As 2013 has come to a close and 2014 has sprung forth I have been blatantly reminded that a long overdue blog entry is needed from me. Reminded, in that based on my more than one thousand events experience, the two events I had during New Years week could have been extensively better had there not been a Pro-Planner/Coordinator involved.
One of these was a wedding at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this venue, I would highly recommend that you check it out especially since the transformation from day to night is nothing less than miraculous. This is due wholly to the exceptional permanent lighting installation done by John Farr and his team from Farr Lighting in DC. My Bride for this event had unfortunately hired a "Professional Wedding Coordinator" who seemed to be ever-vigilant with her team of three and their headset walkie-talkies. I use the word unfortunately because not only was this planner like many other planners, highly inexperienced, but she had also never worked this particular venue before. This is not a disqualifier by itself, because it is fairly easy to learn the ins and outs of any venue if one does their homework. She didn't. Why in the world would I say that in my opinion most planners are inexperienced? Because when you think about it, a very busy year for a Pro-Planner is 24 events, whereas a busy year for us is 100 and a slow year is 50. Simple math tells you that even if all we had were slow years we'd still have double the experience of any Planner. Another important consideration in this evaluation is the type of company that we are. We specialize in Coordination and Music. I personally take each and every one of our clients through an extensive no-stone-left-unturned planning process since one of our guarantees is to get all the servicing vendors working from the same one-page Order of Events. I have done hundreds upon hundreds of these. We branched into Coordination as opposed to lighting (like many other DJ companies), because we have always been the one with the microphone making things happen anyway, and with the advent of laptop-based DJing, we were no longer chained to our station switching vinyl or CDs all night long. I also need to mention that at events where we are running the show, 90% run exactly on schedule with the other 10% having only slight deviations. Reason being: we have considered all contingencies, know how things will unfold and worked hard to get the clients not only what they want after we have counseled them regarding what is feasible, but also the smoothest flowing event with zero time wasted.
My Bride for this event had expressed that the most important thing to her was getting as much dancing time as possible since she and many of her guests loved to dance. I know that she expressed this to the "Pro-Planner" as well. However in this instance, the Planner proved to be incapable of making this happen. Please allow me to explain. This event was a full-service event for 200 guests encompassing guest arrival, ceremony, cocktails, meal and dancing. Typically the minimum amount of time to do this with 200 guests is six hours yet this event was five and a half, which could have worked if the clock had started at 6:30 and ended at midnight (vendors are not allowed into the Torpedo Factory until they close to the public at 5pm). As it was, the Planner's schedule had guest arrival music beginning at 6:00 and music stopping at 11:30, a simple shift to 6:30-Midnight would have helped immensely. Unfortunately because of decisions made by this Planner the ceremony ended up starting at 6:55, fully 25 minutes after when it was scheduled. It was well within the planner's ability to ensure that her client would have the necessary time allotted for the event, yet she failed to make that happen after hitting a minor roadblock with the catering contract. This could actually have been easily solved via creative teardown so as not to incur additional fees from the caterer. Guest arrival music began at 6:00 yet ceremony began at 6:55 instead of 6:30 as scheduled.
This particular venue (the Torpedo Factory) has some features which must be utilized the way in which they were designed or you risk placing the event in jeopardy of wasting a large amount of time. Since this venue has built-in permanently-installed lights and audio, there is a specific location where tables for the meal must go as well as location for the dance floor and buffet. This Bride wanted to have tables for the meal in what was normally the dance floor area...the same location where the ceremony takes place and then photos immediately following. Photographer was pressured to rush through the post-ceremony photos because caterer needed to set tables in that location. If Planner had just clearly explained the necessity of using the space as designed/intended the Bride would have understood it was in her and her guests best interest to stick with the typical approach. Conflicting goals so which is most important. For this Bride it was the dancing.
Adding 15 minutes to the time for getting folks seated was the poor choice of how the seating assignments would be communicated. Let me preface this by saying that when there are two hundred guests and they are required to pick something up from a table in order to find their seat, at minimum there should be four tables for 50 place cards each and labeled appropriately by alphabetical breakdown. For this event there was one table but the problem did not end there. The "place cards" were actually Mason/Ball glass canning jars full of marshmallows. Mind you, this venue has all concrete floors...so this choice should have been counseled out. If I had been consulted regarding this idea I would have recommended no glass and no place cards but that they print up an alphabetical poster which would serve to designate where folks would sit during the meal. This method only requires a quick glance at any time during the cocktail hour as opposed to the slow as molasses: stop-locate-grab which added 15 minutes to getting folks seated (25 minutes total for what should have taken 10). Buffet line was also located in the middle of what is normally the main seating zone, as opposed to the large space off to the side of area between seating and dance floor. This ate up seating space and required guests to weave through tables to get to the buffet adding time as well.
