Bounce Castle Wedding at the JW Marriott in Arizona!
Jump into Bliss
Your favorite wedding photographer is on the cover of a national magazine! ✨
I cannot believe this is even real. I have dreamed of being on the cover of Arizona’s Finest Wedding Sites and Services Magazine for YEARS. I cannot wait to share the process and some bonus photos you won’t find in the magazine with you all HERE on the blog! 🥂 -Schyler
My biggest priority for this cover shoot was to find the perfect vendors. I intentionally chose vendors with smaller businesses who could really benefit from the extra publicity. I wanted them to be passionate about what they do, excited to be featured in the magazine, and of course offer a phenomenal product or service. All of the vendors I had on-board for this shoot blew my expectations out of the water, and are some of the best people I have ever met. You can find them all linked at the bottom of this post. ♥️
Wedding day details are made up of your invitations, jewelry, and all the little things that are special to you. I only had a little over 3 weeks from the day I found out I had the cover to the day of the shoot. Getting invitations printed in that time was unrealistic, but luckily for me my clients Ricky + Ashley had sent me their invitations for their upcoming wedding and they are GORGEOUS. They fit the theme perfectly and I’m so glad Ashley let me use them! For the jewelry and other small items I raided my grandmother’s things and I was also able to snag my models’ real Save the Date. 😉
I know absolutely nothing about hair + makeup, I’ll be the first to admit it. I’m so grateful for Kaitlin and Sam because they were able to create magic from my babbling and trying to describe the look I was going for. The boho half-up curly hairdo and soft subtle colors of the makeup were exactly what I wanted. Photographing this part of the day felt just as stressful as a real wedding day for me! On the lawn below our room at the Marriott the other vendors were working tirelessly to set up everything else for later.
After getting the dress and suit on we went downstairs to shoot at a few spots around the JW Marriott at Desert Ridge. Those spots included the new restaurant that they just opened, Tia Carmen, as well as this staircase that I absolutely fell in love with.
Finally it was time for the star of the show. From the beginning stages of this shoot I knew I wanted a bounce-castle covered in balloons. My idea was to focus more on the reception part of the wedding day rather than the ceremony. I wanted to capture the fun of a wedding reception and something nobody has really seen before.
To support the idea that this shoot was focused around the reception, I included a reception table packed with beautiful florals and gorgeous mismatched place settings. I also brought in a DJ to set up his DJ booth just to really drive home that fun reception vibe. I chose not to have a “sweetheart table” because I wanted to incorporate the idea that this couple would be seated among their guests rather than separated.
It was an absolute dream to have the Marriott Resort as my own personal photo-playground. Having access to anything I wanted made these next images possible. In their own personal botanical gardens, massive rocks and tall joshua trees made for a perfect stage.
The party didn’t stop there. To round out a super fun, super colorful, super reception… you’re going to need to re-hydrate after all that! Bring in the tap truck, we’re going to need a LOT of drinks! This 1949 Chevy pickup was renovated to be a mobile tap bar!
That’s A Wrap!
Thank you so much for checking out this special look into my cover shoot. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed putting it all together, and don’t forget to check out all of the amazing vendors below! ♥️