Wedding Planner Rescue: Extra Guests
In my 10 years as a planner there are many times whereby I have to ‘fix an emergency’ (sometimes) without the bride & groom or guests knowing. In this series I am sharing some of those circumstances with you in short snippets once a month.
Most of my clients hire me for full planning one of the benefits of which is I send all the invites and act as the RSVP contact. I collate all replies onto my spreadsheet and forward to the caterer/venue ahead of the wedding day. This gives me the opportunity to double and triple check all information like dietary choices, alergies and most importantly the spelling of the guests name, its not uncommon for clients to learn they have spelt a friends name wrong for the last 10 years!
Some clients however prefer the replies to go to them, when this happens I’m a little out the loop and to a certain extent can’t guarantee the actual information on the table plan. In 2005 one of my couples were in the middle of the receiving line into dinner when a guest approached me to say they were not on the list. I quietly spoke to the client to ensure this wasn’t a wedding crasher (you never know), to her horror she realised she had omitted this guest from the table plan.
I always over order furniture, napkins and have spare stationery so the caterers and I quickly made an extra place setting at a table with this guests daughter, it was done quickly with minimal fuss. On the day I apologised to the guest for my mistake of not including on the table plan, no need for her to know otherwise 😉
Copyright: Mark Bothwell