Melanie's Display

Yo Melanie (our rep from Sun Rental, she'll be blogging soon)

Just wanted to say we had moved your photo candy bar display up front and it's getting some nice comments. Of course we'll do a free shot at our studio to use on the Candy Bar wrappers. But people are talking about the display, not just for weddings, but for communions, parties, special events, etc.

Hopefully they're calling you about it. (Check Sun Rental out HERE)

Later,

- Matt

Cake Masterpieces

Ladies and Gentlemen . . . Debbi Stanicki . . . Debbi owns and operates Cakes to You and has been making cakes for almost 40 years. Her part of this blog will begin with cake decorating trends. Here's the first part of that: 

CAKES have gotten quite a bit more attention today, than in years past. Wedding cakes seemed to be the only cakes that create excitement before. However in the last few years, Ace of Cakes and the Cake Boss have created masterpieces for any occasion.  Their influence has brought worldwide attention to the unending possibilities that can transform the average cake.

Their cakes are usually engineered to include heavy supports and mechanisms. These cakes are usually covered in fondant. Fondant is a sugar dough that is rolled out and laid over the cake to achieve an extremely smooth surface. Fondant, modeling chocolate and gumpaste are used to form figurines and various decorations to decorate these masterpieces.

You may have seen these techniques used on the Cake Challenges on the Food Network where contestants compete for $10,000!  They are usually given a theme to create their cake designs around. Not only do they have height, width and time restraints, but they also have to move their cake to a display table after it is created. Moving it is always the most tense part of the competition. There have been many catastrophes. However, they are allowed to take the cake back to their work station, fix it and move it again. The judges for these competitions are very particular. Cakes are judged on creativity, technique and neatness of the work station.

What a delicious undertaking!

- Debbi

Wedding Season Kicks Off Next Saturday!

Yeah, we've done a couple of weddings since January, but the season really kicks off May 1st for us with Kara and Joe. Then the DOOR starts.

What I mean by that is on my office door I have little cards with each wedding we have booked. So at a glance I can see where we're at with weddings, what dates are still open, what months might need help, etc. So throughout the blog, if mention the DOOR, I really mean The schedule of upcoming wedding booked with Prelude Photography, but it's easier to just say the DOOR.

:)

- Matt

A Bit About A Classic Florist

Hi, I'm Pat Deschler and I am the florist featured in the Wedding Showcase. I have been a florist for the last 5 years but have loved flowers my whole live. My grandmother got me hooked when I was a little girl. She would take me to the botanical garden in St Louis. It's still my favorite place to visit whenever I get back there.

When I was working in corporate America, I always designed flowers as a hobby, for myself and friends and family. Since I've been a florist, I have loved working with the brides to create unique designs just for their wedding.

My brides always tell me I ask more questions that any other florist they have talked with. My shop does 20-30 weddings a year but we try to keep each one a personal relationship with the bride and groom. The thing I like best is the couples who come back to me year after year for anniversaries, new babies, and birthdays.

I Love to Cry at Weddings

I'm Cory, a lead wedding photographer at Prelude Photography, and I love to cry at weddings. Yep, like the song.

No matter who's getting married, there's always some point during the day when I will cry. Sometimes it's when I see the look on the groom's face when he sees his bride for the first time. Sometimes it's when the couple kisses for the first time as husband and wife. Often it will be during the father-daughter dance, and even every once in awhile, at a little kid who has stayed at the reception way past their bedtime and has conked out on Daddy's shoulder or a row of reception chairs.

I think we cry at weddings - at least, why I cry at weddings - because we are witnessing what is considered the biggest commitment you can make to someone: the promise to love them forever, be there for them always, be their family. I mean, how can you NOT get all teary when you're honored with an invitation to be part of such an event?

People may think that wedding photographers would get kind of numb to the emotion of that after a time... after all, we usually don't really know the couple past our professional relationship, and we've been to so many weddings that we've pretty much seen it all. But I'm here to say it's not true! Being connected with other people is part of photography. Being able to capture those authentic moments, look at a photo and see how much two people love each other just by the looks on their faces... is amazing.

It's really the reason I'm a photographer... to celebrate the amazing things that happen in our lives, and find the extraordinary in the ordinary. To connect with people, and help them connect to each other.

I'm not always a sap, I promise... but I figured on a wedding blog, where I'm supposed to introduce myself, you should know why I love what I do. We'll get silly later. :)

Have a great day, and check back for more wedding words soon!

Cory

Welcome to The Wedding Showcase!

Click play to view a sampling from each of our vendors...

What a way to start a wedding blog, a proposal in our store! A few days ago, we had a nice couple get engaged in our store, on our red carpet. I’d post the pics we took for them, but I want to give them a little time to tell their friends and families. So more on that later.

Anywho, WELCOME to The Wedding Showcase Blog. The WEDDING SHOWCASE is a network of seven different - and elite - wedding vendors, all of whom have a mini-home within Prelude Photography at Great Lakes Mall. We had our grand opening at the end of January and figured it was time for our blog to get out there, and here it is.

I’m Matt, the owner of Prelude and the guy that put together The Wedding Showcase. Our goal in putting the Showcase together was to create a "One Stop Shop" for wedding services at the mall. We know there's so much running around involved when you're planning a wedding, trying to find the perfect vendors for the myriad of services needed to execute a memorable, beautiful wedding. So we figured, why not take the running around out of the picture, and bring some quality businesses together to present a smorgasbord of reputable vendors to choose from in one location?

We loved this idea so much, we moved our portrait studio into a larger location and dedicated half of our display area to The Wedding Showcase.

Now don't think I'll be monopolizing all the fun over here - our other vendors will be writing in this blog from time to time, as well, to give you insights into their specialities. We'll all share tips, samples, fun stories and more about running wedding-related businesses and working with today's brides.

And who are these other vendors, you ask? They are:

Jesse from Jesse Webb Entertainment, an established local DJ company

Pete from Viewpoint Weddings videography

Debbie from Cakes to You wedding cakes

Pat from A Classic Florist

Melanie from Sun Rental

Abbie from Candlelight Creations, who provides invitations, favors and more

and

Nichole from Frosting Accessories, who designs custom bridal jewelry!

We’ll also have some past and future brides writing about their wedding experiences in general... and who knows what other fun we might come up with!

I’m sure that’s plenty for the first blog... more to come soon. In the meantime, I'll invite you to check out Prelude's website here.

See you soon,
Matt