Jan 21, 2019 | Day-of Coordinating
I have some photos to share with you! You may have seen some of these on social media, but I want to share the stories that go along with them here. My sincere thanks to Artisan Events for sharing their beautiful images.
This was an absolutely amazing, multi-cultural wedding at the Morton Arboretum last summer. The bride’s family is Catholic, and the groom’s family is Hindu. The couple did their homework and had a beautiful celebration that honored both sets of traditions.
The bride had had her hands (and probably more that I didn’t see) decorated with henna. But she was in a lovely white gown for both the ceremony and the reception. The groom wore a suit. But many of the guests wore saris or sari dresses, making the assembled crowd very colorful when they gathered in the Arboretum’s Hedge Garden for a late afternoon ceremony.
The ceremony itself had elements both from the bride’s tradition and from the groom’s. A Catholic deacon welcomed the guests and performed the first part of the ceremony. Following that, a Hindu priest performed an abbreviated (very abbreviated!) Hindu marriage ceremony.
And then, it was time for a party. And, I have to say, the people at the Morton Arboretum really know how to throw a swanky celebration! The room has a gorgeous view of a pond, but it was made even more beautiful by the artistic talents of Persephone Floral.
I have absolutely no idea what was so funny during the cake cutting, but you know what they say about a couple who laugh together.
The groom’s sister gave a pretty funny toast, too.
Or maybe that last one was during the toast given by the bride’s father.
Finally, it was time to dance! The David Rothstein Band kept the dance floor hopping all evening long.
It was a beautiful wedding day, one where everything ran smoothly and the guests enjoyed themselves. And another lovely couple started their married life surrounded by friends and family, beauty and fun.
Oct 15, 2018 | Day-of Coordinating
Here’s my hard-working wedding kit–with the famous tape right on top!
Sometimes I get to do the funniest things in my job as a wedding planner and coordinator. You never know what the day is going to throw at you or what you will need to solve a problem. That’s why I always have a wide variety of tools and supplies at hand on a wedding day.
At one wedding recently, the bride’s beautiful white dress developed a problem. The wedding party had just returned from taking photos after the ceremony, and they were lining up for introductions into the reception. That was when the bride told me that her dress wasn’t bustling properly and she was afraid she would trip on it.
I took a quick look at the back of her dress, and it was about as bad as anyone could have imagined. The loop that went over the button to create the bustle had torn right out of the very delicate, sheer organza fabric of her overdress and train. There was a definite hole there, and the train was hanging down asymmetrically–and was definitely likely to trip her up if it wasn’t fixed.
Now, I have just enough experience working with fabric to know that if you try to put a needle and thread through a hole in organza, you are just going to end up shredding the fabric further. There is really no point in trying to sew it back together if you can’t patch it first–and we were on too tight a schedule for that. But if you can’t sew it, what can you do??
I took three steps over to my emergency kit and picked up a roll of white fabric tape (known among stage managers as spike tape for its theatrical uses) and walked back to the bride and her torn dress. One piece of half-inch wide tape went through the thread loop and back down into the hole in the dress. A second piece of tape wrapped around the first piece and around the fabric to hold it in place. The thread loop went back over the button and–poof!–the dress was back in one piece.
If you looked really closely, you could see the repair, but I could see that it was good enough for presentation purposes. And, as I said to the bride, if anyone was looking anywhere but at her beautiful, smiling face, they were looking in the wrong place.
Later, the bride’s mother borrowed a needle and thread from me (because, of course, I have those in my kit, as well) to try to make a more formal repair. But she just ended up confirming my conclusion that repairing organza with a needle is pretty much a lost cause without special skills and/or equipment.
I have to say, I felt pretty triumphant at having such a quick fix close to hand. It’s nice to save the day from time to time!
Oct 8, 2018 | Day-of Coordinating
It all looks so effortless, doesn’t it? I enjoy creating that illusion! (Photo by Agnes Malorny Photography.)
There is a lot of misconception in the world about what wedding planners and coordinators do. I think part of the reason people just don’t know what I do is that I try very hard to stay under the radar. If I can solve a problem without anyone knowing about it, I am thrilled. And sometimes I can make things just a little bit better, so I do that invisibly, too. But that means that few people understand the value of hiring me. So, in the interests of tooting my own horn for a few minutes, here are a few things I have done (invisibly, of course!) at weddings just this year so far.
I located a lighter to be used in the wedding ceremony when the couple had not arranged for one.
I worked with the musician on how the music would work for the wedding processional, since the couple had not communicated their wishes to either of us.
