Real Horror Stories as a Wedding Planner
BABES. In my over 13 years of planning luxury weddings and celebrity parties, I have seen SOME STUFF. Of course, wedding planning can be glamorous, fun, classy, and elegant but BELIEVE ME, it’s not always rainbows and butterflies. 🌈🦋
I get asked time and time again- “What’s the CRAZIEST thing that’s ever happened at one of your weddings?”
Well, today, I’m spilling the tea! I’m going to share with you my never-before-told wedding planning horror stories! Don’t worry- names and details like locations, etc. have been changed to protect the innocent, but these are TRUE STORIES of what has happened over the years!😱
As a wedding planner, even if things are BURNING DOWN TO THE GROUND behind the scenes, it is my job that the bride and groom and all the guests at the event NEVER EVEN KNOW if something goes wrong. It’s my job to handle all of those issues so that my clients and their guests have the most amazing experiences at their events! 💕
So, even if I were able to plan everything PERFECTLY, you can’t control everything- that’s just LIFE! Sometimes, things just go wrong. People make mistakes, mother nature happens! But, as a wedding planner, it’s my job to keep a smile on my face, handle problems as they come, and do my best to problem-solve on the fly!💁🏼♀️
So, let’s get right into sharing the biggest horror stories of my career. I’m not talking just slight mishaps, and we’ve had a fair share of these! A centerpiece catching on fire? Just throw some water on it and replace it! Vendor late to install? Switch things around to keep the timeline on track! Bus for bridal party no-show? We just cram the entire party into my SUV and book it to the ceremony! These are all mishaps, and if that’s the worst that happens on your wedding day, you’re GOLDEN! If you have a wedding planner that knows what they’re doing, they’ll know how to take those mishaps on and problem solve on-site!
The stories that I’m sharing with you today are not these little mishaps. These are INTENSE.
HORROR STORY #1
This story is one of the craziest things that has ever happened in my career! We were doing a wedding in a small town. When you’re doing a wedding that’s not in your city (where my Dallas babes at?!) it’s considered a destination wedding. So, this small town was our destination! All of the vendors knew each other in this small town, where everybody knows everybody. The wedding was an amazing, over-the-top event- the client had a great budget and we spent A LOT of money on each of the vendors. We researched the vendors and felt like we did our due diligence on making sure they were the best fit!
Fast forward to the end of the night. This BEAUTIFUL wedding has occurred and we’re sending off the bride and groom. Everything has gone perfectly, and as the wedding planner, I am on cloud nine. I’m watching the bride and groom drive off into the distance. I’m picking up all of the exit items off of the ground and making sure the space is clean, and then I walk back to the venue to get all of my items and help facilitate clean-up.
As I’m approaching the reception space, I hear a very loud yell. “That’s right, and you better not get back up!!” and I had a moment of “what did I just hear??” I walk in to see BLOOD, EVERYWHERE! All over the reception floor!! I’m trying to figure out what has happened here. I look over and see the photographer and videographer, and then I see the florist team, and one of the men from the florist clean-up crew is just laying on the ground covered in blood.
It turns out that because we were in such a small town, the photographer and videographer happen to be related to each other and went to high school with the florist team! Apparently, they had high school beef that came to in to play when the videographer and photographer walked back into the room. One party said something to the other and a BRAWL broke out in the reception space. They have a knockdown, drag-out fight in this small space and blood is everywhere. All I could think of is THANK God this didn’t happen when the clients or guests were there!! Immediately I wonder what to do- should I call the police? Thankfully, someone had already called and I let them handle the situation, but this was one of the craziest things that ever happened. The ambulance came, the cops were involved, and it was just a crazy ending to the night.
The BEST part of the whole story is… fast-forward to a week after the wedding. The photographer has the audacity to reach out to me and see if I will recommend him for any of my events in Dallas! Um no, not after you started a HUGE FIGHT at the end of that event! Needless to say, I did NOT recommend him for my Dallas brides. Even though the pictures, video, and flowers all came out amazing, the whole bloody fight thing was COMPLETELY unnecessary and taught me a lesson about vetting vendors.
HORROR STORY #2
We were doing another destination wedding (do you see a pattern??😉) and we were nearby a body of water. We had the entire event outside- the ceremony and reception, and everything was displayed outside. We had guest tables, dance floor, band stage, and everything else was outside! I had not done an event at this venue before, so I had reached out to their director and asked if there were any issues to be aware of or things they typically do. I was a little nervous about the cake being outside in the heat, etc, and just wondering what issues they had in the past so we would know how to handle it. She reassured me everything was fine and that they put the cake outside every single weekend and not to worry.
