wedding: June 2011

Hostage Situation Part 2

12 hours gone and our demands have still not been met! This means torture. Bobbi and Mike, you were warned.

You have 24 hours...

We had a fantastic #nachocheesewedding with the lovely Bobbi and Mike this past weekend! They were the awesomesauce!

However, they made the mistake of leaving their precious clear umbrella in our car. And now we have ourselves a hostage situation.

We had no choice but to present them with a ransom note detailing our demands.

12 hours in and we are already getting antsy

Daytona Wedding: Lauren and James Preview

We loved working with the talented Garrett Nudd for Lauren and James's wedding in the fabulous Daytona Beach! It was a beautiful wedding and the funnest sparkler exit ever! Here is a little preview of it..

More to come!

Groomsmen: Colored Pants

I've been seeing this trend lately of colored pants for the groomsmen. It's popping up everywhere, and I gotta say, I am not loving it.

Am I the only one??

By Julie Mikos via Elizabeth Anne Designs

By Lauren Kinsey Photography via Every Last Detail

What do you guys think?

Wedding Ceremony - Who Stands Where

Rachel & Jeremy's ceremony at Churon Winery. Photo: Dave White of Photo Catering

The Wedding Ceremony. It's the reason why your family and friends gather on your big day. So much attention and time are spent on making sure the reception is flawless. But what about the ceremony itself? Have you thought about how it will go smoothly? Who stands where? What is the processional order? How should your bridal party enter? Who is going to make sure it's flawless?

More than half of weddings in Southern California are not held at a religous site, such as a church or synagogue. Do you know if your venue manager is going to work out the logistics? A wedding rehearsal is the time and place to work out all the details.

I give all of my clients a ceremony diagram they can fill out long before the rehearsal. This takes all the stress out of deciding who will stand where, and the order in which they process and recess. By doing so, the rehearsal will only last one hour, and you and your loved ones can get to dinner. The best part is..everyone knows exactly what to do on the wedding day.

The reason I wrote this post is to save your sanity. At a recent wedding, there were 24 members of the bridal party, not including parents and the bride and groom. They did not decide the logistic prior to the wedding. Therefore the rehearsal was chaos. Many of the groomsmen didn't attend, many members were late, and no one knew who should stand where. I learned alot that day. I don't want you to go through the same experience. If you have a planner at your venue or church, provide them with the information they need to ensure your rehearsal is efficient and a success. Need some help? Check out this link http://weddings.about.com/od/yourweddingceremony/a/Processional.htm to plan ahead.

Tips for a successful ceremony:

Have a rehearsal.
If your rehearsal is at 5pm, tell everyone it's at 4:30 pm. This ensures you start on time, and get to dinner on time.
Decide prior to the rehearsal who will stand where, who will escort your grandmother and mother, etc.
Have a plan for flower girls and ring bearers. If they have a meltdown on wedding day, plan for it. Seat their parents close to the front row. They may need to sit with them instead of standing front and center.
Who will hold the rings?
If possible, have your officiant attend the rehearsal to help facilitiate their way of doing things.
Bring a stand in bouquet. Your maid of honor will need to know when to take it from you.

Practice makes perfect.You take so much time to plan all the perfect details of your dream day. Make sure that the reason your guest gather "to see your union" goes smoothly.

Summer Blogosphere Series Part 2

I have found another fantastic blog for you guys to look at. This post from The Cinderella Project is so insightful! For all of you who wonder how ridiculously amazing weddings are set up, take a peek at this video from Mark Niemierko. It is absolutely stunning!!

NIEMIERKO WEDDING: Art Deco Chic at Claridge's Hotel, London from Niemierko on Vimeo.

Summer Whites

Tacori has come out with a new gemstone, "creamy chalcedony" and has created a summer white collection around it. I just absolutely LOVE it and would feel fantabulous wearing any of these gorgeous masterpieces!

