I was mortified when guests were served my breastmilk at a wedding – I will never get over seeing the groom downing it
IT IS well known that disaster can strike even at the most meticulously planned events, as wedding planner Claudia Postigo knows all too well.
At a recent ceremony that she had helped to plan she found herself ‘mortified’ after her own breastmilk was served to guests.
“The team and I were cleaning up the venue at the end of the night after a beautiful wedding.
“Everything went to plan, and everyone was happy - right up until I found a half-full bottle of my own breastmilk on one of the tables.”
Claudia had just come back from maternity leave and was pumping while working away from her baby for the first time.
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She had pumped two bottles of breastmilk earlier in the day and given them to her catering team to store in the fridge.
The bottle on the table, now half-empty and complete with a cute little straw, was one of those same two bottles of breastmilk.
“I was mortified,” says Claudia.
“Who on earth had been drinking my breastmilk?”
Claudia, a professional wedding planner whose events have been featured in Vogue and ELLE, lives and organises weddings in Spain.
Her couple for this wedding was from the USA, and they had a two-year-old daughter who had flown out with them to attend the ceremony.
“Once I spoke to the couple the day after, the mystery was solved,” says Claudia.
“It turns out that halfway through the cocktail hour, the couple’s daughter had complained to the groom that she was thirsty.
“He had asked the catering staff if they had any milk for the baby.
“They assumed he was talking about the breastmilk and gave him a bottle of it with a straw!”
But the little girl wasn’t impressed with the ‘Spanish milk.’ “ She complained to her dad that the milk in Spain tasted weird,” says Claudia.
“The groom tasted some of the breastmilk himself to see what his daughter was talking about.
“Luckily, the couple saw the funny side, and everything worked out,” says Claudia.
“But it was definitely an eventful first wedding to return to after my maternity leave.”
Claudia says that this isn’t the first time that things have got weird at a wedding she’s planned.
“These mishaps do happen at weddings,” says Claudia.
“I’ve seen a little bit of everything - from a best man who recreated his own first dance with his wife to someone’s cousin who arrived wearing a floor-length, bright white, crystal-bedecked gown.
Why it’s time to ditch wedding favours once and for all
By Josie Griffiths, Deputy Digital Fabulous Editor and bride-to-be
Josie Griffiths said: When was the last time you spotted something in a shop window or browsed past it online and thought “that would be the perfect gift for 120 of my closest friends, work colleagues, relatives and boyfriend’s mate’s partners I barely know”?
I’ll tell you when, never, because there is NO universal gift everyone is going to love - unless you want to bankrupt yourself buying Rolexes and Tiffany jewellery, and even then they wouldn’t be to everyone’s taste.
So why do brides still pile the stress (and expense) of wedding favours on top of everything else we have to organise?
I’ve been to dozens of weddings over the past five years so when I got engaged, I already had a mental list of dos and don’ts for my own big day, and ditching wedding favours was firmly on it.
The cost of buying an individual present for everyone coming is huge, meaning many couples try and keep it in the under-a-fiver category.
But the reality is no-one wants a cheap, ill-thought-out keepsake - they’d probably rather one more free drink from the bar.
It’s not only that, wedding handbags are notoriously small, with no room to stuff an unexpected gift in, and catering waiters have a bad habit of whisking away the wedding favours when they’re clearing the coffee mug off the tables.
I bet none of my guests will even notice the lack of random gift on their dining table.
If you really hate the idea of not buying something for your guests, charity donations are always a nice gesture.
But the last thing your friends and family need is more random tat cluttering up their homes - so it’s time to save them the guilt of binning your Etsy-bought keyring.
“As a wedding planner, you have to deal with these mishaps gracefully while still making the day absolutely magical for the bride and groom.
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“It really is like being a swan - graceful and elegant on top, with the feet going like crazy beneath.
“Still, this is one of the weirdest things I’ve ever had happen to me - and needless to say, I’m going to be a lot clearer with my caterers in the future.”