Things a Wedding Planner will do that you will never know about!

So what does a wedding planner do? I’m sure you’ve probably seen the movie, “The Wedding Planner” so you have some sort of distorted idea(lol) and if you were looking for one or have had one, you’ve probably seen a list of our services.  But, I don’t think people know ALL the things that we do or deal with, behind the scenes! A couple of years ago I sat down and wrote a list of 79 things that I have done for my weddings that were not listed in my services. Why? I have no idea but I did! I thought it would be fun to take a walk down memory lane, don’t worry I’m not going to list all 79 for you, but I’ll give you a countdown of ten of my most memorable #weddingplannerbts moments!

10. Breakdown your Reception – My client rented close to 100 Chiavari chairs for their reception, and the rental company would only deliver it to the entrance of the reception which was held on a deck. At the end of the evening I stacked every single chair by myself and placed them back at the entrance, this included the upstairs deck! Keep in mind, I could only carry about 2 at a time. I worked until 2 am, and then got up at 6 am and worked 2 more hours to get it done.

9. Deal with Wedding Crashers – I had a wedding at the Marriott and the Bride’s family brought it to my attention that they didn’t recognize the man loading up on appetizers and wearing shorts at the buffet! When I politely questioned him, he couldn’t find his name on the seating chart, and he had no idea who was who. He got so nervous, that he abruptly put down his plate and ran off. Seriously, if you are going to pretend to be a guest, at least try to blend in like the other guy from another wedding who wore a suit, and to this day, we have no idea who he was!

8. Deal with Forgotten Items – One of my weddings was at Crow Creek Mine and the family forgot to provide plates for the cake. If you are not familiar with Girdwood, it’s a small town about 45 minutes from Anchorage with a Tesoro gas station and General Store as your best option for when you run out of things. After calling the main hotel and restaurants in the area, I ended up purchasing overpriced, paper disposable plates from a local bakery! I’m kind of proud of myself that I was able to pull that one off and not drive back to Anchorage!

7. Deal with Drunk Guests – Ohhhhh those drunk guests who get cut off are the best…no, they are not! I had a couple of drunk groomsmen who wanted to confront the bartender at the end of the night because they got cut off earlier in the evening. They wanted to explain to the bartender why he was not going to get that big wad of money in their hand! Like, really guys…c’mon! Security had to be called and we basically had to “talk them off the ledge” so to speak, letting them know that they just needed to go home and if they felt so strongly about the situation in the morning they could come back and talk to management.

6. Remove Non-Invited Guests – Just call me the Cat Whisperer! I had a wedding up at the Rugby Grounds and the owner of the property had a cat that kept getting out of the house and into the Reception. One of the servers came up to me and was like, “um the cat?”

4. Guard the Dessert Bar – I’ve been in a position where we were running late and the sign said the dessert bar opened up at 7:30 pm. Guest bum-rushed the table at that exact moment and I had to step in front of them, arms held out and everything, and let them know they had to wait. Desserts can make people lose their minds sometimes! Ha! Ha!

5. Rescue the Flower Girl – Once during the processional of the ceremony, the flower girl refused to walk down the aisle and started crying. So, I scooped her up and carried her down myself to her mother who was part of the Bridal party. Wasn’t planning on being a part of the processional but in the moment you’ve got to be quick on your feet!

3. Crisis Management – The power went out about 3 hours before the ceremony was to begin. Apparently, a car ran into a generator and caused a huge blackout in Girdwood. We were not sure when the power was going to come back on. I specifically remember the moment my Bride asked if she should be concerned as I was fixing something on her dress. I said, “Nope, I got this, you go take your pictures!” Which to be honest, I laugh to this day when I think about it because I was so calm and collected. In the end, as we were coming up with a “Plan B” the power came back on! It was an hour before the ceremony began!

2. Fix Mistakes – There was a miscommunication with the Baker on the cupcake order. When they delivered the items right before the ceremony, there were no gluten-free cupcakes. Normally this wouldn’t have been such a huge deal, but the Bride was GF. How can the Bride not have cake at her wedding? So, I had the Baker go back home and bake the GF cupcakes and discreetly deliver them after the Reception had started. I told the couple that we were keeping the GF cupcakes in the kitchen for safekeeping. Yes, I told a little white lie but I didn’t want them to stress about it. I ended up telling them a couple of days later and we all laughed about it!

1. Come up with Solutions – I’ve had to cut a birch arch into pieces because the Bride didn’t want to keep it after the ceremony, and no one could take it back to Anchorage. I couldn’t dump it in the dumpster because there was not one, only a small trashcan. Thank goodness for a church employee who lent me her woodcutters. I was out there for an hour cutting that arch into pieces and praying that I wasn’t going to get eaten by a bear. Think about it, I’m alone, it’s getting dark and I’m hanging out by a trashcan in bear country!

And there you have it, my 10 BTS memorable moments! Basically when it comes down to it, we do everything and anything to get the job done for you!