The dress rips...the red wine spills...the chuppah falls apart!  What now??  Call on your event manager and her bag of tricks.  

How is it that an event manager can always seem to handle any crisis with grace and ease?  It is the 'not-so-secret' survival kit that every event manager gathers over the course of a career that makes any crisis a meer bump in the road.

I know personally, my survival kit lives in the back of my mini van and has saved many a day.  Housed in a tan and burgundy Wal-Mart tackle box, my kit is layered with item after item that no one thinks they will need.

Recently, here at the club, a co-worker walked into my office and said: "I know this is a random question and the answer is probably no, but do you have any marbles?"  YES.  Yes I do!  In true Mary Poppins fashion I produced a rubbermaid box of marbles that I had brought in 'just in case'.  In case of WHAT?  Marble shortage?  The answer is, that you never know when you will need the most random of items and after years in this industry, I have honed my sense of what is valuable and what is not.

Who would think to bring whiteout correction liquid to a wedding?  An event planner.  If a stain won't come out of a white dress, cover it up so the photos won't be ruined!

I recently read a blog post from a company called eventjuice in the UK. It contains an extensive list of items that an event planner at any moment may have on them...it is a great read!  I will admit I don't have shower hooks or a hammer in my own kit, but I can see the usefulness of both items and it got my wheels turning.  

Luckily, these days, many items such as a camera, calculator, stopwatch and flashlight are all housed in our cell phones. I think I may just need to go shopping and update my own Mary Poppins magic kit for the season...