Summer Blogosphere Series

We are starting a new tradition this summer so get excited!! Each week for the rest of the summer, we will be blogging about our favorite blogs!

We will find the cutest, funnest, and creativest posts out there and share them with you guys! Here is the first in our series from Bridal Snob!

This antique lace covered tree creates a great natural arch. It is such a neat and unique idea!

Bridal Snob always has the coolest and most different pictures. Stop by their blog and see what they have!

Find a Wedding Job

The fantastic Liene Stevens from Think Splendid has created this awesometastic source for those of us in the wedding industry! It's Find a Wedding Job and is much needed because as we know there are always people searching for jobs in the wedding sector.

We love this and we love Liene for making it happen!

Read their blog and follow them on twitter!

Bridesmaids Dresses: Twobirds

We've heard how brides may choose ugly bridesmaids dresses so that they are not overshadowed by their girlfriends. However, I think this is a bit of an exaggeration. As much as the bride wants it to be her day, I don't think she wants ugly bridesmaids. Then the pictures will be ugly, who wants that?

Anyway, I came across this bridesmaid dress from twobirds that is the epitome of awesometastic! It looks ultra comfortable, and you can wrap it 15 different ways (probably more), and it is extremely cute! It can work on literally any and every body type out there. You can't look bad in this dress.

source

Each bridesmaid can choose her favorite style! I love the straps in the back!

source

There is every color you can imagine and you can do short or long!

source

I am seriously in love with this find! There are so many beautiful possibilities. And not to be cliche, but this is defintiely one dress that I would wear again. And again and again and again. I kind of want it in every color for myself.

Check out the twobirds website for more colors and styles and how to tie your dress!

What do you think?

Sunsets in Florida: Inspiration Board

Its summertime here in Gainesville, FL and it is HOT! Getting married during the day in the Florida heat can be a bit tricky, especially if you are wanting an outdoor ceremony. With the heat, however, we also get the gorgeous sunsets, and I was recently inspired by the colors of this lovely purple and orange sunset.

And from this sprouted a new inspiration board! Hope you like it :)

Lanterns; Cupcakes; Flower; Table Setting; Bridesmaids Dresses; Necklace; Feathers; Sunset

What do you think?

Gainesville Wedding: Glenda and Jake Preview

You probably saw the video teaser of Glenda and Jake's wedding that we posted a little while ago. Well now we have some pictures to show you!! Their wedding at Sweetwater Branch Inn was absolutely gorgeous! We LOVED working with Glenda and Jake, they were seriously the sweetest and so much fun!

So unbelievably adorable!!

Vendors who helped create this funtastic wedding:

Photography: Pure by Lindsey

Entertainment: The Tropix

Flowers: Prange's Florist

Wedding Coordinator: MasterPiece Weddings

Venue/ Catering: Sweetwater Branch Inn

Wedding Hair

We all know that hair is extremely important, especially on your wedding day. Deciding on a wedding day do can be mega stressful for the bride. There are a lot of factors to consider. Do I want it up? down? half up? Will it be too hot? Or in my face? Curly? Straight? Will it work with my veil?

A girl can go crazy thinking about it all! I think it is best to go simple. You don't want to be messing with it all night or worrying about it falling out.

For long hair, I like the half up style and to the side. I saw this at a wedding this past weekend and I absolutely love it! It looks gorgeous on everyone. It's so elegant!

source

With short hair, I would go with a low, curled, loose up do (high up dos remind me of prom, no?) or even just out and loosely curled. You could also add in some sparkly hair clips or braids to jazz it up.

source

I'm a fan of the more natural look. It is your wedding day so plain straight hair is a little blah but the beauty pageant look might be overdoing it. Plus, you're husband loves your natural beauty, right?

What are you doing for your wedding hair?

Guestbook Fun

When I stumbled across this, I just knew I had to share it with you guys! Bleu De Toi has come out with this fun and unique way of remembering the guests at your wedding. This guestbook fingerprint tree can become a lovely keepsake to hang on your wall instead of just some book that sits in a box in your attic.

