Wedding Planning Intern: Rachael

Russell Martin Photography

My name is Rachael (that's me all the way to the right), and I have been interning with Melissa and MasterPiece Weddings all summer long, I know, I don't know how I've lasted either! Just kidding! But seriously, it has truly been a great experience, and I have learned a lot.

It took me a while to settle on weddings as a career choice, but I definitely think I made the right decision, especially in starting off my experience with Melissa. My first weekend interning, I worked a wedding in Ponte Vedra Beach. It was gorgeous and everything ran smoothly, I thought maybe it was a fluke. From what I had seen from various media outlets, I was expecting nothing short of a bridezilla-esque experience. I know that not every bride is that way, but I was expecting more chaos and drama, at least some sort of mental breakdown. To my pleasant surprise, none of this ever happened, throughout my whole internship! Melissa was cool and collected at all times and handled every problem with ease, not that there really were any.

Melissa has taught me many things but one of the most important things, I think, is how to compose yourself around the clients and vendors. Even if everything is going wrong and the church is on fire, you can't let the bride know. You tell her everything is under control and you handle it. You have to act like you know what is happening even if you don't. This was something I found a little difficult, but I realized the importance of it. I have learned that it is my job to make sure the bride doesn't have to stress about anything on her big day. I handle the questions, errands, and any issues that arise.

The day-to-day office work is a bit monotonous.... but I still learned a lot about social media, what with Melissa being a self-proclaimed expert and all. But seriously, she is. If you need help with blogging, twittering, and/or any other social networking, go to her. I sort of became an expert blogger myself, many of the blog posts you have seen in the past months have been from me! I liked the researching and looking at pretty wedding pictures and what not, it was fun.

I think my favorite part of my internship though was the personal encounters with the brides. I love love loved going to meetings with brides to discuss details and actually working the day of. I felt so important in helping someone on the most significant day of their life. I wished that I could have been involved in the entire planning process with each bride, but unfortunately, I was only there for a short period of time.

I know that my experiences with Melissa and the MasterPiece Weddings Teams, will help me in my future career, and I can't wait to start!

Thanks for reading :)