Lana was right, too. Raised up a couple of inches, the dress fell as it should and I looked like a princess. But was “princess” what I was going for? How did I even know?
“You look lovely,” she said. “But we have others to try on, so don’t get married to this one!” We both chuckled.
The mermaid dress she had me try was also amazing and hugged all the right places. I felt glamorous but didn't feel like myself.
The sheath dress she brought me was the prettiest of them all and I loved it the most, but the A-line took my breath away. The sheer, beaded bodice, organza A-line dress fit perfectly and was the most gorgeous thing I’d ever laid eyes on. It had a plunging V-neckline and back and crystal traced spaghetti straps.
"Wow," Lana said. "This dress has over 10,000 hand-placed crystals, beads, and sequins. I just got it in this week."
“Wow is right, I don’t think we need to try any others.”
"It fits you like a glove, I don't even think any alterations are needed. It's the right length with those shoes, is snug where it needs to be around the bodice and flows perfectly to the ground."
“Lana, I think, I found my dress,” I said. “And if she’ll have me, my wedding planner.”
Chapter Five
Blaire Astin was everything Lana said she would be. She immediately eased my mind over the phone. She had a detailed organizational plan to get everything accomplished—and “mini-tasks” spread out over the summer for me to work on as I had time while still focusing on my book blog. And with the bonus from my publishing company, she was affordable!
I scored when I found Lana and Blaire.
Nik laughed at me when I came back and told him I bought a wedding dress.
“Was it the first one you tried on?” he asked.
“No, it was the fourth one I tried on, and once I put it on, I didn’t want to try any others,” I said with a smile.
“You’d be gorgeous in a potato sack, so I can only imagine how beautiful you’ll be on our wedding day.”
Nik Eastwood was a charmer. My charmer. And the idea of him being mine forever made me giddy.
When we arrived back in Bay City, I had a little over a week to have a one-on-one lunch with Grandmother Audrey and plan a little engagement dinner with a few family members. The summer was jam-packed, and if we didn’t do it now, they’d likely not see me or Nik again until right before the wedding.
The stress level rose in me again, just thinking of all the things. I thought of Blaire and knew if I could just get through the family part on my own, she’d help me through the rest.
I specifically planned the first stop on my candy shop adventure back in Louisville so I could spend an off-day with Blaire, and a couple more nights with Nik before we parted ways.
“Hello my gorgeous girl, your grandmother has missed you!” Grandmother Audrey said after opening the door to her home. She hugged me tightly, and I came in just long enough for her to grab her things. She had a quaint old piece of property with a nice view of the bay and we had planned to walk a couple of blocks down from her house to a little bistro we both loved.
“I wish I was here more often, I miss our lunches together!” I confessed.
“Well you know you are welcome any time,” she reminded me.
A little small talk and walk brought us to the bistro. We ordered iced teas and sandwiches with salads. I was afraid I was being awkward, but I knew the nervousness was written all over my face.
“Are you having trouble with men, honey?’ she came right out and asked.
I nearly spit my ice water out and coughed.
“Nope, no men troubles, but there is something I wanna tell you,” I reached out and squeezed her hand. “You know how I’ve been telling you about the guy I’ve been seeing, Nik?”
“Of course, is he still in the picture?” She was as eager to hear all the details as ever.
“Yep, he’s still in the picture. He asked me to marry him!” I held up my left hand and the diamond sparkled in the sunlight.
"Oh honey, that's wonderful, but why have I not met him? And did he ask for your father's permission?" Grandmother Audrey was old school, and I was thankful Nik had talked to my dad ahead of time. Nik and I were able to have dinner a couple of times with Dad while we were in town, but Grandmother's social calendar didn't permit a last-minute change of plans so she could join us. Nik felt comfortable enough to call my father without my knowing, and I knew that his initiative would go over well with her.
“He certainly sounds nice; I sure hope I approve,” she said with a giggle, but I knew it wasn’t all laughs. She wasn’t thrilled by the fact that she hadn’t seen more of him before our engagement. I knew I was in for it too.
“Nik’s a wonderful man, Grands, you’re gonna love him.” I might have been reassuring myself more than I was attempting to reassure her. She didn’t take the news of me hiring a wedding planner very well either.
"I want you to be involved in the planning," I said. "So let's make a list of what you want to help with. I'll be traveling most of the summer and need all the help I can get."
“Well there are traditions that must be upheld, of course,” she said.
“Traditions,” I asked with a gulp.
“Yes, dear!” she said and slid her plate away from her so she could give me hers and get my undivided attention.
“You’ll need a white wedding dress, first of all...brides who save themselves for the wedding night must have a white gown,” she took a sip of her tea, and I felt my guilt like a mouth full of sand.
“I mean, Grands, uh…” I was visibly sweating at this point and the breeze off the bay wasn’t helping.
“Now Noelle, I know times have changed, but my granddaughter is not a hussy!”
I blinked way too many times, but my brain was trying to define the word hussy, and I didn’t like what it was coming up with.
