As you know, Gather is as wedding and event planning group, but from time to time I am asked to pull together flower arrangements, decorate a table scape or decorate one's home for a party. I mentioned in my last post that I would be decorating two of my clients' homes for Christmas and you may be thinking..."wow, I didn't know she did that too." Well, the truth is I don't but I do have the resources to get things like this done.
When asked to decorate two homes for Christmas, I quickly called Buffy to see if she would come to work with Gather and help make this happen. Thankfully she said yes, and we immediately started planning the fabulous decor for the two houses. Given that Buffy has worked at Southern Living magazine for years, the magazine asked if they could shoot our trees for their Christmas Decor issue. My clients were originally responsible for getting their own trees and Gather would handle the rest. However, Southern Living was gracious enough to provide the trees for the clients in exchange for the photos.
Well......If you have been to Home Depot recently to scout out a tree for your home, than you will know what type of tree I had in mind for my clients. A pretty, full, normal sized tree that would be covered in beautiful ornaments, ribbon and much more. I still had that tree in mind when the trailer hauling the trees pulled up to my client's driveway today. One would say I should had known the massive size of the tree by the weight, but I assumed that everything would be fine. As we struggled up the stairs, into the front door and into the living room, we realized the tree was 4 feet too tall for the room. I quickly (it was not one of my brighter moments) decided to leave the tree on the floor and get the second 12ft tree off the trailer. We made it up the stairs, through the door and then into the den this time. We managed to get the tree into the tree stand and giggle with delight.
We told all children and dogs to back away as we cut the blue string that would release the branches in true Grizwall Family Christmas style. Thankfully, no glass was broken and the branches managed to fall without touching a thing (we had moved all the furniture aside and taken all the paintings off the wall just to be safe). I then decided that the tree needed to move back into the corner, so we all gave a little push. With that, the 300 lb, 12ft tree came crashing down!!! Thankfully the 4 other helpers were still standing by and were able to somewhat catch this mass of a tree. Three hours later and after an additional crew of 6 more people arrived, we were able to get the tree back in the stand and sturdy!
After the nightmare of the afternoon, we decided to carry the other 12ft tree (the one I originally left on in the living room floor) back out the front door and down the stairs. We exchanged it for a beautiful 8ft tree that is far more reasonable.
I tell you this, not to win your business, but for a good holiday laugh. I will be decorating the tree this weekend....more to come!
Happy Planning!
-NB
