Surviving Crazy Event Weather with Hannah

Summary

Hannah Ward, hotel catering and events veteran in Scottsdale, walks Rachel through one of the worst weather disasters of her career: a wedding truss with chandeliers that started cracking in a freak windstorm, then collapsed into the ceremony chairs 30 minutes before guests would have been sitting in them. The bride refused to move the ceremony indoors and threw a cocktail table at the staff. The father of the groom, drinking, called Hannah dramatic for moving the event after she pointed out his family members could have died. Her team and every vendor reset the entire ceremony in 45 minutes.

Key takeaways

1. The wind takes the truss whether the bride agrees or not — A wedding truss with chandeliers cracked in a freak windstorm. The bride said the ceremony was happening outside no matter what. The truss collapsed onto chairs 30 minutes before ceremony. If it had been 10 minutes later, guests would have been sitting in them.
2. The whole vendor team is the recovery — When the truss went down, Hannah moved the entire ceremony from the top floor to the first floor in 45 minutes. Florist, rentals, lighting, all came back to reset. Guests don't see the vendors doing what they do, but the save is theirs.
3. You can't reason a drunk family member out of a bad take — The father of the groom, drinking, told Hannah she was being dramatic about a near-fatal incident. She bit her tongue. The half-hearted apology came right before the ceremony. The trauma-bond with the planner came after.
4. Decorative carpentry needs load testing too — Hannah's friend got married at a wedding where the bride's dad built a rickety chuppah by the ocean. The couple finished vows and the whole thing collapsed harmlessly behind them. Decor that holds weight needs the same testing as a real venue.
5. Wedding professionals are wedding professionals — When something goes wrong that ruins the day, it ruins ours too. We're not a vendor that should have prevented it. We're trying to save it in real time. Treat the planner like she's on your team, because she is.

Transcript

00:00 With over 33 years in the mobile bartending and service industry, he is the guy who brings the party and the joy wherever he goes. She's a seasoned event planner and producer with more than 20 years of experience in sports, corporate, nonprofit, and private events. Together we are Hot Mics, Cold Drinks and Untold Disasters of the wild, hilarious and unforgettable moments in the world of events.

00:27 This is the Event Talk podcast with Dave and Rachel.

00:31 Hi, welcome to the Event Talk podcast where we're talking about hot mics, cold drinks and untold disasters in the event space. Dave and I are here today to talk to Hannah Ward, who has been in the hotel catering event space for years. Welcome Hannah. Thanks for having me. Dave, you want to talk about our mocktail? Hannah chose a lavender lemonade with blueberries. Cheers to the drink. Yummy. Lavender lemonade — super yummy.

01:31 I've known you for almost two years. This is back when the hotel wasn't even open. Hard hat, closed-toe shoes — imagine walking through a construction site in hard hats and jeans in August. No AC in Scottsdale, Arizona. The pool wasn't even dug. I'll never forget the day they put that shovel in the ground.

02:21 So obviously we're here to talk about a lot of fun, untold disasters. You were telling me one that happened a number of years ago — bat-sh*t crazy bride. But it wasn't just the bride, it was the weather. Yeah, perfect storm — between bride, groom's family (the groom was sweet, totally opposite from his family), and then we had some weather that day, one of those freak windstorms.

03:08 This wedding had trusses for chandeliers to hang outside. I had instructed the company, "hey, bring extra weight, extra sand for the bases, just in case." That didn't happen. Red flag number one. So we're all preparing for the worst. The planner — amazing planner, I could never sing her praises enough — she and I met with the couple during the rehearsal the day before and said, "hey, heads up, we think we might have wind tomorrow, here's our backup plan." The bride said, "if I'm not getting married in this particular location, we will not be getting married." Her husband, future husband, was like —

04:40 So basically the trust is metal rigging. They hang chandeliers from it. Open on top, it's safe — typically. Knock on wood. So the wind's kicking up and I'm watching the base of this truss starting to crack. I'm thinking, oh my God, this could literally be disastrous. We're connecting probably every ten minutes with the planner saying, "what do you want to do? If you want to call it, we could move it into the ballroom and it would be fine. Two hours out is when we need to know." And the bride was basically saying, "nope, we're doing it."

06:00 All the ceremony chairs go out. We are literally 30 minutes out from ceremony, more than 30 minutes. One big old gust of wind comes and that truss just went over into the chairs. If it would have been 10 minutes later, there would have been guests sitting there. Thank God there were none. Those things weigh thousands of pounds. It hit, and my heart has never stopped ever like that for an event ever. It was like slow motion. I rallied my entire team and the entire vendor team — I said, "get everything downstairs right now. We don't have an option."

07:09 Ceremony and reception was supposed to take place in this one space upstairs — tables, chairs, linens, China, flatware, glassware, floral, everything. On a top floor. And we had to get it down to the first floor. The couple was offsite taking photos. I'm calling the planner, sending photos of what had just happened. "There's no other option, we are moving. End of story." We couldn't have picked up the truss — the company was offsite at another event. Bride is having a meltdown. Sweet groom is trying to console her.

08:55 She's having a meltdown. I get it — months, if not years, planning your wedding, ton of money. But also you have to understand: this is the boat we're in now, so you better get on board. Right from a vendor standpoint, their goal is to get married, and they were still going to get married. We had already had hiccups leading into wedding weekend. She gets back on property, raging, hulking out, screaming in public areas. She threw a table — cocktail table — at one of my staff. Petite little thing, but very angry.

