Tours of our location were scheduled either at our couples’ convenience, or ours, if we had a wedding to officiate or coordinate. On busy tour days, we could meet with many couples and their families. Some tours wouldn’t take very long, while others might extend on for hours for one reason or another.

February 14th, Valentine’s Day, was fast approaching, and we had nearly every possible timeslot booked with weddings. We did have room for one smaller wedding due to a late cancelation, and a couple had expressed an interest in touring the Chapel. They turned out to be very indecisive. We met with the bride-to-be and her child, fiancée, mother, and father. It was a weekday and close to eight o’clock in the evening when they arrived. Everyone came into the chapel where we started them on the full tour. Ending gathered in the reception parlor to chat. The couple was ready to book the location, but the parents felt that it was a little small for the large number of guests they planned to invite. The parents also felt that we should provide brand new linens on the tables and new lace curtains on the windows, as they didn’t want their daughter to have to use the same ones as our other wedding parties. Gary and I kept the chapel at the highest possible standard of cleanliness, with regularly scheduled cleanings, painting, linen laundering, and carpet cleaning, not to mention weekly landscaping services for the grounds. We assured the group that everything would be clean and ready for their event.

We also had to stress that we had only one time slot left for Valentine’s Day, and that we had additional couples considering our location for the fourteenth.  If they were the least bit interested, we explained, they should put down a deposit. Gary and I left the room to give them a chance to discuss. While we waited, we could hear the little boy running around the chapel, which we felt did not bode well.

A little while later, we were informed that the couple had decided to reserve our last slot, and the appropriate paperwork was completed. We told the couple we would see them on February 14th.

As the group left, we noticed that the white curtains in our reception parlor—the same curtains whose cleanliness we had just defended—had red, child-sized handprints all over them! I’ll give you three guesses as to whose little bundle of joy was behind the mess. We took down the curtains to take home and soak overnight, hopeful that we could get the stains out in time for the next day’s events.