Taking care of You

Eat Right.

Okay, so I am fairly selfless, I admit it, I put everyone in front of me. My family (pictured above is our 19 month old Gabriel - he is getting the last of the milk out of his cereal bowl- the kid cracks me up). But I digress, I love my clients, my family, my friends... and I have had a really hard time saying no.



Saying no to projects.



Saying no to my husband.



Saying no to my friends.



Not volunteering for that church committee.



It's hard, no is the hardest 2 letter word out there... I want people to be pleased. I want people to be happy. I don't want to say no.



Just like you may not like an idea that one of your friends or family members has for your wedding, you don't want to break their heart if they feel a pink bedazzled underwear cover is perfect for you and you hate the idea (I don't even know what an underwear cover is...if you love them, I am sorry...)

Stay Clean. (that's Gabriel and Harrison in the bath)

Getting to my point... promise.



There are times you have to just check yourself out, say no to everyone and have some YOU time. Read a book, take a bath, light some candles, turn your phone off, open that bottle of wine, turn on a movie you love. Just take some you time. Life is stressful enough, add to it, planning a big event - and you leave yourself open to get sick. Trust me I've done it.

Blurry Gabriel on the first day of school.

Remember what it was like when you had no cares in the world (if you can even remember back that far) When the best part of your day was eating that after school snack and your mom wasn't there to count how many cookies you were eating.



And breathe.

Cost to Wedding Guests

We all know that a wedding can be extremely costly, to the bride, the bride's family, the groom's family - really whoever is footing the cost of the schin-dig.



But have you ever thought about how much the guest is spending? It's more than you think that's for sure. We found this post on Engagement Experts and  thought it was an interesting take on the cost of the wedding.



Take a look at these stats from Engagement Experts.

Something to think about....what do you guys think?

Placecard Ideas

There are so many different ways that you can do your placecards for your reception. Sure you could do the normal name on a nice piece of paper. But why not step outside the box and make your placecards unique and fun! Here are some ideas from LHCalligraphy at Etsy.



Perfect for a beach wedding!



Sandollar Placecards

 So unique!



Compass Placecards

So pretty!!

Spanish Tile Placecards



Key Placecards

Another great beach wedding placecard!



Beach Umbrella Placecards



You could do conceivably anything with your placecards. Match the theme of your wedding and have some wild and crazy placecard fun!

No Wedding Planner

I recently had the opportunity to observe a wedding that didn't have a planner. I really had a hard time not interfering. Like a serious hard time. In fact, in the end, I couldn't not interfere.

Cartoon Source

But here were some things that I observed as a by-stander/not their wedding planner/didn't want to take over.



1. The bride wasn't dressed 15 minutes before she was supposed to walk down the aisle. Neither were the bridesmaids. No one knew what to do, they were very sadly lost. No direction, the photographer was snapping pictures, but no one had any clue, when I said, "okay, there is about 10 minutes before we have to have you ladies lined up, let's get ya'll dressed." And then it was chaos... I heard things like "WHAT! 10 minutes!" "Wait, I have to finish my make up!" "Where are my under wear!" and much more.



1.5. The mother of the groom sat down with the regular guests, she didn't know she was supposed to be "special".



2. The flowers were wrong. They were delivered wrong. Not intensely wrong, just the wrong color... But no one knew what to do or how to get a hold of the florist. Luckily, I had the florists cell phone number.



3. No one knew how to line up, there was no direction, I wound up getting everyone lined up and cue'ing the musicians.



3.5 The muscians didn't know when to play and not to play, the guests sat to no music at all. She had no music to play, didn't know what to play or that she should. (she was a friend)



4. The musician had no clue when to start and stop the music. When the bride and groom made it back down the aisle, she stopped playing and the guests left the chapel in silence.



5. The guests had no idea there was even a reception or how to get there.



6. At the reception, the DJ had to run everything, because the bridal party, family and venue had no idea, there was no timeline, and just plain unorganized.



7. The bride and groom came up to me like 40 times to thank me. Because they had no clue what they were doing.

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!

Happy Spring!

Gabriel went to see the chickies at Photography 35, frankly I was nervous there was going to be a bloody massacre...but really, he was more interested in the eggies, than the chickies.



And plus his seer-sucker suite was super cute.

Make Your Own Magic Shell

I love Steamy Kitchen, I love Jaden Hair... there I said it.



Now you know.



I bought her book. I met her in person. I follow her on twitter. I make her recipes. Frankly, I think she is gorgeous and super cool. This is border-line stalking. I know.

But, when I saw this link on her blog.. I knew I had to share. Because really, who doesn't love them some Magic Shell. And if you don't know what Magic Shell is... get out from under the rock.

