Another Wedding, Another Heartache

I went to a wedding last weekend. It was hosted by my dear friend for her only child. When I reached her condominium, she was there to usher us in. In her frantic voice, she told me that her caterer had not arrive and there was no food to be served. I told her not to worry and that everything will be alright.

As I entered the wedding venue, I saw that everything was in place. The dais was very well made up, the plates and cutlery and glasses were placed nicely on the tables. The guests have arrived and since it was a ' come and go' event, I guess it would be alright if the food was a little bit late.

The event was to be from 7.30 pm to 11.30 pm. Imagine to my friend's horror, the food only arrive around 9.30 pm. Luckily some of her relatives went out to buy crates of drinking water and nuts to serve the guests. It took the caterer almost 30 minutes to serve the food. By this time the number of guests have swelled , since those who had arrived earlier were still around at this time.

What happened was clearly not my friend's fault. How could the caterer not be there at least 2 hours before the event started? And when they did come finally, why didn't they have the urgency to serve immediately? And why can't they clean the tables promptly after the first round of guests finished their dinners? instead it was the relative who clear the tables?

My friend and her husband kept on apologising to the guests all night long. I feel sad for her. In this case, no matter how hard we, her friends tried to console her, she said she was ashamed of what had happened.It should be a joyious occasion but it was marred by the thoughtlessness of the caterer.I for one will not give any business to this caterer.

The following night, my friend hosted another wedding dinner for her very close friends and families. She told me that she cried the whole night after the wedding at her condominium. Who would blame her for that? We are talking about her only child's wedding. She wanted it to be at least near perfect. But it was not meant to be.

But the wedding dinner that took place the following night was something else. It was near perfect. We enjoyed ourselves very much. And I sincerely hope that my friend will remember only of this evening instead of the disastrous one....