Page 34 of One Sweet Day is Never Enough

“I like it, but whatever you think.” It looked like, at least, he’d be easy to convince.

“Oh, and you’d have access to the outdoor patio, too, but making use of it would depend upon the weather, of course,” Gia continued.

The woman nodded. “Is there any sort of facility that could function as a bridal room—you know, like where I’d get ready and sort ofhide outbefore the ceremony so no one else can see me but my bridesmaids and my parents?”

Gia looked over at Seth.

Hmm. That hadn’t occurred to him. “Well, we have nice restrooms inside the barn with a small powder room—you can check them out before we leave.” He pointed. “But a bridal room, per se…”

Gia jumped in. “In a venue like this, where there isn’t a dedicated bridal room, the bride and bridesmaids often gather at the bride’s hotel room for an hour or two, and then come over in a limo. The restrooms located over at the store building are accessible from the outside, however, so we could technically set those up as a place for you to hide out and take care of any last minute hair or makeup emergencies.”

The bride smiled. “Perfect.”

Close call. Good save, Gia.

“And the groom and groomsmen would do the same at the hotel.” She turned to address the groom. “We’d get you your own limo.”

He nodded agreeably.

“And where would the caterers work?” the bride asked. “I don’t see any kitchen facilities.”

Gia looked around and glanced at Seth.

“You’re right. There’s no kitchen here, but there’s one in the warehouse where we do our canning. But they’d set up tents outside, just like they do for the outdoor weddings, and we can offer them hookups to the running water in the warehouse. And there’s a sink behind the bar in the tasting room, of course.”

The groom looked satisfied.

“There’s plenty of room out back by the warehouse for the tents. Your guests wouldn’t even notice them.”

Gia shot him a grateful look.

“Okay, well, I absolutely love it!” The bride seemed to have had her questions answered. “Oh, but wait—what about photos? Can you show me some outdoor spots where we could do the group photos?”

“Absolutely.” That was an easy question. “Follow me.”

He led them out to the patio and walked to the edge where the orchard stood in the background. “Your date is, what—October seventh?”

“Yes, the seventh,” the bride answered eagerly.

That was a perfect time of year there, before the autumn storms started coming in. “At that time, generally, most of the leaves are still on the cherry trees with lots of fall color, so this will still be a beautiful backdrop for photos, as long as it’s not raining.”

The bride looked impressed. “Oh, I’ll bet it’s beautiful. I’ve always wanted a countryside fall wedding.”

Gia smiled at Seth and he caught her eye.

“And if it is raining,” Gia chimed in, “we can use the barrel room and the ceremony area for photos.” She pointed to the tasting room. “We’d have to just put a contingency plan in place to start much earlier and do all the group photos before the wedding. We’d be able to firm up the plan the week before the wedding, when the weather forecast becomes available.”

“I like that idea, regardless. I don’t want to have to miss too much of my reception to take photos. Except for the ones right after the ceremony when we’re first married.” She smiled sweetly at her groom.

It seemed like Gia might be sealing the deal.

“Absolutely. I’ll make a note of it.” Gia tapped some notes into her phone.

“The whole peninsula is a popular destination for folks looking for fall foliage, actually,” Seth said. “You could mention that in your inserts—when you send out your invitations.”

Seth had worked enough weddings at the Henderson Estates to know how these things worked. Families were often looking for other ways to entice their guests to spend the money to attend a faraway wedding and offer them more of a destination for their overnight stays—things to do and places to see. Door County had plenty of that in the fall.

“That’s a great idea. Your parents would love that,” the groom said to his bride.

---