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6
“Well, well, well,” Mr. Drew answered. “Nice of you to finally join us. Please come in and sit down, Austin. We’ve wasted enough time already.”
“Hey,” Austin remarked back, casually looking over at Jane, but then back at his father.
“Blame your kitchen staff. They kept making me try things, and then they wouldn’t let me leave without a fresh cup of coffee.”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” Mr. Drew answered back annoyed. “I’m sure they held you down. Come in and sit down so we can start hashing through everything. I’ve got another meeting at 2 pm that I can’t be late for.”
Austin casually sauntered over to where his father was sitting and sipped his coffee, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he was late, and that he had interrupted a meeting already in progress.
“Austin,” Mr. Drew said after he took a seat, “this is Jane Jones, the woman I was telling you about. She is our Director of Events here, and this is who you will be working with on the Kat and Mike wedding.”
Jane sat frozen, waiting for Austin to make the connection that they had gone to high school together. She knew she looked different, but her name was the same. How many Jane Jones do you know in life? She wasn’t sure how she would react once he put two and two together, so she sat still, holding her breath, not sure what else to do.
“And Jane,” Mr. Drew said, looking over in her direction, “this is my son, Austin, who is just about to apologize for being late.”
Austin glanced at Jane, making zero connection, and nodded with a smile, “Nice to meet you, Jane. I’m sorry I was a little late for our meeting.”
Jane wanted to comment that his idea of being a little late and her own were quite different, but she held her tongue. She was just thankful he didn’t seem to recognize her face or her name from high school, which might be insulting in other circumstances, but at this moment she didn’t care. “Nice to meet you, Austin,” she said with a professional smile.
“So where are we with everything?” Austin asked with a big grin, acting as if he was already in charge.
Jane carefully pushed a thick green folder in his direction, “This is everything we have so far for the Kat and Mike wedding. A copy of the executed contract is in there, plus the informational sheet that I had them fill out in terms of special interests and requirements. There’s also a copy of the NDA that we all were required to sign. I wanted to make sure you had everything at your fingertips before we move forward.”
Austin opened up the folder and immediately noticed that Jane had color-coded tabs inside the folder, clearly labeled with everything that was inside. “So this is a folder of folders?” he joked, as he flipped through everything.
“Jane is one of the most organized people we have here,” Mr. Drew said. “She has single-handedly put everything together for you and for me,” gesturing to his folder, “so we have it all, and I personally can’t thank her enough for all this.”
“Thank you,” Jane smiled, as she looked over at Mr. Drew.
“So, what’s the next step?” Austin asked, clearly not familiar with the steps involved in wedding planning.
“Next for us,” Jane stated, as she locked eyes with Austin, “is to get on a call with Kat’s own wedding planner and start securing details immediately. With only four weeks we have barely any time to pull this together, so we need to move heaven and earth to make it happen.”
“Why the hell does she have a wedding planner?” Austin asked curiously. “Isn’t that what she’s hiring us to do?”
Jane nodded, feeling the importance of this question, because it was something that semi-annoyed her, too. Wedding planners were great when they worked seamlessly with her and the staff, but when they don’t get back to you, or drag their feet, it becomes an issue. Which is exactly how she was beginning to feel about Kat’s wedding planner.
“Essentially, engaged couples hire a wedding planner to keep them on track. Thankfully, when someone does a wedding here, they’re also contracting our catering services, but there’s so much more on top of that. There’s flowers, entertainment, invitations, bridal party gifting, attire, all those sorts of things. The good thing is that we have a list of vendors that we work with, but it’s still an extensive list to work through. I’m trying to pinpoint the ones I think will work best for Kat, and then send that contact info to her wedding planner.”
“So they’re a middleman,” Austin added, “or in this case, woman.”
“Yes,” Jane nodded.
“And,” Mr. Drew interrupted, “as I told you, it’s important to build relationships with these wedding planners because they can refer business our way. Kat’s wedding planner is a big deal, and I need you to massage that relationship as best you can.”
Austin nodded at his father, remembering their discussion about that.
“So, the next step for me,” Jane added, and then caught herself, “well… I guess, for us… is to get on the phone with her wedding planner and start banging through the list of things that need to be booked and secured.”
“That can’t be too hard,” Austin said coolly, looking over at his father. “I mean, how hard is it to secure entertainment, and flowers, and all that stuff. Kat must have an unlimited budget.”
Jane felt her insides tighten. She always got annoyed when people assumed things like this were easy to pull off. Attention to detail went into everything, especially when it came to weddings. She took a breath and quickly responded, “Well, it’s not so much about having an unlimited budget, which is great for her and will be easier for us, but it’s more about knowing how quickly she’s going to be able to make decisions. We need to be able to make whatever she wants actually happen.”
“What do you mean? You think she’s going to try and go after some sort of extinct flower that’s only available halfway around the world?” Austin laughed to himself.
Jane looked at him dead seriously. “Yes, those kinds of requests do pop up. I’m hoping Kat Kay isn’t that kind of bride, but you never know.”
