A SECOND!
READ MARRIAGE IN A SECOND
Read more about Grace and Chris!
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1
Grace
“I’m surprised you’re not more stressed out,” Ivy remarked when she came into the office that morning. “Usually the day before her wedding, a bride is super-duper high-strung.”
“It’s a vow renewal, hardly anything to be worked up about,” I replied, looking up from my laptop. “Besides, it’s going to be super small and low-key.”
“Are we still doing barbecue?” Sophie asked.
I shrugged. “Chris is planning it.”
“You haven’t had any input at all?” Brea asked me. “What if he messes up?”
“How hard could it possibly be?”
“Wedding planning is a lot more difficult than people think,” Ivy said, “as we all know.”
“But this is your last chance to have a big, huge, blowout wedding,” Amy insisted.
“I know! I feel like we wasted a marketing opportunity,” Ivy said. “You could have done another viral article about the wedding planner who plans her own wedding.”
“And neglects her work to do so,” I said tartly.
“We could have squeezed in another wedding,” Ivy said stubbornly.
“Only if we did it in the middle of the day on a Tuesday,” I said. “As it is, we’re doing it in the dead of winter so that we don’t encroach on any other bride’s big day.”
“But you don’t even get the big poofy dress,” Brea complained.
“You’re making me a very nice white cocktail dress,” I reminded her.
“But I want a big poofy skirt!” Brea flopped dramatically on the couch.
“You’d think she’d be tired of wedding dresses at this point in life,” Elsie mused.
“Never!” Brea declared.
I shook my head, turning back to my photo editing. I had one more set to finish for our last bride. The few weeks after Christmas were our off-season before the weddings picked back up again.
I cropped the photo I was working on. The bride was in her one-of-a-kind ball gown, backdropped by the heavy timber of the converted industrial warehouse, which was strung with fairy lights and huge bouquets of white-and-red flowers. It was magical and similar to the type of wedding I had always secretly imagined myself having.
Stop being ungrateful, I chastised myself. You have a wonderful husband, a puppy, and fantastic friends. You don’t need a huge, fancy wedding.
Besides, Chris and I had talked about it and mutually agreed that a small, intimate vow-renewal ceremony made the most sense. Otherwise, there would be all the confusion about who would be invited and where we would have it. And then I would have to plan it because, while I dearly loved Chris, I had very low expectations of his wedding planning ability.
No, a big wedding would be a terrible idea. It wasn’t us.
But I still sort of wanted one.
2
Chris
“Operation cake topper is a go,” I announced over the penthouse intercom system the minute the doorman told me that Grace had climbed into her town car to go to her office for work.
Gran hustled out of her bedroom, carrying rolls of paper, swatches of ribbon and lace, and photos of flower bouquets. She set them out on the long dining room table while I set out our containers of wedding planning supplies.
“Grace is going to be so surprised when our intimate vow renewal turns into the big blowout wedding of the year!” I crowed.
Lulu, our little Dachshund, barked in agreement.
“And,” I reminded her, “your flower girl outfit is arriving today!”
“I already have Zeus’s tux ironed and steamed and ready to go. Now just remember,” Gran instructed the parrot, “don’t eat the wedding rings!”
“Okay,” I said, running my finger down the wedding checklist I had printed off of the internet. “Flowers, ordered. We have catering covered, thanks to Antonio. We have alcohol.”
“Very important!” Gran added.
“Yep. And you have the cake covered?”
“My friend is making a super amazing cake!” the old woman said, giving me a thumbs-up.
“Cool. See? Wedding planning isn’t that hard,” I said, folding up the list. “I have an intimate dinner planned for two tonight, and I already have the honeymoon booked. We’re going to Vienna.”
“Gonna give Grace some of that wiener schnitzel,” Gran said. “I like it. Me and the girls will be down at the venue decorating all evening. You and Grace can get it on all over the penthouse!”
I smirked, thinking about the fantastic evening I had planned. Grace had been busy with weddings lately, and I was looking forward to spending time with her.
“But first, party favors.”
I had tagged along with Grace to enough high-society weddings that I knew the drill. All the weddings had a goodie bag with booze, snacks, and little knickknacks with the couple’s initials on them.
I wasn’t exactly sure where the Weddings in the City company sourced all those items, and I hadn’t wanted to ask them because then they would jump in and start planning it. Then Grace would find out, and it wouldn’t be a surprise. So I had asked the Svensson brothers to help me source the party favors. Of course, that meant that the delivery was somehow late.
“Eric,” I said, when he picked up. “Where are the party favors?”
“Okay, so look, dude,” Eric began. “I didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but—”
“Give me the phone,” his brother, Greg, demanded in the background. “Honestly, what were you thinking?”
“Hi, Greg,” I said. “So party favors?”
Greg made an irritated noise. “Apparently there has been a strike at the Svensson brothers’ sweatshop.”
Read MARRIAGE IN A SECOND
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