When you are sponsoring an event for a family who has no money and, after searching for a buried “treasure” in a house full of pets- you “wing it.”  Effectively, when I realized that the impossible task of trying to refurbish and recycle a houseful of items with odors so strong that I went home to soak in a bath of bleach afterwards, I knew this one would be an “out of my own pocket” adventure with my hilarious sidekick, Cindy Daniel as we “hit the bricks and brought Cindy’s bag of tricks!” 

 

Occasionally, although not often, it’s impossible to find something of value and to overcome the issue- we work with what we have aka Redneck Reality.  To keep expenses as low as we can, I reuse and recycle existing inventory and order a very inexpensive cake to present for the Dream Event.

Although Cindy Daniel often refers to our crew of adventurers as Ghetto Fabulous, she knows that I abhor this description of my Redneck Reality in Fort Worth Friendly Texas. 

 With everyone arguing over which decorations to pull from my existing inventory in my hot basement and storage unit- I long for the day when we will enjoy a building with a/c and proper storage of my hundred or so boxes of floral designs and decorations.  Sweating with frustration can be an arduous and time consuming task with Cindy removing her shoe to swat the biting flies on this humid summer day! 

 I’m planning to use my pillars but need a quick spray of metallic gold paint so I send my son off to get another WalMart run while pulling everything else and organizing.

Cindy keeps a bottle of Long Island Ice Tea liquor in the workroom where when under stress and duress, she often takes a “swig.”  My twin sister has a funny and iconic #Cindyism about dang near anything under the sun and, they are usually fairly funny and accurate. 

 The Little Pawners begin arranging bows out of a box of hot pink ribbon and, my team effectively “pull together” in the planning process while going over my lists.  I always have a list and, I always follow it.

Cindy Daniel doesn’t believe in lists, she believes in “figuring it out.”  She also thinks that hillbilly’s are talented geniuses because they are forced to figure it out when they have no money or other options when faced with adversity.  She’s also married to a hillbilly who has fixed all sorts of things at the DanielDivaDiggs with little or no money because Steve Daniel prides himself on squeezing every penny he can and hates to spend money on anything! Steve Daniel is a character who brags that some of his clothes are older than we are (they look like it too) and, his clothing NEVER matches, it’s a trademark of Steve Daniel to wear crazy plaid shorts with a floral shirt and WalMart sandals and if we are lucky- he may even comb his fly away hair! 

 Steve grew up in a very close family as an only child and has so many stories of his childhood spent rafting down the river or his mom cooking up a special treat that he can strike up a conversation with just about anyone we meet in our Travels of the Texas Twins. 

  Steve Daniel is friendly and often forgets that we have strict timelines to decorate the venue and take our places, I’m usually looking for him and my sister when he comes to an event with us because they love to “visit” with the guests and often forget we are working. 

 The Little Pawners work with myself and Virginia Malone or Ann Rowe Alexander when attending to last minute details and when faced with an “incident” we work together to go over, around or under whatever unexpected crisis lands in my lap. 

 This fearless leader has had to “figure it out” hundreds of times with hilarious although successful “incident control” craftiness.

The fact that my team and my twin are here to support the overall execution is often a blessing and occasionally a curse with the numerous compensating personalities of this diverse group of characters who also enjoy dressing up when the occasion presents itself- we are a family of hams!

 When I return to WorthamWorld at the end of an exhausting day of events, Matthew Wortham grabs a martini and loves to hear the “highlights” aka “incidents” and how we worked together as a team to overcome the issues while he reviews the photos which always appear to have been with “flawless execution.” 

 Aw yes, everything appears “flawless” because we spent hours running around to address the unexpected last minute detail and, if there was no music, I asked the guests to jump up and join this singing wedding officiant. 

 Having the ability to immediately “control the crowd” is a gift that on a few occasions includes instructing the guests to carry their chairs from the ceremony area to the reception area when the budget didn’t allow for two sets of chairs. 

 “Winging it” from Fort Worth, I’m certain that this weekends round of events will include a fair amount of love and hugs from our newest friends and give us plenty to talk about as we plan our next adventure and Dream Event for we are the Wedding Warriors aka The Pawning Planners and we travel baby! 

 Wendy M Wortham