“Now you listen to your granny. I don’t care what’s happened before this conversation, but a good woman would forget all that and save herself for her honeymoon.”
I gulped my tea this time and attempted to change the subject by finding out what other traditions I was in store for...
Chapter Six
“Well, I have a whole list of things my grandmother wants to incorporate in the wedding and one very reasonable request from the group, and a few things that I want and even more confusion…” I word vomited to Blaire over the phone on our first real planning session since we had our consultation and ironed out planning and payment arrangements. “I hope I’m not a bad client, or even worse, a bridezilla.”
“Honey, have you ever met a bridezilla? You are far from it!” Her reassurance eased my mind a little bit, and she went over what I assumed was a stock list of things that she discussed with every client to figure out what needed to be done.
“Location is pretty much the first thing we need to get a handle on, and everything else will fall into place,” she advised.
“That I can tell you, the rest...well, we’ll figure out?” I explained that based in San Francisco, it was really only my father and grandmother. My sister Teagan was in her last year of college and would fly or drive to wherever the wedding was going to be held. It made sense to have the wedding in Elkton, where the majority of Nik's family lived. The small-town wedding would make planning things easier too. Or so I hoped.
Blaire was based in Louisville but had clients all over, and I was looking forward to meeting her face-to-face at least once when I visited Kentucky on my nationwide tour of candy shops. Gail had added a chocolate shop to my list that wasn't far from Fort Knox.
“There’s a huge ice cream factory there, it’s modern and trendy and their event space is in the middle of the factory floor. It’ll be perfect for the wedding,” I explained to Blaire. “Nik’s family has an Estate there with a place that’ll be perfect for the rehearsal dinner and we can all stay at The Estate or local B&B. So place…place…I think we have the place taken care of.”
Nik’s sister was dating the local donut man, and Nik’s cousin was an ice cream confectioner, which led to Nik’s only request...an ice cream cake. He had even agreed to it being an ice cream groom’s cake, and I could still have anything else I wanted. But Gage would be taking care of the ice cream.
“I can’t wait to meet your soon-to-be family members!” Blaire was giddy over the phone. “I have such a sweet tooth!” I knew then and there I was going to like this girl.
We hung up and Nik met me in the bedroom.
“How did that go?” he asked.
“Really well. She’s amazing. It’s Grands that’s gonna be the hard sell when it comes to wedding stuff,” I said.
“Just remember, it’s your day,” he reminded me. What a supportive fiancé.
“And your day too. There will be ice cream, too.”
“Ice cream and the love of my life, what more could a guy ask for?”
“How do you feel about mint green tuxedos to match the ice cream?” The look he gave me was a combination of horror and confusion. “Just kidding, dear!”
Chapter Seven
The next morning our adventures began. Nik was heading back to D.C. for a month and then would spend the next month in San Francisco before the wedding. The director of The Mint was retiring and grooming Nik to easily fill his shoes when the time came. We were thankful he was so supportive of all the travel.
“Ryan is a good guy, even if we don’t always see eye to eye,” Nik told me. “I appreciate that he doesn’t mind me working at our different locations to try and learn all I can.”
“I couldn’t agree more, and he’s been a gem with allowing your travel to coincide with mine,” I said.
"So I'll see you in a couple of weeks?" Nik said as he wrapped his arms around me.
“Not even...more like 13 days!” I could always get him to flash that gorgeous smile. Nik could turn heads. Sharp jaw, dark well-groomed hair and consistent five o’clock shadow. He was quite a looker. “I might miss that smile a little bit while we are apart.”
“I might miss this thing in my arms right now,” he said. “I’ve grown rather attached to her.”
I laid my head down on his chest and knew what we were doing was right. He was my home.
“I forgot to tell you, Grands called me a hussy!”
A large laugh erupted and his chest shook.
“Well hussy or not, I wouldn’t trade ya!” He squeezed me tighter. “Quickie before I go?”
I laughed this time and shook my head.
“Gotta wear that white wedding dress with as little guilt as I can manage!”
And once Nik headed off to the airport, I hitched my own ride to the rental car place where I’d pick up my road-tripping car. There was a place in San Francisco I was slated to visit but I purposely put it off to the end of the trip, so I’d have one more reason to come home and see my fiancé and crazy grandmother before the wedding.
My cell phone rang as I had just gotten in my rental and was synching my Bluetooth.
“Hello, Grands,” I said into the console, making sure my hands-free was working.
“Hello, dear,” she said. “I just wanted to call and tell you not to forget about homemade white wedding mints. Can’t have those tacky little store-bought things. And mints and nuts are a wedding must!”
"Of course, Grands. Anything else you can think of right now? Also, have you thought about what you are going to wear?"
Luckily I had everything situated and was able to hit the road while she talked for at least 45 minutes about dress styles and colors. I barely got a word in edgewise. It was nice and refreshing to see her so excited about something, even if it was stressing me out!
