Page 45 of Marry Me, Right Now

“Well, good luck with that. Rosalind’s a piece of work, that one. But she’ll be civil to you, and that’s good enough.”

Over the next hour, we whipped through his master list of decisions. In nearly all cases, we agreed to let the vendors tell us what was best, and they were all responding positively already. He agreed that the color palette of ivory and mixed greens with a few pops of deep muted blue was a good, easy choice, and even took a few photos of the sofa pillow for reference.

Just before noon, I got a text from Jacob. “Hey – sorry I forgot to tell you earlier. There are snacks in the fridge for your meeting.”

“Thanks,” I replied, then went to check, taking out a bowl of fresh hummus and plate of vegetable spears.

“Brain fuel,” I said, as Zachary cleared a spot among the papers.

“Brilliant,” he said, reaching for a slice of yellow pepper.

“Well, we’ve covered food, decor, music, the guest list. The invitations will be couriered out today to those who need them, emails and phone calls to those whose addresses we don’t know.” Zachary gave me an exasperated glance. “Darling, you really will need a proper address book,” he admonished me.

“My friends are email-based people, and some of them move around a lot.”

“When you follow up, do try to get addresses so that you can send thank you notes.”

“Okay.” I didn’t bother mentioning that I’d be adding, ‘Please, no gift’ to invitations to my friends. Suddenly something popped into my head.

“Hey – Jacob uses a car service. Could we set everyone up with rides home? The subways stop at one-thirty, and transit is pretty sketchy for some past midnight.”

“Especially for women traveling alone,” Zachary said, grabbing his notebook and scribbling a few things down. “Wonderful idea. I’ll set up the service to send a string of cars so that there are always three waiting.”

“I’m sure some people will double up if they’re in the same neighborhood.”

“Of course. Mia, that’s a lovely idea. Very classy.”

“Well, between you and I, a lot of my friends are broke artists. I couldn’t bear to think of them suddenly having to drop thirty bucks just to get home.”

He patted my hand. “You’re in a new world now, darling. It will take a little time to get used to everything. I’ve seen it before. Trust me, it will be second nature in a few months.”

I couldn’t express how much that weirded me out, so I just smiled and nodded.

“Eat,” he insisted. “A car is coming in half an hour to take us to the magical land of…” he lowered his voice to a dramatic whisper, “Bridal gowns’.”

I tried not to laugh while stuffing hummus soaked broccoli into my face. “Am I going to have to be serious there?”

“Yes. There will be absolutely no merriment in front of the dresses. This is serious business.”

An hour and a half later, Lauren, Rayanne, Zachary and I were giggling merrily, already a little tipsy on the endless champagne while a bevy of nearly identical polished brunettes brought us an endless array of bridesmaid dresses. They held them up in front of them to mimic what they’d look like on.

“Ooh,” Lauren gasped. “That one on the left would be great for a funeral. Very dour.”

“Come on,” I nearly hiccuped. “Let’s be serious. The decision must be made, ladies.”

“As an honorary lady today,” Zachary chimed in, “I’m thinking that one in the middle. It doesn’t look right in this ivory, but when it’s in the dusty blue, trust me, you’ll both look very pretty.”

“Blue? We’re wearing blue, not blushing rose or peach parfait?” Rayanne laughed.

Zachary shot me a look. “I just assumed that since that was the accent color, that you’d want it for the bridesmaids?” He held out his phone to the girls with the photo.

“That’s a great color,” Lauren said. “I’d wear that.”

Rayanne nodded. “Could I wear black shoes?”

“Don’t worry, darlings, you’ll be fitted for shoes that will be dyed to match. Every detail will be taken care of, and they are on standby to make it happen in time. Now, do you both like that style of dress? Could you actually try them on for us?”

They emptied their glasses and followed the sales girls to try on samples.

---