Three Girls And A Wedding

by Rachel Schurig

  “She said they were downtown already,” Matt said, joining me on the floor and peering over my shoulder. “I guess they were begging the restaurant owner to change the date, but they didn’t have any luck. They should be here any minute.”

  “Good,” I said, opening a new document. I took a deep breath.

  “So, we have a venue. What’s next?”

  “The good news is, Ginny’s wedding is small. Only seventy-five people. That makes things a lot more simple.” I started to type notes as I spoke. “So, we need to figure out food,” I told him. “And we need to get tables and chairs in here.”

  “Do they have to match?” he asked.

  I shook my head. “I want to run it by Ginny, but I think the venue lends itself to kind of an urban-grungy chic feel. If the tables and chairs are mismatched I think it fits that vibe.”

  “Also, it makes things a heck of a lot easier,” Matt muttered.

  I laughed. “And that.” I pulled out my phone. “Let’s see if Aaliyah can come through for me again.”

  Aaliyah was a strike-out. She clearly felt terrible but she had a big party booked on Friday and she just couldn’t spare any staff to feed a wedding party. I assured her it was fine, I would figure it out, but I hung up feeling slightly less excited than I had before. Food was a huge issue. What were we gonna do?

  My train of thought was interrupted by a pounding on the door. They were here. I felt my stomach clench—I was not looking forward to more of their disappointment and anger. “Let me handle this, okay?” Matt said, as if he had read my thoughts. He went to the door to let them in.

  “Hi, Ginny,” I heard him say, his voice warm. “I’m Matt Thompson. I’ve heard so much about you.”

  Ginny and Josh followed him into the room, Annie behind them with a sleepy-looking Danny in her arms. I could feel tension radiating off of them from across the room. Yup, they were still pissed. That was fine, though. This was going to work, I could feel it.

  Ginny glanced at me, then directed her attention back to Matt. “This is my fiancé, Josh,” she said, her voice somewhat tight. “And our roommate, Annie.”

  Annie nodded at him, not looking in my direction at all.

  “And this must be Danny,” Matt said, bending down to smile at him. “Jen talks about you all the time, buddy.”

  Danny smiled at him shyly. Josh reached into the diaper bag slung over his shoulder, pulling out a blanket and setting it on the floor. Annie plopped Danny onto it with a few toys, then straightened.

  Ginny, Josh, and Annie looked skeptically around the room.

  “So, this is the site of a future night club,” Matt said. “I’m a contractor and my crew has been working on this for the last few months. When I heard about your issue, it was the first thing that popped into my head. Now, I know it doesn’t look like much, but the bathrooms and kitchen are finished and there’s an outdoor space for the ceremony—it’s sparse but we could bring in flowers or something. And we can clear away all this construction stuff and clean it up a little bit.”

  The three of them still looked skeptical.

  “Ginny, listen to me, okay?” I said, standing up. “I know you’re pissed, you have every right to be, but I really think we can fix this. Try to picture the room filled with tables and chairs. We can put the dance floor down there.” I pointed to the end of the room. “We can string lanterns all along the ceiling, bring in Christmas lights and have candles all over the place. With the exposed brick and the concrete floors, I think the vibe in here could be really cool.”

  “What about food?” Annie asked flatly, still not meeting my eyes. “I’m assuming there isn’t in-house catering.”

  I took a deep breath. “I’ll do the food.”

  Everyone turned to stare at me.

  “Look, it’s not a huge deal. It’s food for seventy-five, right? I can handle that. I have three full days.” When no one looked convinced, I started feeling desperate. “Look, I won’t sleep if that’s what it takes, okay? I can do this, I know I can.”

  Ginny looked at me for a long moment, then, finally, her eyes softened. “I think that might work.”

  A wave of relief spread over me. If I had won Ginny over, we were home free.

  “I think you’re right about the vibe in here,” Josh said, looking around. “I think it could be really cool.”

  “We’ll clean all this stuff out,” Matt told him eagerly. “And I’ll bring a polisher in to clean up the floors. I think with the right lighting and maybe something to brighten up the walls, we’ll have a cool space.”

