father, Ford, walking the midway and greeting guests during her summer sweeping. The owner of Starlight Point had passed away about five years ago, a summer Alice would never forget for her own reasons.
“I love weddings,” June whispered to Alice as they watched the exchange of vows and rings from a distance. “All that sparkle, fancy dresses, dancing and cake.”
“It’s intoxicating,” Alice agreed. “But don’t you wonder what they think the next day when they wake up?”
“I hope they eat leftover wedding cake in bed,” June said. She sighed. “People should get married on this beach every day.”
“As your events planner, that would be totally fine with me. We could recruit engaged couples from all over Michigan and fly them in to get married right here for one substantial fee. I could write it up for the website—white sand beach, historic hotel, on-site wedding cake baker.”
“Augusta would love that,” June said, referring to her sister-in-law. Gus ran three bakeries at Starlight Point, serving up cookies and doughnuts to park patrons, and a flagship bakery in downtown Bayside that turned out gorgeous wedding cakes. “Not that she needs any more business.”
Alice did the mental math. She had already scheduled a wedding for almost every weekend through New Year’s Eve. It wasn’t what she’d signed on for when she landed the job of special events coordinator at Starlight Point, but if she had to embrace all the emotional and financial entanglements of weddings to keep her dream job, she’d keep her opinions to herself.
Mostly.
“And they walk down the aisle and boom, married perfection,” Alice whispered as the bride and groom kissed to the sound of applause and the five-piece orchestra burst into a wedding exit march.
“You have to love this,” June said.
“When I see the revenue coming in, I do. But now it’s showtime part two with the custom-ordered dream reception coming up. Have you seen the decorations in the rotunda?”
“No,” June said, “but judging from the gleam in your eye, I’m probably going to want to get divorced just so I can get married again.”
Alice chuckled. “I wouldn’t advise throwing away a good man when you’ve got one, but come with me anyway and see the lobby.”
They turned and headed for the historic Lake Breeze Hotel, perched right on the beach. In only moments, they walked through the wide glass doors.
Alice hadn’t been exaggerating about the dream reception. As they entered a fairyland, their heels clicked against the elegant wood floors in the six-story-tall rotunda. Shimmering tulle hung in strips from the central chandelier, and tables overflowing with candles and flowers circled the room. The bride had chosen pink with gold accents for her colors. The large circular room smelled of roses and lilies and glimmered with glass, candles, china and silverware.
Alice breathed in the effect. Too bad it was temporary. Weddings always went too fast, especially compared with the months of planning and preparation. And a wedding reception in the lobby of a working hotel had to be finite. Without a separate conference facility or hall, a reception snarled the hotel traffic. Alice’s staff had one hour to move in all the carefully prepared decorations. The afternoon dessert and champagne reception would last two hours—just enough time for toasts, pictures, cutting the four-tiered cake and dancing the traditional first dances.
After that, everything would go into storage and families with beach bags and sand between their toes would again traipse through the lobby on their way to the elevators. As a thank-you to hotel guests inconvenienced by the reception, Alice made sure any fresh flowers that were left when the event ended were made into bouquets and delivered to rooms with couples celebrating anniversaries or honeymoons. She even had waiters deliver elegant plated pieces of cake to guests waiting to check in at the front desk.
Alice knew how little things could add up, and big events were just a lot of little things packed into one small section of time and space. One mistake could screw up the whole thing. It was one of the many ways weddings, she thought, differed from marriages.
“I’m definitely divorcing Mel and starting over,” June said.
“Didn’t you have a beautiful wedding the first time?”
June smiled. “We did. It was a Christmas wedding in the ballroom. Red roses and evergreens, a six-tiered cake and a live band. I spent a lot of time teaching Mel to dance before the reception.”
Alice imagined those lessons were more fun than work, but she certainly admired June’s spirit of perfection. Weddings should be perfect, right down to the dance steps.
“But he’s still not as good a dancer as you, I’d bet.”
“After seven seasons on Broadway, I’m tough competition.”
The small orchestra that had played for the ceremony on the boardwalk came in and took their seats on the edge of the rotunda. They tuned their instruments and straightened sheet music on their stands.
In the two years Alice had coordinated special events for Starlight Point, she’d developed relationships with many local industry professionals. She was becoming a regular at the bridal shop that did expert and quick alterations. She had her own seat at the counter in Augusta’s downtown bakery where she could flip through a huge portfolio of wedding cakes. Alice knew all the members of the string quintet and had four Bayside ministers on speed dial.
Alice straightened the silverware on the cake table. “Do you regret giving up the stage and coming home?”
June shook her head. “Only a tiny bit once in a while. I gained so much more than I gave up. How about you? You still live at home with your parents. Do you regret never leaving Bayside?”
“No,” Alice said. She tugged a wrinkle out of a crisp white tablecloth. “Definitely, no.”
There were things she regretted, but location wasn’t one of them. Starlight Point was her dream job, bringing back happy memories of a time in her life when she thought she had it all figured out.
“Have you met our new public relations guy? He just started yesterday, and he’s got lots of experience with updating websites, photography and networking. He’s a local who just came back to the area,” June said. “Maybe you know each other.”
“I haven’t met him yet,” Alice said as she checked the time on her phone and switched it into camera mode.
“He’s supposed to come take pictures for the website, but if he doesn’t hurry he’ll miss the big entrance,” June said. “He already missed the wedding itself.”
Alice wanted to ask more about him and talk to June about how her department and his might work together, but time was tight. She walked to the glass lobby door and peered out. “They’re headed this way.”
She nodded to the leader of the orchestra and held up two fingers to signal he had two minutes before striking up a lively entrance piece. She and June faded to the edge of the room to wait for the bridal couple to sweep in with their family and friends. She was ready with her camera to capture the moment the bride saw the rotunda’s decorations. In a word, it was perfection.
* * *
“I LIKE THE way you’re jumping right into work,” Jack Hamilton told Nate as he dropped him off at the Lake Breeze Hotel. “I’m glad I finally talked my sisters into hiring someone to sell us year-round.”
“You make it sound cheap when you put it like that,” Nate said. “But thanks. I’m going to make sure there isn’t a person in Michigan or the entire Midwest who doesn’t know about the Starlight Point brand and want to be here on their next fifteen vacations.”
“You better get to the wedding on time,” Jack said.
“I wish I had that new camera I ordered yesterday.”
“First day on the job and you’re already