since I helped them with their check-in three hours ago, the husband was a trust-fund baby. His father’s father had started a women’s clothing company in his younger years that exploded into popularity in the seventies. What was then nothing but brick and mortar stores all across the country was now a massive online platform with customers all over the globe.
The wife was an economics professor at a community college in Atlanta. The pair had met at said college when he came to do a lecture for some of the business students. She bumped into him in the hallway and they went for coffee.
Now three years later, they were recently married and it was my responsibility to make sure they had an excellent honeymoon experience.
Since their arrival, I’d checked them in personally, given them a tour of the resort, reviewed their appointments at the spa, salon, sailboat excursion, and a la carte dinner reservations. We’d made some last-minute changes to better accommodate them and their vision of what they wanted the next ten days to look like.
They were demanding, but that never bothered me.
Staying at the El Cartana wasn’t cheap and I wanted to make sure they got their money’s worth. It helped that they were a lovely couple who were obviously head over heels in love with each other, and as I saw them up to their room, Giselle, the wife, handed me her phone, on which she’d pulled up the gallery of their wedding photos.
I stared in awe at the screen of the first shot.
Her dress was magnificent. So was her body. It was all sheer save for the skirt and the front, but she was only covered by strategic pieces of lace laid over the sheer fabric. The train was long and dramatic, as was her veil. Her dark hair had been done up in a low bun, and long earrings dangled all the way down to her collarbones.
“Holy shit,” I breathed rather unprofessionally. “You’re the most beautiful bride I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen a lot of brides.”
Giselle laughed lightly. She wasn’t the sort of woman to giggle. “Thank you, Katie. It was a lot of work to get into that damn thing. My designer had to sew it onto me.”
I blinked at her in surprise. “How did you… you know? Pee?”
Giselle gave me a knowing wink. “That’s part of the magic, isn’t it?”
We made our way down the hall to their honeymoon suite. They hadn’t opted for the diamond package, partly because it was out of their price range and partly because another one of my couples already had it booked. Instead, we’d gone for one of the south-facing rooms with a double-wide balcony outfitted with its own plunge pool and hot tub.
I pushed through the door ahead of them and invited them in.
Kurt, the husband, stood back and let his new wife explore until she was satisfied. She gushed over the fresh flower arrangements which I’d specifically ordered to match the florals from her wedding. I believed in trying to tie in parts of the big day to the honeymoon for a cohesive feel and an extension of the wedding itself. The big day always flew by so quickly for the bride and groom. They were pulled between so many commitments, starting in the morning with getting ready and moving into the afternoon to the ceremony and then pictures, which always seemed to take a little longer than expected. That wasn’t even the tip of the iceberg.
The reception was where things got wild with introductions, first dances, speeches, dinner, dessert, traditions like cake cutting or garter tossing depending on what sort of couple they were. Before the bride and groom knew it, the day would be done and their venue would be pushing them out and trying to send everyone home so they could clean for a wedding that would likely be happening the next day.
Giselle ran her fingers over the plum petals of one of the flowers. “These were in my bouquet,” she breathed wondrously.
I smiled.
“How did you know?” she asked.
I winked. “That’s part of the magic, isn’t it?”
Giselle swooned over the rest of the room and whispered naughty things to her husband when they went out onto the balcony and discovered the hot tub and pool. I imagined they would be sliding into that later tonight, among other things.
“Is there anything else I can do to get you two settled?” I asked. “Just say the word. That’s what I’m here for.”