  Just then, we heard another knock on the door. Before Matt could take a step, Kiki had burst through, Eric at her heels. Annie and Ginny stared at her. I really couldn’t blame them as her hair was still up, complete with tiara and veil. She did look a little ridiculous.

  “Jen, oh my God,” she cried, rushing over to me. “I’ve had so many good ideas I just had to get over here so I could help you get to work.” Kiki spun around, spotting Annie and Ginny. “Oh, you must be the girls. I’ve heard so, so much about you I feel like we’re already friends.” She walked straight to Ginny and threw her arms around her. “You poor, poor girl,” she said, squeezing her tight. “I can’t even imagine the horrible morning you’ve had. It’s all my fault, working Jen the way I have. But we’re gonna fix it, just you wait.”

  Ginny could only stare at her, completely bemused. Josh looked like he didn’t know whether to laugh or be horrified. I caught Matt’s eye and we both broke into grins.

  “And this must be the baby! Oh my God, he’s so cute!” Kiki bent down to coo at Danny. He smiled at her, reaching up to grab at her veil. Kiki laughed, standing up again. “So this is the place,” she said, looking around. “You know, I think it’s perfect. Very urban chic.”

  “That’s what we’re going for,” Matt said.

  “Okay, Jen, flowers, I have it all figured out,” Kiki said, turning her attention back to me. “Mom will totally let us take whatever we need from the greenhouse.” She looked over at Ginny. “My mom is, like, a total green thumb. She keeps a greenhouse so she can have roses even in the winter. With Jen’s amazing eye, I know we’ll find whatever we need there.”

  “That’s really nice, Kiki,” I told her. “But flowers are expensive…”

  Kiki just waved me away. “Like she’ll ever use all those. Please.” She looked back at Ginny. “What do you think? Do you mind if the flowers are homegrown?”

  Ginny shook her head. “Kiki, that’s really nice of you.”

  “No problem!” Kiki trilled. “Okay, what else?”

  Everyone looked at me. This is it, Jen, I told myself. The most important sales pitch of your life. Time to get into the game. I straightened my back and looked around at them all. “We need tables and chairs,” I said. “And dishes and silverware.” I looked over at Ginny and Josh. “I don’t think we necessarily need to find a bunch of matching stuff. In fact, mismatched pieces might work better with the feel we’re going for.”

  “Oh, I know, I know!” Kiki shouted, actually waving her hand in the air. “I’m sure we could borrow some spare place settings from Daddy’s hotels and restaurants. I doubt I could get a hundred of the same, but if you don’t mind them being mismatched, I bet I can come up with enough.”

  I looked over at Ginny. “Fine by me,” she said.

  “Kiki,” I said, looking at her sternly. “You have about two dozen friends and family here from out of town. Are you sure you should be doing this today?”

  “Of course!” Kiki cried. “I don’t even know half those people. Besides, this is so much more fun.”

  Behind her, Annie was staring at Kiki like she had never seen anything quite like her before. I looked over at Matt, who nodded at me firmly. I could practically hear his voice in my head. Let people help you.

  “Okay, Kiki, if you really and truly don’t mind, we would definitely appreciate your help getting the place settings.”

  “I’m on it!” she said
. She gave me a huge hug, then hugged both Annie and Ginny in turn. I couldn’t help but laugh at the expressions on both their faces as Kiki flounced out the door, Eric following her.

  “Okay, tables and chairs,” I said, rubbing my forehead. “Any bright ideas?”

  “If we don’t mind going for a hodgepodge, I’m sure we can come up with enough,” Matt said.

  “What if we just asked people?” Josh said. “I mean, everyone has a table, right? If we just ask our parents we’d probably have four right there. If they all seat, say, eight, we’re a third of the way there.”

  “Not everyone’s table seats eight,” I told him. “But it’s as good a place to start as any. I say we try to get a hold of as many as we can, then start hitting up thrift stores and Ikea.”

  “I agree,” Josh said. “We can use my truck to start transporting them down here.”

  “Okay,” I said. “So we have a plan for food, flowers, seating, and place settings.”

