This is so sad. I can not begin to tell you how badly I feel for this bride.
I spoke with one of my florist friends today and this is the story as she related it to me.
She is doing the flowers for the wedding of a lovely young woman who is marring the son of an old family friend. It is quite the large wedding with over 800 guests invited of which nearly 500 are expected to attend. It is being held at one of the premier hotels in the area. It is scheduled for early June, one of the busiest times of the year. The décor is extensive with draping and a full on cocktail lounge being brought in. A very hot band out of Atlanta has been booked…
As a part of finalizing the details my florist friend asked what time the venue would be available to start decorating. The bride responded that the planner at the hotel had told her she had it all day. My friend suggested she check on that since the hotel had had a turn over in staff. Long story short… the new hotel staffer told her there was a conference scheduled for that day and they could have the room at 6 PM!!!!!!!!!!
OH MY!!! With an 8PM reception that leaves a scant 2 hours to transform this room. In most circumstances that would be a stretch but doable. Not this wedding. Draping, furniture for a lounge, place settings for 500; heck, the band’s contract states they require 6 hours to set up!
I have no idea what this poor thing is going to do. At this late date there is no way she could find a new venue even if she wanted to move her wedding. I will tell you, had she had an event/wedding planner this would have never happened. Even if this girl had already booked all her vendors it is the planner’s job to stay on top of just this kind of thing. She would have communicated with the hotel the amount of set up involved in this wedding. Oh my.
If you are planning a wedding for a hundred at a local hotel or your church maybe you really can do it yourself. Please, please, if you are planning something this big, hire help.
Dear Diva~
While I completely agree with your statements about the need for hiring a wedding planner…
I question – “She would have communicated with the hotel” –
My hope is that you were referring to the bride with your choice of pronoun and not using ‘SHE’ as a genaric for wedding planner…
There are quite a few of us “he” consultants in the industry…
Opps! I can always count on you to keep me PC. I was referring to the planner.f
That’s just terrible for the Bride! It’s one of, yet another, horror story where pros could really have benefitted a client. I really hope that it all worked out! That’s a tough one.
Thanks for sharing her story.
I worked for two years as Banquet Manager for a mid-sized venue, and I always knew when a bride had a planner and when she didn’t.
Those that didn’t typically showed up the day they visited the site, the day they signed the contract, and maybe one other time prior to the event. The events themselves tended to feel a little chaotic and running behind schedule, save for a few occasions (which, honestly, I think were only the weddings that involved people that work in our industry!).
The planners often visited a number of times and were included on our weekly planning meetings prior to the event and were in constant communication with our venue. We had a full outline of the evening’s events and very rarely did we end up with any surprises or snafus.
I don’t think that any bride really wants to let these details slip through the cracks; she just doesn’t have the time to do all of this herself. Planners are paid to have the time to visit the venues, communicate with the staff and make things run smoothly so the bride can just enjoy her day. I would say that alone makes it a worthy investment.