With all of the hubbub about St. Augustine’s 450th anniversary, we totally forgot that we recently had a (much smaller) anniversary of our own!
On September 1, we celebrated five years of owning the Bayfront Marin House.
And when we say celebrated, we mean it.
In the past five years, we have been lucky enough to meet beautiful, happy and amazing people from all over the world. Some of them were celebrating milestones of their own; we have felt so flattered that they chose us to be a small part of their celebration.
We have been lucky enough to witness hundreds of weddings in our courtyard, on our deck, on the beach, and even in our dining room during a tropical storm that knocked down any kind of tent that we tried to put up. We’ve seen a lot of people say “I do”, and we still get teared up when the father gives the bride away (old fashioned, we know, but a bunch of us are daddy-girls at heart), and when the couple exchanges their vows. We’ve seen people get married who are nervous, who are happy, who are hung over (it happens), who are drunk (it happens too), and in one memorable instance, who are hypoglycemic. (Yes, we’ve had to invite a crew of paramedics to one of our weddings in the middle of the ceremony–but the shaky groom shook it off, and continued his vows seated in the gazebo. Lesson learned: always encourage couples to eat something on their big day. And remind them not to lock their knees).
We also have been lucky enough to work with the very best staff in the business–our own stealthy team of kick-butt hospitality ninjas. We probably don’t celebrate them enough, and we should: We have obviously learned a lot more from them than they have learned from us (let’s just say our first few months probably sent them all home laughing, shaking their heads, or perhaps worrying that we wouldn’t make it more times than we want to think about); and we continue to be impressed at the effort they exert into making sure that other people are happy.
In a word: we have been lucky. And we have been grateful for that luck.
We’ve really enjoyed the last five years, and we expect to be here on the bayfront a long long time in the future. We hope that you’ll come visit us soon–we’d love to celebrate with you!