The Story (Because There's ALWAYS A Story!)

There are two kinds of event planners in the world...good ones and GREAT ones. The GOOD ones are dedicated, organized and detail-oriented. You can thank them when there is still plenty of food for the stragglers who line up last for the buffet and for when there is still plenty of toilet paper...even at the end of the night. If your event planner is good, you will never be forced to do the "shake, hover and hold" maneuver because she has seen to all your toilet paper needs.

But then there are the TRULY GREAT event planners. Not only are they dedicated, organized and detail-oriented making sure your food and toilet paper needs stay firmly under control, but they also have the ability to remain cool, calm and collected in the face of ANY crisis that may come their way.

This is a story about a GOOD event planner.

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Now among professional event planners, it's a well-known fact that no matter how well you contingency plan, SOMETHING is bound to come up that, in a million years, you could NEVER have dreamed would happen...and then you just have to think fast and deal with it the best you can.

Let's see...I've seen drunk millionaires hit on waitstaff, belligerent hillbillies fire guns at passersby, some one's toenail split in two and fall off AND been forced to tell a busload of tired, road-weary cyclists there was a real good chance they were going to get off that bus and find their car had been vandalized while they were gone. Good times...good times.

I think I was most traumatized by the toenail, though. I've never been able to look at feet the same way since. Who knew your toenails could betray you in such a way?! Blech!

It's such a given that SOMETHING unexpected will happen that I was actually playing the "What if" game on my way to set up for the party. Little did I know that about twenty minutes later, I would actually be the center of "the crisis" and it would threaten my job, my bank account and most importantly, my professional reputation!

Our event this year was supposed to be a low-key, scaled-down party in deference to the economy and the financial woes that are affecting EVERYONE...even the super-wealthy. So instead of the big star-studded celebrity dinner and golf tournament complete with professional live auction and $1,500 ticket price, we would simply do a cocktail party this year with hors d' oeuvres and a local band.

I was down with this....I actually think people prefer these kinds of parties anyway. We cut the ticket price and decided on a very small auction with only eight items (but very nice items that would fetch high bids). One of the items was a diamond necklace donated by a local jeweler. I picked it up from his store early last week and brought it home and put it in Hubby's office for safe-keeping.

On Friday night, I opened the box and showed it to Hubby. Then I put it back in the bag and put it with the rest of the items that had to be ferried over to the event site the next day.

On Saturday afternoon, I loaded up all the items into my car and headed on over to the party about two-hours early. When I got to the house, everything was in full-swing. The caterers were there, the florist was there and the band was doing sound-check. I started unloading the auction items and suddenly realized that the necklace WASN'T THERE!!!

Ruh roh...I must have left it in Hubby's office!!

I called Hubby and when he answered, I asked him to go to his office and see if the necklace was there and if so, could he bring it when he came to the party? (He was coming later with our friends.)

He went down to his office and I stayed on the phone trying to remain calm because at that moment, I thought I knew where the necklace was. But then Hubby said the four worst possible words in the English language, "It's not here, babe."

"WHAT?!???!! What do you mean it's NOT THERE!?!! It has to be there, BECAUSE IT'S NOT HERE!!! REMEMBER WHEN I SHOWED IT TO YOU?!? IN YOUR OFFICE?!?" (Fyi...All Caps = All PANIC!)

I ran back to my car and literally TORE IT APART! Then I tore apart my event boxes and shopping bags. NOT THERE!! How could the necklace go missing between my house and the event location?!? Where could it have gone?!!

I called Hubby back..."LOOK HERE! LOOK THERE! DID YOU LOOK WHERE I ASKED YOU TO LOOK?!??!" All the while, Hubby is telling me to calm down and yes, he did look here and there and EVERYWHERE I asked him to. It simply wasn't there!

Oh.my.God. TOTAL nightmare scenario. Seriously...can you think of anything worse? Because I can't.

So this went on for about thirty minutes. I was sweating, shaking, on the verge of tears and just about to call our board chairman to tell him what had happened all while thinking there was absolutely NO WAY in the world that he would believe that I made it to the auction with every other item EXCEPT the diamond necklace when the caterer walked up.

"What do you think?" he asked, eager to receive my 100% seal of approval on all his hard work.

"Huh? Think about what?" I asked.

"Everything," he said, gesturing around the grounds.

"Yeah...it looks great," I said. "I'm sorry if I seem distracted. I've misplaced an auction item and if I don't find it, I'm going to have to buy it. It's worth $5,000 and I don't have $5,000!"

"Oh..." he said with real concern for me in his voice, "Well, do you think it's in one of the bags my guys carried into the kitchen for you?"

Now...You are going to think I'm exaggerating this part, but I promise you I'm not. I LITERALLY grabbed the caterer by his lapels and yelled through clenched teeth, "WHAT BAGS IN THE KITCHEN?!??" And I'm pretty sure I gave him a mean, sideways look that was meant to convey the words, "Dude. You better not be messing with me, because if you are...I will JACK.YOU.UP."

Poor guy...I hope I didn't make him cry, but I might have. I was a woman on the edge and we all know what they look like. Scary stuff.

Apparently, in his desire to be helpful, the caterer sent some busboys to my car to help carry in my stuff. He just didn't tell me that part and in my panic, I didn't realize that two of my original five shopping bags weren't there and didn't think to go looking for them.

And the answer to the question you're all dying to know is YES! The necklace was there...in one of the missing bags!! Crisis? What crisis? I can't stand it when people over-react. ;o)

Of course, by then my make-up had totally melted off, my linen outfit was completely wrinkled from crawling up in my car and tearing it apart and it took me one-and-a-half glasses of wine to calm my nerves before the guests started to arrive...but it all worked out in the end. And that's all that counts, right?

Here are some pictures of the event set-up...it really was a lovely night.