A few days later, we met with another couple that also wanted to get married on Valentine’s Day. Fortunately for them, the Red Handprint Marauder’s mother and fiancée had cancelled, and we had an opening. It seemed the original group found a larger location to accommodate their event (and, one hopes, a location with access to a thorough cleaning service).

Our scheduled couple, though, was running late. Most couples never bothered to cancel their tours if they weren’t going to make it, nor would they call to let us know that they were running late. Many times, we found ourselves patiently waiting for tours that never showed.  That’s part of the business, however frustrating it may be. Soon, though, the chapel doorbell rang, and our potential clients had arrived.

The couple seemed nice, but the bride was clearly uneasy. We gave them the tour, but were surprised when the bride-to-be didn’t enter the bridal dressing room. She merely poked her head inside. The groom was very talkative, and asked most of the questions. He was ready to book the location after the tour, but she was being very ‘undecided’. We left them to chat, but we could overhear their rather loud “discussion.”

As we don’t like eavesdropping on couples’ conversations, we waited in the back room until the groom came looking for us. He asked if we could “hold” the date and time, and informed us that they would get back to us within twenty-four hours. His betrothed, he told us, wanted to look at one more facility that was larger and considerably more expensive. He commented that she didn’t have a problem with the two of them starting their life together in debt. Our location was within their budget, while the other location blew their budget out of the water. After being in the wedding business for so many years, we had learned that more than a few couples are quite willing to overspend to have the wedding of their dreams. We wished the couple well, and thanked them for stopping by.

We never did hear back from them, and booked the last time slot we had on Valentine’s Day to an older couple who were on their third and fourth marriages. You can imagine that they had a better sense of budgeting by that point, and didn’t need an extravagant ceremony.