LIZ, JANE, AND Chip had arrived in Palm Springs a day earlier than their families in order for Jane and Chip to attend to various obligations, including fittings for their wedding clothes, on-camera interviews, and filming of B-roll footage (Jane walked pensively and alone on the resort’s golf course, and then they both sat by the pool gazing at the sunset, his hands placed protectively on her belly). A team of six from the national jewelry chain that was indeed a sponsor of the show held a consultation in which the couple chose from an array of rings; this meeting was also, of course, caught on camera.
Liz had expected the Hermoso Desert Lodge to be mostly empty upon their arrival, but after being met at the airport luggage carousel by Anne Lee—who proved to be a poised, unpretentious woman with stylishly cut black hair and a quick laugh—as well as a driver who hefted their suitcases into his white van, Liz discovered that the resort was already abuzz with a production crew of perhaps eighty. Indeed, the entire grounds—the main lodge, with its pink stucco exterior and Spanish-tiled roof; the elegant courtyard featuring a slate hot tub and a heated infinity pool; the lush eighteen-hole golf course dotted with palm trees, beyond which stood the scrubby beige mountains—resembled a small but busy village. Men and women, though mostly men, wore dark T-shirts and cargo pants, moved about briskly, and spoke into walkie-talkies; trucks and vans came and went from the parking lot, around the perimeter of which trailers and tents had been set up; collapsed ladders, large black plastic buckets, coils of thick orange extension cords, and mysterious equipment inside stacked black suitcases were transported on large dollies; long tables of craft services food appeared at intervals in the parking lot, crew members flocked to them, and then just as quickly both the people and the food disappeared again. Eventually, Liz deduced that some sort of control room was being set up in a first-floor guest suite that opened onto the courtyard; black twill fabric was unrolled to cover the windows from the inside, and people seemed to enter and exit with particular urgency.
The room Liz and Jane were sharing included two double beds, a balcony (Liz’s point of observation for outdoor activity), and a fireplace. On the desk, a gift basket contained a fat white scented candle, two pairs of pearl earrings, hair-removal cream, razors, mini-bottles of rum and vodka, and three string bikinis with padded breast cups. The attached card read, Liz and Jane, welcome to Palm Springs from all your Eligible friends!
Liz held up the bikini top. “Is this meant for me?”
Jane smiled. “It’s not for me, obviously.”
In her other hand, Liz held up the package of pink razors. “Very subtle.”
Much wasn’t quite as Liz had expected: Her cellphone would not be confiscated, nor had the television been removed from their hotel room. “That’s just for the longer shoots,” Anne Lee had explained when she’d escorted them upstairs, before pointing out what she referred to as a Pelco camera—it looked to Liz like a security camera—hanging in one corner of the room near the ceiling. “Just to catch any fun, casual conversations you guys might have,” Anne said in a lighthearted tone, and for Jane’s sake, Liz refrained from jokes about Communist surveillance.
The hair and makeup artists Jane had mentioned would be working with guests besides Jane and Chip only for the wedding itself—Jane seemed surprised to learn this, and apologetic—so otherwise, Liz was responsible for her own appearance. And though, as the sister whose wedding wasn’t imminent, Liz had anticipated having time to enjoy the lodge’s amenities—perhaps by booking a massage or, before she realized how public it was, soaking in the hot tub—she, too, was kept busy.
Her own sit-down interview occurred the first evening, while Jane and Chip enjoyed an “intimate” dinner in the hotel restaurant that Jane subsequently told Liz had been filmed by two camera crews of three men each. (Upon discovering that prior to the wedding, she and Jane rather than Jane and Chip were sharing a room, Liz had assumed Jane would sneak out during the night to see her fiancé. But if she did, Liz realized, the Pelco camera would alert the producers, and a camera crew would likely materialize.)