Fall Desert Foothills Wedding / Emily + Jon

Bride and groom kiss in front of a cactus at their fall desert foothills wedding in Arizona

Some couples dream of having an intimate, relaxing wedding day, while others choose to spend their day turning their energy up to the max with the party of the year. Emily and Jon were the latter couple and they planned an upbeat wedding at Desert Foothills Events in Arizona along with all their closest loved ones. Keep reading to learn more about their fall wedding in Arizona and see some of the epic dance moves on the dance floor (I promise, you’re not going to want to miss these!).

Emily and Jon: A Story From The Night They Met

Emily and Jon first met at a bar - in a classic boy meets girl scenario. At one point during the evening, Emily spilled her drink so Jon offered to buy her a new one to which she responded, “No, I can do it.” and she did. That night at the bar proved to be the first of many moments Emily and Jon shared together and it wasn’t long before they were on their way to the alter to tie the knot and say ‘I Do’.

Emily and Jon’s Upbeat Desert Foothills Wedding in Arizona

If I could describe this fall wedding in Arizona in one word, it would be spontaneous! Although they planned a traditional wedding, Emily and Jon did things their way and enjoyed lots of moments simply doing things they loved!

The first example of this was at the very start of their desert foothills wedding day. While many couples spend those first few hours getting ready separately, Emily and Jon opted to do couple photos with their two dogs before the wedding ceremony. They chose not to do a first look but Emily still wanted to keep her wedding dress a surprise for when she walked down the aisle so she wore a cute bridal jumper during their pre-wedding couple photos instead and, I have to say, it was the most genius idea ever!

Emily and Jon’s fall wedding took place in October and, if you know anything about Arizona weather, you’ll understand that it’s rare for us to get rain this time of year. On the way to their Arizona wedding venue, we saw huge dark clouds forming in the sky. By the time we arrived at Desert Foothills Events, it was POURING rain and we started considering whether or not we would have to move their ceremony into the barn. Luck was on their side though because it stopped raining just in time for their outdoor wedding ceremony and we got some of the coolest clouds in the background for all their photos.

One of my favorite unique elements about this wedding was that Emily and Jon had requested to get a photo of every single one of their guests with their partner. This usually would have proven to be a difficult task (on top of all the other wedding photos I typically capture throughout the day) but we came up with the idea to set up a little impromptu photo booth and invited every single guest to get a photo with their loved one. It turned out to be such a fun and unique detail and was one of the highlights of this desert foothills wedding.

Speaking of highlights, the dance floor at Emily and Jon’s reception had an unreal level of energy! If you don’t believe it, just keep scrolling to see how Emily and her sister cleared the dance floor to crawl towards each other and roll around on the ground. Everyone was having the time of their lives and it made for some truly epic memories - not to mention some fun photos as well!