And this recipe, from Eat The Love and their new recipe by photo's is awesome.



Love!

Spoiled Mutt

For those of you that know me, know I love my dog. Bellini is a great addition to our family, so when I ran across this Spoiled Mutt I knew I had to sign up! Immediately!



I am not a fan of having my picture taken... but you can take pictures of my kid and my dog all day!



And how about these?

Seriously, fantastic!



These "mutts" are too cute!

Are you Happy?

In the stress of everyday life, not just in planning a wedding - life can be complicated, stressful. You need to take time out, and ask yourself, Am I Happy?



Sometimes the answer is complicated. Whether the answer is yes or no, the yes can be complicated or the no can be ridiculously complicated. But I think this simple puzzles helps answer the question.



If you're not happy it's selfless to do something about it. (did you hear me, selfless not selfish!!!)



Stepping off my soap box. Thanks for listening.



(sorry I don't know where this image came from, I think I found it on Twitter forever ago and saved it to my desktop... if you know where it came from, let me know so I can give proper credit where it is due.)

Real Simple Weddings - Spring 2011

I was sent a copy of Real Simple Weddings to review, in all honestly, they sent me this magazine for free, so that I could tell you my thoughts and opinions of it. Honest. Thoughts and opinions.



And I hope you know, by now, that you come to our blog for real, honest, and heart felt advice and opinions on all things weddings.



And frankly, I love Real Simple, I buy (like pay for, with real money) their cookbooks, magazines, love their website and tips, follow them on twitter...but I was left a little, well, underwhelmed with this issue.



The cover is gorgeous, and the shoes are frankly, amazing. I want a pair in all colors. But inside is a lot of the same as last year. In fact, a lot of the same images, and articles. I would think that a new season would bring, new ideas, new cakes, new bouquets and new gowns, but this was just a lot of the same as the issue before. I mean the exact same images. Strange, right.



It was also filled with a ton of new information and new ideas, which I love. But I was left a little sad that they couldn't feature a new cake, or a new table number idea. If you are going to roll an idea over from another season, my feeling is to wait at least a few seasons.



I know there are new brides everyday, people get engaged by the dozens hourly... so this magazine may not look like a re-run to a lot of brides, but some may feel the same way I do.



What do you think?

Top 50!!!

I was so thrilled to recieve an email from Andrea Contreras at Project Management Training letting me know that our blog, our super fun, widdle blog was named one of the Top 50 Wedding Planning Blogs! Of all of the blogs in all of the world, we were named #2!!! How cool beans is that!



Here is what PMT had to say:



2. Masterpiece Weddings This ace wedding blog is the cream of the crop and the perfect starting place for those who aren’t sure what their wedding style should be.





What makes it the coolest of the cool beans is that we were named with some fab company, the likes of the Awesomely Awesome Susan of The Premier Wedding Guide and Lisa of E-Events and In My Shoes!



Thank you so much to PMT for recongizing us, and listing us amongst such incredible company!

Perfect Gift

Are you looking for the perfect gift? The gift for the person that has everything?

Well, have I got the perfect idea for you! What about the gift of the yummiest kind?

The gift of Kake Truffles is not only delicious, but now you can buy a gift certificate and your gift can be picked up or shipped at anytime!

Your gift receiver can not only choose the flavors but when they want or need them! It's perfect!

Perfectly Delicious!

Perfectly Timed!

Perfectly Perfect!

To order your Truffles or Gift Certificate, email Erika at erika@kbkakes.com, or check them out at http://www.kbkakes.com/

Gift Certificates can be emailed, so for you last minute shoppers (you know who you are) can still order them, you still have time! Go... email Erika now!

(MasterPiece Weddings was not compensated in anyway for this post - however would like to add that compensation by Truffles would be greatly appreciated)

You never know....

You'll never know who you'll meet. Or when.



You see, I was invited to a birthday party for a dear friend, and I sat down next to a guy that I thought looked as if I could make good conversation with.



Super nice guy, he and his family and friends immediately had me laughing, and the conversation was easy.



I asked him what he did. He said that he was an Event Planner.



I thought, pstcha... whatever. Sure you are. Everyone is an event planner. Whatever.



So then I asked him what type of events he planned, he mentioned some large corporate events, for fashion clients, and large marketing firms.



Okay, sure you do... maybe... maybe you plan something sort of cool like that.



Then he sees me tweeting... he asks me about Twitter... and my blog. And I ask him more about what he does.



Then he casually, and I mean oh so casually, mentioned he'll be on Martha Stewart Radio on Wednesday.



Casually.



No Biggie.



