As a wedding planner, more often than not I see the behind-the-scenes aspects that many guests do not see and sometimes not even the bride and groom. Planners witness, experience and oversee many little details that is only a figment of the imagination to others – that is until the day after the wedding. What I like to call, “post mortem”.
One of my couples recently texted me with a simple sentence: “Okay, now that it’s over, tell us EVERYTHING that happened that we didn’t know about!”
If I am extremely lucky and blessed to have dodged all the major bullets on the wedding day (even after meticulous planning!), then I would reply with an equally as simple answer: “Not much to tell!”
But that’s not realistic.
More often than not, there would be at least one thing that nobody would have saw coming, or have prepared for, where my team ends up troubleshooting quickly before anyone notices.
So here are my notable favourites from years past (some from this summer), counting down to most memorable.
5. 75% of guests changed their meal selection at the beginning of dinner. This may not seem like a huge ordeal to the guest, or to the bride and groom, but from a logistical standpoint… no bueno! This means that the kitchen needs to do some strategic planning, with myself of course, to figure out how to accommodate everyone and make sure there is the right amount of food still.
4. DJ informs us the morning of the wedding that he has no music. At all. I am not sure how anyone could prepare for a DJ to tell you that, by the by, he doesn’t carry any top 40 pop songs for a standard wedding reception. Though many conversations were had prior to the wedding day, for some reason it slipped his mind to tell us that he actually is not a wedding DJ, and he only obtained the major songs for the evening (first dance, grand entrance, etc.) but nothing else. No cocktail music. No dancing music. This is where my laptop, iTunes and hard drive – which I bring with me to most weddings – came in handy!
3. Bride who decided not to bustle her wedding gown has entire train rip off during dancing. Out come the safety pins, and a makeshift bustle was created.
2. Venue staff arrived several hours later than expected opening time – decor set up crew stranded outside for 2 hours. We are not proud of this, but there may have been a break and enter conducted here by one of my assistants in order to resolve the matter. Decor crew got in promptly, staff showed up later, set up was done on time.
And our all time notable troubleshoot….
1. Cake designer nearly died getting to the venue. Nobody would have predicted that a woman would run a red light, causing our cake designer to swerve and having the cake shift and topple. Fortunately, once she got to the venue, only 20 minutes before the bride and groom entered, we had everything prepared for her to place the flowers on the cake, and a swift delivery.
Moral of the story – do not underestimate what your coordination team can do for you! Ask after the wedding… I’m sure you will hear some fantastic stories.
Until next time,
Kimberly