a great way!