The beginning

Catherine Willow, a young woman who spent the past 7 years planning and executing hundreds of weddings for her respective clients, found herself locked behind her desk with proposals to finish. She had a peculiar wedding client who wish to hold her wedding in three months but only got in-touch to Marion & Co – the wedding company Catherine worked for – last week. Therefore, she needed to put this client up to her priority list. Besides, the bride-to-be specifically asked her to plan the wedding. She refused everyone else but Catherine. She said Catherine planned her best friend wedding last year and it was fabulous; therefore, she wanted Catherine to plan her dream wedding too.

For Catherine, the request was not unusual. She received similar requests from brides, grooms or their family. Just, this particular client was rather difficult to handle. The groom-to-be did not have much to say, he said yes to whatever the bride-to-be wanted. The problem was the bride had no specific concept in mind; she often changed her mind which made Catherine spent hours and hours to create different mood boards. That was the first challenge, the second challenges came from bride-to-be’s mother, she expected grand celebration with a minimal cost. That was so typical. Also, the bride’s mother wanted a complete control, but the groom’s mother would never allow that considering the groom’s parents would be paying. She needed a good solution to fix the concept and met the couple’s expectations. She had been sitting for hours, typing and calling partners to come up with a new proposal. She did not realise Linda – long standing best friend slash colleague – sat next to her. They worked for the same company but in different division. Linda was in charged for domestic clients whilst Catherine was in charged for overseas clients. Statistically, domestic clients filled 65% of the company’s income.

“Kate, what’s up?”

“Nah… just another headache from the bride’s mother.”

“Oh, did you meet them?”

“Yup, earlier today. She gave me list of stuff she wanted for her daughter’s wedding but she accused me for robbing her after I showed her the price list. Well, I don’t think she needs to worry about a penny considering her son-in-law’s parents will be paying.”

“The groom’s parents will pay?”

“Yup, everything. From flights, accommodation, venue and wedding reception.”

“Wow, that’s interesting. I wish my in-laws paid for our wedding. Hahaha…”

“Ah com’on, they paid the wedding banquet, didn’t they?”

“Yeah… they did. But we still paid for the tea ceremony, wedding services, accommodation and church services.”

“At least they chipped in.”

“True that… By the way, will Kevin’s parents pay for your wedding?”

“Uh?! I don’t know. We don’t even talk about it… yet.”

“No way! Kevin been hinting about wedding, hasn’t he?”

“Uhm… We talked… but it’s a passing conversation… And I don’t think I want to face wedding stress. You know, I’m happy planning on other’s weddings, it’s fun and I get to spend their money to make their dream wedding comes true. But for me if I get married, a civil registration followed by lunch with family and close friends will be enough, I guess?? Hassle free, stress free. Hehe…”

“You didn’t say that. You used to say that you wanted a grand wedding, with thousands of fresh roses; walked down the aisle and grand wedding reception with hundreds of invitees.”

“Hahaha… I was too young back then. I thought a fairy tale wedding concept would be a great idea. Now tho, saving money is more important.”

“Ah… I see. I’ll plan your wedding for free. I think Marion will sponsor your wedding too.”

“Hmm…”

“Kate… are you happy?”

“Define happy!”

“Happy as in happy?! You and Kevin, your job… you know after everything happened.”

“Of course, I am. Well, we fought and we argued a lot. But I see that as the process of getting to know each other better. I’d be worried if we never fight tho. I’m full of flaws, he knew it and he chose to stay.”

“I am happy that you’re happy. You truly deserve it; I hope you know that.”

“Thanks Gracie. Looking back, I am grateful for everything I lost and I have gained.”

“That’s great. Can you imagine how would your life be if you were with Andrew?”

“I can’t. I should thank him for breaking my heart. Or else, I’d never challenge myself nor would I meet Kevin.”

“What was happened? I know it’s been years and I’m not supposed to reopen an old wound. Just… you never told me the full story. I suddenly found out that you broke up and that asshole married another woman…”

“Aah…”

“Sorry, if you don’t want to…”

“Grace, it’s fine. I’ve been meaning to tell you; I owe you an explanation after all. Plus, it’s been so long. I can laugh while telling you the whole story.”

“Even if you cry, you are allowed to.”

“Nah, I cried enough. There’s nothing to cry about. Besides, I’d be lying if I say that I don’t want to see he reap his bad karma. Haha…”

“You’re too kind. I wonder if you ever think about it.”

“I used to think about it a lot, then I forgot. But some people are too kind that they keep giving me updates. Hehe…”

“So, you actually know their current situation?”

“Yep. I know about it all along. I chose to ignore it; they don’t deserve my time and attention.”

“No, they don’t.”

“So… you knew that they’re in financial difficulties?”

“Hmm… Kind of. You know Marion’s friend told me.”

“Oh well… I am still curious tho, how did you meet him?”