  “What about a cake?” Annie asked. I noted that she still wasn’t looking directly at me, but I couldn’t worry about that right now.

  “The cake is fine, I talked to the baker and they can do it early,” I said.

  “Oh, thank God,” Josh said seriously. “That cake was delicious. I really did not want to lose that.”

  I laughed. “So big things we still need: photographer, alcohol, music, and centerpieces. I was gonna make the centerpieces anyhow, so let’s not worry about that yet.”

  “Photography is set,” Ginny said. “Josh’s friend from work was doing it, remember? He’s free on Friday, we already called him.”

  “Perfect!” I said, feeling even more energetic. Could we actually pull this off?

  “I don’t see that we really need a DJ,” Annie said thoughtfully. “Why can’t we just make a bunch of playlists and hook an iPod up to a sound system?”

  “Yeah, but who has a sound system?” Ginny asked.

  “I bet I could get a hold of something from the theater,” Annie said. “And I could do all the announcement stuff that a DJ would do—I’d be good at that.”

  “Okay, the next thing we need to do is get in touch with all the guests,” I said. “That needs to happen, like, now. Everyone needs to know the new address. I think you guys should head back home and start making calls.”

  “And we can also track down tables and chairs,” Josh said.

  “And I can figure out the food,” I said. “Do you guys have any preferences?”

  Josh shrugged. “Whatever you think will be easy to make a lot of,” Ginny said.

  “Okay,” I told her. “It will be good, I promise.”

  Ginny looked at me but didn’t respond. I didn’t mind. I knew I had a long way to go to win her trust back, but I was going to do it. This wedding was going to work, I could feel it. I had messed up, big time, but I would make it right. I would fix this if it was the last thing I did.

  Chapter Twenty-six

  ‘The homestretch is upon you! Hopefully this is an easy few days for you. If you’ve been making plans and getting things done ahead of time, you might find that you have little left to do while your wedding approaches. This is a good thing! Take some time to relax, pamper yourself, and enjoy your family and friends before the big day!’—The Bride’s Guide to a Fabulous Wedding!

  Two days later I lugged the last box of books into the wedding space.

  “God, why do books have to be so heavy?” I moaned to Matt.

  “Well, why the hell did you have to decide on a centerpiece that required this many books?” he countered, following me with his own box.

  The space was practically unrecognizable from the first time I had seen it. All of the construction equipment had been carted out. The floor had been cleaned and polished. Annie had managed to borrow half a dozen original paintings from her more artistic friends and they now graced the exposed brick walls.

  Josh and Matt had been hauling tables and chairs into the space for the past two days. We had a dozen of various sizes. At that very moment, Josh was at Ikea using my credit card to buy five more basic round tables and a dozen more chairs. I hoped it would be enough.

  I was quickly approaching the max on my credit card. In addition to the necessities for decorating the site, I had bought all the food to prepare and as much alcohol and (cheap) wine as I could get my hands on. I was determined Ginny and Josh would not spend another dime due to my mistakes.

  I had spent most of the last two days cooking non-stop. There was going to be a massive amount to do tomorrow before the ceremony started, but I had managed to get all the prep work done.

  We were twenty-eight hours away from the wedding, and I thought we were in great shape. I had gone with Kiki to the house that morning to pick flowers, which were now soaking in large buckets in the kitchen. Sometime tonight I would put together three bouquets for us to carry (assuming Ginny still allowed me to walk down the aisle as a bridesmaid) and several more to be placed around the room and out on the patio.

  We weren’t using just flowers for the centerpieces. I had wanted something with a more personal touch—thus, the boxes of books.

  “Ginny and Josh are total book nerds,” I explained to Matt. “Seriously, they read more than anyone I know. I’ve been planning these centerpieces for months, and I think they’re gonna be perfect.”

  “Okay, so what’s the idea here?” Matt asked, pulling books from the boxes.

  “Take a stack, maybe three or four, and wrap this ribbon around it,” I directed, pointing at the pile of raffia I had already cut. “We want the sizes and shapes of the books to vary, so don’t think too much about making them look the same.”