Each woodcut print is hand printed and personalized just for you! The branches are left bare and you can choose the ink colors you want your guests to leave their thumb prints with.

I just love this idea! It's different and cute and fun for all of your guests!

You could even do balloons!! So adorable!

[Source]

Erica O'Brien Cake Design

We all know that wedding cake is delicious. It's smells of butter and sugar and melts in your mouth. But did you know it can be a piece of art? Many thanks to Erica O'Brien for her talents and eye for detail. She created this artful cake for our Tuscany Wedding Shoot, at Serra Plaza in San Juan Capistrano. Don't you love the non-traditional shape and height? Erica definately thinks outside the box. This cake has elegance, modern styling, and a vintage feel. My favortie part is the lace feature. She actually replicated a piece of lace from a photo I sent her. Now that's what I call talent.

Images Courtesy of Chris Grffiths of Imagery Immaculate

Many thanks to Heather and Kimberly of Style Unveiled for showcasing Erica's talents, and recognizing all the vendors who contributed to our Dream of Tuscany.

Inspiration Board: Neutrals, Sage, Coral and Mauve

We have a bride that is going to be combining neutrals, sage, coral, and mauve with accents of red. She wants a fun, natural and elegant wedding so we put together this inspiration board for her. Tell us what you think!

Couple; Shoes; Centerpiece; Hair Piece; Cake with cascading flowers; Cake with red; Red Centerpiece; Girl with apples; Candles; Fruit; Rosemary; Bridal Party; Hair Pins

Black and White Weddings

Today we were looking up some ideas for a client, and ran across this inspiration board.

I love the idea of a black and white wedding! These colors can be used at any time of the year, and really make a statement. If you don't want to go all black and white, you could even add accents of any color to pop against the black and white.

Borrowed Inspiration Board

A Scarlet O'Hara Moment

Photo Courtesy of Picotte Photography

I had to share this photo because I adore it. My bride Rita allowed me the honor of lacing her into her wedding gown. She had only had one bridesmaid, and she lived out of state. Her beautiful A-Line gown featured a stunning lace corset down the back. Since her attendant couldn't attend the final fitting, the honor was all mine. I love how Suthi Picotte of Picotte Photography captured my intensity. I'm not gonna lie...my hands were shaking at the outset. But once I got going, it was a breeze. How did I do?

Last week, I attended my bride Krisi's final fitting. She also has a lace corset on her gown. Guess who get's to lace her in? That would be me. It's these little moments that I love about my job.

Lacing a corset is not as easy as it looks. If your gown requires you to be laced in, make sure you take along your maid of honor, or someone you trust to handle the pressure on wedding day. Or, just call me...I'd love to be of service.

World Vision Dinner

There will be a fabulous dinner hosted by Napolatanos Gardens to support World Vision on Monday, June 20th! This dinner will benefit World Vision's Clean Water Wells! It would be wonderful if you could attend.

These children are unable to go to school because they are busy carrying buckets of water through town to their families. These wells will enable them to get an education. Our goal is to raise enough money to build two wells, which would help over 100 people!

If you can't make it and are able to afford it, please make a donation. There is no amount too small!

Images from World Vision

Tuscany Wedding Photo Shoot

Enjoy this Tuscan Style Ceremony Site, from the talented lens of Chris of Imagery Immaculate I had the absolute priviledge to design and create a photo shoot at Serra Plaza. It's a stunning venue in San Juan Capistrano. The goal was to showcase the beauty and details of this new venue. Filled with warm adobe colors, tile roofs and a bubbling fountain, I saw Tuscany. The challenge was to create it!

The photo shoot was visually amazing from every angle. In fact it was featured on The Style Unveiled Blog this week. Since it was featured, we've had such amazing feedback. I even received an email from another planner from South Florida. I would love to hear your comments. And if you want a wedding that feels like Tuscany, call me. I can make it happen.

