This marks the 100th episode of Wedding Secrets Unveiled! We’re thrilled to celebrate this milestone with a special edition where we Spill the Tea! Ariana Straznicky of Ariana Strings and Scott Connery of Exquisite Events Décor join Sara and Dan to dish on the good, the bad, and the downright unbelievable. You won’t want to miss this episode! So grab a seat, enjoy some laughs with the team, and who knows—you might even pick up a few helpful tips along the way!
Can you tell everybody who you are, what you do and who you serve?
A: I’m Ariana, and I’m from Ariana Strings. I have performed for over 650 weddings over the last 15 years with string ensembles who perform hits from 1645 to today. If you’re looking for Bridgerton vibes for your wedding day, we’re here to do that for you!
S: And I am Scott Connery. I am an event designer with Exquisite Events. We do everything – designs for any type of event, whether it be wedding, corporate birthday parties. We do beautiful installations, lighting, and custom design work. And today, most of my stories are going to come from my past life in the planning world, because those stories are a lot funnier than they are now!
We live through the crazy all day long when we’re on site so that makes sense. Let’s start: Ariana, spill the tea about ceremonies!
A: So I was working with a couple who is really sweet. They were getting married at a castle in Connecticut, and they came to me and they were like, “We love your music. We love strings. It’s so romantic and we know we want to have all of these songs.” They were really specific from the very beginning, and the bride knew she really wanted to walk down the aisle to “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri, you know the Twilight song. It’s gorgeous. It’s a modern classic. Awesome. It sounds great on string quartet.
So, they go and they do all of their music choices with me in our first meeting, and things are going swimmingly. And then they ask for a final call, and on that call, they told me “we’re going to have the DJ play my walk down the aisle”. I’ve never had that request happen before, because usually when they hire us, we’re just performing all of the music. But I don’t mind. They seemed a little awkward about it, and it felt like something else had happened. So I asked them what was going on since I’m playing the other music. She finally told me the DJ told them it wouldn’t sound good on instruments and without lyrics. So, I told them that it was totally up to them and it was about whatever makes you comfortable.
DJ Trouble…
It sounded to me like the DJ wanted to cover the ceremony and was honestly inching his way in there. People do that. So, I arrive on site the day of the wedding and put everything in order. I look over and the DJ is in the corner panicking – like some Tasmanian Devil surrounded by wires. They seemed really flustered and kept testing the system. Something in me said to just get “A Thousand Years” ready to go, because something just didn’t seem right. Thank goodness I did, because before the ceremony I greeted the DJ and he said everything was fine. The wedding party walks down the aisle -goes great, and then the bride is up at the top of these stairs, and the venue coordinator gives the thumbs up to tell the DJ to start playing her music. All you hear is a big speaker blowing and him cursing to himself.
So, we started playing the instrumental version for her to walk down the aisle. Then she walked down. It was wonderful. I think, I think the 10 seconds of misery was probably a bigger deal to like her and to us who knew what was going on. But it was kind of crazy. And at the end, the DJ was like, “I don’t know what happened, the system wasn’t working today.” I told him it was fine and we had his back. We’re in this together. So that’s one of my stories. If you want to upsell a couple on something, you should probably be able to do it.
Did you ever find out why he was so adamant about wanting to do it or those lyrics?
I think he wanted to be part of the day. The couple was so into us doing it beforehand, and then they said that the DJ had basically convinced them that the song had no meaning without the lyrics. He was not originally supposed to be part of the ceremony coverage, so I think it was like a last minute upsell.
Oh, lovely. All right, Scott, give it to me.
So, you know, I could write a book or a series about this with the amount of craziness that I’ve delt with. I’m going to start off with one that you can definitely relate to: don’t get hung up on dates. So couples want to book you out like 2 years in advance because a date is super popular. So, I’m going to go back to 10-10-10. That was a super popular date and in high demand. This bride booked me 2 years in advance because she wanted this particular date. Everything she’s doing is revolved around the number 10. It’s kind of insane, but this is what she’s running with – so no problem.
Issues with a License
They’re getting married on site, and for some odd reason, I had a priest come up to us the day of the rehearsal saying he was going to marry the couple. If you’re Catholic, you know that the priest can’t marry you outside the church. So it was odd – I’m not use to that. Then she has someone else come up and say they’re the officiant marrying the couple. I was like, okay – this is great… two people, no problem. So, we’re going to go with it. The wedding day comes and I’m asking if they have the wedding license. The groom was like, oh my fiancée must have it – go check the room. So, I go over and she tells me she doesn’t think she has the license. Because they must have forgotten about it. She starts panicking. She and her fiancé wound up on the phone arguing about who was supposed to get it. So,
I have the officiant grab her purse and leave. She’s like, “I’m not marrying them, I literally can’t do it”. Thankfully, I was able to get a hold of a lawyer I know, and he came to my rescue… with stipulations. They needed to pay, he couldn’t call 10-10-10 their official wedding date and it’s Columbus Day weekend so nothing is open until Tuesday. He said, “I’ll go through the motions. It’s going to cost them this much money, but they’re still not going to legally be married out of the state. They’re going to have to go for their wedding license on Tuesday.”
