By John Bryant

It was 2010, and my soon-to-be-wife, Liana, and I were living in New York. Liana, a native Sarasotan, had not yet convinced me to move to Sarasota, though she was close.

Still, we had decided to have our wedding here, and had booked the bayfront terrace of the Ca’ d’Zan at the Ringling for March 27, 2010. It is such a beautiful venue, completely open, with the mansion serving as a backdrop to the expanse of Sarasota Bay. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much of a rain back-up plan. You couldn’t put a tent on the terrace because of possible damage to the historic mansion in severe weather, and the options for a tent elsewhere on the property were limited. (The Ringling has since created a beautiful plaza right next to the terrace, presumably for this exact reason.)

Despite the risk, we couldn’t pass up this amazing spot. Furthermore, I was swayed by the logic of my father-in-law, a Sarasota resident for more than 30 years: “It’s March in Sarasota; you don’t need a rain plan.”

We left dreary New York a week before the wedding, only to arrive in dreary Sarasota with an ominous forecast for the week. As I remember, it rained 24/7, and never broke 50 degrees the entire week leading up to the wedding. I cursed my father-in-law’s confident pronouncement months earlier.

Out-of-town guests began to arrive on Thursday, and the weather had only marginally improved. The forecast didn’t look promising for Saturday, our wedding day, either.

But on Saturday morning, the clouds parted and a blue sky arched over Lido Beach, where we were staying. I walked out on the beach, greeting friends from the North, all of us blissful in the warm sun.

My father-in-law was right. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day. A cloudless sky, a beautiful sunset, and a balmy night on the bayfront terrace. Sarasota came through for us.

A little over a year later, we left New York for Sarasota’s sunny skies.

John Bryant is an architect with Sweet/Sparkman and incoming president of the Sarasota Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.