A young lil ya-ya at a wedding once said to me, “OMG! you have the coolest job, you get to go to parties EVERY weekend, go dancing and drink!” While biting my tongue in every attempt to refrain from saying what really came to mind, and making sure I wasn’t giving her an eye roll…(knowing that I had already been setting up for that event for 2 days, my feet were killing me and I was working on 4 hours of sleep), I just smiled and said, “Not quite honey, hope you enjoy the reception”.
While I absolutely love what I do, it is always entertaining at the misconception society has on wedding planning….”it’s easy, all you do is walk around in heels and bark orders in a headset” or ”I want to be a wedding planner because I just planned my own and had sooooo much fun doing it! It can’t be that hard”.
Well I am here to tell you, that the life of a wedding planner is indeed very rewarding but it isn’t easy. My team and I just finished an event that had 2 week install with over 30,000 square feet of tenting, flooring, AC and the whole nine yards…it would take days to list what was involved with this set up. There were enough generators to power the Yankee’s Stadium and plenty of tractors onsite that one would find on a small farm.
After paying my hebitch over 90 hours for one week’s worth of work for this event, and the fact that he is still talking to me…I wondered what it was like to work for me and asked him to share the behind the scenes from his perspective….Enjoy…because I sure did!
THE DIARY
Day 1: Monday
Arrive at Ivy’s at eight and of course she is not ready. She is preparing coffee because if she doesnt have coffee I dont wanna imagine that. Meet Jay and Kylee, the other part of the team. Leave Ivy’s round 8:30 heading to Lexington, NC to the client’s plantation. The goal of the day is to put fabric all around the structure that will be above the dance floor. About 8 hours into this job, Ivy realizes that the structure looks to industrial and Jay suggest we fabric the inside of the square to make it seem more traditional I guess. So, Monday we accomplished fabricing the outside of the 22 by 20 ft. square that now as become the biggest pink box I have seen in my life. Leave around 7 heading back to charlotte, where I go to Ivy’s to load up various materials for the next day. One of these materials are the menu and place cards in which Ivy says if I mess them up and I quote “I will kill You” meaning she will murder me which will not be the last time she says during the week. Just an estimate that quote exited her mouth about 17 more times that week.
Day 2: Tuesday
Had dreams that someone broke into my car and stole all the menus and place cards, meaning I would be murder but to my relief they were fine. Mission one is to head to Ballantyne and drop off stuff at Ivy’s friends house for the other wedding Ivy has which is in Asheville. Her friend isnt home have to wait thirty minutes for her to arrive. Surprise. Head to Lexington to paint frames where the name cards for the seating arrangements will hang. Ivy gives me a sample of fabric to match the paint to. Get to lowes and the fabric sample is to thin and the Bozo working the paint department says and I quote ” I dont have an eye for matching paint” leaving me to decide what paint to get. Call Ivy she says get the one that closest matches the sample and I do so and it turns out workable. Paint the huge ass frames the remainder of the day. Securely get the menu and name cards in the house without messing them up.
Day 3: Wednesday
Head to LEX at 8 and arrive bout thirty minutes before Ivy does. This is a recurring theme that I am the first one there and Ivy is half hour behind me. Todays job is to complete fabricing the inside of the box. Jay and I run out of fabric later in the day so we can not complete the box. Ivy makes fun of me cause I want something fattening for lunch while everyone else wants a salad.
to be continued….
Uncategorized | ivy | 
September 6, 2010 12:06 pm | 
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