So, now I have to go tell all these people what’s going on.
They were already out there?
Oh yeah, it was like an hour before the ceremony. They were ready to go. So I make an announcement that we’re delayed a little bit, and maybe they should go and grab a drink, and we’ll get started again shortly. So, the judge gets there about an hour later and I’m trying to get people back into the ceremony space. I have no clue what happened, but they didn’t have A drink, they had a vat of liquor. It was like trying to get a frat party into the space for a serious moment here. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to myself, the bride decides she was going to hang out and get whacked because she was all worked up about her marriage license. So, by the time I got her, she could barely walk. I went into prep mode trying to figure out where this nightmare was going. She makes it down the aisle and then vomits right in front of her fiancé.
Oh, I had a feeling you were about to say that….
Amazingly, the only person she vomits on is her fiancé. She clearly missed herself. Completely covered him. It was like the exorcist. That’s all I can explain. But at this point, I said listen, they aren’t getting “officially” married today, let’s just get her to the reception part of this. She never made it. She stayed in bed the entire night because she couldn’t even function. I don’t know what happened. I think something else was going on, but she never made it. Everybody had a blast at the reception. It was more like a party. Long story short, they went to City Hall on that Tuesday after Columbus Day and got married.
And she didn’t have her date after all of that.
She never had the date on her documents, nope.
Scott, that might just take the cake a little bit.
It was a little messy, and you feel bad. I mean, in normal situations, you’d want to feel bad. But I was like, I don’t know what happened in that hour span. Did everyone just grab bottles and chug? It was out of control. Nothing like I’ve never seen before in my life. And I been through hundreds of weddings,
So, I have to know: are they still together?
They actually are. I see them all the time, and it’s funny, because we can laugh about it now. It wasn’t funny at the time but thank goodness – that’s true love.
Dan: I got married earlier this year. At the end of the night of our wedding, we were trying to get people to sign the marriage license. Nobody was the best man, so I’m trying to get my best friend to sign it. So, he wasn’t even paying attention and wrote his nickname, Danger, on the license – the official document – which definitely caused problems when we went to the town hall. You can’t totally tell that’s what it says so we managed to get it through. But it was scary for a minute!
Sara: Alright, I have two stories I want to share. Scott, that story resonated with me.
So, I haven’t had a bride puke down the aisle but I had a bride miss her entire reception because she was sick with the stomach bug the entire day. So, I showed up at her house – the morning was fine. You know how stomach bugs come out of nowhere. We got her ready, she went to her ceremony, and then I tell you she looked so pale. I can see in the pictures where she lost all color in her skin honestly. I kept thinking to myself that something was going on.
She powered through her ceremony – a big beautiful outside ceremony in their backyard in Jamestown overlooking the bridge. This was not a cheap affair, and I say that because for someone who missed her entire wedding, I feel bad. She went MIA – and as a photographer, I try to let someone who’s gone MIA have a minute. But then I started to notice, I saw the groom, I saw the family and cocktail hour is still going on. So, I gave her a minute. But then I was like, I need to go find her.
Now, this is their property – so she has a bed to sleep in. But I go into the house and she’s lying in bed saying she can’t go back out because she feels sick. I gave her a little more time before checking again but she was out. She missed the whole cocktail hour; we didn’t do any pictures. The bride ran into the reception to cut her cake and that was about it. She tried to do a quick dance; she couldn’t get through it. So, the party went on without her.
Fast forward a couple years, I keep in touch with her over social media – and I noticed her name change. I was wondering what was up and I get a call from her. She tells me, “Hi Sara. So, wedding one didn’t work out, like literally it didn’t work out. But I’m getting married again.” And she’s the first person that I’ve done both weddings for. Her second one, it’s the one that counts and they’re so happy. It was like, 15 people the second time around and she was there for the whole wedding.
Oh my gosh, that is so cute, though. It was the universe telling her it wasn’t right.
And I just remember in the own the moment feeling so bad for her, right? But no, but at the end of the day, like you said, the universe was telling her it wasn’t right. We were able to be present for the other one.
