Weddings must go on following power outages

NAPA, Calif. (KGO) -- With lots of weddings scheduled this weekend, caterers and florists are feeling the pressure to please everyone following the PG&E outages.

The lights are back on now, but Elaine Bell Catering Company was in the dark earlier this week.

"Actually, we didn't think it was going to come back on last night so I was prepared to go through Monday if I needed to," said Bell.

Her company is catering 16 events this weekend including several weddings.

"You can see we're packing up for our weekend parties," said Bell.

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Not wanting to disappoint anyone, Bell buckled down and bought what she needed including extra generators, lighting for the kitchen and even extra refrigerators.

"I told you we've got dry ice. We have about 200 pounds in here," said Bell.

Her employees were on board for the adventure, headlamps and all.

"We could build a kitchen anywhere," said one employee.

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And they did right outside.

Bell also already had a lot of equipment like a refrigerated truck and large food carriers.

"Maybe we'll do it again next weekend, who knows," she said.

Some businesses were spared. Garaventa's Florist and Events didn't lose power and it's a good thing because they have eight weddings this weekend.

"If we didn't have refrigeration we'd be in a mess because corsages, boutonnires all the arrangements really needed to go in refrigeration," said florist Cheryl Redfern.

Gravaventa's estimates they have $50,000 worth of wedding work that could have been spoiled.

Still there's no grudge here against PG&E.

"I think I can understand we had so much loss here in this area that you don't want to see that again," said Redfern.

For the latest stories about PG&E's Public Safety Power Shutoff go here.

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