All-in-all, many rookie mistakes.
Here is the plan which was attempted:
6:00 Guest Arrival to lower level:
6:30 Ceremony:
7:00 Cocktails on upper floors
7:50 Invite guests to their seats
8:05 Entrance:
segue 1st Dance:
segue Blessing:
segue Meal: Bkgd Music=from list
during Welcome Speech:
during Father/Daughter Dance
during Mother/Son Dance:
during Toasts:
9:00 Dancing:
11:25 Last Dance:
Here is what really happened: (notice the only 1:15 of dancing)
6:00 Guest Arrival to lower level:
6:55 Ceremony:
7:20 Cocktails on upper floors
8:20 Invite guests to their seats
8:50 Entrance:
segue 1st Dance:
segue Blessing:
9:00 Meal: Bkgd Music=from list
9:50 Welcome Speech:
segue Toasts:
segue Father/Daughter Dance
segue Mother/Son Dance:
10:10 Dancing:
11:25 Last Dance:
Here is what would have happened had there been no "Pro-Planner" in the mix:
6:30 Guest Arrival to lower level:
7:00 Ceremony:
7:20 Cocktails on upper floors
8:20 Invite guests to their seats
8:30 Entrance:
segue 1st Dance:
segue Welcome Speech:
segue Blessing:
8:40 Meal: Bkgd Music=from list
9:45 Toasts:
segue Father/Daughter Dance
segue Mother/Son Dance:
10:00 Dancing:
11:55 Last Dance:
At the end of the event I felt really bad for this client knowing how much better it could have been. I have every bit of confidence that the final scenario would have gone perfectly had it just been myself and the banquet manager....I've done it hundreds of times before.
Another pet peeve of mine in this industry is vendors who like to venture out of their lane. Like the Entertainment agency owner who likes to adjust the way the caterers table display is set up; or the catering sales person who wants to dictate every aspect of how an event will go instead of just focusing on their responsibility which is the food. This would be the same as me telling the chef how to prepare and present his meal. Unbelievable and of course something I could never imagine doing but you'd be surprised how many folks I run into who want to tell me how to run an event, even after agreeing to work from the Order of Events I had prepared (from which we guarantee we'll get all the vendors to work.)
On the 31st I had an event at an inner-harbor hotel where the catering sales person was really a wannabe-planner but I'm guessing preferred the steady pay and benefits of being a hotel employee.
Here is what my client had clearly indicated they wanted:
7:30 Cocktails:
8:30 Invite
guests to their seats
8:40 Entrance:
segue 1st
Dance:
segue Welcome
Speech:
8:50 Meal:
At end of
meal-> Toasts:
segue Father/Daughter
Dance:
segue Mother/Son
Dance:
segue Dancing:
11:00 Cake
Cutting:
segue Dancing: include countdown to midnight and Auld Lang Syne
12:25 Last
Dance:
7:30 Cocktails:
8:25 Invite guests to their seats
8:35 Entrance:
segue 1st Dance:
segue Welcome Speech:
segue Toasts: (now scheduled here because he had his staff pour the champagne before doors
opened.)
8:50 Meal:
segue Father/Daughter Dance:
segue Mother/Son Dance:
segue Dancing:
10:30 Cake Cutting:
segue Dancing:
11:30 Midnight buffet opens
segue Dancing: include countdown to midnight and Auld Lang Syne
12:25 Last Dance:
Funny thing about this was that aside from just prior to the event, I barely saw the guy all night...yet he had to tell me how and when everything would happen via his slightly different Order of Events. He had no idea how things were actually going since he was out of the room and I was the one making them happen--aside from serving the food. He actually finally came out of hiding just prior to scheduled time for cake cutting and told me to do it after the current song. Turned out we couldn't do it then because the groom had slipped away to the bathroom, something this wannabe should have a) noticed, or b) prevented, since he so badly wanted to be completely in charge of the event.
Finally, the most unseemly aspect of this event had to do not with him venturing out of his lane but with the unethical up-selling he did to this client. Bride & Groom had a larger than average attrition rate....they were originally planning on 100 but ended up with 70. Normal attrition is 20%. Nevertheless, this was not just a two course meal plus cake service as most are. He had up-sold them salad, intermezzo, main course, dessert, cake with coffee service, and midnight buffet. Not surprisingly, the midnight buffet was barely touched.
There are a handful of planners with whom we've worked who are absolutely stellar but there is one who is our all-time favorite and who we can wholeheartedly recommend: Tabitha Roberts at http://www.robertseventplanning.com
There are a handful of planners with whom we've worked who are absolutely stellar but there is one who is our all-time favorite and who we can wholeheartedly recommend: Tabitha Roberts at http://www.robertseventplanning.com
Jeff Adams
(In spite of his only 46 years on the planet, Jeff has been involved with weddings and other high-end events since 1975)
