Celebrity Wedding Inspiration From A-List Wedding Planner Mindy Weiss

Los Angeles event planner Mindy Weiss truly is the planner to the stars. She has produced some of the most talked-about celebrity weddings of the past decade. Actors, musicians and athletes including Hillary Duff and Mike Comrie, Katy Perry and Russell Brand, Ellen Degeneres and Portia diRossi, Fergie and Josh Duhamel, Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz, Eva Longoria and Tony Parker -- and many more -- have entrusted her with their big day.

Knowing that many brides tear pages out of weeklies such as People, Us Weekly and OK in hopes of recreating an idea they saw at a celebrity wedding, we asked Mindy to share with us how to recreate a few celebrity wedding looks for less and some hot trends that are popular at A-list events.

Mindy is throwing "The Most Ridiculous Wedding Event Ever 2" this Sunday, November 14, in Culver City, CA. Click here to learn more about this must-attend event.

What do you tell brides who want to have their own celebrity wedding?

If it's important enough to the bride to rip out a page from a magazine to show me a picture from a celebrity wedding, I will take elements from it. I know there has to be an element there we can incorporate, even if it's just emphasizing a color the couple used or something in the ceremony they loved, like in their vows. If I can incorporate two or three things, I will.

In what other ways do you crib from celebrity weddings?

Sometimes I do a mini version of the flowers. We really do take inspiration from celebrity weddings even if I didn't plan that particular wedding. Hilary Duff's was one of the prettiest ones we did. We did a lot of different light fixtures at her wedding which can be expensive. So they may have 100 different fixtures at a celebrity wedding, but just a few clusters over another bride and groom's table. It costs less and they feel they used the element they liked. I always inspire them to have their own ideas and their own branding, to take an element and reduce it down. They get a lot of satisfaction from that.

Mindy shares more ideas for incorporating elements of celebrity weddings with regards to...

Linens: Maybe they can't afford to rent a colored tablecloth, but they can rent colored napkins. We monogrammed napkins for Hilary Duff's reception, but for those on a budget, we could just monogram the bride and groom's napkins or all the napkins at the head table. Instead of doing 200, you do 12 to 24. That is more affordable and you can keep them and entertain with them. For Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz's reception, we printed quotes from Alice in Wonderland on paper cocktail napkins, which is a more affordable option. I always try to do as much personalized stuff as I can. You want the wedding to be unlike anyone else's. You essentially want to brand it.

Decor: At Hilary Duff's wedding, which had a shabby-chic feel, we did a lot of personalized things. At the afterparty, there were 15 cotton canvas pillows hand-painted with their initials. It personalizes everything to have the monogram added, and now they can use the pillows in their house. This was easy to do and not that expensive. I actually found a sign painter on Craigslist because my regular artist wasn't available. I never thought of looking on Craigslist before, but one of the girls in my office suggested it. Now he is a regular. I call him for everything.


Cocktails: We're not really naming the drinks like "The Lori-Tini"anymore. Now the trend is to serve classic drinks like martinis, thanks to the Mad Men craze. We aren't doing flavored martinis or many sugary-sweet drinks in general anymore. Old-Fashioneds are back. Bourbon is back. I would say one huge trend is tequila and tray-passing tequila shots. At Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz's wedding, we served little bottles of tequila with tags on them that read "Drink Me" because of the Alice in Wonderland theme. And at Carmelo Anthony and LaLa Vazquez's wedding, we had a tequila bar. The other thing is that drink menus are a really big trend now. Just the suggestion of five drinks is appreciated.


Centerpieces: I'm doing a lot of succulents. Things are really going green. Couples feel the overdone flower thing is too much for them, so Mark Held from Mark's Garden has been doing some beautiful tablescapes for me with moss and succulents and bark. Succulents don't just come in green. They also come in pink, which is nice. Low tablescapes are the thing now too. Not so much high anymore. People want interesting vessels too. They create conversation. There's a great florist named Gilly in Silverlake who has tons of great vessels.


Menu: There's so much comfort food still. I find a lot of people are bringing in their favorite foods. The menu has become very personalized as to what they love to eat. It's very much about what the couple loves. They are not thinking so much about the guests except the vegans and vegetarians. We're also bringing in a lot of dessert trucks, like Coolhaus. The truck craze is not going away, at least in L.A. I hear it's big in Philadelphia now too. I like having the trucks come better at the end of the night because they feel more casual. Also, at the last two weddings we've planned, we've had a hot-fudge sundae bar. That idea was inspired by an event I went to at The Breakers. They are served big martini glasses with ice cream, and around the bottom, on the plate, there are little cups with chocolate, Butterfingers and other toppings like sprinkles. The waiters bring around hot fudge and caramel and stuff.


Music: Couples like Hilary Duff and Mike Comrie are still doing the choreographed first dances. Those two chose Stand By Me by Ben E. King. DJs are also very popular. I have found that people in the music industry do not want live music. They want the actual song as it was recorded by the original artist. Budget-wise, a DJ is much better for the pocketbook. I think the trend is still what's in the budget.


Favors: As much as I discourage favors, people still try to do them. I love the donation thing though, where the couple makes a donation in their guests' honor. That is a brilliant thing that people remember. Hilary and Mike did it. Katy Perry and Russell Brand took it one step farther. They asked their guests to make donations to Comic Relief, a nonprofit organization that helps the homeless, instead of giving the couple wedding gifts.


Do-It-Yourself: Now with everything D.I.Y., I have become obsessed with Etsy.com. It inspires me. One bride this summer made something herself. Paul Pierce's wife, Julie Landrum, made the couple's cake topper out of Swarovski crystals in the shape of their initials. Sometimes you worry when the bride and groom want to make something themselves, because you don't want it to look handmade, but she was so incredibly talented.