Ask the A List: Janie Lemons on the Wedding Day the Chairs Nearly Never Arrived

At an Aspen wedding, Janie Lemons once discovered that the truck carrying the dinner chairs had gone up the wrong mountain road, driven onto a road that was out of service, and tipped on its side. The client was about to arrive. The chairs were nowhere near the venue.

Janie founded J. Lemons Events and has planned weddings in her hometown of Aspen for more than twelve years. We asked how she saved the dinner and what makes clients trust a planner.

What happened when the rental truck did not arrive?

Janie: It was nearing 3 p.m. when the team learned the chair truck was not coming. She turned to vendors already on site and asked whose box truck was empty. The lighting and draping team offered its van, and the florists had just emptied theirs. They helped recover the situation while the mother of the groom arrived and saw that the room had no chairs.

Janie told her the room would be ready when guests returned from the ceremony. Then the team made it happen. She credits Halcyon, Bear Aesthetics, and Figment Floral for moving fast enough to save dinner.

What does white-glove service look like to you?

Janie: Exceptional communication. She hears from people who felt let down by past planning experiences because they could not reach their planner or did not get a direct answer. That gap damages trust. Janie believes most clients would rather hear difficult news plainly from someone who is proactive and honest than be left wondering what is happening.

Why did you start using Wedping?

Janie: Morgan made it feel approachable. Janie also noticed a familiar problem: people spend a lot of time on their phones, yet often read less of the wedding website and printed material than a team hopes. Texting offered another way to put the detail they need in front of them.

Which networking experiences have helped you most?

Janie: The ones that let her experience another professional’s work as a client would. She recalls photographers offering headshots, which gave her a real sense of their process and result. That makes a referral more authentic than a brief conversation at a networking event.

Janie trusts people who show up and do the work. When a truck tips over on a mountain road, those relationships become the plan.

Read the [original Instagram interview](https://www.instagram.com/wedping/p/DeC02i-ku6Q/) for Janie’s full answers.