The sweetheart cake atop the stand full of mini-cakes
You know how they always say that you should hire a day-of coordinator for your wedding, just in case something happens? Well, here is what happened this weekend:
It was a beautiful June Saturday in Chicago. Gospel Fest was in full swing downtown, along with the Printers’ Row Book Fair and a soccer game. I think there may have been at least one baseball game, as well. I was the coordinator at a morning wedding at the Columbus Park Refectory, with the reception at Adobo Grill in Wicker Park. The bride’s home, where she and her bridesmaids were dressing was in Melrose Park. All these places are located along the notorious Eisenhower Expressway, a highway that I have personally seen jammed at all hours on every day of the week.
The day began well, with the rental chairs showing up early for the ceremony. The florist, however, was late. I called him and he said he was 10 minutes away at the bride’s home, dropping off the personal flowers. 45 minutes later, he showed up to decorate the ceremony venue, apologizing profusely and saying that traffic was very slow on the highway. He arrived about 10 minutes before pre-ceremony photos were to be taken–except that the bridal party’s limo had not yet shown up. He got the flowers and ribbons in place and sped off to the reception venue. The limo arrived (just a little late), dropped off the bridal party, and went back for the bride. Photos were taken. Guests arrived. Boutonnieres were pinned. I began locating everyone for the processional.
The bride, however, was nowhere to be seen. After the time the ceremony should have begun, she sent a text message from the road to say that they were on their way. A while later she sent another to say that they were close by. And then another to say they were stuck in traffic and not moving. Finally, a full hour after she had expected to arrive, the limo pulled up. She got zipped into her dress in about 3 minutes flat and the processional began.
Every detail was planned. The flowers even matched...
At that point, I hurried off to the reception location. Oddly enough, I had no problems with traffic. Someone has to live the charmed life, I guess. I arrived at the restaurant about 45 minutes after I had planned to be there. The florist and baker had been there and made things beautiful. The restaurant staff had everything properly set. But the DJ wasn’t there. I called him and he was (surprise!) stuck in traffic. He ended up getting there about an hour late. Meanwhile, the guests were arriving for the reception, and the restaurant manager was keeping them out of the party room until everything was set. With the help of the restaurant staff, we loaded in the DJ and got him set up in about 10 minutes so that when the guests walked in, music was playing and no one ever knew what a mad scramble it had been to make everything perfect. Fortunately, I was on the spot and could make it easy for the DJ to get in and set up.
...the bride's purse!
The party began: appetizers, drinks, music, conversation. But the bridal party had gone downtown to the lakefront to take photos. (You can guess where this is going, right?) Two full hours after the guests arrived, the bridal party got to the reception. Some of the guests had actually left by that time. Instead of having 3-1/2 or 4 hours for a reception and for all the elements the couple wanted to include, we had to jam it all into about 2 hours: first dance, dance with parents, cake cutting, bouquet toss, garter toss, toasts, not to mention giving the bride and groom an opportunity to greet their guests. The whole schedule had gone out the window. I had to improvise a new one and get everything done before the guests left. We got it all in, but it took some quick thinking on my feet.
The whole day was like that: The schedule we had worked on so carefully became suddenly useless and I spent the day making up a new one on the fly. At the end of the day, the bride told me that she was very, very pleased with how the day had gone. I felt like I had really earned my keep that day. I had been hired as insurance, just in case, and when things did go wrong, I kept the day on track.
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