This trip I was heading northeast first and would end in the New England states. When Nik and I first got involved, the road trip we took across the nation to different ice cream shops was so magical. It felt kind of lonely doing this alone.
The one good thing about it all was I had plenty of time to think. I did my best thinking while driving. And with my trusty map app and the location programmed in, I was ready to do all the thinking.
But once I had hung up with Grands, it was time to stop for gas.
Chapter Eight
I had stopped at a Griffin Gas Station, a favorite place of mine to fill up because it was a full-service establishment and not only took care of gassing up your vehicle and washing your windows; they topped off the oil and filled the tires. Oh and their gentlemen employees perform these tasks shirtless, so there’s that.
“Ma’am?” The fine specimen who was working on my rental said, getting my attention. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news but you’ve got a nail in your tire.”
“Grr,” I growled, immediately regretting it because it wasn’t his fault. “Sorry. This is a rental, I just picked it up an hour ago, I was already grumbling because they didn’t fill it up before I left, but I guess I’m glad now because I could’ve gotten a flat out on the highway!”
I needed to call the rental car place to see how to proceed.
"If you wanna just pull into that spot over there, it's something we can fix here for you if you'd like us to," he offered. I obliged and appreciated his hospitality. I told him once I got it figured out what I needed to do I would come inside the shop. Luckily it was pretty simple. I could either wait for a tow truck to come get me and the vehicle, take me to the nearest location to trade it out for another rental, or I could have it repaired as long as the repair was under a certain amount.
The repair, I imagined, would be much quicker.
I went inside the store and explained the situation, making sure they knew their employee outside was very nice to help me, and they were able to work me in for a tire patch.
"Once we get these off the racks, we'll get to work on yours," the manager pointed out into the mechanic's bay. "Shouldn't be more than a half-hour to forty-five minutes."
“That sounds great; any chance there’s a coffee shop or something close by? I could take a little stroll while I wait,” I said.
“Actually, ma’am, you probably just didn’t see it, but there’s a little diner and bakery across the street. We keep them in business, for sure,” he said with a chuckle.
"Sounds right up my alley, thank you," I told him and said I'd be back after I had lunch. I was getting hungry anyway.
The gourmet sandwiches and soups were fantastic and the adjoining bakery set me up with a few road trip snacks to take along with me. The most surprising thing, however, was their chocolate section. They had homemade chocolate candies along one wall which stretched for days. Peanut butter balls, chocolate-covered cherries, nut clusters, you name it. And it all looked so good!
“Any chance you make wedding mints?” I asked the manager.
“Unfortunately not, but that’s certainly something we could do!” he said.
This little town was called Vacaville, and I needed to remember it in case I had to come back and beg for some white wedding mints for Grands.
While eating my sandwich, I could see across the street and my rental had been put up on the racks to get its tire fixed. Nik texted to let me know he had gotten through security okay and had about a half-hour until he was to board the plane for Atlanta. He had a layover there and would then head up to D.C.
I called his phone.
“Hey, what’s up?” he said, not expecting my call.
I explained the tire situation, and he was relieved that I stopped for gas and they were able to catch it.
“Can we talk about a wedding detail really quick?” I asked.
“Of course, as long as it doesn’t take long, I just saw the flight attendants come up t
o prepare for boarding,” he said.
“Definitely not, just curious as to how many guests you think we will need to invite to the wedding. Do you have a ballpark number?” Together I jotted down family and friends as we talked through who would definitely be invited. Neither of us wanted a huge wedding and so far we’d been on the same page with everything we discussed when it came to planning.
“I’ve only got a minute because we’re about to board, but I already miss you,” Nik said. “And I can’t believe by the end of the summer you’ll be my bride!”
“I couldn’t be more excited myself…”
Chapter Nine
“Teagan!” I said eagerly into the hands-free set.
“Hey Sis, what’s up? Aren’t you supposed to be on some road trip or something?” she asked.
“Yep, and I’m currently on that road trip, driving to my first location,” I filled her in about Grands and her requests.
“Yeah, Grands and I had lunch yesterday...she’s got...a...er...she has a list,” Teagan said reluctantly.
“What kind of list?” I asked, my interest piqued.
“Oh a list of things for your wedding,” Teagan stumbled over the words, trying not to giggle. “She has plans she hasn’t told you about yet, Sis.”
“Um seriously, what’s on that list that I don’t know about? She’s mentioned me wearing a white wedding dress and wanting mints for the reception—homemade ones at that—what else could she have planned?” I was trying not to panic while driving, but Teagan mentioning Grandmother Audrey had a laundry list of things I had to incorporate into my wedding suddenly made me nervous.
"Some kind of broom jumping thing, unity candles, a sand pouring of some sort, but she said you could do that at the reception...she was concerned about your something borrowed, blue...all that jazz...uh and she wants you to wear her veil?" Teagan became so quiet at the other end of the line that I wondered if we had been disconnected. “Sis, you still there?”
White Wedding Mints Page 2