Mundane Midweek

I'm linking up with Charlotte for her Mundane Midweek Linkup.

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.