Part 1: AZ wedding weekend extravagana

Let me just say this:  Arizona was beyond.  I'm seriously baffled that I never knew how pretty it was there.  It also didn't hurt that we stayed at The Montelucia, an award-winning luxury resort and spa.   If you ever have a chance to stay there, do it and don't even think twice. 

I remember when Christina (the bride) told me they decided on a destination wedding in AZ, I wasn't really sure what to expect.  Nothing really did justice to the resort until I actually got there and saw it in its entirety.  I mean, hello ... we literally walked into this view when we got out of the cab.  Need I say more?

More views of the resort:

One of my besties from high school and another bridesmaid, Lisa, was on the same flight as me from Dallas to Phoenix. The first thing we did upon arrival was order Mimosas, duh. Well, technically our room wasn't ready and we had to get ready for the Bridesmaids Luncheon in one of the restaurant's rest rooms, but ... mimosas were second up. Lisa may or may not have had to wash her feet in the sink.  

After we guzzled our mimosas, we headed to the luncheon, which was hosted at a restaurant in Scottsdale called Arcadia Farms. It was the perfect little girly outing – it had the cutest cottage and garden setting. The salads were to die and the dessert we all split at the end was delectable. I like that word. Delectable.

Once lunch wrapped up, we headed back to check into our room to get ready for the rehearsal. When we opened the door to our room, I believe I heard a chorus of angels singing. The shower was out of this world and I seriously want that set-up in my house when I grow up. We also had to call the front desk for a few things and the bell boys that brought stuff up were hottie mchottersons. Yes, sir. I’ll take one of you and you.

I know I already showed you the view from our room, but it's so pretty, I couldn't resist showing you again:

Lounge chair on our patio:

We had the rehearsal on the lawn overlooking Camelback Mountain. Lisa took a shot of us looking into the top of a water canister. Clearly we were playing close attention to the wedding planner.

The doors into the reception room, they were flown in from Spain!

The soon to be bride and groom's last day technically "single":

A trolley took us to the rehearsal dinner at an Italian restaurant you may know - Grimaldis. 

The bride and my BFF Liz on the trolley:

The bride and groom met and live in NYC so they wanted a piece of NY at the wedding. One of their first dates was actually at the Grimaldi’s in NY – cute, huh? The food was amaze, and there went my diet.  Bye bye … see ya later. There is a Grimaldis directly across from my office building and I had never been there. Now I know how good it is, which could pose a problem. Summer is basically here and me and a 2 piece are not getting along right now.

I loved hanging with my besties from high school at the rehearsal dinner. Some of us don’t get to see each other all the time, so it was great to catch up and reminisce about our "rebel" high school days. Our friends were the last to leave the dinner (typical), but we all went to bed at a decent hour because we had to be up and ready to go at 9 a.m. the next day for the wedding.

The "fab 5":

The groom's fave for dessert:

Tomorrow I’ll finish my Arizona wedding weekend extravaganza recap with Wedding Day festivities. Hope you enjoyed the recap so far!