  “And that’s it?” Matt asked. “The centerpieces are just stacks of books?”

  “There will be flowers, too,” I corrected.

  He didn’t look convinced. “Just trust me,” I told him. “It’s unique—very Ginny.”

  “How’re things going with the two of you?” he asked, putting a stack together.

  I shrugged. “We’re both so busy we haven’t really talked. I just keep hoping that she’ll forgive me when she sees how great the wedding is.”

  “She’ll forgive you anyhow, Jen,” Matt said. “She loves you.”

  I sighed. “I hope you’re right.”

  We worked in silence for a few minutes. “You have the menu figured out?” Matt asked eventually.

  “Yeah. We don’t have a wait staff so I’m going for a buffet. I’m keeping it pretty simple, stuff I can have ready ahead of time and just stick in the ovens to warm before the ceremony starts.”

  “Good thinking. What did you make?”

  “Tons of stuff—probably too much. I’ve got salads, meatballs, stuffed mushrooms, wings, pasta, rice with veggies, and barbeque pork for sandwiches. It’s not gourmet—”

  “It sounds like party food,” Matt interrupted firmly. “It sounds delicious.”

  I smiled at him gratefully. “We’ll see.”

  “So what else do you have to do?” Matt asked, looking around the space.

  “String the lanterns, hang lights, iron tablecloths, set the tables, put the flowers together. Oh, and make seating cards. I think that’s it.”

  “And finish the food,” Matt added. I nodded. “Piece of cake,” he muttered. I sighed in response. “You’re gonna be here all night, aren’t you?”

  “If I have to be. The girls and Josh are coming this evening to help with all the set-up; maybe we’ll get lucky and get out of here early.”

  “Eric and Kiki said they were coming too,” Matt said, tying another length of raffia. “And I’ve got nothing else to do. So you’ll have lots of help.”

  “You guys really don’t have to do that,” I said, frowning at him. “The rehearsal dinner is tomorrow.”

  “There’s not much to do,” Matt said, shrugging. “See, this really anal-retentive chick planned the whole thing down to the last detail weeks ago. All we have to do is show up.”

  I nudge
d him with my shoulder, and immediately regretted it. Why did I still have to feel that zip of electricity every time I touched him?

  My phone rang, distracting me. I looked down at it and groaned. Jason.

  To say he hadn’t been pleased when I told him I’d be out of commission all week was an understatement. He threatened to fire me on the spot. I told him he could go ahead, but he would also have to inform Kiki I wouldn’t be involved in the wedding day. He relented, but he kept calling me trying to persuade me to change my mind.

  “Hello,” I said tersely into the phone.

  “Jen, I need to talk to you,” Jason said.

  “I’m busy,” I said distinctly, not bothering to hide my annoyance.

  “Listen, I’m right down the street, I’m gonna stop by. It will just take a minute, okay?”

  “Jason, you cannot come here,” I snapped. Matt’s head snapped up.

  “I’m coming, Jen,” he said firmly. “And I’ll stand outside and knock until you let me in.”

  “Jason!” I cried, but I knew it was too late. He’d hung up. “Damn,” I said, tossing my phone side. Why had I been stupid enough to tell him where I was working this week?

  “What did he want?” Matt asked in measured tones.

  “He wants to talk,” I said. “No doubt to try and convince me that I’m committing professional suicide.” I stood up. “I guess I should go wait outside. No sense in making him feel welcome.”

  Matt didn’t respond, so I slipped away and headed outside.

  It was a gorgeous fall day. The warm weather was hanging on and I said a silent prayer that it would last through the weekend so both Ginny and Kiki could have their outdoor ceremonies without complications.

  It was barely a minute before I saw Jason’s black Audi pull up.

  He jumped out of the car and I noted that he wasn’t looking his usual put-together self. His suit was rumpled and his hair looked disheveled. I felt a flash of satisfaction. It looked like Jason was finally feeling the stress of this wedding. In that instant I knew I couldn’t see him outside of work again. I felt too much hostility toward him to ever have romantic feelings.