Saturday, August 4, 2007

Every Saturday is Wedding Day To Me

Another Saturday, another wedding. Such is the course of life when you're a wedding planner. Someone asked me today how I can possibly enjoy working every single weekend. I laughed and said "I don't!" Yup, I'm about as honest as they come. But it's true...no one actually LIKES to work every weekend! Again, just another reason I will always continue to do this on the side.

Today's wedding was so great. It was almost a wedding planner's dream. For some reason, today was just easy. I like easy days, especially when I had to drive 4 hours round trip for this one. When I first met with this couple way back in Fall of 2006, the bride was adament about hiring me for at least Month of Coordination, if not for even more. The groom, however, is in the wedding industry and promised his blushing bride up and down that he could take care of everything and that they only needed me for Day of Coordination. Fine by me! I like DOC just as much as MOC and ultimately, I like whatever the couple likes. :)

Fast forward to the tension filled week. I'm sure the poor bride was wishing I was the one doing all the final follow-ups and making changes this week and not her. The next little informative piece is exactly why, should you choose to not hire a professional Coordinator, that you MUST confirm every single detail with every single vendor.

12:46pm, I'm at the church getting things ready and reviewing everything with the Priest and the organist. Ring, ring. Uh-oh. When my phone rings on wedding days...it's usually not a good sign, let's just put it that way. Sure enough, the Maid of Honor is on the other end saying the limo hasn't shown up at the hotel to pick up the guys and start the shuttles back and forth from resort to church. Grrrreat. As we're discussing our options, lo and behold limo company calls and says they are lost, but now on their way. LOST!?!? It may be my biggest vendor pet peeve. If you are in charge of professional transportation, you damn well better make sure you have accurate directions. However, let this be a piece of advice for all you soon-to-be-marrieds out there. Be sure to give your drivers directions! Yes, it should be up to them, but had I been in charge of final confirmations for vendors, that is one thing I ensure that the drivers have. All is well that ends well though. We made some transportation changes so that the ceremony would start on time and hey...they stil got married! :)

The Heidel House was in full swing (I can't believe I only had to change ONE thing with their set-up!) and all the other vendors showed up EARLY (even though I had to deal with the snobbiest and meanest florists ever)! Seriously, it was a dream come true. Well, besides the rain that forced cocktail hour into an already very cramped dinner tent. But again...they're married! Who cares!

**Note to anyone considering the Carriage Tent at The Heidel House though...it does not seat 159 people comfortably. At all. I'm sure the bride will have something to say about this later if she noticed. Walking between tables/chairs without guests at them was difficult...I can't imagine how they're doing right now.

And now----this wedding planner has the next 2 weekends off!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Enjoy your days off!