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 :)

My First Wedding: Intern Rachael

Hey! I'm Rachael and I just started interning for MasterPiece Weddings this summer. And no surprise here, I LOVE it! I just worked my first wedding this past weekend, and I wanted to share a few thoughts on my perspective.



I have been to several weddings over the years, but I have never seen the behind-the-scenes of how a wedding comes to be. Let me just tell you, it takes A LOT of coordination, more than you think. But that is what MasterPiece Weddings is for, to take away the bride's stress on her wedding day and make sure she has absolutely nothing to worry about. And it is totally worth it.



Here's a sneak peak photograph of the beautiful bride and groom, Patsy and Jon, thanks to Powers Photography!!

It was so incredibly awesome to see everything I was working on in the past few weeks come to life (and Melissa working on the past year and half). I loved setting everything up and helping the bride with her every need. These could be the simplest of things such as making sure her and the groom's drinks were always full during the reception, which never even crossed my mind before or making sure the vendors were on time - and keeping that in the back of my mind, constantly. I learned a lot, and the wedding was absolutely perfect!



My eyes have been opened and I know there is lots more to see. I can't wait! Stay tuned for more thoughts from me!

Interns Need Apply

I am in the process of interviewing for our Intern Positions - so if you are looking for a Summer Part Time or Full Time Internship, possibly some of the Fall, let us know!

If you are full of energy, love weddings, are good with details and muli-tasking, don't mind giving up your weekends, have a great personality... inquire within.

I thought that starting with a testimonial from one of our current interns would be a good place to start, see Melanie's experience below:

PS - I didn't even have to pay her to write this! Unless Fro Yo counts?

My first encounter with Melissa was love at first sight. She came into my class and spoke about volunteer opportunities with Masterpiece Weddings. Being a sport management major I wasn’t interested at first, but as I started listening to Melissa speak, I not only loved her personality and her passion for what she does, but right then I had set my goal to get an interview with her. I knew working with Masterpiece Weddings was just what I needed to do to give me that ‘extra edge.’ I had continued to hear the wonderful and irreplaceable opportunities Melissa had given her volunteers/interns throughout their time working with Masterpiece Weddings, which then made me even more determined to work with her. After getting an interview and being offered to work for Masterpiece Weddings, I can say working for Melissa and Masterpiece Weddings has been a rewarding and continuous learning experience each and everyday. There is not one that is the same, Melissa has confidence in all her volunteers and interns and gives us the opportunity to expand our creative wings.  Working with Masterpiece Weddings pulls all different aspects of business together into one, from leadership, managing, communicating, networking, team work, to creative thinking – all levels of business is applied when working for an event company such as Masterpiece Weddings,  and Melissa lets you par-take in each one!

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