Confessions of a Destination Wedding Planner

I love my job. I own the Candy Cain Travel Co. and I am a Destination Wedding Expert. I plan and execute weddings all over the world. Jamaica is currently my favorite destination, but I feel as though I am being seduced by Mexico. Regardless, some of my best stories come from my weddings. Needless to say, I am never lacking for a story because of these crazy situations!

He Does; She Doesn't
As a wedding planner, I also tend to be a therapist. I listen to the stories and complaints mainly from the brides that I work with. There was this one bride who shall remain nameless who told me that she wasn't sure about marrying her fiance because he was a "raging alcoholic". Rather than call off the wedding, she had an affair with someone else. She confided this to me, and I kept my mouth shut. Of course, I felt as though she shouldn't get married, but I am just the wedding planner. I had to remind myself that I wasn't her friend and couldn't speak my mind, no matter how much I wanted to. I asked her if she wanted me to cancel everything, and she told me that she wanted to go on with it. She felt as though she was just "getting even", and then her fiance had gone on the wagon. He started going to Alcoholics Anonymous and was doing a lot better. Their wedding was at an all-inclusive resort. Fortunately, it was just the two of them eloping without any guests.

So, they flew down to St. Lucia and headed in to the fabulous all-inclusive resort. Of course, as they were checking in, they were both handed a welcome cocktail. Rather than turn it down, he drank it-- and asked for another. He was drunk by the time they got to their room. He was in a stupor the next morning, when they were supposed to meet with the resort wedding consultant to finalize everything that I had planned for them. She showed up and canceled everything, and let him sleep.

I don't know what is worse: Her affair, his drinking, or the fact that I called the day of the wedding and left a congratulatory message on their hotel voicemail because I didn't know that they didn't get married. Oops.

No Passport? No problem!
One night as I was closing up my shop, I received a panicked phone call from a bride that was supposed to be getting married at Sandals Royal Bahamian in six weeks. She received her passport application back in the mail-- rejected. She was crushed. It was their dream to have a magical wedding on the beach, just the two of them. Living in Mississippi, she didn't know how she was going to do that without going to the Bahamas or anywhere else tropical.

Immediately, I suggested the US Virgin Islands. I had just sent a couple to St. Croix, and they loved it. I was also in the process of arranging a wedding in Key West, Florida, so I mentioned that location. She and her fiance talked it over and loved the idea of Key West. Since there was no wedding consultant available that day, I flew down to Key West and set everything up for them. I brought her to the hair salon. I set up the beach ceremony. I took video and photos. They were overjoyed with their wedding. It was really wonderful and really romantic, if I do say so myself.

Psycho Bride
I worked with a very high-maintenance bride that I knew that I should have turned down. It's one of those stories where you know you should follow your gut, but try to be nice and give the benefit of the doubt instead. This bride and her fiance didn't want to pay the $300 for the rough DVD footage of their wedding, and they didn't want to buy a video camera. I had someone going down to the wedding, so I told her that she could borrow my video camera. When I got the camera back, I would burn the videos to a DVD when I had the time.

This psycho called me from Jamaica two nights after her wedding to talk to me about how she wanted the video edited. I told her that I didn't have editing capabilities, and I didn't even have the video camera back yet-- she would have to wait until I had the camera and had the time to do it. She called me the night before she left Jamaica, the day that I got the camera back, and demanded that I send her the video immediately. Mind you, the video camera was held by someone that was completely smashed during the ceremony and reception. I also didn't have a part to the camera back that I needed-- the girl that held the camera accidentally put the cord in her suitcase. She lived in Nashville and I was in New York, so I had to wait for her to send it to me.

The bride went BALLISTIC. It was insane. I finally told her that she needed to wait until I had the part and the time to do the video for her. This psycho started emailing other brides that she knew that I was working with, telling them that I was unethical-- Just because she didn't have the video of her wedding in her hands when she got home from Jamaica. She started posting all over FaceBook about me. Finally, I called her boss because she was posting during working hours, and she ended up getting reprimanded at work.

You'd think it would stop, right? Wrong. She subsequently got her new sister-in-law to start posting things about me. This girl's first post about me even said, "I didn't have a problem with Candy, but I need to stick up for my new sister-in-law..." She didn't realize that I had her work information, too, and I contacted her boss with the thread where she was writing derogatory and inflammatory comments about me.

Something must have happened, because my FaceBook account was hacked that night. My FaceBook fan page lost all but six of its followers, then my personal account was deleted. To this day, I am still cleaning up the mess she made and trying to get my fan base back up. That's what I get for not following my instinct.

It's Not All Crazies
I love my job. I really, really do. I've been able to get brides and grooms fabulous upgrades, help solve relationship issues, save wedding dresses and pull off some pretty darn amazing weddings. I truly hope to be doing it for the next ten years.