Then, the other story that you made me think of had to do with the priest. So, Dan and I photograph at the cathedral all the time. The priest always comes up to us to remind us of the rules. We know all of it, but we let them give us the spiel anyway. It’s always the same stuff. Then one time, he adds: you can’t fly a drone in here. I was like, “what is he talking about?! Who would fly a drone in a cathedral?”. Apparently it was by a videographer, not us, but he had flown a drone in the cathedral. But, all due respect, everybody knows. A) it’s a cathedral. You can’t fly a drone. B) how loud that must have been. But obviously someone out there is flying drones in a cathedral.
Dan: I actually ended up meeting him later, and he thought it was the coolest thing. He showed to me on Facebook and that’s how we found out.
A: Honestly, it’s so good, though, that the priest came up to you and gave you that spiel, because not all of them will do that. I was in a wedding once, my best friend’s wedding, unfortunately and I felt so bad, but the videographer approached the altar and actually stepped foot onto it. The priest was so upset in the middle of the ceremony that he stopped everything to chastise this guy. Vibe ruined. Of course, the bride and groom have no idea that anything bad has happened, but that taught me to always go up to every single religious or spiritual officiant and to ask them what I should be doing, and if there was anything I could do that would step on their toes. So that saved me for the last couple of years.
Honestly, we’ve been doing this for so many years and we’ve photographed all kinds of ceremonies. But I mean when it comes to the Catholic ceremony, there’s rules and they are not messing around.
S: At the end of the day, if you’re getting married in the church, it’s a sacrament. It’s supposed to be followed. As a planner, I’ve gone into many churches and the church usually has a coordinator that does all these things. I learned a long time ago to step back and let them do their job, because they’re there and they don’t like to veer from their routine.
I couldn’t believe the drone in any in a church, let alone the cathedral. It has old stained glass windows and anything priceless…
Dan: Sara, I’m going to bring up one story – I think you’ve put this out of your mind, but it will come back to you. It was a long time ago when every videographer had lights on their camera and tripods with wheels. We were in a church, and they were like a foot away from the bride and groom almost the entire time with this light directly on them. I remember looking over when we were both shooting and I would tell you I couldn’t get anything because he had the light on them and was in like every shot.
Literally, for a visual for the listeners, there’s the bride, the groom, the priest, and then I’m not even kidding, he could have reached out and touched everyone.
He was just there, standing up there, like just basically getting married with them and shining his light. And as a photographer, there was no way we could crop him remotely out of that. And it was so awkward, and it was so rude.
Seriously. I have one more, then I’ll pass it back to Scott. This is a negative one, but Dan – when we did the wedding and the coordinator stole our tips! So, there were envelopes with tips and I was saying goodbye to the videographer. They told us to be sure we saw the planner because she had envelopes for us. I go up to the planner – and we never expect tips – but I’m going to get it since we were told to. She just stares at me after I said goodnight so I asked if she had anything for me and she starts pulling out random amounts of cash and just handing it to me. It was something weird, like $32, which is not how tips usually work.
So, I walked away and mentioned to the dad that the planner took the tips and why I knew. There were other people – the makeup artist, the band, the caterers – that know she should have tips for them. It was bizarre. At the time, I didn’t know what to tell the couple. They’d just gotten married! So, they reached out when they got pregnant and I finally told them when they came to the studio for photos. I mentioned to them that I got like this $32 tip and they were like, “uh no, you should have had like $350”. Sure enough, they went back and asked vendors – and literally none of us got our tips.
S: Oh god. As a planner, I sincerely fear this. So, I tell my couples that I’ll hold their envelopes during the reception, but it would mean more to the person if it’s coming from you – as the couple handing them their tips. It takes two seconds, and it means way more – and they know their vendors got their tips.
When you say it like that, if the couple was to hand them out themselves, they might forget. But having the planner hold them and help them remember, that makes sense.
S: I’ll remind them exactly to do this. Now, if it’s a musician just playing the ceremony or something, I’d probably handle it. But, if it’s someone who is leaving at like 9 or 10 o’clock, I’ll give the couple a little tug and tell them it’s time to get the photographer or whoever. It turns out to be something that they thank you for afterwards, because they want to thank people and not have it be all generic.
Having you hold the tips checks off a few things! It makes us super grateful as the vendor, to get that from our clients. You get to remind them, and it avoids theft – even unintentional issues like a MOH forgetting it or something! It protects you too, as the planner.
A: It’s always a little bit obvious too. I’ll never forget this one planner who simply was like, “Oh, that’s right, she told you to come to me, hold on” and. Then she’s rifling through her purse to find money for you.
