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Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Mundane Midweek


Have you ever wondered how much work goes into a dish rental order for a wedding? No? Neither did I until started working part-time for a wedding and party rental place. And I can tell you I had never thought about it either. Also, I can now tell you it's a lot of work.

I spent 4 hours at work this afternoon - solely in the dish room to fill dish orders for reservations this weekend. On three orders. Just three.

Seriously.

One reservation wanted 175 (white) dinner plates, 175 knives and 175 dinner forks, 168 fluted champagne glasses, 175 water goblets and 22 wine liters.

The white dinner plates are wrapped in packages of 6 and 3 wrapped packages fit into a milk crate before you can no longer lift the crate. For most orders, there's always a few "extra" plates, which have to be taken from the "extra stack" and wrapped in saran wrap.

Anyone have any idea how heavy silverware is? Heavier than you think, especially when you need 175 pieces of it. I can barely lift a crate that has 175 knives in it. Because I realized early on that I could easily run out of crates, I wanted to try to not run out. So I had to try to make the crates as heavy as I could manage. So I started stuffing bags of silverware in with the plates.

 I had to pull two boxes of wine liters down from the top shelf.

Then I had to get crates of fluted champagne glasses and water goblets.

Each crate loaded with dishes, glassware, or flatware must also be labeled with the name on the reservation account. Also included in each crate are instructions as to how everything should be brought back.

 It turns out this reservation took up 4 carts. Carts that were stacked above my head.

Another reservation 146 clear dinner plates, 37 white salad plates, 146 knives, 146 dinner forks, 146 fluted champagne glasses, and 146 water goblets. 

And the final reservation was (fortunately!) much smaller - 36 of everything. Ahhhh.

Plus the phones continued to ring and people kept coming in the door to rent things.

And now I know how much work goes into large dish orders for weddings.


10 comments:

  1. I've just discovered your blog via the Mundane Midweeek links, looking forward to reading more! :)
    I didn't even know there was such a thing as a Dish Rental order, I'm definitely out of the loop with all things wedding related it seems!

    Notes By Gemma | UK Lifestyle Blog

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for stopping by!

      And don't worry, I didn't know about this rental stuff either until about three months ago! lol

      Delete
  2. Silverware IS heavy! I feel you. I had to roll silverware at my old restaurant job, and carrying the crates up the stairs was hell.

    Weddings are ridiculous. So much work for everyone. I can't believe three orders took you that long!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If I hadn't been interrupted by phones and customers, I don't think it would have taken me the full 4 hours.

      And yes, they are a lot of work for everyone. It's making want to have a very tiny wedding, whenever that happens. Like, dirt cheap and not a lot of work. lol

      Delete
  3. Thank God for factory jobs! No fricking customer service for me, thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Customer service really isn't for everyone.

      Delete
  4. I'm fixated on the first order - 168 champagne flutes and 175 of everything else?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have no idea why but I haven't been getting your blog on my reader and I am so sorry to have been missing you.
    All that counting, I would probably take a phone call in the middle and have to start over.
    I guess you have to have a system or you would never be finished

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well that's strange.

      Yeah, you do have to have a system. Normally if you're counting, you don't answer the phones. But everyone else was busy, so I had to get the phone.

      Delete

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