Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from MasterPiece Weddings!

At our office we always have a blast with Halloween! Check out Gainesville's Best Wedding Planners have some fun with todays holiday!

Let me introduce you to Intern Melissa as Michael Jackson, Me as Beauty Queen - Miss Conception, and our own personal Wild Things Erinn as A Wild Thing, and Amanda as King Max.

Thank you Powers Photography for taking the time to have some fun with us and take our pictures, I know we are dorks -- and you are so patient and wonderful! We love you.

And of course our signature jumping photo!

Love Shoot: Carolyn & Chris

A sweet and casual love shoot from Snippet & Ink reader, Carolyn: My new husband and I are currently living in Singapore and we were married last month in Perth, Australia where he is from. We wanted to incorporate something Australian into the pictures and what better way than Australian bottle trees at Bottle Tree Park, right here in sunny Singapore!

Bride's dress: Banana Republic

Groom's suit: Zara

Photos: The Peeping Thom

Casual Wedding Dresses

Casual Wedding Dresses

Wedding is a very special affair and even in few years ago, people used to plan and prepare its dresses taking months together. Those were the days when wearing formal traditional wedding dresses was almost mandatory. But, with change in lifestyle and people's attitude towards social ethos, formal bridal dresses are gradually receding giving way to the next generation casual wedding dresses.

Shifting of marriage venues from churchyards to backyards has also contributed greatly in encouraging using casual wedding dresses. If you are planning to solemnize your much awaited marriage ceremony secretly in an isolated island, will you bother to go for the minute details of a formal nuptial? Collecting short informal dresses will certainly be your first preference then. Such informal dresses have their inherent advantages over their counterparts. Opportunity of creating one's own personalized wedding dresses also exists with the casual wedding attires. Seeing great potential, designers and manufacturers are also now days busy developing exotic and relaxing casual marriage dresses.

Depending upon the place of celebration, nature and design of your casual wedding dresses should be decided. Marriage at one's own backyard with complete family gathering requires sober and decent dresses. If it is a hot summer evening, you must not choose something that may help you sweat further. A nice designer strapless may fulfill your requirement. You may also go for sleeves, if you feel uncomfortable with the strapless exposures. A square or v-shaped neckline may be chosen to suit your taste. With casual bridal dresses, there exist actually unlimited options to choose ideal marriage attires. Few very common examples of informal marriage outfits are halter neckline, designer silhouettes, sleeves, waistlines, skirts with matching jackets, bridal trains, etc.

Real Wedding: Sharlyn & Jim

Gia Canali takes such lovely photos, so I'm thrilled to have a chance to share her work with you on Snippet & Ink... Sharlyn shared with me why she and Jim chose this for their wedding: "We had recently moved to the Bay Area and wanted to provide an exciting opportunity to have our friends and family join us for a long wedding weekend get-away. We liked the charming feel of Healdsburg and absolutely fell in love with Healdsburg Country Gardens - it was quaint, private and romantic. Nothing pretentious or gaudy. The amazing oak tree overlooking the vineyards symbolizing a new life of strength and wisdom, the European gardens that wound around the premises, and the 1804 barn just sealed the deal as my husband had asked me to marry him at a barn in Seattle (with my horse in tow). Believe me when I tell you, he wanted to figure out a way to have my horse there at the ceremony!"




As much as I love wedding photos, I just can't resist the sweet stories from the bride and groom that might not be visible in pictures. Sharlyn shares one of her favorite moments from the day: "A light wind had picked up during the ceremony, blowing through the grapevines and oak tree. After the exchanging of vows and the kiss, we walked down the grass aisle to have the wind scoop my veil up and tightly wrap Jim up in it. As soon as it was unraveled, the wind blew again only to find Jim wrapped closely to my side in the veil. It was a great symbol of our now joined life together." Sharlyn's mother made her veil.





















Venue: Healdsburg Country Gardens, Healdsburg, California

Bride's dress: Jenny Lee

Thank you to Gia Canali for sharing these photos. And of course, congratulations and best wishes to you, Sharlyn and Jim!

A Twilight Wedding

In honor of Halloween tomorrow, we decided to make an inspiration for one of the most talked about weddings in vampire cinema history. Bella and Edward, here is your Twilight inspiration...

What do you think?

Real Wedding: Elizabeth & Noah

Noah and Elizabeth are a "BBQ loving Southerner and vegetarian New Englander," and they were married somewhere in between at this historical Maryland inn. Katie Stoops from Open Air Photography sent over some beautiful photos of this timeless wedding...






Elizabeth wore fresh lavender in her hair.














