In the wake of the fire a few months ago at The Baths in Sorrento, there has been tremendous outpouring of sadness from the public about the devastation of the situation. I agree, it is devastating, especially the loss of a beautiful venue as well as staff suddenly out of employment and ruined wedding plans for many couples. However, I think The Baths deserves to be remembered for all the joy and happiness it has brought into the lives of so many people.
I’m going to write about how The Baths made the best day of my life a reality.
My now husband and I always wanted to have a very casual wedding; not much fuss, good food, one big party and most importantly no lengthy, boring speeches. I must say The Baths was not the first venue we visited, but it was the last. As soon as we stepped through the door, we fell in love with the open design, the beautiful view of the beach and attentive staff.
Faith, our wedding organiser at The Baths, was very much a motherly figure which was actually what we needed. Our ‘big party’ idea wasn’t exactly realistic. Guests expect certain formalities at weddings, such as ‘thank you’ speeches and other acknowledgements. By the time we had finished meeting with Faith, we had locked in a ‘thank you’ speech (as short as possible), a first dance (as short as possible) and a time for cake cutting (in a location as inconspicuous as possible). Luckily, we found a suitable date six months from the date we met with Faith, as a couple had cancelled due to pregnancy. Hooray for babies! Not so hooray for cramming wedding planning into a short six month period though!
At least we found our ceremony venue easily enough in Mornington, the Dalywaters Rose Farm. Our ceremony had to take place in the morning and The Baths happily agreed to start our reception earlier than usual at 5:30pm. Yes it’s true, we took up all of our 115 guests’ entire day to celebrate with us. But no one complained.
The next important point was the food. My husband used to train as a chef, so food quality was high on our priority list. We brought our family down to try the food at a lunch tasting. During the lunch, I got on my bridezilla/Masterchef high horse but actually could not find any fault in the food. It was absolutely amazing – the duck melted in the mouth and fish was cooked to perfection.
The accommodating nature of The Baths extended to the wedding day itself. They were happy for us to decorate their room to my ‘rustic’ aspirations, with many ideas taken from Pinterest. My husband rolled his eyes every time he heard the word ‘rustic’. But my dreams were fulfilled – little straw hearts were hung along the wooden poles, soil and flower filled half globes hung from the ceiling and of course a ladder and hessian table runners also joined the scene.
My family and I were able to decorate the room after the restaurant had shut the evening before to set up our decorations from Stylish Weddings Melbourne. While we were there, The Baths also let me take a sneak peek at the wedding cake I had ordered. I received the shock of my life because my rustic cake actually did not look rustic at all! The Baths must have seen my pale, green face, and offered to speak to the florist to rescue the disaster. Low and behold, crisis averted with fresh blooms! The cake was beautiful and in fact actually tasted delicious.
The Baths kept their arms open, by allowing our florist Hummingbird Blooms to go in early on the day and decorate the room in advance. Our photographer from The White Tree was also able to go into The Baths before the reception to take photos of the venue, the band had ample time to set up their gear and the photobooth company, Little Black Booth, had plenty of time to set up prior. And when last-minute apologies occurred for guests who could not make it, it was no issue to put the money paid for them towards extra alcohol behind the bar!
Our big party went ahead without a glitch on the night. I think this is purely because of the hard-working staff at The Baths and their organisation beforehand. There was plenty of alcohol, full stomachs and lots of laughing and dancing. We could not have asked for a better venue.
Thank you to The Baths for all the memories that you have given not only to us but also to so many other couples. I do hope you rebuild and provide happiness to many more people in the future.
Ms Chinoiserie Says: Congratulations Mrs A on your wedding – and thank you for your heartfelt words about such a magical venue! We look forward to hearing about their re-opening date soon!
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