One of the craziest parts of being in the wedding industry is how regardless of your experience, there is something new to be learned on a daily basis. There is no such thing as getting comfortable as a wedding coordinator. We learned this the hard way at a wedding we had this last weekend.

Every now and then a couple finds extra room in the budget for a “getaway” car or limo to whisk them off to their romantic wedding night location. For this particular wedding, the Bride’s parents were able to arrange a limo to pick up the couple from Loulu Palm Estate and take them to the nearby Turtle Bay Resort. The limo company insisted on not sending over a paper confirmation since we were so close to the wedding date at the time of the reservation. The mother confirmed with the company twice that week, the bride confirmed twice as well and I confirmed once that week and on the wedding day.

Confirmations are crucial to making sure everything goes according to plan. Each call was confirmed by the limo company and they assured the driver would be there right at 9:30 PM. When 9:30 PM rolls around the limo is nowhere to be found. Both the parents and I were calling the company as well as the driver to find out where they were. Finally the parents were able to get ahold of the owner and he completely denied the fact that there was a reservation. This specific company handled the issue very unprofessionally and even went to the lengths of cussing the mother out.

As you can imagine, this was not a pleasant ending to a (SERIOUSLY) perfect wedding day. Luckily the couple was able to get a ride to the resort and enjoyed the rest of their night together. The moral to this story is no matter what vendor you are working with, ALWAYS… ALWAYS… ALWAYS…. be sure to get some sort of written confirmation. Even if the vendor is assuring you they have it in the books, it is worth the extra hassle to demand something in writing. This ensures that you have something to show them later as phone/verbal confirmations are hard to refer back to. This type of situation is rare but unfortunately can happen every once in a while.

The important part is the bride and groom were able to brush it off and didn’t need to be involved with any of the haggling with this company. Having a Day of Coordinator ensures that any situations that come up can be handed off for us to take care of.