So I want to post more about the party

No matter how much planning you do with vendors it really doesn’t seem to matter. They get it wrong anyways. There were a few bright spots too. But despite the potential party killers (PPK), we all preserved and pulled it off.

Brendel’s
They provided the table clothes, chairs, champaign flutes, extra forks, cake plateau, napkins and chaffers. Here is what happened…
I have placed my order at least a month early. I change a few items and add 2 items a week out. Very nice people to work with, seem competent….wrong! They are so disorganized. I call 2 days before hand to make sure I can pick my stuff up at 8. “Sure, it will be ready.” HA. Daddy and I get there at 9. The cake plateau is the only thing they have “ready,” except it’s the wrong one. It’s the one the girl WANTED me to get, but I told her that it would not work for my cake, even though it is beautiful. Since when did it matter what the Vendor wants? So I grab the correct one. On to the table cloths…my order is not ready, because they have given mine away! They never changed my order! So I have to wait 30 minutes as they track down another size that will "work" and iron it! We go to load the chaffers…the ones I ordered were ALREADY ordered, so I have to choose others. Why do I get the shaft? Why not the others? I even paid 100% up front! But wait, there’s more…the champaign flutes were the wrong ones and the chairs were so rusty (which they said would be clean up and spotless) that we upgraded. Only the forks and napkins were right. The number was still 22 as opposed to the 16 I had reordered (which was fine). We didn’t even use the forks though…

Vaughn Park
We got the tables from Vaughn Park Church of Christ. Matt Dickson is in charge of the facilities. He was awesome and the tables were exactly what I needed!

Covent Gardens
Rodney is amazing. I went to him the week before and showed him all the décor and explained the table setting. He thought it would all look great together and that the mixed dish style is en vogue. Within 8 minutes we were out of there with confidence and beautiful arrangements on the way. He suggested blue hydrangeas because it is the only “true blue” flower out there. He added hypercurium berries (aka coffee beans) and some white stuff that I have forgotten the name now. He did a fabulous job. The flowers really made the party.

Cake Designs
I had many referrals for Cake Designs. I had seen many successful designs. So I had confidence, but I was still really nervous. (Although I didn’t tell Mama). I went by to visit CD to show them what I wanted. I took a piece of Italian pottery that Leigh brought back from her Italy trip. I also printed a picture from the internet. We discussed that the picture was not accurate it color, but was in design. I wanted the colors from the original pottery. So we wrote them down.
Daddy rolls in with the cake sometime after 3:30. I run to the car and take a peak. It’s bad. The design is good, but the colors are horrendous. They make me want to barf. They are so garish. I walk into the house. Marie sees the cake, covers her mouth, gasps and lets me know, the party cannot go on with this cake. I TOTALL agree. Since when has bright blue ever been navy??? I though I was attending a HS football game-bright shocking blue and yellowish gold. I call CD. Little did I know they were robbed the night before and they are more than stressed. So I let her know that this cake is horrible and the colors are garish and she MUST fix it. She tells me her feelings are hurt and no one in her 32 years of business have ever complained or hurt her feelings (I find that hard to believe). I assure her that it is not a design problem, it is a color problem. So after we go back and forth…the whole time Marie is coaching me—we both have ears to the phone to listen and then she runs back to prompt me on what to say. Ultimately she says to come back and she will turn it into a ribbon cake and abruptly hangs up on me. I discuss further with Marie and call her back. Her attitude has totally changed and she said she will do what she can and mix up some more icing. Justin and I jump in the car (you can’t get anywhere in Montgomery Friday afternoon at 4:00!!) It takes us 25 minutes to get there…it was an eternity!
We get there and she is ready to fix. We mix some more black into the blue and it turns out slate gray. Yikes. So Justin suggests that we see a sample of the gray over the shocking blue. Guess what, it actually works out. Amazing. It totally made it so much better. We had compliments from customers as we walked out the door. I am still stressed seeing as I have an hour and a half before guests arrive and I’m not ready yet. Overall the experience was stressful, but CD has amazing cakes. They are the most yummy! And they are willing to fix things and make them right. She is certainly talented in design. Just be sure to see the colors before hand if you require a special color.

So that’s a summary of the vendors. Oh, the woes of party planning. As I look back there are more bright spots that PPKs, but the PPKs were BIG ones!! You might be surprised that I handled myself quite well. I never lost my temper. What's the point? But I can tell you that I, more than ever, do not back away from asking and getting what I need. Always ask. You are the customer. You make the payments. You should get what you need.

Maybe I’ll post about food & table décor tomorrow.