by Cee, DW
The music began, and the doors opened to my matron of honor and her children. I was set back so I saw them enter, then the doors closed.
Next, the bridal march began, and my father placed my arm atop his as we stepped up to the door. When it opened, the only person I saw was my groom, so handsomely dressed in a black tuxedo, wearing the most incredible smile. I’d dreamed of this moment a thousand times, but never did I understand how heart stopping this moment would be. The imaginary figure I’d seen in my dreams walking down the aisle to meet Donovan at his wedding actually turned out to be me. I’d dreamed, but never believed in this dream. And now, it was no longer a fantasy but a reality.
The wave of tenderness on his face had me mindless. His evocative smile, his completely unguarded emotions wrapped around me like a silky cocoon to a moth, with promises of protection and care, and a brighter future. This man would help me transform from an egg to a chrysalis to an exquisite butterfly—free to fly, free to explore, and always safe in his love. My dream. My knight. My Donovan.
“Dazzling, Princess. Simply dazzling!” he whispered in my ear as he unlocked my arm from an unwilling father. “Thank you, Chief. I promise to take good care of her.” Donovan reassured my dad.
The entire ceremony was a blur. I continued to remind myself that I was standing here with Donovan, and this was our wedding day.
At one point, Donovan had to lean over and whisper, “Princess. You need to say, ‘I do’ if you want to marry me.” Embarrassed and startled to be caught daydreaming, by all our guests, I said, “I do,” a little too loudly and got a rise out of the crowd. Donovan tried hard not to laugh.
“What has you in such a daze?” Donovan asked after he happily kissed the bride.
“You. Us. This wedding. The fact that I’m the bride.” I made very little sense, but Donovan loved every word. He kissed me again and the guests stood up and cheered.
“Where did this fabulous carriage come from?” I still couldn’t believe I was in Cinderella’s carriage.
“Wait till you see what your mom’s done with the house.”
“What do you mean? The house looked the same when I left it a couple of hours ago.”
“Princess, this is your fairytale and I am your prince today. Your mom and I are going to give you all your heart has ever desired.”
Well, with that confession of love, I had to kiss him from the church to the house. Though distance-wise it wasn’t far, it took a long time.
Somehow, during the ceremony and pictures at the church, Mom had turned our house into a Winter Wonderland. When we got back, there was snow all along the Reid cul-de-sac. Today being Christmas, lights were all sparkling white and snow decorated our entire neighborhood, especially our home.
“How did Mom do this? It’s stunning.”
“Wait till you walk in. I wanted everything to be perfect for you.” He kissed me one more time and helped me out of the carriage.
We walked into a myriad of cheers, and before I could walk into the backyard, Bee met us.
“Congratulations, Niece. I guess we are finally family.” We hugged. “I have a wedding present for you and it’s upstairs, so come with me.”
Donovan let me go, initially, then pulled me back into his arms and kissed me hungry...long... deep… “I love you, Delaney Taylor.”
That moniker made me squeal. “It’s finally come true! I knew my notebook wouldn’t let me down.”
His smile told me he thought I was the cutest girl in the whole wide world, before he let me go with Bee.
“You’re happy?”
“I am!” I sighed with contentment. “I’m so happy to be your niece!” I fell into Bee with a hug.
“You’re a nut,” she said with a laugh. “Come on up. Your family is waiting.”
Gram, Mom, all my aunts, Emily, Ellie, Jane, Ma, and my new sister-in-laws stood around to give me hugs, good cheers, and to watch me get into my new outfit.
“First,” Bee said and pointed to my bathroom, “you’re getting out of your wedding gown and dressing into your wedding reception gown.”
“I have a wedding reception gown?” Could this get any better for a woman who loved clothes?
“Follow,” she announced, helping me into the bathroom, out of my treasured wedding gown, and into her very own creation from the Paris fashion show. The only difference—the tulle was now a red tulle rather than the typical wedding white tulle.
“This is so Christmasy and festive.”