I should have listened to my GUT! The cake was placed inside a gazebo, and we were able to put some netting around the gazebo and had a fan to have somewhat of a climate-controlled situation. Well, we get to the reception after a perfect ceremony and cocktail hour. The photographers and videographers are coming and getting detailed shots of all the things in the reception, and the sun is beginning to set and it’s starting to get dark.
As the sweet videographer walks up to the gazebo where the cake is and flings open the wedding. I see this out of the corner of my eye and get a little stressed out. So I start walking over there, only to see him reach for his light. I have a minor panic attack inside because I’m thinking if ANYBODY knows anything about bugs in the dark, if you shine a light, bugs gravitate to the light! AND, to make matters worse, this sweet, sweet bride picked honey cake!!🍯 Her cake icing was HONEY FLAVOR!!
SO, as I’m seeing the videographer reaching for his light, I’m still far away. You know like when you’re in a dream and you are running slow motion and shouting nooooooooooo?? That was ME! I could not get to him fast enough before he put a bright spotlight on that cake. And my worst nightmare came true- ALL OF THE BUGS came and gravitated to the light and GOT STUCK ALL OVER THE CAKE!!!😱🤮
Guys, I’m not kidding. It looks like someone just scooped up a bunch of dead bugs and used them as a garnish on the cake. Totally disgusting, amiright?!! AND, it was about to be time to cut the cake!! I went into wedding planner to the rescue mode! I knew a song that the Bride and Groom loved and they had a specific dance to. So, I let the band know not to announce the cake cutting right now, but play this specific song. The band does, and everyone gets on the dance floor to do this choreographed dance that they love, and I knew they were preoccupied. The rest of my team got the cake and walked with the cake behind us as the pastry chef took the cake back to the kitchen, hiding the fact that we were transporting the cake back inside. 🎂
Once inside, we scooped ALLLLLLLLL of that icing off the cake. We made sure there was not a bug in sight and there was NO piece of icing left on the cake. The pastry chef even cut around the cake to make sure there was no piece that had even touched icing. The pastry chef, THANK GOD, re-iced the entire cake and everything was fine!!!😝
Y’all, we were able to save the day!! For food safety purposes, we use the cake we re-iced for photos and formal cake cutting, but then actually were in a facility where they had available cake in their kitchen and we utilized that cake to pass around to guests. Whew! Crisis averted! We were able to still have our beautiful cake-cutting picture (with NO BUGS!) and all of the guests got a fresh slice that was not tainted by bug garnish!🤣
HORROR STORY #3
My third and final video for this post is one of the hardest, most devastating horror stories that has happened during one of our weddings. And, it was all due to Mother Nature, bless her heart.
We were in a remote location the day before the wedding day, setting up everything from tables to linens to hard goods. We love to be able to set up a day early – we get so much done in advance! What we didn’t know because it wasn’t on the weather radar, was that a tornado was about to rip through and literally blow the roof off of our venue! LITERALLY, it touched down on TOP OF THE VENUE and nowhere else. How does this even happen?? Then, not only was the roof ripped off of the venue, but soon after rain followed!! Of course, we’re already completely set up! The rain starts coming in through the roof and we’ve got a HUGE PROBLEM. 🌪
At this point, we are all at the rehearsal dinner. So, our team has to come back to the venue, completely salvage everything we can. Then we had to coordinate bringing in power generators, contacting every vendor to make sure they could bring extra lights since there was no power and no lighting. We did everything we could – Victoria on my team was an absolute ROCKSTAR! She was there until the early hours of the morning making sure everything would be set for the following day. She was able to re-do everything that we had done that day and manage the vendors and the changes that everyone needed to make so that the wedding could still happen! She even managed to get a tarp ON THE ROOF!! She whipped everything into shape and made sure everything was perfect. 💕
Unfortunately, because it was such a large event, news crews showed up and the bride and groom had to be told about the craziness of the evening before their wedding. Of course, we stayed in complete communication and kept them up-to-date on the situation as far as what to expect the following day. In all honesty, the only thing that showed any evidence of there having been a TORNADO THERE THE DAY BEFORE was a tarp over the ceiling!!!!! The bride and groom were SO happy. They had the best day ever, and everything turned out great!!💯
So, after reading these three stories, I can tell you one thing: you just never know when a horror story is going to happen! As a wedding planner, you have to be able to think on your feet, act quickly and trust in your team and vendors. I hope and pray NOTHING like this happens to you on your wedding day, but remember, if it does, it makes for a GREAT story!!
Until Next Time –
Until Next Time -
BYE, BABES 😘
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