Marriage Equality for Arizona | 10.17.14

Arizona same-sex couples are lining up to get marriage licenses after Attorney General Tom Horne announced this morning he will not appeal the court ruling striking down Arizona's marriage restriction.
The marriages of same-sex couples wed in other states are also now legal in Arizona.
Horne said there is "zero" chance of a successful appeal and so legal ethics dictated he drop any appeal of the 9th Circuit court's ruling.
Horne has issued a letter instructing county clerks to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples immediately.
"Effective immediately, the clerks of Arizona county superior courts cannot deny a marriage license to any otherwise eligible licensees on the grounds that the license permits a marriage between persons of the same sex," Horne wrote in his letter.
Arizona now becomes the 31st state to allow same-sex couples to marry.
County clerks were at various stages of readiness for couples who have been anticipating the ruling.
Maricopa County clerk's offices quickly began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples at all of its locations. Some locations already had couples waiting in lobbies as Horne made the announcement, Deputy Clerk of the Maricopa County Superior Court Chris Kelly said.

FROM :: AZ CENTRAL

Celebrations by Amy Bacon supports all marriages and looks forward to celebrating with more and more same sex couples in the coming years.
Contact us today for your free consultation
Phone :: 602.762.1174
Email :: amy@celebrationsbyamybacon.com

Words of Advice from Former Brides on Hiring a Wedding Planner: DO IT

Early on into planning our reception, we got a glimpse of what can go wrong in the planning process, and I guess in a way, we were lucky because it led us to getting a planner. We experienced false promises made on the part of the original venue -- it turns out they did not have the capacity to have our event. They did not have appropriate staff OR facilities. They sold it to us anyway, citing later that they needed OUR MONEY to make renovations so they could hold events there in future, and we were lucky enough to get out of the contract. Fortunately we found another venue, but it was illuminating; we didn't know what we were doing! Most couples getting married have never planned a wedding before. Even very educated people are naive to this process and it's easy to get taken. So we didn't want to take any more chances. We needed to team up with experts who have done this process over and over and know what to do, what to watch out for, and how to avoid any other potential disastrous situations. 

At first we thought everything was costing a lot, and considered if it was really necessary. Could we depend on ourselves or the venue to take care of everything? We have thrown numerous parties in the past, and they've been great. But we spent the time at those parties waiting on everyone. We were in the kitchen making food and drinks. We cleaned up afterwards. The parties were fun but they flew by, and our memories happened in the kitchen. We wanted to really enjoy our reception, as hosts and in a way, as guests. Knowing that the details were taken care of for us was our favorite part about having a coordinator step in to help us finalize the details and organize everything for that day. Knowing that someone was hounding our vendors, in a nice way, to ensure the day would go off without a hitch. Some vendors are not good at calling back and it was a pain since we both work full-time. It felt really good to hand that off to capable people who we trusted would get the job done. Everything was totally organized when the day finally arrived. We got to enjoy the day and not stress that it was going to be a success. We keep hearing from friends and family that it was the best wedding reception they've attended ever. My parents were in awe. Nothing was required of my family. No one had jobs. Everyone got to enjoy the party, including us.

If I could go back and change anything about our reception, I would have involved the planning team sooner. It was really stressful to change venues at the last minute. I think all the time, what if we would have had it at a venue that was not prepared to handle us but were planning to "wing" it? What the hell. That would have been a disaster! If we had hired a coordinator earlier, we would have found out about this issue sooner and stressed less about handling it. It also would have helped to have had someone look over contracts from an event point of view before we signed them. Our bar order included bottles of water even though we also had a water station set up five feet away. People who asked for water got a $5 bottle of Smart water and no one was directed to the giant water jug nearby. I didn’t think anything of this when we got the proposal so it would have helped our budget to have had someone in the business look it over before we signed on the dotted line.

Two words of advice to couples considering hiring an event planner: DO IT. Your wedding is too important (and too expensive) to be anything less than perfect. You will not regret it!

               Written by our bride :: Hez    Produced by :: Patrice Klaum    

                Images by :: R2 Studio

Venue | Hotel Palomar
Planning and Coordination :: Celebrations by Amy Bacon | Patrice lead planner
Photography :: R2 Studio 
Florist :: Ever After Florals
Cupcakes :: Piece of Cake 
Cupcake Tree/Stand :: Cake Hole Project

Hair and Makeup :: Switchblade Salon 
DJ :: Desert House Productions

Best Wedding Planners: Celebrations by Amy Bacon

Karah Van Kammen January 28, 2014 

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When designing your dream day for the one of the biggest moments of your life you want to put you vision in the hands of only the premiere planners. The readers have spoken and voted Celebration by Amy Bacon as Best Wedding Planners in the Valley for 2014!