After the caterers had set up the reception hall, I counted all the place settings and found the table with an error–and got it fixed before guests had to discover it.
Later, I got a place setting added to a table for an unexpected guest. I even made it happen before the guests arrived at their tables.
Those two things were possible because I had spent a good bit of time before the wedding re-ordering the table lists so that they would be useful for those purposes.
I located the photographers before toasts started, as they thought they had time to take a break right then.
I asked the caterer to reduce the noise they were making during the very quiet song for the couple’s first dance.
At the end of the night, I went around and took down all the directional signs that had been put up for the arriving guests.
I alerted the bus and limo companies to the presence of a street fair near the ceremony venue and gave them directions on where they could wait for their passengers.
I got the temperature of the reception room adjusted when it became clear that the guests were very uncomfortable.
I gave a DJ all of the information he needed about the reception that somehow had not filtered to him from the company hired by the couple.
I packed up desserts for the bride and groom at the end of the reception and gave them to the maid of honor to be taken with them when they left. It was clear to me that they had not had a chance to eat dessert, and they had been excited about it.
I found the correct table for guests when we discovered that the seating chart had an error.
For a reception in a tent in a park, I managed to get the generator started (after 3 or 4 calls to the rental company).
I also arranged for another delivery of ice when the bartenders let me know that we had nearly run out halfway through cocktail hour.
I coached a talented but very green DJ in the art of making wedding reception announcements.
The short version is this: I made sure that all elements were in place for the ceremony; did everything necessary to ensure that the guests were happy; and did what was needed to make sure the couple was happy, as well. And sometimes I wonder why I never sit down when I’m working at a wedding!
Oct 9, 2017 | Day-of Coordinating
Here’s me pinning flowers on a family member. Naturally, you want me to know who gets which flowers. (Photo by HappyBuddy Photo Art.)
Because most people don’t work with wedding or party planners (or coordinators) most of the time, when they hire one, they have to figure out how best to work with them. If you’re in that position yourself, let me give you one really big tip on how to make the most of your planner or coordinator.
The first thing you can do to make sure your planner can do her best job is give her information, lots and lots of information. I have had clients say to me (in these exact words), “I don’t want to overwhelm you with information.” But it is my job–and it is my specialty–to hold and use and organize massive amounts of information.
In fact, most of what you might need a planner to do is organizing information. Never thought of it that way? Well, it’s true: The schedule for your event is a document that organizes and systematizes information, as is the ground plan. And you’ll get the best, most functional schedule or layout if you give your planner every bit of information at your disposal, even information that doesn’t seem vital. Your planner might also be in charge of your decorations. What she needs is not just the decorative items, themselves, but also the information about where they go and how.
You could say that my motto is, “There is no such thing as useless information.” As a planner or coordinator, I am often asked the most obscure questions by other wedding vendors. You never know what someone will want or need to know in order to make your event stellar.
So, please, overwhelm me with information. I love it when you tell me everything you need–and everything you’re thinking is important. When that avalanche of information arrives on my desk, I’m always so happy, because then I know I can do my absolute best work to make your wedding or event turn out as you envision it.
Sep 5, 2016 | Day-of Coordinating
Here’s a bride busy outsourcing her worries to me! Photo by Peter Coombs.
I had just arrived at the early morning wedding rehearsal of my clients, and the family was gathering. I was being introduced to various parents and other family members in preparation for running the rehearsal. The groom introduced me to his father, and he said something I really liked. He said, “This is Lisa. She is the one we have outsourced all our worrying to.”
That’s my job, in a nutshell: You can outsource your worries to me, and I’ll take care of them!
May 30, 2016 | Day-of Coordinating, wedding planning
The more there is to do, the more you should talk to your planner.
Your wedding (or party) planner or coordinator can be your best friend, someone who takes care of everything you need them to and solves all the little problems (or, occasionally, the big ones) to make your party or wedding a huge success. And there is only one thing she or he needs from you to make all that happen:
Information.
It sounds obvious, but when you’re getting close to the big day, you might need to remind yourself of this basic truth: If your day-of coordinator is going to coordinate your day, she needs to know what you want; what you have done; what is going to happen; what is supposed to happen; what you want to avoid at all costs.
So, whenever you get new information or have a change of plans, make it your habit to tell your planner, first thing. And if your planner asks you for information, be sure to tell her. Your busy life is even busier when you are planning a wedding, so you’ll have to prioritize. Make it a high priority to communicate with your planner.
Recent Comments