Derby Week Part 2: Oaks and Smokes

Oaks and Smokes was by far one of the coolest events I have ever been a part of... and it is an event near and dear to our hearts because it benefits our friends over at Kentucky Harvest.  Even though Oaks and Smokes was our third event of Derby week, we still wanted to make it the best event its ever been.


The day began at 8 am: Lindsay met the tour bus for the evening's band Here Come the Mummies and helped coordinate all of the set up.  I headed to the store to pick up the rest of the rocks glasses (P.S. if you drive a 2-door vehicle, do not fool yourself into thinking that you can fit 400 rocks glasses into your car. It will not work, and you will have to come back the next day to pick up the other half of the order. You have been warned.), and to find trees that would fit this picture we found:

All week, I kept my eyes peeled for any sort of fake-palm-tree-plant-thing that would work.. seriously though, anything was going to be better than what I had (which was nothing).. I was getting a wee bit desperate. After stomping around Lowe's and glaring at the three foot tall palm trees (what a tease), I headed to Home Depot, even though I'd already been there once earlier in the week.  At the light of Benson and Hurstbourne, I noticed a little plant/flower stand beside BD's Mongolian Grill, and drove right in just hoping that they might have something.  AND THEY DID NOT DISAPPOINT.

Stuffing the car with as much as I could, I raced back to the Ice House to unload all of my findings so that I could race over to buy more flowers for the evening.  But, let me tell you, racing around isn't all it is cracked up to be.  After everything was unloaded, I proceeded to jump into the company's Ford Explorer, put it in reverse, and BAM! My whole world flashed before my eyes,  because in that moment, I thought I had backed into the band's tour bus.  I slowly, but with attitude and anger at myself, got out of the car to look and see just how bad the damage was... Now, I'm lucky.. really lucky... because I did not hit the tour bus.  I hit the unloading truck's tailgate extended bed (which is complete metal so there was NO damage in the slightest to their truck).  So I jumped back into the truck and took off -- texting Lindsay once I was at Doran Engal's just to let her know that the Explorer had been damaged.  In the flower shop, I focused on the task at hand: getting the best flowers I could for the event.  I didn't think about it again until the lady helping me couldn't get the back of the Explorer open... I won't tell you the curse words that flew through my head, but I think you can imagine.  Luckily, I work for great, understanding people and, rather than fire me, they hugged me... saying something about women drivers (blah blah..)... Here's a photo of my mishap:

Once that was over, I started my little projects.  First things first, get the tulips into hot water so they would open up!! Secondly, start spray painting the palm trees since it was rumored to rain that afternoon.  

I did run out of paint at one point, and hurried to Home Depot before the storm hit in order to finish the trees.  The tent was up over the Terrace, the band was practicing, our staff was filing in... it was all coming together!  Morgan and I sort of went a little crazy on the gold paint... but everything tied in so nicely!!

The beautiful Morgan helping me spray paint everything in sight

Our recreated picture

We might have gone a little overboard... but it was worth it!

Lindsay and I -- those are some genuine smiles right there

If you haven't heard the band Here Come the Mummies, go and watch them here. Seriously, so good! The crowd was loving them, and so were we!! Look who else even showed up... yeah, the comedian Ron White!!

The one thing you have to remember when running or planning an event is that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong and you have to stay prepared.  So, an hour before the event ended it began to storm.  I'm not saying a little rain here, a few lightning bolts there... I mean complete downpour with wind and lightning.  Everyone pitched in to get all of the station items inside the venue and up the stairs to the kitchen.  But, on that note, when you are going down wet steps in high heels, be extra careful.  If not, you will fall down the concrete stairs and end up with these bruises:

It's ok! I'm fine!

Through everything though, all of Derby week was a great time.  We truly are so appreciative of every event we are able to be a part of and couldn't ask for better clients.

Our staff is a huge part of why we are so different and successful -- they worked their tails off all week and were willing to do any crazy task we asked of them with a smile, and there's nothing in the world better than that!! So thank you staff!! You are absolutely fantastic and we love having each and every one of you as part of our team!! 

Until next time friends...

"eat, drink, & be merry"