“That’s the plan.”
I came out to many more oohs and aahs. Gram spoke, “Since we weren’t able to give you a proper family bridal shower, we thought we might give you our wedding tradition presents here, but Donovan just asked us to come down and present it together with his rehearsal dinner gift. So, let’s all go down.”
What? There were so many things going on all at once, I didn’t know how to respond.
“Just follow,” Jane suggested. “Donovan’s got the day planned. I’ve never seen such an involved groom.” She rolled her eyes. “Max better be this interested in our wedding.”
“How can Donovan be involved when he just got home last night? He barely made it to the wedding.”
“Trust me.” Now Mom and Ma both rolled their eyes. “He was plenty involved from Europe!”
I didn’t ask.
My groom awaited me at the bottom of the steps and had that look of adoration, again. A girl could really get used to this kind of attention.
“This dress reminds me of our first night in Paris, ma petite mort,” he announced, aloud, and with a rascally smile.
I pulled him away from a bunch of giggling women who understood the euphemism. “Are you kidding me? Did you need to brag in front of my family? That was mortifying.” I giggled at my own pun.
“You are always so good with your mouth.” He pulled me into him and gave me another one of those rock-my-world, don’t-give-a-damn-who’s-at-my-party, we-are-so-going-to-our-honeymoon-suite-now! kind of kiss.
“Let’s get the show on the road, Mr. Taylor!” Jane groaned at our amorous show.
“Don’t mind her, Husband.” I teased my cousin. “She’s just upset that I got married before she did. She always did want whatever was mine.” That earned me a swat on my backside by my cousin and much laughter among the three of us.
Donovan walked me into a tent where the party was hopping, and we got a grand ovation from all our family and friends. Mom cleverly planned a Christmas-themed wedding reception where everything appeared white, but silver and red somehow emerged from the white. There were hundreds of Christmas balls hanging like chandeliers with bright white lights in the balls, but here and there, a red light or two or ten sparkled among the white. On the tables were huge cylindrical vases filled with white, silver and red Christmas ornaments in water and floating white candles in the shape of balls. The light gave off the image of white, but silver and red popped from the vases. White flowers filled the tent, highlighted by red flowers, or even cranberries decorating the flower design. We were told to have “bites” of food because we needed to get on to the main event.
“Is dancing the main event?” I asked Hubby.
“Your gifts are the main event.”
“Ooh, I like gifts! But first, I need to eat. Feed me, Husband.” I commanded with the prettiest bridal smile.
Mom and the rest of the female commanders literally gave us five minutes to eat. They weren’t kidding when they said we were getting “bites” of food. I shoved more food into my mouth as Gram took the microphone.
“As matriarch of the Reid family, nothing gives me more joy than watching one of my grandchildren get married, or have babies. I’ve been fortunate enough to see two weddings and three babies, and I’m hoping to see all my grandchildren at least married, before I die.” Gram literally looked at every one of her grandkids in the tent and commanded them to get married soon. “Laney has always been the happiest of my grandchildren
, always with her nose in a book, or her head up in the sky, dreaming. She had the brain power of two adults, even as a child, and no matter how docile and timid she looked, she was always a force to reckon with when you crossed her.” The crowd laughed and cheered in agreement.
“One time, I told her fairies didn’t exist and to prove me wrong, she put pixie dust all over my room and told me Tinkerbell had stopped by and left the fairy dust so I may become a believer.” Doug stood up and gave that anecdote of my childhood.
“But Tinkerbell did come by,” I argued with laughter.
“One time, I told Laney the worst color on the wheel was pink,” Jane explained, “and next thing I know, she had ordered enough pink balloons to fill my entire bedroom. It took me so long to pop every one of those damn balloons.”
“You would be pissy enough to pop the balloons rather than enjoy them.” I yelled, as sweetly as possible, at her.
