The Groom Said No.

Imagine this, you are a 19 year old professional working through your first internship, your boss decides that you are able to manage the ceremony by yourself with a fellow intern. Exciting right? Well, picture the bride not liking this team because she was recently fired for what should have been numerous reasons, so this had to be perfect. All eyes on us and if we couldn't pull it off, what would happen?

I was in charge of getting the party and groom down the aisle and the groom to be looked at me and, said "nope".

I was nervous as it was, this couple wanted a sunset wedding you have to be flexible and understand what could go wrong, did they plan for that? No, they did not. The sunset weddings typically have a different order of events. You start with the dinner, have the ceremony, and finish off with the reception full of laughs and dances. There are the events however where you have to have a plan b incase something comes up. Weather, personal, medical emergencies, and so on. It turns out that during dinner, the groom got cut off from the bar and had a little too much fun before he had the chance to take the chairlift up to the ceremony site and commit to his bride to be. Once he got to the top of this ski hill, while I was getting the guests off the lift and waiting to cue the music, our groom sat down on the side of a hill surrounded by his siblings and he looked up at me. With an exciting tone in my voice I asked him if he was ready to get the ceremony started. He looked up at me and goes "Madison, I can't do this, I cannot commit, I don't want too" so my worst nightmare had come true. We had a plan for the venue if there was any emergencies but how does one prepare for this? I called Arielle, the fellow intern and my best friend, she was in charge of keeping the Bride and her father entertained until they are cued to the end of the aisle. After I got off the phone with her telling her I'd keep her update, I talked to him until he made the decision to walk down the aisle with his kids, and marry the love of his life. He gave me a thumbs up when he made it to the end of the aisle and he sat down. Fast forward, they have a sand unity ceremony to get through, he was the first to go and after he poured most of the sand into the vase he walked around the front and hurled over in front of their family and friends. Trying to keep the chatter about him to a minimum, they finished the ceremony as the clouds poured in over Lake Michigan. They managed to make it to the bottom of the hill and continued into their reception as husband and wife.

I feel like this was an accomplishment on our part as our goal was to manage the ceremony, and to this day the bride still does not know this happened. I always like to look back at this as a learning and working quick on your toes moment. We had to think fast and work through issues that arise such as this one. I always use this story while providing examples for interviews and working as a team. I'm excited to further my career and use this to work through and solve problems that may arise in the future.