We had a booking from a contestant of ‘The Bachelor’ book our Airbnb for a week-for her cake bakers she was flying in from Texas. Ends up, she & her soon to be husband were on ‘Bachelor in Paradise’, were getting married in our town, & wanted her cake bakers to stay at our Airbnb, baking her wedding cake in our home.
It was the first booking of the sort we had ever had, and really wanted to nail this. I had the tested the oven to make sure the temperature was dispersing evenly, and had a repairman on dial just in case it had to be recalibrated. Even tho we weren’t baking the cake, we did feel a bit of pressure, I mean, the cake is a BIG deal to a wedding right? A wise woman told me-“a wedding without a cake, is just a party” 🙂 .
The month goes by, our bakers arrive, and it’s go time! We had already cleared our schedules for the weekend to make sure we were there to help them with anything they needed, rides to the store (a block away), cake transporting (we just bought a van we love to use), extra table (as we didn’t know exactly how much space they would need, and we don’t have a huge amount of counter space). They started baking right away, our house hasn’t smelled that sweet ever!:)
Some days go by, we start to connect, and getting to know them was like talking to two old friends. Ends up, they’re celebrities themselves! They won Food Network’s “Wedding Cake Championship”, and were also on “Halloween Wars”, mother/daughter team, Shelby Bower, & Robin Cates. (Shelbyelizabethcakes.com)
We witnessed them take these ingredients, and create this beautiful masterpiece, they are truly truly talented women. We couldn’t have had better guests, and getting to watch their entire purpose of being in our home take form was priceless.
We really wanted to push ourselves as hosts, to see what we, and our property were made of. I put myself in their shoes at the time of the booking, and wanted to really be there for them, I could see how that could be a lot of pressure, being outside of your norm, in a place you’ve never been, but they did put their noses to the ground and went right to business I’ll give them that!
I’m thankful for the experience, it taught us some pretty valuable lessons, and brought us two new great friends. We were able to show them around town & get them out to see the actual island for a few hours before their flight back home, which the local newspaper picked up, and wrote an article on w some pretty big photos, it’s nice to see some positive light shine on Airbnb, and the story is cute also. They are more than welcome to come back anytime to “The House of Merhalla & Galleria” in Middletown Rhode Island!:)
