Remember the Gainesville Wedding Expo that we attended a few weeks ago? Well Videotronics put together this awesome video that shows how amazing it was! Watch out for our booth!

Bridal Shows are so much fun and can be great for the bride who needs inspiration and a good place to start. However, they can also be overwhelming and brides could end up feeling helpless. Here are some good pointers to make your experience go as smooth and as fun as possible!

• Go in with a plan. Know exactly what vendors you need to find for your wedding and seek those out first. Most bridal shows have a lay out of the booths. If you are only going to find a cake baker, find their booth and walk straight there.
• Write legibly so the vendors know how to contact you. If they can't read your name or phone number, you could risk not hearing back from them.
• Talk to the vendors about your wedding. Connecting personally with someone who is going to be there on your big day is SO important! Walking around and taking business cards will not give you a good feel for who the vendor is.
• At the end of the day when you get home, sort through your bridal show goodies. Throw away the vendor information that you did not like and keep the vendors you fell in love with or want to know more about.
• Follow up with Vendors as soon as possible!

Sounds easy, right? Go in with a plan, and you will be sure to find success!

Many changes come with getting married. A new house, a new lifestyle, new kitchen appliances and future family additions. But first things first, the biggest change is a new last name. When it comes to changing your name, a woman can decide to take it or leave it. We're asking you newlyweds to please change responsibly!

Some women become attached to their maiden name but still want the same last name as their husband. A quick fix: hyphenating that baby and putting all the names together. What women don't consider is the possible torture of writing out all of those characters on every important document that exists. We're talking checks, doctor visits, insurance forms...the list could go on forever. Just think, you could be writing this out every day:

or this one...

So brides, think carefully about your future name. You don't want people stumbling over your name and not remembering it after an introduction. If you want to keep your last name, make it your middle name!

What did you decide to do with your last name change?

Here at MasterPiece Weddings we read a lot of blogs. But sometimes, on the ever so rare occasion, certain blogs stand out from the pack. Tim Gill's The Dollar Dance is one of those blogs. While the focus of the blog has been on personal finance since it's inception a year ago, Tim recently made the very wise decision to focus the blog more specifically on small business finance.

In Tim's own words: The purpose of The Dollar Dance is to offer business and financial advice to small businesses, primarily to those in the wedding industry. As a business owner, you need to be able to concentrate on what you do best. Please allow The Dollar Dance to be a resource for you to turn to when questions arise regarding taxes, payroll, accounting, pricing and the like.

With his new focus, Tim has been posting lately on the broad topic "Learning What You Need to Succeed" with specific focuses like learning to manage your time and learning to know your limits. His posts have been very insightful and fabulous advice for new and seasoned business owners alike. He offers a fresh perspective on the world of small business finance and management.

Tim, we are so excited about your new venture and cannot wait to see where you go with this.

On Tuesday of last week, Part II of the Budget Chic Wedding Series aired on TV20. This time Melissa discussed reducing your food cost, custom and DIY invitations, and budget decor.

To see what Melissa had to say about it and her strategic ideas on how to keep your guests happy and your budget met, you can check out Part II here.

Thrilled to announce that our very own fabulous Melissa DiStefano, Owner and Lead Planner of MasterPiece Weddings, was asked to be on TV20 last week. 

Her interview made up three parts of their week on Budget Chic Weddings. Part I can be viewed here and discusses cutting your guest list, faux cakes, reducing your floral budget, and limiting your bar options.