10:10 Wind is a different story — you can't see it. The bride and groom corner myself and the planner because we know how high energy this bride is. We're absorbing all of that. Father of the groom comes up to me — clearly had been drinking, you could smell it on him. He is just lighting myself and the planner up. I looked at him and said, "I completely understand where you're coming from. However, it is not feasible for us to do this event in that location anymore. The company is offsite at another event." He's like, "I work in construction, it's not that bad — pick it up, it's not that heavy."

12:04 I said, "sir, if it would have been 10 minutes later, your family members would have been sitting there and could have been seriously injured, if not killed." He looked me dead in my face and told me I was being dramatic. It was probably one of the hardest times I've had to bite my tongue. The planner and I both have been in the industry for, you know, a decade or longer, and we both had a moment where we had to collect ourselves. We trauma-bonded forever.

13:21 Only silver lining of this entire thing is that my team rallied like nothing I've ever seen. The entire vendor team — florist, rental company, lighting company that did the rigging that fell — came back and reset everything up in the ballroom space. We started the ceremony about 45 minutes after originally. People don't see the vendors doing what they do. You pulled it off, but you didn't get the accolades for it.

14:30 I did get an apology from the dad of the groom right before the ceremony. Honestly, half-assed backhanded apology. He could tell how upset we were. He said, "I can understand why we had to pull it." I said, "sir, we are wedding professionals, event professionals. It is our job to make her day perfect. When something like this happens, it is equally horrifying for us." He kind of just looked at me and shook his head.

15:48 I had a bride once literally wanted to walk from a tree. Nobody knew about this tree. "Walk down from in your room and walk down the aisle." Nobody told anybody about it. So I was like, "okay, you're going to walk from this beautiful wooden path over a little river." She actually ended up walking from the wooden path, married her husband, and then literally walks past the aisle and is so disappointed because she didn't walk from the tree.

16:44 This particular woman went up to her suite and screamed to her entire bridal party that I personally did this and ruined her day. Somebody told me that the groom corrected her and said, "I looked in Hannah's eyes — if you think she wanted this to happen, you're insane."

17:43 Every night before an event, no matter how turnkey, I still stay awake. Your brain just goes through this thinking process — "oh, I need to add paperclips to my pack." You wake up at 3:00 in the morning. We're producing this great event for you — please remember, we're people too. We got, you know, the ice cubes were square — the things people complain about after 33 years. Now I let sales handle that. But that's why this is going to be great — because of stories like yours that people don't understand what we go through and how much work goes in on the back end.

19:24 Weddings — from the time that you contract a wedding, depending on how long of a runway you have, it's usually 4-6 months of calls, meetings, walkthroughs, change orders. They brought in all their own vendors at this property even though we had everything in-house. Weddings are so personal, you want your own style. Outside food, outside catering. How many times you run out of food because they don't bring enough. My aunt at an event — the chef didn't bring enough meat. The last three tables only got pasta.

20:23 I used to work with an off-premise catering company. If you don't have everything on that truck when you leave the lot, you're screwed. There's no grocery store down the street. Back when we were doing this, Postmates wasn't around. My driver in Goodyear would fly out to Desert Ridge. Now it's "they'll be there in ten minutes." Ice delivery, anything.

21:05 Funny stories. I have a funny one — very similar to yours but in the funny way. One of my best friend couples got married in California right next to the ocean. The night before, dad of bride was building this triangle thing that had flowers — a chuppah. We put it up — so rickety, definitely not. They walk down the aisle, say the I-do's, and literally as they're walking from the chuppah, the whole entire thing just goes whoosh. Doesn't hurt anybody, everyone just went to the side. It actually served its purpose — opposite of yours.

24:13 Sedona — wedding up in Sedona, like a Tlaquepaque. On a rooftop and there were wildfires happening at the same time. You could see the burning red. It was ominous. There was ash falling at one point — Arizona snow. She was in a white dress. They were so chill, they are still married. The ultimate goal is to get married at the end of the day. Let's remember why we're here.

27:37 We did Barkley's retirement party at the Ice House. I brought friends in, and it wasn't supposed to. The client wasn't happy with me — like, the Barkley retiree, right? I just came to a party. The staff was there. The one that I saw, Barkley, he's like "your eyes — you're the one with the eyes."

28:39 Black on black. I had to sign an NDA. We did a wedding for a 70s rock band guy who lives off Pinnacle Peak. I'm not going to say who because his wife was very strict on that. I walked up: "Hi, Mr. So-and-So," and he's sitting there folding napkins for his son's wedding. The sweetest thing. His dog came out. Nicest guy. You can always tell by who's made their money and who was given their money by the way the staff is treated.

32:39 Like, you'd go to a party and they say "this guy's going to be there." You might like to stay home with the dog. Yeah. I got to get my tickets. I'll give it to my friend. Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt. But thank you, Hannah, so much. I have to have straws — I literally was just going to spill it. Stay tuned, like, subscribe, please don't run around naked. We'll have you join us for the next one — two very special guests, one of them used to play in the NBA.

34:13 Thanks for tuning in to the Event Talk podcast — Hot Mics, Cold Drinks and Untold Disasters where every event has a story. A big thank you to our guests for their laughs, stories, and lessons. If you loved this episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share with your fellow event pros. Until next time.