Monday, June 2, 2014

The Luggage Tag


I didn't actually work the luggage tag wedding but I set up for it. 

I was told to wrap a luggage tag around each napkin to be used in the place settings. This was extremely tedious work. 200 luggage tags around 200 napkins. It looked nice. The luggage tags were brown leather so this wasn't a cheap wedding favor. 

Placed in each luggage tag was a paper with Walt Whitman's 'song of the open road" printed. 

If I were to make a guess this seemed to be a group of well educated, worldly people. 

To further reinforce this assumption, the center pieces for the wedding were a stake of old books. This bride and groom must really enjoy reading. 

I pictured all the guests at the wedding discussing literature and talking about their latest travels to some trendy spot. 

Yet, I did not attend the wedding itself. These are all guesses of what would happen. The bride and groom could quite possibly be illiterate. They could have possibly never been anywhere more exotic then Canada. 

Luggage tags could either be useful or completely useless depending on the guest. If the guest isn't intending on traveling soon, this wedding favor would most likely end up in a junk drawer. If the guest is a traveler the luggage tag may end up on their suitcase, if they don't already have one. 

If anything the luggage tag feels like a message from the bride and groom. It says 'we're going on an exotic honeymoon and you're not going anywhere'. Or the guests could love the favor. I will never know because I did not attend this wedding. 

Love, The Wedding Planners 

Sunday, June 1, 2014

The Beer Koozie Bride

The beer koozi bride served as my inspiration to start this blog. 

This was the first wedding I worked as an intern. I was asked to put the wedding favors at each setting. When I opened the box, I was shocked to find beer koozies.

Beer koozies. Who would ever think to have give away beer koozies at a wedding? This indicated that this was going to be a fun and drunk group of people. 

The bartenders and I joked around about how busy they were going to be all night. Prepare for a night of non-stop bar-tending, this wedding party was going to be a riot! 

Not only was this wedding favor a beer koozie, it was a beer koozie with a picture of deer on it, with the phrase 'the hunt is over' printed on one side. 

Second thought that crossed my mind: these people are not only heavy drinkers but they are straight up country. That means the DJ would be playing a lot of country songs. 

Turns out we were right on the mark. As the guests poured in they went straight to the bar. I heard a few remarks about the beer koozies. "This will come in handy", the father of the groom said. 

I was sent on the task to pour champagne with some of the banquet servers. While pouring at least five people made jokes about the small amount of champagne we poured in each glass. You would think they were all parched and dehydrated by their reaction to the amount of champagne we poured, which was only meant for the wedding toast. Mind you, there was an open bar. 

Everyone seemed to have a good buzz going by the time the formal dances took place. First the bride and groom danced, to a country love song of course. We can't forget that their love for hunting parallels to their love for each other. Then it was time for the father daughter dance. At first they began dancing to another country song. Then they broke out into a choreographed dance that got the party in full swing. 

As the night wore on the guests drank and danced the night away. Their wedding was truly an exciting first experience to work. 

I never realized how exhausted I would be while working a wedding. I was definitely not prepared for the long hours. I felt by the end that I had also been dancing all night. 

As the guests began leaving I experienced my first encounter with a drunken wedding guest. A man in his late 20s came up to me and said "I'm just being a drunken wedding guest, but are you single? I'm trying to be a match maker for one of the groomsmen". 

By clean up time there was so many glasses and empty beer bottles dispersed through the room, it took the whole catering team to clean them all up. 

It was a fun wedding. I was exhausted by the end but it was exhilarating. The beer koozies were spot on. It was a fun group of people, who enjoyed drinking and having a good time. 

Beer koozies are actually a useful wedding favor to give out. As long as the people you are inviting are up for a party and a night of drinking. 

 



Love, The Wedding Planners 

Introduction: What the wedding favor says

I'm just an intern. That wide eyed girl running around your wedding, pretending she has any clue what's going on. It's all so exciting, the world of event planning. I'm never sure what to do, what's going to happen next. But, I'll learn. I've been told it all becomes the same, a routine. You set up, greet the guests, pour the champagne, the bride and groom enter, they toast, they dance, they eat, we clear their dishes, then cut the cake. When all is over they slowly leave, we clean up then reset for the next wedding.

Yet, I'm an awe struck intern, who still finds every event, every wedding to be unique. There's one thing that stood out to me, one thing that got me thinking: the parting favor.

What does the favor say?

Love, The Wedding Planners