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Reception Locations  |
Brides |
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Jennifer Rose and Bruce Sandy Sunday October 29, 2006 Southport Community Building Photos by Anne McGowan |
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Jennifer and Bruce on the Cape Fear River waterfront in downtown Southport. |
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Escorted by her father, David Rose, Jennifer starts down the aisle right on schedule. |
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Jennifer’s mother, Susan Rose, sang at the wedding. |
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Sweet table featured treats to eat on the spot and others to take home. |
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The heroes of this story don’t appear in any of the photographs. In
fact, the guests had
no reason to think that anything heroic had taken place. But an ad-hoc squad of
vendors went beyond
the call of duty to ensure that this wedding went off without a hitch. Because of a scheduling miscommunication involving the end of daylight-saving time, the many vendors had less than half the time they expected to set up for the wedding and reception. As the relieved bride recalled a few days later, “Given the amount of set-up necessary, this would never have normally been possible.” But all the vendors, even those who expected just to drop off their products and leave, “stayed to handle the crisis.” Jennifer herself does graphic and floral design. She couldn’t say enough to praise “the experience and professionalism of the vendors and their extreme willingness to help in any way possible.” “As brides, we hear so many horror stories,” she commented. She wants other brides to know how the pros can “avert the horror.” |
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Jennifer Rose is from Ravenna, Ohio, a county seat town near Cleveland.
She came
to North Carolina to work on a master’s in creative writing at UNC-Wilmington. She met Bruce Sandy, a Wilmington native, in the course of business. “I hired him to work on my computer.” |
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Danny and Susan Danek
of Danny’s Pastry Shoppe delivered and set up the cake, but in Jennifer’s words “ended
up doing flower arrangements.” Huge wooden boxes had to be filled with blossoms and greenery. “Danny and
my father loaded all those flowers.” |
Atlantic Quest Catering's
staff dropped off beer, wine, ice and linens, then were supposed to go back to
Wilmington to change
clothes and pick up the food. Instead, they stayed and pitched in: Iced down drinks,
organized
placecards, “set all the tables, and folded the napkins with a poem tucked in.” A.Q.
Manager Pete
Daniel brought the food and his staff’s uniforms. |
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Roxanne Thompson of Island Florals took command, acting as ringmaster and drill sergeant, rounding up groomsmen to help set tables, haul equipment and organize seating. “She is the reason they got there when they did,” Jennifer said. Anne McGowan was with Jennifer, photographing her preparations for her wedding, when the bride got word of the scheduling problem. “I found out about it, and I lost it,” Jennifer admits. She credits Anne with calming her down. “She was so cool. She was great.”  |
 Jennifer designed the programs and her mother sewed the table runners. Favors were fishing lures, wrapped in an antiqued map of Southport. |
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Greenery, driftwood,
and other natural materials were used to decorate the reception hall. Contrary to the best laid plans, the caterer’s staff and the pastry chef volunteered to help. “The wait staff was unloading van-fulls of flowers,” Jennifer said. Just an hour after the vendors got started, she said, “When I arrived, everything was in its place.” |
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The bride did the decorating and floral design through her business, Salt Harbor Designs.
But rather than attend to every detail herself, she enlisted Island Florals by Roxanne to help. |
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An old rowboat was filled with ice to hold beer. Originally assigned to the groomsmen,
this
task was handled on the fly by Atlantic Quest’s catering team. |
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The father of the bride’s hobbies include woodworking, and he built the benches
for his daughter’s wedding. They are now available through a local party-rental
firm. Jennifer wanted to share her story to assure other brides “that if they choose vendors whose reputations precede them, their event will succeed even in the face of crisis.” Well-wishers with sparklers send Bruce and Jennifer on their way after what she called a ‘wildly successful’ evening. |
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Published by Cape Fear Images, Inc. | 5621 Athens Lane | Wilmington, N.C. 28405