Decor: Pom poms

Everyone wants their wedding to be unique. The best way to create a wedding that is different is through the decorations of course. These adorable tissue paper pom poms from Pom Love at Etsy are a fantastic way to make a wedding your own! You can mix them in with your flowers or even use them as a replacement for flowers or Japanese Lanterns!

They come in different patterns and just about every color you could imagine. Take a looksie.

The best part about these darling decorations is that they are made from 100% recycled paper! How eco-friendly!

Mini Wedding Cakes!

I came across this fantastic post on the Austin Wedding Blog and it was too adorable not to share! Mini- wedding cakes have been around for a while, but I've never seen a mini-wedding cake pan like this! It's too cute for words so I will just share the picture with you.

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Mini-wedding cakes are a great alternative or addition to a traditional wedding cake. If you wanted something a little fancier than cupcakes, these are really a great idea! Here are a few other cutesy mini-cakes that I just love!

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Soft pink and green Inspiration Board

One of our awesometastic brides wants a soft pink wedding with mossy green accents. We created this soft, romantic inspiration board for her to get a feel for what her wedding would look like!

Stay tuned to see how the real wedding compares!

Dresses; Bouquet; Table Number; Chair; Bracelet: Drinks

What do you guys think?

DIY: Paper pomander- flower balls

Check out this great DIY project I found on Hostess with the Mostess! These paper pomander-flower balls would be great as table centerpieces for any event! They're really easy to make, go ahead and give them a whirl!

Aren't they adorable? What do you guys think?

Say Yes to the Dress

I normally don't like the wedding shows on TV. They tend to be about bridezillas and fighting and my brides are nothing like that!

Say Yes to the Dress from TLC is one of the few wedding shows that I actually enjoy watching. They always have happy endings and I love seeing the excitement when the bride finds that perfect dress!

Now, you can watch brides from all over the country try on dresses and you can even watch bridesmaids! TLC has expanded their original show based in New York at Kleinfeld to Bridals by Lori in Atlanta with wedding dresses and bridesmaids dresses!

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(MasterPiece Weddings was in no way compensated for this post, we just like this awesometastic show!)

Summer Blogosphere Series Part 9

Part 9 of our Blogosphere Series brings us to Snippet & Ink! They shared these awesomesauce letterpress notecards from Tallu-lah for asking your maids of honor/ring bearers/groomsmen/other significant peoples to be in your wedding! They are quite darling!

We had a bride who used something like this and I just thought they were so sweet!

The people you ask to be in your wedding would be thrilled to receive something like this! I know I would love it, I'd probably cry being the sap that I am.

How did you ask your bridal party to be apart of your big day?

You can check out Etsy to or Tallu-lah for more of these lovely notecards!

The True Cost of a Wedding

I found this awesomesauce infographic from Credit Sesame and knew I had to share! It has a ton of useful information for all you new brides who don't know much about the costs of a wedding.

If you are new to planning weddings and are looking for a starting point for what you can expect to pay for food, music, flowers, etc, this is a great place to get an idea! 

It also just has a lot of fun facts!

Bouquet of Love and Support

We recently had a bride who incorporated the Bouquet of Love and Support into her ceremony as a substitution for the Unity Candle or Sand Ceremony.I had never seen this done before but I L-O-V-E it!! It is a super awesome option and I think more brides should use it!

Our particular client we had used a vase that had been passed down from generations. They used silk mums as their flowers but you could use literally any flower you like, fake or real!

So instead of pouring sand, water, wine or lighting a candle, the bride and groom each put a flower in the vase. Then have the important people in your life come up and put a flower in your vase and give hugs to the bride and groom. They can come up in couples, or as individuals, whatever you like, personalize it for you.

It was really sweet and emotional for the bride and groom. And it was a great way to involve the family and thank them for being there and supporting the forming of their new family. It really touched my heart, I couldn't help but get teary-eyed.

Thank you Russell Martin for capturing this beautiful ceremony!!

Friday Funday: How to Make a Grand Exit

It's Friday and time for some fun stuff! Are you looking for a way to end your wedding with a bang? Here are some awesometastic ideas for a super fun grand exit!

Sparklers! They even have heart shaped ones!

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Silly String!

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Bubbles!

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Glow Sticks, my personal favorite!

Image via The Bride's Cafe and Amanda Watson Photography 

  And if you really want to go all out, fireworks!

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Whatever you decide to do, a grand exit is a great way to leave a lasting impression on your guests! What did you do for your exit?

Guest List

Have too many people on your guest list? Need to cut down your numbers? I stumbled on this useful tool from Wedding Bee to help you out with your dilemma.

Use this for people you are unsure about on your guest list.

Another way to cut down on guests is to eliminate kids. This may seem harsh, but you can always just limit it to college aged or high-school aged kids only. If all of your invitees have 2 or 3 kids, that adds up and can become quite costly.

