Massage therapist and spa owner Donna Swain is expanding to the historic inn, offering services inside its Sunset Building on Lake Dora. These will be offered to inn guests through special packages. The inn at 100 N. Alexander St. often has five weddings taking place on the weekends, so many spa services will be tailored for a bride and her party.

“This will be perfect for a whole bridal party to get ready,” said inn manager Paula Briskin. “It can be an all-day prep for a wedding.”

Swain added, “We will have a fabulous makeup artist. It will be very feminine. The girls can get their makeup done together.”

“It could be a fun girls’ getaway if they all stay here,” Briskin said of the wood-frame building built in 1914.

The Sunset Building resembles the rest of the inn, with original buildings dating to 1883. The long-lasting structures make the inn one of the city’s treasured historic landmarks.

Briskin also stressed the new health-fitness offerings, and said these packages also may be popular for a non-wedding crowd.

Though men aren’t excluded from these services, Briskin said women in particular will be drawn to the power walks by the lake, yoga classes, diet coaching, and health-conscious meals featuring vegetarian, vegan or lowfat fare.

“Every morning on the package there will be a 3-mile walk,” Briskin said. “Then you come back and have a healthy breakfast — a vegetarian or healthy breakfast.”

Meals also can be served to guests on the veranda.

Yoga, massage therapy

Briskin, a yoga teacher, said classes will suit the guests’ needs.

“I do a real hard-flow class where you work up a good sweat when the class is done, but that’s not for someone with back problems. The beauty of yoga is you take it at your own pace,” she said.

Massages will be part of these packages as well. Many of Swain’s massages — the Himalayan, for example — also utilize elements such as aromatherapy, hot stones and sea salt.

“I just had one,” Swain said. “I really wasn’t expecting much, but you leave feeling so grounded and balanced, and it soothes your nervous system.”

The spa services will be available by the middle of this month within a 750-square-foot space, which Swain had redone in pastel green and yellow tones. She calls the color scheme “essence of aloe and lemon green.”

Diet, nutrition coaching

For those on a health-and-fitness retreat, professional diet and nutrition coaching is offered, along with discussions on deep breathing and keeping a healthy mental state.

“It’s all about exercise, eating right and having a good mental state,” Briskin said. “Persons should ask themselves, ‘Do I know how to deep breathe?’ ”

Swain also owns Essential Therapies, a full-service spa she has owned for six years. She has worked as a massage therapist in Mount Dora for 12 years.

Briskin has been in the resort-spa business 25 years and took over as manager at Lakeside Inn when the former manager, John Bristol, died last year.

With the slumping economy so difficult for many Central Floridians, a Mount Dora retreat could be a better option than an overseas vacation, Briskin said.

“This is better compared to a trip to Europe — a long, expensive plane trip,” Briskin said.

Swain said the wedding packages will be popular despite the economic downturn because women will always want to get married in a pleasant manner.

“People will get married no matter what the economy is like,” Swain said.

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