Gram took hold of the entire room again, just by lifting her hand. “Contrary to her sweet and easy-going appearance, this granddaughter of mine never followed the norm, didn’t need someone to lead her, and told everyone to go to hell with a smile and a ‘please.’”
“That’s my girl.” Dad called out with pride.
“She never needed anyone to play with her because her imagination was enough. She never needed anyone’s approval because she was secure in herself. And she never loved any other man because she believed this one Donovan Taylor was her perfect man, and the hell with anyone who didn’t agree with her. Back in London when Laney and Donovan first started dating, I encouraged her to date other men, love other men, experience life. In her delightful way, she told me that as much as she wanted my approval, she wouldn’t give up on Donovan. He was the man for her and even if it didn’t work out, she’d rather live in misery, having loved with Donovan, than in partial-contentment, never having known what it was like to be loved by this man.”
My husband beamed as he leaned over and said, “Remind me to show you how much I appreciate you, later.”
“If Gram speaks any longer, I may be asleep, later,” I whispered back.
Donovan smirked and replied, “Yeah...like you’re not ready and willing whenever my lips touch your lips...both lips.” I shivered while he grinned. “Like I don’t know that you’re already wet right now remembering how I woke you up last night.”
“Stop,” I let out a weak complaint. “This dress is partially see-through and flimsy. I don’t need people seeing spots since I’m not wearing any underwear.”
That, plus my hand on his thigh, jolted Donovan in his seat. “Why the hell aren’t you wearing underwear under this dress?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “The gal at the salon gave me a full wax this morning and I was feeling braver than usual.” I gave a blasé, oh-I-do-this-no-underwear-business-all-the-time attitude.
“Is a full-wax what I think it is?”
I shrugged again and pointed his attention to my Gram.
“We have a tradition among the ladies where we gather around the bride and give her something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. This year, because of the unusual circumstance of the groom showing up the morning of his wedding, we decided to present her with these gifts at the reception.” The crowd clapped for Gram. We all loved surprises, and we all loved gifts. “Normally, we’d start with something old, but today, we decided to start with something new. Taylor sisters, take it away…”
All four sisters walked up to the makeshift riser on the dance floor. Even Becky with her newborn stood up there and they all had wicked grins.
“Shit.” Donovan didn’t even bother whispering. “Brace yourself, Delaney. This could get ugly. Damn. What are my sisters up to?”
“When we were growing up, there were four girls and one boy in the family. You could say he was the king of the house, and he could get away with something as close to murder.” Amanda started.
“That’s a lie.” Ma said with deep laughter. “We loved you girls just as much as Donny.”
“Yeah. It’s more like they loved the four of us combined as much as they loved their one and only Donny.” Kelley joined her sister. “He was the first to eat, first to get a bath, first and only to get the remote.”
“We treated you equally.” Pa pretended to cry. “Don’t do this and embarrass the family, girls.” He wiped his non-existent tears. We all died laughing at Pa’s performance.
“Being the child who came right after Donny, I got all his leftovers. I think one time, I even had to wear his hand-me-downs because even as a child, he tended toward the questionable colors. I mean, what teenager wore coral shorts and periwinkle button-downs?”
“Hey, I never wore those colors in combination. I had much better fashion sense than that.” Donovan was now defending himself.
Rachel was the last, but not the least to speak. “Becky just had a baby, I was struggling with having a one-year-old and being pregnant with a second, but did Mom offer to help either one of us in our time of need? She chose to stay in LA and plan Donny’s wedding with her new Baby! Even his bride has taken precedence over us.” Rachel giggled those last few words.
“Ma and Pa offered to help you if you came to LA. They even offered to buy your plane tickets out here.” I defended my “helpless” in-laws.
“Thank you, Baby,” Ma called out. I blew her a kiss.
“Ingrates.” Pa went up the riser and kissed every one of his daughters. “We promise to try and love all the grandchildren, equally.” That earned him a groan as he ran to kiss me before he sat back in his seat.
