Start Me Up! When vendors attack...

So relieved this weekend is done! Another crazy wedding in the books!!

This weekend I ran a wedding that took place in an art gallery - actually the reception was in a nearby park with the reception in the gallery. It was a beautiful and original space. For this particular wedding, I had no hand in assisting the couple with picking their vendors – and unfortunately some of these vendors were less than desirable. I say this not because they were “bad people,” but because they were not team players and made my job extremely difficult.

As a planner, there are always hurdles to face and issues to mediate, but when you have vendors at odds and neither refuses to compromise it can prove incredibly difficult. In this case, the timeline underwent 10+ revisions, with the caterer and the band at odds the entire time. I spoke with the couple and we came to a resolution and everyone was on board...or so I thought.

On wedding day, the band leader shows up with an entirely new timeline that apparently the couple and he worked out the day before the wedding – unbeknownst to me. In this case, the couple was also part of the problem, nevertheless we needed a solution. The long and short of it is that they moved around the time of the first dance, cake cutting and parent dances. On their revised plan, the cake was to be cut 15 minutes before the kitchen staff left the event – absolutely unacceptable as there is no way to have a cake cutting ceremony on the dance floor (5 minutes), pull it back to the kitchen, have it cut and plated and passed to 150 guests with additional dessert offerings all within 15 minutes, which is why I had vetoed this plan several days earlier. Yet here we are with 30 minutes until the scheduled cutting time – and I have a caterer refusing to stay and a band refusing to follow the approved schedule.

Well as much as I hate to do this, the couple needed to be involved at this point. Once I mentioned the fact that they would have to pay hundreds of dollars in catering overtime staff to accommodate the delayed cutting, they quickly decided to go with the original plan. I hated having to “pull that card,” but my job was to keep this event running smoothly from start to finish. This could have been a major problem and I did not want a decision the couple had made in haste last minute amidst the excitement of their pending event to proceed without careful consideration. Surely when the couple excitedly discussed the later cake cutting with the band to allot for an extra long dance set, they were not considering the contracted catering shifts. I would rather go to them and pull them aside and explain the ramifications of their decision than to have them come to me the day after their event and express concern and worry over an extra $600.00 bill from catering that they were not expecting.

So we compromised, and planned the cake cutting 15 minutes later than originally scheduled, as opposed to 45. This also meany changing the parent dances that were to follow, cutting one dance set short, and tacking on to another, and re-scheduling the vendor meals so that the photographer and videographer would be available to capture these important moments.

Additionally, it was hot – very, very hot in this reception space. There was a lot of dancing and a lot of sweating! The couple requested the hot lights be shut off completely leaving only a few decorative lights on the dance floor. The problem? The videographer could not capture video in this extremely dark space. My decision: have the videographer shoot as much footage near the lit parts of the dance floor as possible, then have the lighting company bring up the lights just enough for the film to capture the cake cutting, toasts and special dances, then have the video team capture great film immediately after the parent dances led into a fun dance set, and slowly dim the lights once again to the level the couple desired. The couple would receive the footage they desired and the room would be cooled to a more comfortable level. When the couple inquired about the lights being raised and it once again being too warm, I explained the situation - they were grateful and appreciated that their video would not be compromised in any way.

Unfortunately, sometimes you have to put your desires to have your couple experience a wedding day unfettered with business and behind the scenes matters, in order to properly do your job. Planners and planners-to-be, please remember that you must always think big picture at all times.

Coming up this weekend – a double header! Two rehearsals Friday night, for weddings booked on both Saturday and Sunday. Hm, now where did I put that bottle of aspirin?

xx,
Belle