With more than 20 children in attendance, it was important to include them and make the wedding enjoyable for them, too. The innkeepers set up a kids' station with kid-friendly foods and floor seating with pillows. They also had babysitters on site for the little ones and so parents could enjoy the evening stress free.


Favors were 5 dragees in canvas tea bags, with a tag that read "five wishes for a sweet life."




Elizabeth shares this bit about the cake: "About 8 months before the wedding, I couldn't think of the perfect wedding gift for Noah, until I was watching an episode of the Food Network's Ace of Cakes. The idea hit me, and several friends and family kept this a guarded secret until the reception. Noah is a longtime Star Wars fan, so I auditioned all of the characters in my mind until I decided on the Millennium Falcon ship. He had no idea until we walked into the tent and were walking up to the cake."




The fireworks were one of the couple's favorite moments of the day. Since they love fireworks, they chose to fit it into their budget, and surprised all of their guests with a beautiful finale to the day.

Venue: Brome Howard Inn, St. Mary's City, Maryland

Bride's dress: Pronovias

Bride's shoes: Nine West

Flowers: DIY, purchased from a wholesaler

Cake: Charm City Cakes

Fireworks: Digital Lightning

Congratulations to Elizabeth and Noah, and a big thank you to Katie Stoops for sharing these photos with us. You can see even more from this beautiful wedding in the galleries on Katie's website.

Planning Ahead

So there are so many things to consider when picking a wedding date. Sure, you may have a perfect date in your head but you must realistically consider other events hapenning besides your wedding...

For instance, a beautiful Fall wedding sounds great in theory, but what happens if it falls on the biggest local college football game? Would you really want to be stuck in traffic with angry fans trying to get to a tailgate on your wedding day? You don't want your guests showing up hours late to your ceremony or reception.

Traffic isn't the only thing that worries us. Big weekend events call for higher hotel prices, higher rental rates, as well as increased package prices for some vendors.

Every season has it's downfalls. Winter brings in corporate holiday parties and increase chance of snow storms up north. Springs and Summers brings local community events like art festivals, local shows, and not to mention hot, rainy seasons.

So when picking a date, plan ahead! Consider all of your options including community events to ensure that the day runs smoothly!

Real Wedding: Dmitra & Pascal

In some ways, today's feature is an ode to a dress, but I also love sharing a couple's wedding day story in their own words, especially when it is put as beautifully as this one was. I enjoyed reading this lovely story from Dmitra and Pascal as much as I enjoyed their amazing wedding ensembles (photographed by the talented Jude Mooney)...

"Dmitra and Pascal finally decided to get married on their 10 year anniversary. Pascal is French and sometimes feels he was born in the wrong century, so they chose to have 18th century ensembles created. She wanted lush and gorgeous clothing that wasn't too theatrical, while he wanted to retain his punk rock aesthetic. Master San Francisco costume designer and couturier Todd Roehrman helped the couple hone in on their vision through historical costume research, creating sketches and sifting through fabrics. Dmitra's dress featured a fully hand-built embroidered silk corset and cascading, hand-made silk flowers, one of Roehrman's specialties. He also created a striking pheasant feather headdress and velvet collar, finished with period silk brocade and buckle shoes. Todd added industrial zipper piping, large clasps and silk flowers to Pascal's gentleman's frock coat and pants, paired with an embroidered silk vest and the quintessential black boots. Everyone else got to wear whatever they wanted, which made for an eclectic and originally bedecked audience. The ceremony and reception were held on a friend's private ranch near Sonoma, surrounded by ancient oak trees and rolling hills. The couple ended the ceremony by jumping over a manzanita broom made by a friend in the African American tradition of Dmitra's heritage. They have a 9 year old son, Keda Dawn, who would not wear his fancy Indian suit but did come down out of the oak tree to put the rings on his parents."























Venue: private ranch in Kenwood, California

Custom wedding clothing: Todd Roehrman

Buckle shoes: Fugawee

Catering: Olive & Vine

Dmitra shares her favorite reading from the ceremony, an Egyptian song dating from 1300-1100BCE, found inscribed on a vase in hieroglyphs and adapted by Robert Haas: This love is as good as oil and honey to the throat / as linen to the body, as fine garments to the gods / as incense to worshippers when they enter in / as the little seal-ring to my finger / it is like a ripe pear in a man's hand / it is like the dates we mix with wine / it is like the seeds the / baker adds to the bread. / We will be together even when old age comes. / And the days in / between will be like food set before us, / dates and honey, bread and wine.

It's so wonderful to see such a unique wedding, that is such a reflection of the couple. Thank you so much to Jude Mooney for sharing these photos, and to Dmitra and Pascal for sharing the story of the day!