I have to give kudos to the amazing team of professionals that made this vision come to live. If you want a dream team for your wedding, call these peeps.

Venue: Serra Plaza in San Juan Capistrano
Photography: Imagery Immaculate
Catering: Jay's Catering
Floral Design: Sussanna Davidson of French Buckets
Stationery: Paula Estes of Petalos Di Pauli
Bakery: Erica O'Brien Cakes
Bridal Stylist: Hope Stanley
Bridal Beauty: Design Visage
Bridal Gowns: Mary Me Bridal
Tuxedos: Friar Tux
Rentals: Classic Party Rentals, Orange County and Chameleon Chair Collection

The Wedding Salon: Miami Event

Check out The Wedding Salon's fantastic bridal event at The Gansevoort, Miami Beach on June 13th. As a reader of our blog, Adventures in Wedding Planning, you guys get a special promo ticket price!! Use the code on the bottom of the flyer below.

And the first 10 people to e-mail us at melissa@masterpieceweddings.net get a FREE TICKET!! Don't miss out on this fantastic opportunity!

The Tale of Two Weddings

Hi, I'm Julie, I am a fairly new intern here at MasterPiece Weddings, I have had the pleasure of assisting in two different weddings in the past few weeks. They both were absolutely beautiful and fit the brides perfectly. But for the sake of future brides, these are a few differences in the weddings that I loved!

First difference was the colors.

One of the weddings used hot pink and pewter. It was very nicely done. The hot pink was used scarcely in order to really make it pop against the pewter.

The other wedding used a beautiful arrangement of navy blue and ivory, with a few hints of purple. These softer colors really complemented the bride perfectly.

Navy Blue and Ivory

Next big difference was the bridesmaid’s dresses.

The first wedding used short, solid color pewter dresses, and wore hot pink shoes. These dresses looked great on everyone, and really made their hot pink bouquets stand out.

The next wedding went for something a little different. They used long, patterned dresses with silver shoes. These dresses were white, different shades of blue, and purple. With their purple and white bouquets, they looked stunning!

Finally, the Wedding Party.

The first wedding had both eight bridesmaids and groomsmen. They really filled up the alter, and made the “getting ready” portion of the day fun. The bride enjoyed having all of her friends with her to celebrate her big day.

The other wedding went with a smaller party. They had three bridesmaids (two of them being a maid of honor), and just one groomsman. This made for a very intimate group, but the bridal suite was definitely not empty. Many of the guests joined the bride while she was getting ready and having pictures taken, which made for a very fun day as well!

More from the views of the MasterPiece Interns soon!

Engage!11

The awesomely fantastic Engage!11 luxury wedding conference occured over Memorial Day weekend at The Grand Del Mar in San Diego, CA. I've been seeing so many beautiful blog posts about it and I just had to share part of it with you guys.

Here is a video produced by Cloud 9 Creative about the whole event!

Engage 11: Grand Del Mar // Wrap Film from Cloud Nine Creative on Vimeo.

Patsy & Jon: The Video

Yesterday we shared with you the amazing images from Patsy and Jon's beautiful Ponte Vedra wedding, today, I get the honor of sharing with you their teaser video, brought to you by Platinum Digital Video.

Short Teaser Set to First Dance Song - Patrizia & Jonathan, Ponte Vedra, FL from Platinum Digital Video on Vimeo.

Patsy and Jon: Sneak Preview

We had been working on Patsy and Jon's destination wedding to Ponte Vedra Beach for almost 2 years. Patsy and I had become BFFs, and I seriously do miss her! We had a blast working with her on her personal, and beautiful, and serioulsy beyond perfect weekend, from the weather to the details and everything in between!

Here is a little preview of Patsy and Jon's destination wedding in Ponte Vedra Beach! There will be more to come! Enjoy!