Image provided by Foskett Creative

BEST WEDDING PLANNERS

Winner: Celebrations by Amy Bacon

Celebrations by Amy Bacon offers the highest level of professional service so that you can sit back and enjoy your event just as much as your invited guests with the certainty that your vision for the day comes to life. With over ten years of wedding and event planning experience, we are one of Arizona’s premier wedding and event planning specialists. You’re guaranteed to find that one of our planners is the perfect person to take care of you and your event from start to finish. We limit the number of weddings and events we plan every year to ensure that you receive superior service and our dedicated attention.

We got out votes by…
creating a Facebook event and inviting our clients, friends, and acquaintances. Word of mouth is the best advertising and we’re proud that our circle of support let their voices be heard to help us win!

We are the best Wedding Planners in the Valley because…
we connect with our clients from the start and are still there for them even after the event is done. We fight back tears when we have to move a folder to ‘Former Clients’ because they became family to us! We can’t make their event perfect if we don’t really know who they are as people, not just as a bride or a groom; we hear time and again that this is one of our clients’ favorite things about us so we know we’re on the right track.

We would like to thank…
our friends and family for not only supporting us through votes to win Best of the Valley but for always supporting us! Wedding planning is not an easy job and we couldn’t do it without the love of those around us. You help remind us why we do what we do; THANK YOU!

Winning the Best of Our Valley contest is important to us because…
we always strive to do our very best no matter what and it is encouraging to be recognized for it. Our clients and fellow vendors that voted for us have seen first-hand how hard we work so we are very thankful that they believe in us enough to vote!

We are motivated by…
the love and joy that is felt at an event after months and sometimes years of planning with our clients. Lots of blood, sweat, and tears go into planning and executing an event so when we are able to stop and look around at all of the happiness that it created, we are fueled to do it all over again with more events in the future.

We pride ourselves on…
putting our clients first. We love working with the best vendors and venues in the Valley so they are who we refer our clients to, not because we are going to receive referral fees from it but because we know our clients deserve nothing but the absolute best. Our clients know that if we give them a company’s name, it’s because we know that company will take care of our clients 110%. We cringe when we hear about events that weren’t a success because a lousy recommendation was made so we take every precaution and are highly critical when we decide who makes the cut in getting to work on our clients’ events.

Some of our other favorite businesses, people, places, etc. in the Valley are… 
We love being able to support local businesses and small shops! Keeping the money here in Arizona is important because it keeps our industry going and growing. Whenever we can we try to have our meetings at locally owned restaurants; it’s a bonus that most of them have the best tasting food and drinks available! Lux Central is great for our low-key morning meetings for sipping on lattes while discussing details and OHSO Brewery is perfect when we need to relax after a long day of design meetings around town. When in doubt, pick local!

Our favorite thing about Arizona is…
the beautiful weather and awe-inspiring sunsets. Having a 9-month event season is unheard of in other states but it’s what we’re blessed with in Arizona. As wedding planners we check the weather forecast almost religiously. Who can argue with partly cloudy and 75 degrees for events? Of course there are times when we have to pull out Plans B, C, and D when the weather doesn’t agree with our outdoor plans, but we’re prepared when that happens and we know it can make for some unique memories! It’s just a coincidence that our company colors are reflected in the sky each evening as the sun goes down, but we love those shades of pink, blue, purple and orange all the same. The Arizona sky can’t be beat for the ideal backdrop to a couple’s first pictures as husband and wife!

We love our community because…
it is filled with such caring and supportive people. Our vendors know that if they ever need help with anything, they are surrounded by people who will lend a helping hand, no questions asked. As workers in the events industry, no one can do what they do without collaboration and our community lives that out with passion. Events are a group effort; why not get along with the people you work alongside with and create some friendships in the meantime?

We are looking forward to the Best of Our Valley Bash because…
we are usually the ones working at events! It’s rare when we actually get to sit back and attend them. We’re honored to be recognized with so many other Best of the Valley companies and are excited to get to celebrate together. Interaction is most often through phone calls or emails with these people so we can’t wait to get together in person to celebrate our achievements.

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Phone: 602.762.1174
E-mail: amy@celebrationsbyamybacon.com