That Wedding (38 page)

Phillip walks in the door with beer under his arm and a magazine in his hand. "Look, I found a wedding magazine we haven't looked at yet! This one looks cool too. It has spreads on real weddings."

We sit at the kitchen table, drink a beer, and flip through the pages. We're halfway through when Phillip stumbles upon an idea that hits his hot button.

"Look at this!! They had custom Nikes made as gifts for the groomsmen! Look, they put their names and the wedding date on the shoes too. That is THE
coolest
wedding thing I have ever seen! I'm doing them. We'll do black shoes with a dark purple swoosh!"

Phillip is really excited, and I don't want to like burst his bubble or anything, but tennis shoes at a formal wedding? With tuxedos?

Um, no.

No freaking way.

"Uh, Phillip, our wedding is formal. I don't think you can wear Nikes."

He raises his eyebrows and gives me a little smirk. "It's my wedding. I can do whatever I want. Plus, you got purple shoes. You showed me them."

"Phillip, I got purple satin Badgley Mischka heels with crystal detailing. They aren't black leather Nike tennis shoes. I don't know about this, Phillip. I'd need some convincing."

He looks at me for a beat then strips off his shirt.

Which totally make me laugh. "That's not the kind of convincing I meant, Phillip. Look at these pictures. Their wedding was outside, and they're wearing khakis. It was very informal."

"I don't care. By the time I'm done with you, you'll be begging me to wear these shoes."

I'll admit, Phillip with no shirt is already pretty convincing, but I say, "I see you shirtless every day. I don't think that's gonna do it."

He picks me up and moves me to the couch. Takes off my sweater. Kisses my entire upper half.

Every. single. inch.

My collar bone, down my arms, my neck, my chest, my stomach. When he gets to my stomach, I'm about to tell him he can have whatever he wants, please just take off my skirt.

He takes off my shoes instead. He gently massages my feet, kisses up my legs, and then finally pulls off my skirt.

And he's right.

I'm pretty sure I'll be letting him wear whatever shoes he wants.

When I watched the show
My Fair Wedding
, the thing that struck me most about the episodes was not how beautifully the weddings turned out. What struck me was how you watched each bride grow up in front of your eyes. The process seemed to give them all a kind of bridal confidence, and I feel like I've sorta gotten my own bridal confidence. At first, I was just plain freaked out by the whole thing. When I first started planning, I wanted total and complete control. Then I realized I couldn't do it by myself, but I still held tight, only allowing Phillip, Lori, and Amy into my wedding planning world.

Now that I've given up control, I realize that you can't do it yourself, and you shouldn't try.

Mrs. D said something on the drive down about how happy she is to be helping because she didn't get to help plan any of Danny's wedding. So needless to say, both her and Mrs. Mac are brimming with excitement. When I watch them hug Amy, their new best friend, I think I just grew up a little more. I don't have my parents here, but I do have some very special people in my life.

And I'm gonna start celebrating that.

They had some great ideas that we incorporated into the wedding plans. We planned out the weekend's events, starting with a welcome basket in each room and ending with a farewell brunch on Sunday. Mrs. Mac had great ideas about what to put in the baskets. My only real contribution was that I wanted some chocolate included.

Big surprise.

And Mrs. D hit it out of the park. She recommended having chilled buckets of beer waiting for the guests upon check in.

I'm pretty sure our friends are gonna go crazy over that type of welcome.

We got to play around with place settings and decided on deep purple glass chargers, deep purple water goblets, clear champagne glasses with silver trim, white dinner plates, and an adorable multicolored salad plate. On top of all that is an icy purple napkin. When Amy handed me a princess crown napkin ring that was Phillip's idea, I almost cried.

Everything went well until they completely disagreed with me about the one thing I'm most looking forward to. Phillip and I decided to meet in private before the wedding. When he sees me in my dress for the first time, it will be just the two of us and a photographer.

Mrs. Mac says, "JJ! He can't see you before the wedding. It's BAD LUCK!"

Mrs. D agrees. "Plus, you're getting married on the thirteenth."

"Phillip and I want to have some private moments on our wedding day. If he sees my dress as I'm walking down the aisle, I won't get to talk to him. I want to hear what he thinks. Then we're gonna go take photos in front of our fountain."

They're both shaking their heads at me when Amy says, "You know, if we do most of the photos before the ceremony, that means we all get to enjoy the cocktail hour. Otherwise, the guests will enjoy it while you take photos."

Neither one of them want to miss a second of the cocktail hour, so Mrs. Mac finally says, "Well, if you make it special, it'll probably be okay."

"I'm so excited about Phillip seeing my dress in private. Instead of worrying about walking down the aisle and not tripping, I'll be able to focus on him, to remember what he looks like the moment he sees me. I wanna take his breath away."

Mrs. D gushes, "Oh, JJ, the way you talk about it makes it sound so much more romantic. I wish I could've done that when I got married."

"While we're on this subject of walking down the aisle," Mrs. Mac says. "I wanted to ask if you'd mind if Phillip escorted Doug and I. Traditionally, an usher would escort me down the aisle. Doug would follow behind, and then we would be seated. Phillip and his best man would be standing at the altar already. I was at a wedding recently where the groom seated his parents. I thought it was really special, but I don't want to upset you."

"Why would that upset me?"

Mrs. Mac looks at me with real concern. "Because your parents aren't here to walk with you, and from what Phillip said, you're walking down the aisle by yourself."

"I thought about walking by myself, like as a way to honor my parents, but I changed my mind. I asked a special man in my life to give me away."

Mrs. D's eyes flood with tears. She turns to Mrs. Mac and says, "She asked Chuck."

I drop the moms off then head home. When I walk in my condo, the lights are dimmed, my mom's crystal candlesticks are holding dark purple tapers, the table is set, and I can smell Italian food.

Phillip takes my coat, kisses me, leads me over to the table, and pulls out a chair for me.

"What's all this for?" I ask.

"This is a big thank you for including my mom. She called me before you guys headed back home and said it was one of the best days she's ever had. She's very excited for our wedding and very happy that you included her." He pours us champagne then says a toast. "In exactly two months from today, we'll be on our honeymoon."

"That's a good reason to celebrate, and I'm glad I invited them. Her and Mrs. D had some great ideas for everything from the welcome gifts to the reception. They adored Amy, loved tasting the cake, and we had a lot of fun."

Phillip takes my flute and sits it on the table. "You know, I think maybe dinner can wait." He takes my hand and leads me into the bedroom, where there are even more candles lit.

He strips off my clothes and massages my entire body with an amazing smelling lavender body oil. I could care less about dinner. All I want is him.

"I'm gonna be nicer to your mom more often. I'm just saying."

Phillip and I stop by his parents' before heading to Neil's to watch the Husker game. I'm updating Mrs. Mac on a few wedding details when she lets out a big sigh. "I still haven't found a dress. Ashley and I have gone shopping a lot, but I just can't seem to find anything. The wedding is going to be so pretty and romantic. Is it bad that I don't want to look like the mother of the groom?"

"What do you mean?"

She frowns. "I know I'm the mother of the groom, but I don't want to look old. All the dresses Ash likes, I've felt like my mother."

"Ashley doesn't have a whole lot of patience either. I'm sure she gets mad at you when she likes something, and you don't."

"Exactly. I let her pick out the dress I wore to her wedding, and I hated that thing. I looked like a banana."