“Andrew? Oh, he’s an old acquaintance. I knew him through mutual friends; also, his sister worked on several projects with us. Basically, we met due to our working environment. Then, we connected privately after events training. You know, I went to self-development training many years ago to overcome my low self-esteem. He also went to the same program in order to deepen his knowledge on the program. He asked me to help him with the program he’s going to hold in Bali. I thought why not…”

SIX YEARS AGO…

“Kate, my sister told me that you can help me with this training program.”

“Training program?”

“Yeah, she said you attended the three days training program last year?”

“Aaah, yeah. But, what can I help you? I was there as a participant.”

“That’s perfect. I need your help with the flow of the participants. You see, we’ll have 3 different classes; regular, silver and VIP. What’s the different of their benefits? And then syllabus perhaps?”

“Oh, okay. I was a gold participant so I get to see the trainer on a one-on-one session, got invited to networking dinner with Robert Kiyosaki and we were handed a homework to finish. Also, we had a farewell party and got to walk on hot coals. This information was actually available on their tickets.”

“Yes, I saw that. But they didn’t give enough details tho.”

“No, but we could see list of benefits.”

“True. However, I didn’t know that you have homework on networking dinner.”

“Yeah… I found out when we arrived in the function.”

“What was the homework then?”

“Meeting knew people, introducing ourselves, memorizing the faces. Homework was evaluated after dinner. I needed to mention the people I met correctly. Some people will be called in private, then I needed to recognize their faces and names correctly. They key was eye contact. It was hard for me, I tended to avoid a direct eye-contact.”

“You said walk on hot coals? Did you participate?”

“Yep. I did. I thought it was impossible, but our mind and will are stronger.”

“That’s cool!! Did you afraid?”

“Oh, you bet. I thought my feet would be melted like a plastic bowl. But I conquered it. So, it was good.”

“Wow! Now, got it. What about silver and regular participants?”

“Silver didn’t get the one-on-one session, no networking dinner but they did get invited to the farewell party. And for regular, I think they only had the session we shared in that big group. One of the participants said she regretted getting the regular ticket knowing she could have a one-on-one session with trainers.”

“Okay, so we need to highlight the benefits of gold and silver tickets as we want to sell more of these tickets and we want regular ticket holders to upgrade.”

From one meeting to another, I met Andrew after work to help him with his event. He was an event planner who owned an event management company. His company worked with several big companies who became their regular clients. He was known for his skills with vast experience in hospitality and event management. I thought I could learn more from him. I realized after jumping from one event company to work as a sales executive for a local hotel group and then worked as a sales manager of one of the most famous French restaurants in Bali; I learnt I was always interested in event planning. My scope of works was moving around sales and event planning. Moreover, half of my time as a sales manager for a French Restaurant got me engage with various events; from corporate events to wedding receptions. That was why I chose to leave my post at the French Restaurant to work at Marion & Co.

As the preparation come to an end; he asked if I could assist him to manage the Registration and Liaison Office for two medical conferences. It happened to be a low season for wedding business, so I helped him out.

“How was it? Do you need anything?”

“All set. We’ll do a test run for registration team. We need to find the best flow to manage the peak hours.”

“That’d be great. Before we start, let’s hold a general briefing.”

“Sure. Let me get my team.”

Briefing was held to share the latest updates on every department. The first group arrival would arrive at 9PM followed by the following day between 8AM to 4PM. Liaison Officer were divided by country and registration team would standby from 7AM.

So far, we able to manage the flow with minimum to no issues. I was happy as it was the first conference I got involved in after graduated from the university. It brought back memories to those days I garnered experiences in event. I started my journey from a Sales Promotion Girl for one of the biggest telecommunication carriers in Indonesia, then in my university sophomore year I started to take the challenges as Liaison Officer in many international conferences, before I set my record behind the desk as a professional note-taker. I found working behind the desk is much more convenient as I did not need to interact with many people. Those experiences got me a chance to be a part timer at Marion & Co; it was not intended but I felt I would waste an opportunity if I did not take it. For this, I should thank my uni-classmate to take me to her interview.

The three days conference was concluded with group tours. Different country chose different excursion for the day. The committee was happy for the event was a success one. I was happy; so was my team and the whole organizer. They were hard to please but we managed to execute it well.

“Here…” Andrew gave me a box.

“What is it?”

“Open it, you’ll like it.” I opened the box and found two chocolate bars from my favourite brand. It was not a fancy brand but it brought me the best childhood memories.

“Chocolate… How did you know that I’ve been craving for it?”

“Easy. It’s written all over your face.”

“Ah, yeah? Thanks.”

“Kate, did you ride or drive here?”

“Nope. I took a taxi this morning. Why?”

“Going home now?”

“Yep, need to get some rest. I have a venue inspection and food tasting scheduled tomorrow.”

“Okay, let me drive you home…”