So I'm going to tell you 13 things that happened during the 2021 Wedding season which you'll most likely want to try and avoid on your own wedding day (if you can!). These are all situations that we were able to resolve as wedding coordinators so thank god we were onsite and the bride and groom didn't have to deal with these!
Weird that it's 13 things... but hey that's my lucky number so let's jump in!
No FOOD!
Now you might think this isn't the end of the world but on one wedding I did not get fed!
None of the suppliers got fed onsite which is just not okay. In an ideal world the suppliers should get fed once the B&G and all the guests have been served their mains, this then gives all suppliers onsite time to sit down and eat, this includes your videographer, photographer, band, wedding planner and anyone else who has stated a hot meal in their contract.
What happened on this wedding is that the caterer didn't include extra portions of the guests food and said the suppliers can eat with the catering staff which isn't until much later in the evening usually when the band are performing and the videographer and photographer have left for the day.
So please keep in mind and check what and when your suppliers will be fed as this is really important, it's the only time these suppliers will get a break in the entire day.
Wedding Planner Attire
On one wedding my poor assistant, bless her, made a slight boo boo on her attire choice! When prepping for the wedding in the morning we'll wear jeans, t-shirts, trainers etc so that we can move around and get stuck in with setting up, we'll then get changed into something smarter before guests arrive.
Now, my assistant brought a lovely white dress to wear however, it was ever so slightly see-through(!) now the unfortunate thing was that she was wearing black knickers and you could see them big time! Sadly she couldn't get away with them so she had to take them off (eek... can't believe I'm telling you this!).
But the saving grace was in my amazing kit bag I had a pair of nude tights which I cut the legs off and made an instant make-shift pair of nude pants for her! Thank god I packed them!
Wasp Attacks
At two of my weddings this year there were so many wasps, it was insane!
One wedding they were just swarming the cake, we were having to use a fan to get them off and were using glasses of orange juice to try and catch some of them.
The other wedding one poor guest actually got stung by a wasp as it got stuck down her dress! (yikes I hear you cry!). Thank goodness the guest wasn't allergic and didn't have a bad reaction but luckily in my kit bag I carry anti-histamines so was able to give her one of those (with her consent obviously).
Guest No Shows
Sadly at one wedding this year 6 guests decided not to show up (I know, how rude), which was basically an entire table worth of guests. So with the brides permission, actually I think it was her idea, we shifted some of the seats around so that we could drop a whole table and it didn't leave this big empty table in the middle of the venue.
Friends Doing the Flowers
At one wedding the bride had asked her lovely friend to do the wedding flowers as she had studied floristry at colleague and even though didn't do this as a career still had the skills! However, I think this lovely friend has over committed and on the day was having a slight panic as to how much there was to do, so myself and my assistant ended up stepping in and were helping to create table centres the morning of the wedding. This was slightly stressful as we had our own jobs to do as well but we managed to help and get it all done!
At the same wedding, more or less at the same time, the acoustic musician playing for the ceremony had turned up and was struggling to get power to reach his location (this was a marquee festival style wedding in a field) so I was dealing with that as well as helping to create flowers but we got it all sorted in the end! Thank god we were there!
No Hot Water
Another tipi festival style wedding the poor groom ended up having a cold shower the morning of his wedding as there was no hot water in the portable shower block!
My mission was to make sure they had hot water for the day after the wedding as the bride and groom were staying onsite in a beautiful bell tent the night of the wedding, so I was on the phone trying to get it sorted for them. Luckily someone from the company was able to come out that day and fix it.
However, later on in the day the guest portaloos ran out of water completely! So myself and my assistant were walking back and forth with buckets filling up from a tap and filling the tank in the back of the portaloo to get the guests some water to wash their hands! God it was crazy!
Trip to A&E
I had one wedding where a guest that was very close to the bride had to take her son to A&E as he had had an accident but she didn't want the bride to know as she knew she would be coming back. So I knew where this guest was and I had to keep this a secret as well as keep the bride calm whilst the bride was panicking about her not being in her seat for the big arrival into the wedding breakfast. I didn't want to panic the bride even more by saying her close friend had just popped to A&E!
Once the bride & groom had made their entrance I did tell the bride where her friend was to put her mind at ease as well as make sure the caterers kept some food aside for her upon her return.
Wrong Order
At one wedding we arrived onsite to start setting up the tables and the bride had ordered some different napkins to match more of her ideal table design with colour and texture. When I went into the hire bag to start prepping the napkins I discovered that they had sent the complete wrong colour and some random yellow tablecloths when we weren't even having tablecloths!
I had to get on the phone to the company to get this changed and delivered asap! It did put a delay on the set up but luckily the napkin is more or less the final element when setting up the tables. It was also lucky we were onsite to know they were wrong and sort this as the bride may have ended up with horrible yellow table cloths on their tables! Heaven forbid!
Dietary Requirements
Another little hiccup when it came to supplier meals at another wedding I did this season is that one of the videographers was vegan but this hadn't be relayed to the caterer so he ended up being served a meat dish.
Luckily, I always request a veggie meal as I'm somewhat a flexitarian and I gave him my dish as the veggie meal was in fact vegan and I ate his.
So really important to remember to ask your suppliers if they have dietary requirements and relaying this to your caterers so that they get the right food.
Supplier Miscommunication
Now this disaster was on one of the weddings that I helped plan which is why it hits me harder than when I'm just brought on to coordinate a wedding.
We did a wedding at a venue where we were only allowed to use their preferred florist who I had never worked with before and I just had a bad feeling the night before and low and behold a disaster happened.
The florist created completely the wrong colour bridesmaids bouquets, they brought the wrong colour vessels for the flowers at the venue where everything was meant to be gold and they put everything in silver. They forgot to bring the candlestick holders and the votives and when they did they brought them in silver so we had to go with this silver vibe even though we had specifically said to them gold to match the art deco Gatsby design the bride and groom wanted. And then all the venue flowers for the table centres were too purple when we had asked for deep reds and blues, it was so disappointing that they hadn't followed the brief that we had discussed with them.
We were there to manage it and tried to deal with the wrong design and colours the best we could but it was just heartbreaking to be let down by a supplier. We just made sure that everything else was as perfect as it could be!
Trashing the Bridal Suite
Essentially at one of my weddings the bride and bridesmaids were all getting ready in the bridal suite (like most weddings) which the bride and groom were staying in that night and whilst getting ready they absolutely trashed it! It was in such a mess!
I then got asked during the wedding if I could go and clean the room(!), it was a polite no as this is not part of my job. My job is to make sure the wedding is running smoothly and to make sure the couple are happy and in the right place at the right time. Don't get me wrong I will go and grab bags and things the bride needs but I am not a cleaner.
Me being me, I did go and clear the bedroom of dirty glassware and move the bridesmaids bags into their respective rooms to make it look somewhat respectable for when the couple came back to the room for their wedding night!
So there you have it, 13 things that happened just in this wedding season alone! Some funny, some not so funny but it gives you a little insight into the world of wedding planners as well as some of the things that can happen on your wedding day which you might not be able to avoid.
It really is such an investment having a wedding planner or just an On the Day wedding coordinator onsite at your wedding so that they can trouble shoot and sort out little problems so that you're not stressed on your wedding day. Most of my couples will not know that these problems even happened on their wedding day!
So get in touch if you think you need a wedding coordinator to help run your special day and stop these little mishaps happening or at least find a solution for them!
Happy Planning
Lauren xx
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Photos by 1, 2 & 5. Mindy Coe Photography, 3 & 4. Story & Colour
