My Big Fat Low-Fat Wedding - By Katya Starkey Page 0,102

aren’t getting hitched in a church, so the front of this room obviously doesn’t have an altar. It’s just a highly decorated one step raised platform we are standing on.

I’ve gone into a trance as the registrar says a few words about the ceremony. This is it. It’s finally happening. After being with my soul mate almost ten years and being engaged to him for about a year, it’s finally happening.

We’re getting married to one another.

I keep sneaking glances at Callum to find he’s peeking my way too. We smile at each other like naughty school children. How silly! We’ve been together for such a long time and now here in this moment it’s as though we’re meeting again for the first time!

Oh well. I’m just going to go with it. Whatever feelings and nervousness overcome me, I’ll embrace them. I’ve never experienced anything like this, so I might as well enjoy it while I can. Okay so some people get married more than once in their lifetimes, but I’m certainly not thinking about that right now. As far as I’m concerned, this is it, Callum is the one for me, and I for him. For now. For always.

I’ll revel in thoughts of eternity. Today is our wedding day and to me it means all the cliché’s and everything you’d expect when tying the knot. After everything that’s happened. Through all our ups and downs. This makes up for everything. Now I truly know the bliss felt and expressed by friends who have been married. I remember being a bit bored when girlfriends would relay their wedding stories to me. As I stand here today, next to my husband-to-be, I finally understand. I’m overwhelmed with emotion and I know what my friends were talking about when they gushed about true love to me.

I feel like the Princess Bride! It’s one of my favourite classic films and I’m seriously as happy as Buttercup right now.

Catching Callum’s glance again makes me giggle. I’d better stop looking at him before I burst out laughing and ruin the moment entirely! We’re like two teenagers in love, we are. We actually have been in love since our teen years, so maybe that’s what’s with all the googly eye staring and giggling. Callum and I have reverted back to our younger selves in this moment. I guess the fact that we’re finally going to be husband and wife hasn’t resulted in two grown-ups standing here side by side after all. Instead, we’re just two people in love and the looks we share with each other are honestly telling of that.

I just can’t help myself. I have to be in physical contact with my fiancé right now. Aside from attacking him and taking him on the floor this instant, I’m going to have to make due with just holding his hand. I don’t even care if that’s not what we rehearsed days ago. To hell with conforming! This is a ceremony, yes, but it’s our ceremony and I’ll bloody well do what I want to!

Callum grips my hand tightly in his when I slide my fingers into is palm.

Oh good. He’s not going to conform either. I know he can’t kiss the bride until after our marriage is official, but until we’ve said I do I want to at least try and be connected by touch to the man I love.

And really, this is all the bond we need. The meaning of a wedding day really hits home with me now. Callum and I are bound together in love, just as our hands grasp tightly to each other’s. A wedding certificate will signify that we’re a couple by law, but it’s not a true necessity of honest love and partnership.

This… I look to our entwined fingers… this is the only bond I truly need. I feel the rightness of it through the very warmth of his skin.

“If you’d like to start with your vows, Callum.” The registrar has already got to the vows bit.

Now I’m nervous. It’s all happening so fast. Hurry up! I mean, slow down! Oh bloody hell, what am I supposed to do now?

Oh. Nothing. That’s right. Callum is going first with the vow thing.

He turns to face me and I grip his hand tighter still. He’s opening his smiling lips. He’s about to enchant me with his words of devotion—

“Stop!”

A man shouts and everyone turns around in their seats. Callum and I look up towards the entrance. Standing there with his hands on