Maebell Event Coordinating

08/22/2022

It has been one of the most challenging weeks Brian and I have had in a very long time, and I don't quite see life ever being the same. After nearly 13 years and 8 1/2 of them at mine and Brian's side, Benny has crossed the rainbow bridge.

Benny was indeed the best dog. We even have some friends with dogs that would still claim Benny as one of the best. He loved cucumbers, carrots, blankets, car rides, sun bathing, long walks with Brian, long morning snuggles with me, Wendy's chicken nuggs, and above all, every human he ever met.

Even though we knew Benny's time would come, it was all too sudden last week. Have you ever lost a pet and felt the void left behind could never be filled? We have so many memories with Benny. Brian and I only lived together for two months in Jacksonville without him, and now here we are all these years later. And for the last 3,067 days, I walked into our homes/apartments and was greeted by his happy and smiling face. Doing something as simple as walking into our home has become one of the heaviest tasks.

Benny is the best thing I found in Jacksonville.

Events carry so many memories and can harness so much remembrance of others that are no longer there. Today I want to hold space for the golden memories and the heartache. Having Benny at our wedding was a 100% must and non-negotiable. He spent the whole weekend with the entire bridal party at our Airbnb, and one of my savored memories was just Benny and me on the drive down to St. Augustine before the weekend of wedding festivities. It wouldn't have been a wedding without our infamous picture on Magnolia Street.

Thank you to our friends and family for caring and loving on Brian and me during this time. Also, to all my couples and future couples for your patience this past week. Squeeze your pets extra tight for me.

07/26/2022

The Day of Event Coordinator Reference Kit is your complete handbook for managing a wedding day from start to finish.

Every wedding is unique, but the responsibilities of the Event Coordinator extend to any event. You are the first person to see the space on a couple's wedding day and the last to leave once the dance floor dies. You'll know the name of every vendor, the order the bridal party needs to walk down the aisle, and the exact placement of the centerpieces on every table. You're the point person for every wedding detail - and the Day of Event Coordinator Reference Kit is here to help you keep track of every last one.

Whether you are a seasoned professional, new to the wedding industry, or a cousin of the bride looking to set in and help, this kit is an affordable option to support you toward ensuring you have the knowledge and support you need.

The kit comes in a digital download form and a physical booklet. Do you know a bride on the fence about hiring a coordinator? This book will show you all the duties and responsibilities a coordinator holds and assist in further understanding the need. Do you know someone interested in breaking into the wedding industry? This kit will help you understand what it takes to run a smooth wedding day. Tag that person below! See the link in our bio for more information about the reference kit.

#904

07/10/2022

Savannah and Tanner’s wedding was a beautiful fall day at the . Savannah had the most stunning vision and decor theme for their wedding day. I remember receiving their invitation in the mail and I could tell that it was sealed with love and care as Savannah DIYed ALLL the details leading up to this big day.

Savannah’s mom was also supporting by offering to do all the florals. We were able to tag team with mom on the day of to get all the centerpieces done and let me tell you what, the result was phenomenal. The oranges were such a cute way to incorporate some florida fun into the traditional greenery table decor. Complete with peacock chairs the sweetheart table was a picture perfect backdrop.

The best part about being the coordinator for this wedding was getting to meet Savannah, Tanner, and their beautiful families. They were all so kind, comforting and wonderful. It made the wedding day and rehearsal so so so much fun! AND now, Savannah and Tanner have a baby on the way! Congratulations to both of them, I am so happy to have them in my Maebell Family.

07/05/2022

What does it mean to be flexibly certain? I tell my couples ALL THE TIME that your wedding day is flexibly certain. I am certain that you will get married but it will most likey happen more fluidly than you would like or expect.

The unfortunate reality is that even though it is your wedding day, and you want everything to be perfect, the universe does not see it that way some times. Recently, Bridget and John saw this first hand, but it was this mindset that leveled their expectations and truely saved the day. In a recent review that Bridget wrote about us she said, “Maybe you are planning a hiccup-free wedding for which nothing goes wrong, but for everyone else, there’s Allyson. An all-day power outage, a family emergency, swampy grounds—this is just a sampling of what we faced on our wedding day.”

In a personal message she called me a Defender of Joy and this…this made me cry. I’m crying now just typing it out again. See just because it was their wedding day, the wind still blew and knocked over a tree and cut the power lines…just because it is your wedding day, family emergency’s can still happen….AND just because it is your wedding day (outside, in a Florida month of March) doesn’t mean it can’t still be the coldest day of the year.

BUT amidst alllllll that, guess what?! John and Bridget got married with beautiful family and friends surrounding them, and THIS ( # # #) was how they felt at the end of the night. The joy on these two’s faces was a treasured moment for the books. Having a flexibly certain mindset is the key to ENJOYING your day, no matter what the universe decided to through your way.

Also, could not make this post without S/O The Glen Venue and their team for the amazing work that went in to “generate” the power of love on their wedding day.

07/05/2022

Savannah and Tanner’s wedding was a beautiful fall day at the . Savannah had the most stunning vision and decor theme for their wedding day. I remember receiving their invitation in the mail and I could tell that it was sealed with love and care as Savannah DIYed ALLL the details leading up to this big day.

Savannah’s mom was also supporting by offering to do all the florals. We were able to tag team with mom on the day of to get all the centirpieced done and let me tell you what, the result was phenomenal. The oranges were such a cute way to incorporate some florida fun into the traditional greenery table decor. Complete with peacock chairs the sweetheart table was a picute perfect backdrop.

The best part about being the coordinator for this wedding was getting to meet Savannah, Tanner, and their beautiful families. They were all so kind, comforting and wonderful. It made the wedding day and rehearsal so so so much fun! AND now, Savannah and Tanner have a baby on the way! Congratutions to both of them, I am so happy to have them in my Maebell Family.