Keep in mind that lowering your guest count is the best way to lower your out of pocket costs, less people = less tables = less rentals = less centerpieces = less meals = less overall costs to you.

Your wedding should consist of those closest to you that you want to share your life with. Not every joe shmoe you ever met!

Detail: Draping the Venue

I went to my cousin's wedding recently and fell in love with draping the ceiling! This fabulous detail really adds something extra to your venues. It's that detail that is going to make your guests stop and say, "wow".

You could go more simple like these:

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Or a bit more extravagant like this one

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Love the lights in the drapes!

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Really make your wedding pop with some drapes in your wedding color. This is such a great detail to add into your wedding to make an unforgettable event! 

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 :)

Blogosphere Series Part 8

For part 8 of the blogosphere series, one of my favorite blogs, How About Orange, put up this post about do-it-yourself sugar cubes. They are so adorable and such a great detail for any event! Check them out!

Aren't they scrumptious? How About Orange always has the coolest DIY projects, make sure to check them out!

To make the sugar cubes yourself go to Nifty Thrifty Things.

Jay's Bridal Expo!

Jay's Bridal will be hosting their EGainesville Wedding Expo on August 28th, 2011 from 12pm-5pm in the Phillips Center here in Gainesville!! They will be featuring tons and tons of local vendors, you can plan your wedding in one day! You can get tickets online or at the door.

Eat cake, sample food, check out some of the vendors - remember this is your opportunity to check out their work, talk to them, see if your personalities mesh... it's fun, and totally worth it!

Check out this video or click here to learn more!

Gainesville Wedding Expo - August 28, 2011 from Platinum Digital Video on Vimeo.

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?

Shannon and David Slideshow

We have got more pictures from Shannon and David's wedding to share! We promised more and we don't break our promises! Check out this awesomesauce slideshow that Bobbi and Mike made of their wedding day!



Can I just say that I LOVE that song. So beautiful, thanks again Bobbi and Mike, we can't say enough good things! And thanks Shannon and David for letting us be a part of your awesometastic wedding!!

Inspiration Board: Light blue and green

I am loving this light blue and green color combination for a wedding. Pale colors just add something lovely and soft and romantic to the feel of a wedding. If that's your cup of tea then take a looksy at my new inspiration board.




Dress; Beads; Glass rings; Cake; Cupcakes; Ribbons; Bouquet; M&Ms; Soap Flowers; Board

  What do you guys think?

Blogosphere Series Part 7

For part 7, we have to give props again to Every Last Detail! They are just the awesomest!

They have done a couple of posts recently on going outside of the box on bridesmaids dresses and mismatching the dresses instead of doing everybody in the same dress. It is such a bold and fantastic idea! We LOVE it!

All of the bridesmaids dresses are from Anthropologie (my new favorite store) and the wedding dress is from J. Crew.

Who says bridesmaids dresses have to be the same? Try out this trend and tell us about it!

Awesometastic Marriage Proposal: Kaity and Bobby

Kaity and Bobby were some of our awesometastic'est clients, and they have a seriously cute proposal story to share to go along with our theme of awesometastic marriage proposals.

Aren't they the cutest!

The story as told by Kaity:

Bobby and I were going up to Gainesville for the Orange and Blue debut last weekend. The morning of the game is the annual Gator Yard Sale - aka where they sell off game-used jerseys (Bobby's other love in his life). For weeks, Bobby told me how stressed he was about the sale and how he was nervous about not getting good jerseys, etc. I told him to be calm and thankful for anything he got!

So, Friday night on the drive up he tells me that we have to go to campus. Kendall (our friend and future bridesmaid!) had texted him that the sale tent had moved and we needed to scope it out. We were planning to be in line at 6am (for the 9am sale). I told him he was crazy and to not worry about it. He persisted and decided we had to go to campus to check.

There we are at 9 o'clock at night cruising campus at 20 mph. He pulls into the parking lot behind Gator Dining. "Why don't you park at the O'Dome. It's closer." "No. It's closed." "It's not closed! Go check." "Yeah, it is." "No, it's not."

Eventually I caved and we parked at Gator D and started walking up to the corner of North-South (Gale Lemerand for you babies) and Stadium Road. Before I know it, he's stopping me at the corner - in front of the Bull Gator...and saying some lovely things I will keep to myself and asking me to marry him. After "Are you serious?!!?" I said "Yes" and that leads me to the most beautiful ring I have ever seen...

Check out Kaity's blog for more!

Unique Wedding Favors

As much as we all love candy, little chocolates, Jordan Almonds or M&M's...  it can get a little boring.

Set a statement with your wedding favors! Try something different and unique like these treats:

Flip Flops in your colors are great for a cute outdoors wedding!


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These are the cutest things EVER!



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Or even some herbs or plants are fun



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The sky is the limit with wedding favors! Do something creative that shows your personality as a couple and make sure your guests never forget your wedding!