S: Okay, I’ve got one. This one is a good story. A large clientele, wonderful Portuguese family and very close. They throw beautiful celebrations, and the parents work hard to save up for these big events. They spare no expense and they’re such wonderful, loving people. So, two wonderful families going through the planning process and there’s the tension with the bride and the mother-in-law, normal stuff. In this culture, they’re very protective of their sons. So, they decided they’re going to have this giant receiving line from cocktail hour into dinner, and I’m trying to explain it will take way too long. But it’s their day and if it’s what they want…
So, the receiving line was the bride and groom, her parents, and the maid of honor and best man because their wedding party was like 16 people per side. But I was questioning why the groom’s parents weren’t included. Something wasn’t right. So, the mother of the groom grabs her chair, sits kind of directly across this receiving line for the entire receiving line, and just watches. It is glaring, and she has this purse in her lap that she’s banging and getting angrier about. I’m sweating because something feels like it’s going to go down here. Then the mom starts pacing. She gets at the end of the receiving line, walks up to her brand-new daughter in law, and smacks her in the face. I’m paralyzed – I don’t know what to do. The bride hip checks her back as the mom is yelling at her so I went to the groom and was like, “break it up now”.
A Family Feud
So, I get them to the ballroom and now, a family feud is going on between the two families on who did this. The mother of the groom and the mother of the bride are screaming at each other, and it’s this big, unruly, ghastly argument going on that can’t be extinguished. I’ve completely lost control of the situation here. I was trying to find the sensible person in the room but at this point, there’s not one.
So finally, everything calms down. I get people in the chairs to sit down. I’m like, I can relax. But it didn’t stop! It continued all night. There was food being thrown and all this crap going on. So I look at the bride and try to tell her to let it go, she’ll regret it all and it’s her wedding day. She agrees. Then, the she goes and smacks her mother-in-law across the face.
I left. I looked at the banquet managers and said you’re on your own. I’ve lost control. I’ve never seen anything like this in my entire life. I did eventually just walk away from it. The end of the night, I heard they were all dancing, kissing and happy. That’s how their whole life is going to be.
Don’t screw with the Portuguese mother-in-law. They mean business. I don’t condone violence, but she kind of was right. Why wasn’t she included in the receiving line?
I did a wedding and I was at the top of the aisle and they had candles, waters, and vases lining the aisles. Normally when you do this, they’re where the chairs are but this company lined the entire aisle. Guests had to walk to the other end to get into their seats because they were blocking it. But they’re shuffling and moving things around when they do. But I heard this smash – and one vessel breaks and water is going everywhere. Literally, candles were smashing everywhere. Water was coming out, and then the bride’s going up the aisle, her dress hits it, and a little piece of the dress caught on fire.
S: This is a quick story, but it’s pretty much an alarming one. I was doing a wedding with these beautiful high centerpieces on the table. I’m waiting in my location to do the introductions. The crowd’s getting ready and suddenly to my right, the mother’s table collapses. This ginormous centerpiece comes crashing down onto the mother that was already seated at the table.
So I am paralyzed because inside of the vase was red water – which I didn’t even know until after the fact – and I see this woman covered in red with the vase collapsed. I thought this woman was bleeding to death because of the red water! I’m thinking I need to call an ambulance and no one is moving to help me or anything. But she said, “it’s fine – it was just a little red water. I need to change, and I have a dress downstairs so give me 15 minutes” and she was off. But, I can tell you – it was like the movie Carrie. I didn’t know how to handle that!
That’s a great prank.
You know, it’s funny though, Scott – you just reminded me of a quick story from my wedding day. I know I tell this story a lot but it rained on my wedding. We had to go out of the tent to use the bathrooms and I’ll never forget – I was running since it was raining and I fell head first in the mud. I remember looking up and wondering what to do.I see one of the staff from the catering company. He was outside in his cigarette break, and he looked at me, he immediately threw his cigarette down, stomped on it, and just booked it back. He wanted nothing to do with me on that ground, ha. I think he didn’t know what my reaction would be, but for the rest of the night – I have all the pictures still to this day when mud was on and the mud never came out. It’s preserved. It’s in my box with mud on it.
With that said, it’s time for us to wrap up the show. We could sit here and talk all day about the things we’ve seen, but we hope everyone enjoyed this episode!
What We Discussed
Guest Introductions (2:12)
Ariana’s Wedding Story (3:20)
Scott’s Wedding Story (8:30)
Sara’s Wedding Story (17:21)
Tipping Incident (27:11)
Portuguese Family Feud (34:24)
Links Mentioned in the Episode
Find Ariana Strings: Website | YouTube | Tik Tok | Facebook | Instagram
Find Scott Connery Events: Website | Instagram | Facebook | 401-440-1846
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