06/30/2022

Todays is brought to you by Kimberly Davidson, the Owner of , right here in Jacksonville Florida. Kim is another phenomenal female that is crushing the cake FLAVOR game.

I myself was not a “sweets person” but then every time Kim made cake for someone's birthday or a family/friend gathering, I would eat more than my fair share. The quality and creativity she puts into the flavor of the cake pops is unlike anything I have ever had.

Kim has been a wonderful friend and cheerleader for Maebell for many years now. She has been there to help me celebrate the wins, big and small. This year Kim has done SOOOOO many wedding cakes and I love that we get to work together. Here are some of my favs. Drop me a 💜 if you think so tooo!

My truest favorite are the Carmel Apple Cake Pops she made me for my birthday, but obviously I’m bias since then were so me, but truly so so so so delicious.
10 out of 10

06/27/2022

Ever since Friday when we got word of the overturn of Roe vs. Wade I have been pretty quiet here, because I am very angry. I needed time to process but wanted to make sure that my radio silence wasn’t interpreted as complete disregard.

In all honesty, I have been on my own hormone journey the last couple of months, in and out of doctors offices, and that in combination with the hateful shootings and now getting to see first hand that the people who make decisions in our country care about guns more than me…that is a hard concept to grasp.

Someone asked me recently how I “deal with ambiguity,” (definition: the quality of being open to more than one interpretation; inexactness) and I cannot get this question out of my mind, because an ambiguous world has become so normal to me, a sort of twilight zone where up is down and down is up. How much more are we all supposed to bear?

So I waited a couple of days to see if I could come up with some better words or something to say and I haven’t. Although my breath has been taken away at this moment in time, I can promise you that I stand wholeheartedly with so many other women, AND YOU WILL CATCH MY ASS FIRST IN LINE TO VOTE for the Primary Election in Jacksonville on August 23, 2022.

If you are in Jacksonville and you want to track active candidates for county and local offices and committees/PACs, click on the “list of candidates”
https://www.duvalelections.com/Election-Information/Offices-Up-For-Election  

In the meantime here is a picture of how Ben feels about ambiguity and says, get ready to vote.

06/23/2022

: March 24th, 2021 - Alyssa and Kevin said, “I Do” at the . It was an unseasonably warm day here in Jacksonville, Florida but we came prepared for anything mother nature was going to bring us.

The bridal party spent the whole morning laughing and enjoying every moment together. This is something I distinctly remember about Alyssa’s girl squad. Everyone was so welcoming, kind, and was willing to do anything to pitch in. Once the boys arrived the laughs continued even further.

The Ribault Club is a beautiful space where the ladies were able to get ready upstairs and the boys have an area downstairs, so the bride and groom were able to be onsite and never see each other until ceremony time.

Mother Nature did not play nice with us to be able to have the ceremony outside but we pivoted really quickly to have the ceremony inside the venue and believe me when I say, it didn’t matter whether we were outside or inside because there was not a dry eye in the house.

Alyssa and Kevin decided to write their own vows and they were some of the most beautiful words I have ever heard a couple share.

I am so grateful to be able to celebrate alongside Alyssa, Kevin and their families. I think I even made it out on the dance floor at this one, because they truly boogied the night away!
Photo Credit :

06/22/2022

Drop us a heart if you love this color combo

06/21/2022

Share some ❤️ and comment below 👇🏻
The wedding industry is a beautiful place filled with entrepreneurs and small business owners, DOING THEIR THING! One of the most wonderful people I have met along the way is Katie Gonzalez, .

Katie is also one of our Day-of Coordinators here at Maebell, and we are so grateful for her! She has years of event experience. Last month she KNOCKED it out of the park with this full floral on site set up. It is important to celebrate as being a solo entrepreneur is HARD! We are not alone in this community, we are all here to support each other.

Help me in showing her all the love below. GREAT JOB Katie, one done and a million more weddings to go! Follow and stay tuned to everything Katie is creating…she is still booking for 2022 and 2023! :)

S/O to for these gorgeous photos.

06/20/2022

Have you experienced the feeling of living into your gifts?
About 10 days ago was officially 3 years since the very first wedding I ever coordinated.
June 9th, 2018 - The couples name are Peter and Heather, two of my absolutely greatest friends. Heather and I both participated in Teach For America together back in 2013. We both decided to up-root ourselves from our home towns and move to Jacksonville Florida where we agreed to teach for 2 years with the support of Teach For America. When I entered my 3 year of teaching, I met Peter, as we ended up teaching together at the same school. The three of us have become very close friends ever since.

As the weeks closed in on Peter and Heather’s wedding day, I got to see the stress my friends were carrying for the very first time. Heather shares that she wouldn’t call herself a planner and realized that she needed help from someone that is organized and knowledgeable about what it takes to put together an event. With the background I had in event planning I did everything I could to help Heather that week leading up to their wedding day. On June 9th, 2018, myself along with my husband and some other close friends showed up to to begin setting up for the big day. Then for the duration of the day I kept us on time and troubleshooted along the way.

This picture has always been one of my favorites because the focus is on the beautiful, happy couple, and very discreetly in the background is ME! The coordinator that is running the whole show quietly behind the scenes. I do not have very many photos with me in it and so this one is special because it’s the first. :)

I am so grateful for this moment in time where I got to explore the possibilities of what being an event coordinator could look like. It is because of Peter and Heather allowing me to live into my gifts and talents that day, that I am now sitting here 3 years later running Maebell Events full time.

Have you experienced the feeling of living into your gifts? Share with us below about what your gifts and talents are? What makes you…YOU!?

06/19/2022