There are a lot of components involved in a successful wedding. It helps to have an experienced team on hand to help get you through and possible mishaps, which are bound to happen. Findlay’s Hilton Garden Inn has in-house event planners, and can recommend amazing local vendors you can trust. Whether you’re wanting a rustic, elegant, or a modern look, the HGI’s ballroom has been transformed into anything and everything. Contact the HGI to hear more about how they can help you be at ease when planning your wedding, or other event.
The Hilton Garden Inn Findlay has witnessed their fair share of wedding mishaps, which staff did their best to fix on-the-spot. Here are just a few stories of things they’ve seen over the years, in their own words:
Go-with-the-Flow DJ
Just this last winter, a couple scheduled their reception within 5 weeks of booking with us. Quick turnaround weddings are very uncommon, but they do happen from time-to-time. We did their tasting, and got everything arranged and set to go. They ended up booking a DJ we hadn’t worked with before. After a DJ finishes setting up, we usually chat with them a bit to make sure we’re on the same page regarding the event timeline. This DJ responds ‘I don’t use a timeline. I just go with the flow.’ Yeah, we were immediately concerned…
Nearly all the guests had arrived and were seated before cocktail hour had even started. I asked the DJ to let the group know that hors d’oeuvres and beverages would be available in 15 minutes. The DJ instead announced that they’re ready now, so we had to rush a little faster to avoid frustrated guests.
The wedding party finally arrived and made their big entrance. Suddenly the DJ announced that the couple will be doing their first dance, which wasn’t supposed to happen until after dinner. We rushed over to pull the cake off of the dance floor and tucked it out of the way. The DJ then made them go cut the cake, which was of course now out of view for many people to see.
The DJ reached out to us a week after the reception and asked if we could recommend him to future weddings and create some sort of package deal with him. I can’t say we’ve taken him up on that offer…
Where’s the Cake?
In 2018, one of our wedding bookings had a professional baker friend of theirs make the cake. The baker reassured them that everything was good to go the day before the wedding. As the family was setting up for the reception that Friday, the Mother of the Bride told us that she read some of the baker’s reviews about cakes arriving late, or not being delivered at all. I told her she shouldn’t be too worried as everything was already confirmed. What could go wrong?
The cake was scheduled to arrive Saturday morning. There was still no cake at 3pm. While the family was scrambling to get a hold of the baker, our team was calling local bakeries for a potential emergency backup cake. The baker finally said they were on their way. As we got closer towards reception time, the baker kept coming up with excuses, and then stopped responding to the family altogether.
2 hours into the reception, most of the guests were aware that there was no cake. A large watch party started to form at the windows to look out for it. I finally asked mom what she wanted us to do, and she told us to do whatever we could. Our Sales Director went out in the pouring rain (did we mention it was intensely storming?) to go buy enough sheet cakes to feed 200 people. We then created a make-shift wedding cake for the couple to use for their cake-cutting ceremony.
30 minutes later, the actual cake FINALLY arrived…and it wasn’t even finished. The baker got quite the earful from the family and wedding party. We actually got compliments that the emergency cake tasted better than the actual cake. The family never heard from that baker, again, nor did they get any sort of compensation for the issue. I’m pretty sure they aren’t friends anymore.
Water Outage
Just recently in 2019, a wedding room block at our hotel had their wedding scheduled with a rustic venue in the area. The bride decked out that venue with all the sunflowers, barrels, and burlap you could imagine. That venue was booked for both the rehearsal dinner, and the wedding reception. The morning of the rehearsal dinner, the venue reported that they had no working water. This meant the kitchen wasn’t available as sinks and toilets were out of order.
The venue had no idea what to do, and stopped communicating with the family as to how they would resolve the situation. The Mother of the Bride came to us and asked if there was something we could do to help. We happened to have some space available that day to accommodate their rehearsal dinner. The group brought their decorations, and created their own little rustic space. They enjoyed themselves despite the dramatic change of plans.
The next day, the water came back on in time for the reception to be back at the other venue. The event luckily went on without a hitch (ok, well only one very important hitch). It took a couple of days before the venue was willing to fully refund the rental for the rehearsal dinner that didn’t happen.
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