“Just a note to thank you all so VERY much for the fantastic occasion you put on for my niece Heather last Saturday in the middle of a cyclone! Your hospitality, your concern for everyone to have a wonderful time, the FOOD! the service, the genuine kindness of all concerned was AWESOME. I would particularly like to acknowledge the lovely Rina. What a hostess! Kia Kaha Markovina. You ARE the best.”
Who has the time and energy to worry about wedding crashers of the human kind when you have Lusi, the ultimate wedding crasher on her way – with Cyclonic forces in tow.
Cloud building and skies darkening – ex-tropical cyclone Lusi was bearing ever closer and across the country people were warned to prepare for the worst: forecast gales, heavy rain and coastal swells which threatened to cause localised flooding, slips, road closures and in Auckland, electricity company Vector had warned customers to be prepared for the possibility of outages as a result of the wild weather.
Imagine then the added stress you would feel knowing that your wedding is on the day Lusi is scheduled to land. Not only do you have to deal with your standard wedding day gitters but you now carry anxiety attached to weather patterns and acts of God!
What to do?
Equip yourself with a calming Zen approach and if that falls short and fails to keep the whole day from dissolving into chaos, you should seek to enlist the skills of venue staff who have the insight, experience and forward planning to lessen the effects of even the worst cyclone forces.
When Lusi hit!
When she hit, Lusi produced severe easterly gales of up to 120km/h which had the potential to ruin what is supposed to be the best day of our couple’s lives and with all the advice usually dished out to those planning their wedding day “how to deal with a power outage as the result of a cyclone in March”, isnt usually one of them.
This is where the professionalism of the Markovina staff really shone through.
Despite the worsening weather, the ceremony (indoors) went perfectly: a beautiful couple, heartfelt vows and all family and friends in attendance.
Onto the reception: excellent food and wine, humorous speeches, great company and importantly fun and laughter. However…as predicted by Vector the wild weather was moments away from creating a power outage – Lusi had arrived!
Always attentive and observant, by that afternoon Markovina staff noticed that the power was surging and the lights were dimming ever so subtly. Now was the time to kick into “forward planning / disaster aversion” drive.
To avoid the full outage and to ensure that none of the guests or bridal party were aware of an issue, staff switched over the lines power for the venue, to the Markovina generator. It takes around half a minute to switch across and no-one detected the change.
When the groom’s mother was informed of the “switch over” she applauded staff and commented “you are all just amazing”. The night continued on without a hitch and the generator powered on through the whole night with energy left to spare.
The moral of the story
Don’t waste your energy on anticipating the “what-ifs” and instead leave that to the professional and skilled staff at Markovina. They are cyclone tested and can withstand whatever nature throws at them.
And some words from the happy couple:
Yes… we thoroughly enjoyed our day at Markovina – our guests will not stop raving about it! You and your family did everything for us to make our day the best day ever 🙂
