Vendor Spotlight: Jason Murakawa

As any wedding planner will tell you, the one thing you simply can't sacrifice when planning a wedding is a beautiful tabletop. There's an art to setting a table so that it looks not only picture perfect, but also welcoming and comfortable and warm. A great way to add an element of charm to a table is to mix and match vintage pieces. Jason Murakawa, of Small Masterpiece, does just that. Jason owns a vintage tabletop rental company and has mastered the art of tabletop styling. Jason's crew literally sets the tables at events, ensuring that all of their gorgeous Limoges china, antique silverware and eclectic mix of glassware is handled properly. We recently asked Jason some questions about gathering inspiration for a wedding and thought we'd share some of his great ideas with you. Enjoy!


AE: With all the wedding blogs, web sites and magazines out there, how do you recommend sticking to one specific theme or style?

JM: Start with 4 themes and gather imagery for each. As you start to narrow your different themes, having explored this area extensively will help provide a solid direction to this process. Monitor your excitement and enthusiasm, it will indicate where your heart lies regarding the perfect theme for your wedding.



AE: Can a non-design savvy person still plan a pretty wedding that’s unique?

JM: The designs are already out there in the blogs or magazines. What will make your wedding unique is how you interpret these design ideas and make it your own. Keep your eyes and mind open, you may stumble upon a concept in the most unlikely places! Beauty can be found in the most simple things in our day to day lives.



AE: If a bride is overwhelmed by the beautiful imagery out there in the wedding world, how can she make it work within her budget?

JM: Style and beauty don’t equal great expense. If you design your wedding with purpose and confidence, you can walk down the ailse in a white t-shirt and $4000.00 skirt. Be deliberate about your choices. Sometimes great creativity comes from a limited budget. It makes a person explore more and forces options.



AE: How do you suggest defining a specific color palette?

JM: Let the time of day dictate your color palette. Pastel colors for mornings and pastel or medium level saturated colors for afternoons. Evenings have greater flexiblity to dress “up” pastel colors or go with a stronger color palette. Within the pastels and saturated colors, you have a rainbow of colors to choose from.



AE: What’s a good example of turning inspiration into reality?

JM: When professionals in the wedding business can make the inspiration of a bride’s wish a reality!






Thanks for the insight, Jason! You can view more of his collection on the Small Masterpiece website.

Tabletop photos by Thayer Allyson Gowdy; photo of Jason courtesy of LA Magazine.

New Buffalo Wedding, Part II

One of the things that made our New Buffalo wedding so drop dead gorgeous was the attention that was given to detail. Since paper materials are one of the key details, Olive-Route custom designed all of the paper goodies for this wedding.



Inspired by the old-world Great Gatsby theme, the invitations and welcome letter tied together a sense of classic elegance with a modern twist. Incorporating a botanical element made the suite really pretty and delicate, while choosing Queen Anne's Lace as the floral motif brought in a summery feel. The color palette was mostly gray with splashes of bright yellow and hot pink. So, most of the paper was either gray or white, with black or yellow text and a hot pink hand stitching that bound the pieces together into a booklet format.



The letter pressed and hand calligraphed menus were placed atop unique vintage table settings, part of the Small Masterpiece collection.



Table numbers were die cuts of wood, painted black so they'd stand out against the khaki linen runners and wood tables. The botanical theme was even intertwined into those pieces.



For the seating chart, we used some nineteenth century vintage ephemera lettering to alphabetize guests' names, creating a chart on an old wood framed blackboard.




Event Planning and Design: AE Planning + Design
Photos: Thayer Allyson Gowdy
Paper Materials: Olive-Route
Tabletop Settings: Small Masterpiece
Linens: La Tavola