So, I introduce him to my friend Jen, and now Mark Addison and I are BFF's. And I think he's super cool, and I'll cling glasses with him anytime of day.



Have you met, my friend, the Event Planner in New York, Mark Addison? Mark, meet my blog friends, friends, meet Mark.

What an Intern learned

Every semester MasterPiece Weddings accepts two interns from The University of Florida to work with our company.



It's fun for us to see the excitment and enthusiasm that each intern has when they come into our office and see all of the wedding wonderment. And then at the end of the day to see the exhaustion in their faces. But the energy and excitment to come back tomorrow to do it all over again.



This semester I asked our interns Lizzie and Heather to write about their experiences at MasterPiece Weddings.



Lizzie is up first! Here is her summary of her time with us.



My wedding day with Melissa happened to fall on 10.10.10. We had two weddings in one day! It was a busy first wedding day for me, but I worked hard and learned a lot. I felt that these first weddings gave me a solid foundation for the beginning of my 100 hours with Melissa. Through the next couple weddings, I grew more confident in my abilities to handle certain situations. In addition, the certification class gave me extra knowledge which I used in my hours with Melissa.







The first lesson I took away from my experience is a wedding planner’s relationships with vendors is key. Melissa showed me ways to develop friendly relationships with vendors while still remaining professional. I learned how to deal with vendors on the phone and in person as well as the knowledge of how to keep vendor information organized.





The second lesson I learned is to always stay calm no matter what the situation is. If a planner is wigging out, the bride will start to panic, and the last thing a planner wants is for a bride to be unhappy on the best day of her life! Melissa deals with issues that arise swiftly, discretely, and gracefully. I only hope to keep as calm as she does. Many people think that a Wedding Coordinator is unnecessary; however, I saw firsthand that a planner can save the day and just make the life of the couple so much easier.





Through this experience, I discovered that Wedding Planning is my passion. To me, it is not a job. I love just being in the moment helping two people celebrate their love. I want to thank Melissa so much for mentoring me and giving me invaluable experience. There is no way that I would be starting out my career so confidently if it was not for her.



If you are interested in applying for the Intern Program at MasterPiece Weddings, please email us at interns {at} masterpieceweddings {dot} net

Flowerless Bouquets

These bouquets would certainly last much longer than traditional flowers, and they are so sparkly and glamourous!  This one is made of vintage jewelry.

Via Bunches of Bliss

 Feathers, swavorski crystals, and pearls.

Via LovelyBlossom

And how fun is this - colorful pinwheels!

Via rule42

Vote!

Today is our day take advantage of all of the opportunites we've been given, so many people have given up so much for the freedoms we take advantage of everyday.



I know that we are all sick of the phone calls during dinner, the postcards that have litered our mail boxes, the television ads, the signs on the side of the road, the billboards.... all of the attack ads.



All of the ends today, but its your turn to speak your mind and vote! I don't care who you vote for, (well, I kind of do) but either way, go out there and make stuff happen, vote! Speak your mind!

On a Stick

After playing dress-up in the PhoBooth at Ms. Debbie's a few weeks ago, these mustaches and lips on a stick would definitely make for a lot of fun at a reception!

Photo via Maro Kits

Photo via Carl Zoch

Too funny!

(MasterPiece Weddings and its affiliates have not been paid for, for this post.)

Like PB and J

Etsy is the best, because shops like GardenArts make amazing cake toppers like this one! The Peanut Butter and the Jelly are getting married!!! It just doesn't get any cuter.

If you have a cute cake topper, we wanna see it! Please email it to melissa {at} masterpieceweddings {dot} net

(MasterPiece Weddings and its affiliates have not been paid for, for this post.)

Continue to Learn

I had an amazing opportunity to go to Orlando last week to attend a workshop held by The Association of Bridal Consultants. And I finally got to meet a long time friend, Mark Kingsdorf! One thing that was said by Mark Kingsdorf has stuck with me. And reigns true always.

Vendors drive Hot Dog carts, we are Wedding Professionals.



I think that will forever change the way I think. You, of course, want professionals at your wedding, and in the rare occurrence, maybe a Hot Dog Cart (and if that's the case I'll find you one...) But regardless, the people, the professionals that make your wedding dreams come true must be a professional.



You want an expert to handle your wedding, someone that is knowledgeable, reliable, honest, trustworthy. Not a vendor, a Professional.



(and if you want a Hot Dog Cart, I'll make sure they are professional)

If I could do it again...

(Source)

If I could get married again, I would certainly do TONS of small plates all night long! I'd love to do mini-grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup, Risotto Balls, small bites of all of our favorite foods... really, just have tons of little bites all night.

And definitely, signature drinks. Maybe little ones.

What do you think?