“We four agreed that the worst part of being one of four girls was the fact that we never had anything of our own.” Amanda was back at the helm. “We shared clothes, rooms, toys, boyfriends…” That got the loudest roar.
“Who shared boyfriends, and who was the lucky boy?” Nick asked.
The Taylor sisters only laughed, but stayed mum.
I looked at my husband, and he too kept his mouth shut.
“Well?” Nick kept at it.
Amanda barely let out, “We don’t want our ex-boyfriend to get into trouble with his wife, do we, Kelley?” before she burst out into a fit of guffaw.
“No freakin’ way.” Nick howled. “Was it at the same time?” He made a blushing Jake even more uncomfortable.
I saw Jake whisper something in Emily’s ears and he, too, made an appearance on stage. “I only tried it when Donovan made dating an older woman look so incredibly enticing.”
“Asshole!” Donovan yelled at his best friend who had deflected the attention from him, back to the groom. Jake and my new sisters died laughing. Before Jake left the stage, he hugged and gave a peck on the cheek to both his exes.
“Sorry, Emily. I hope that doesn’t cause any rift in the bedroom tonight.” Amanda must’ve had a drink or two or five already.
Jake quickly darted back to his wife and kissed her passionately in front of everyone. “Two years, three kids, and possibly another one coming soon. All is good in the bedroom.”
“What the hell? Again?” Nick turned to Jake and Emily. Emily shook her head vehemently and mouthed, “NO!”
“So back to something new,” Amanda brought the attention front and center.
“Damn, at this rate, we’re never getting on to the honeymoon.” I said, maybe a little too loudly.
“We heard that, Laney Taylor.” Rachel waggled her finger at me.
“Tonight?” I questioned with a grin.
“When we were growing up,” Amanda didn’t give a damn what I groaned about, “my sisters and I had a chest full of toys and Donovan had his own chest full of toys. While the four of us shared four Barbie dolls and four outfits, Donovan had ten of everything. So when my sisters and I thought through what we could get our newest sister for a bridal shower gift, we thought we’d get Laney her own chest full of toys.”
This is when Al and Noah brought up a chest even bigger tha
n Gimpy’s chest the night before his wedding.
“Laney Taylor,” Becky yelled like Bob Barker from the Price is Right, “Come on down!”
“Now this toy chest is filled with gifts from everyone. The Taylors and the Reids, as well as your girlfriends.” Amanda did a slow reveal of what was inside. “This is a collection of all of our favorite toys.”
SHIT! I turned as red as the fake pomegranate tree decorating the stage. “You have got to be kidding me.” I said to my newfound sisters.
“We are not kidding you.” Rachel answered me then told Donovan, “You’re very welcome, Donny!”
“What the hell is in there?” Nick asked.
“Bee Taylor? You want to start us off?”
Bee sauntered onto our shared stage and began handing us each a lingerie. I followed my sisters and put it over our bodies, to the hoot and holler of all.
“Featuring, my new lingerie collection.” Bee looked like one of Bob Barker’s hand models, with all her gesticulations. “You remember the first time you saw her in this?” Aunt Bee asked her nephew. “You’re welcome, Nephew.” She hugged me before going off stage.
“Jane Reid, soon to be Davis. Come on down.” Becky Bob Barker called out again.
Jane began her monologue. “I remember you as one who always loved to read and role play. You put me in those damn Maleficent costumes often enough. So to say thank you for the hundreds of times you made me wear pink, then black, I give you a Kindle with all the naughty books you might want to read alone...or with your husband and outfits that will allow you to role play some of the scenes from the books.” Jane pulled out all kinds of outfits—nurse, candy-striper, doctor, teacher, student, cheerleader, waitress at Hooters, French maid, naughty Pocahontas, naughty Cinderella, and even a policewoman outfit complete with Raybans, handcuffs, and a vibrator made to look like a cane that she turned on for all to see and hear. “You’re very welcome, Donovan Taylor!” She walked over and gave him a big kiss on the cheek before going back into her fiancé’s arms.