legends · 4 min read ·
Vendor Shortlist
A wedding planner's vendor list gains a cake taster nobody hired, who sits at the head table.
**Wedding Planning Checklist · Client: Sophie Arden & Marc Lindqvist**
**Planner:** Clare Doyle Events · **Venue:** The Orangery, Fenwick Hall · **Date:** 14 June
- **Vendor · Category · Address · Status · Notes**
- Hollis Florals · Flowers · 3 Kiln Row · Confirmed · Peonies, white
- Crumb & Ember · Cake · 7 Tallow Street · Confirmed · Three tiers, lemon
- Dunlin String Quartet · Music · 22 Marsh Road · Confirmed · Ceremony + reception
- Ashe Photography · Photos · 44 Lantern Close · Pending · Second shooter TBC
- Velvet Lane Chauffeurs · Transport · 9 Oriel Mews · Confirmed · Two cars
- Mrs. Edith Crane · Officiant · 1 Wyck Lane · Confirmed · Celebrant
- *Anna Morrow* · Cake tasting · 14 Vesper Way · Added 20 Oct · *Note from client: "She said she'd bake for us, I don't know her."*
· · ·
**Email thread: Crumb & Ember → Clare Doyle (21 Oct)**
Hi Clare,
Thanks for confirming the cake order. We've had a question about the tasting. Could you tell us who Anna Morrow is? We don't have a booking for her. She turned up at our shop on Tallow Street on Monday with a sample box and asked for the couple by their first names.
She said she'd been asked by the venue to do the tasting. We checked with the venue and they say they don't use an outside baker.
We gave her the sample anyway. She ate one of the lemon slices herself, very slowly, and said it was lovely, and then she asked for the address of the wedding.
· · ·
**Email thread: Clare Doyle → Sophie Arden (22 Oct)**
Hi Sophie,
Quick question. Do you know an Anna Morrow? She's on the vendor list under cake tasting, added on the 20th, by the venue office. Address is 14 Vesper Way, which I don't recognise. I've checked with the Orangery and they say they didn't add her.
Let me know if you want me to remove her.
· · ·
**Email thread: Sophie Arden → Clare Doyle (22 Oct)**
Clare,
I don't know her. Marc says he saw her in the venue car park on Saturday, sitting in a grey car with the engine running, looking at the Orangery. He says she waved at him. He waved back without thinking.
Can you check the wedding guest list? I'm sure I've got one fewer on the RSVP than we invited.
· · ·
**Venue incident note (The Orangery, 24 Oct)**
Late-night walkthrough. Noted: a woman standing in the east glasshouse, among the lemon trees, dressed in a grey coat and holding a plate of cake. She did not respond to staff. She was facing the table set for the head table, which is laid for four.
The place cards at the head table have been written by hand. Sophie Arden. Marc Lindqvist. Mrs. Anna Morrow. And a fourth card, blank, with a small drawing of an empty chair beside it.
· · ·
**Updated guest list (Clare Doyle Events, 25 Oct)**
Guests confirmed: 92
Guests attending: 92
Guests unidentified: 1
*The unidentified guest RSVP'd by post, from 14 Vesper Way. The reply card reads: "I'll be the one who knows where the ring is. Please don't put me near the cake."*
· · ·
**Email thread: Ashe Photography → Clare Doyle (26 Oct)**
Clare, I've been going through the proofs from the rehearsal dinner. Every shot of the head table has the same woman in the background, sitting at the end with her back to the room, looking at the bride. In three of the shots she's holding a small piece of cake on a plate, and in one she's leaning forward to speak to Sophie, with her mouth moving.
I've cropped her out of everything I can. I can't crop her out of the reflections in the windows. Do we want these?
· · ·
**Final checklist entry (Clare Doyle Events, 27 Oct)**
Cake tasting: complete. Vendor: Anna Morrow, 14 Vesper Way. Status: *confirmed, no invoice*.
Notes: the cake has been delivered to the venue. Three tiers, lemon. The top tier was cut before the ceremony by someone the staff didn't see arrive, and it was served to the guest at the end of the head table, who thanked the bride warmly, and then said the wedding was the best thing she'd ever been invited to.