A Maine Wedding: Setting Up & a Little Meltdown

So much for trying to get wedding recaps done before the first anniversary…again, WHAT HAPPENED TO MAY?!  Anyways…after leaving the Portsmouth Spa, we headed back to York Harbor with making a quick pit-stop at Hannaford’s for some deli sandwiches for the girls.  Once we arrived at the inn, my mom came out to greet me in the parking lot to warn me that the on-site restaurant, our reception venue, wasn’t vacuumed yet from the wedding the night before and things were a “little” messy.  But apparently the inn coordinator and staff had everything under control.  I took a deep breath, went in, ignored the floors and mess, and started to set up the tables since the cloths were clean at least.  Somehow we managed to unpack all of this…

and turn it into this…

and this in just 60 minutes!

The first tables were the ones our guests would see when they walked in.  This is where we put the starfish escort cards, room map, card box, and instructions on how to sign our wedding certificate, which was at the very end on an easel stand.  We has 13 tables to decorate with a jam at each setting, centerpieces, and table names and menus for each table. The restaurant included some long, rectangular tables that seated between 10-12 people and round tables that seated 10 people each.

Bridesmaid J started to arrange my DIY drink umbrellas in a couple white pails.

Just a little nervous :)  Me w/my planning sheets

 

Even though it was stressful having to set things up, looking back, I’m glad I was there physically to see everything and my vision come together.  It was arranged exactly how I wanted it and that made me happy :)  And I don’t care what anyone says about all my lists and crazy OCD-ness, my organization skills definitely helped in getting things set up quickly.

Once we were done setting up, it was a little after 2.  The ceremony was schedule to start at 4:15.  My florist, videographer and photographer were all with me at this point, and we were waiting to go to the suite where I would be getting ready.  Long story short, there was some serious miscommunication on the inn’s end and the owners forgot that  they promised us the suite would be ready by 2pm that day.  When Hubby checked in, they informed him the room wasn’t clean and wouldn’t be for at least 45 minutes.  Sista MOH and Groomsman D were trying to keep me in the restaurant and distracted, while the staff tried to clean the room ASAP.  I eventually found out what was really going on and just decided to walk over to the suite, since it was close to 3pm at that point and I needed to start getting ready.  We interrupted the owner and an employee vacuuming and politely asked them leave since we didn’t care about the room being totally cleaned at that point.  Sista MOH had some words with the owner, as the owner was completely rude about the situation and embarrassed me in front of the vendors.  I do have to give credit to the employee, since she at least apologized a few times and said she felt so bad about things not being cleaned in time.  It’s too bad the owner didn’t show the same professionalism. 

I know of all the things that could have possibly gone wrong, this was not a huge deal in the long run, but at the time it totally put me on edge an hour before I was was supposed to walk down the aisle.  Luckily my vendors were all AMAZING in helping me to move on and focus on getting pretty :)  On a side note…this is what the ceremony chairs looked like until about an hour before the ceremony started:

Lovely.  Don’t worry, they got set up in time!   At least that view was worth all the disorganization.  Next up, time to put on the dress!