The exuberant honeymooners
they were young, but they should have know better
People
come to a bed and breakfast for various reasons. Some are here on
business, some are visiting friends or family, and some just want to
get away and scope out the area. But, one of the most popular reasons is to celebrate a special event:
birthday, anniversary, honeymoon, etc. The bed and breakfast setting is usually romantic,
the host or hostess can pamper you and see that you have a very special
experience, and the gourmet breakfasts are awesome.
We have a
room we save for our honeymooners. It's decorated with the Victorian era in
mind: 4-poster queen bed, Queen Anne furnishings, fireplace, and
oriental area rugs on a beautiful dark pinewood floor. We have created
what we call "sweetheart packages" which are put in the room prior to
the guest's arrival. Lots of people want this to be a surprise. The
package consists of red roses, a cheese & fruit tray, chocolates
and a bottle of wine or champagne. We serve it all on a huge silver tray, with
white lace napkins, crystal champagne glasses, and fine china. It's
very special.
Lisa and Brian (pseudonyms) had visited our Inn
before and stayed in Katharine's Room. They loved it, so a year
later, when it came time to plan their wedding, they included
Katharine's Room with the sweetheart package in their plans. They
booked the room for the night of their wedding, and a second night,
before they flew out of Louisville for the Bahamas to enjoy an
unforgettable honeymoon.
We readied the room for their 9:00 pm arrival and made the bed with fine white linens and a down comforter. A vase of red
roses sat on the little cocktail table in front of the settee, next to a bottle of red wine, crystal wine glasses, and a fruit tray I had gone down to Muths
Candy shop (they make all their own candy) and purchased outrageous
chocolate truffles, a delicious temptation. And for a final touch, I laid my favorite book of
Shakespeare's sonnets next to the bed.
We were excited about
their arrival. We felt like we knew them. They were an adorable couple,
just barely out of their teens. We wanted their wedding night to be
perfect. Upon their arrival, I took them to their room. Lisa, still in
her white wedding dress, was delighted and Brian was beaming from ear
to ear. I left them alone and went downstairs to bed. They wanted a
late breakfast, so I knew I would get a little extra sleep that night.
The
next morning, we made crispy Belgium waffles for them, served with
fresh strawberries and whipped cream. They came down late, enjoyed the
waffles, and left after breakfast to go to Churchill Downs for a day of
horse-racing. My housekeeper went up to clean their room as soon as
they left. She wanted to get an early start because there were more
guests checking in later that day. From the kitchen, I could hear a
strange muffled shrieking noise coming from the third floor. Ashley
leaned over the bannister and called to me from the third floor. "You've got to come up and see this!", she said.
I
hurried up the two flights of stairs and opened the door to the room.
Ashley was standing over to one side, looking at me with her eyes wide
and her hand over her mouth. The room was totally trashed! Their clothes were all over the place, including the white wedding dress. They had
been randomly thrown onto the floor, over the desk, the love
seat.....everywhere! The mattress was halfway off the bed and there was
a huge open jar of Vaseline, with deep finger-like gouges in it next to
the bed. The linens were hanging off the edges of the mattress and, as
we attempted to pick up some of the clothes so we could walk around the
room, we could see that there were brightly colored prophylactics
strewn all over the floor. Some of them were full! Neither one of us
wanted to touch them with a ten foot pole.
Being seasoned housekeepers, we managed to clean up, carefully clearing
the floor while wearing rubber gloves. Nothing was really damaged,
except my beautiful book of Shakespeare's sonnets. It was lying open
one of the tables next to the bed, with a huge round red stain on it. A
bottle of red wine had been sitting on it all night long. "I would have
been so embarrassed to come down to breakfast and face us", Ashley
said, " knowing what the room looked like". "Well, they're just
teen-agers", I covered for them. But they really should have known better.
