Moana
I couldn’t help but laugh as I thought back on the beginning of our relationship.
To think that, just a year prior, I was just Edrick’s one night stand who also became his nanny… And now, here I was, standing in front of the mirror in my wedding dress.
The dress that I picked out was beautiful. We planned to have a late summer wedding to commemorate our meeting, six months after little Daisy was born. My dress was a blush pink color. It was soft and flowy with a beautiful floral embroidered pattern, and sleeves that fluttered in the breeze. It hugged my waist in all of the right places and made me feel more beautiful than ever.
Daisy was six months old now, and Ella often mentioned how she no longer looked like a squished little grape. Ella had just turned nine, and thought that she was a grown-up, although she still liked to hold Edrick’s and my hands as we walked her to school. I treasured those moments and would never forget them when she eventually got too old to hold her mommy and daddy’s hands.
Our wedding was to be held at Verona’s mansion, in one of the sprawling gardens. I got dressed in one of the spare rooms with Sophia as my maid of honor and Mia, who had become a good friend to me over the past year, as my bridesmaid.
“You look stunning,” Sophia said with tears in her eyes as she finished placing my veil on my head. “The prettiest bride I’ve ever seen.”
“You’re just flattering me,” I teased, to which Sophia responded by pinching my arm.
Mia came up behind me and fixed my hair a bit. “Are you ready?” she asked. “You know, you can still run away from Edrick.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Trust me, I’ve thought about it,” I replied jokingly with a smirk. “He’d just find me and make me come back.”
Mia and Sophia led me downstairs shortly after, and took me to the large double doors that led out to the garden where the ceremony would be held. In the banquet hall, I could hear the clamoring sounds of the reception being prepared.
Ella, who was wearing a little blue dress with bows and ruffles — she picked it out herself — had a basket full of flower petals in her hand and a wide-eyed look on her face.
“Mom, I’m nervous,” she whispered as she tugged on my dress. “Can I hold your hand?”
I chuckled as I crouched down and pinched her cheek. “I’ll be right behind you,” I said. “Plus, Mia will be holding your hand. It’ll be okay.”
“Okay…” Ella looked a bit unsure, but held her chin high.
The double doors opened. I felt my heart leap as I heard the music begin to play, and then Mia, Ella, Sophia, and Jolene filed out ahead of me. I watched from around the corner, where the guests couldn’t see me, as Ella began to march proudly down the aisle with her basket of petals.
She made it about halfway before she suddenly saw her father, stopped throwing her petals, dropped the basket on the ground and ran up to him.
I stifled a laugh as she was scooped up by Edrick. The wedding goers chuckled at Ella’s embarrassment, and it was then that I came out and began to walk up the aisle.
Everyone’s eyes were on me. I felt both nervous and excited as I slowly walked up the aisle with my bouquet of sunflowers in my hand. Up ahead, Edrick held Ella, and Verona was sitting off to the side with Daisy in her arms. In my eyes, everyone else faded away. It was just them now; my little family.
It was a beautiful ceremony, but it went by all too quickly. Before I knew it, Edrick and I were putting the rings on each other’s fingers and saying “I do.”
“I now pronounce you husband and wife,” the priest said. “You may kiss the bride.”
With a cheeky grin, Edrick pulled me close and kissed me more deeply than ever before.
…
“She’s so precious,” Sophia said, pinching Daisy’s chubby little cheek. “She looks just like you when you were a baby.”
The reception was raucous and full of life and music. Surprisingly, Daisy was cheerful and smiling throughout the entire thing, and didn’t cry once.
I smiled as Sophia doted on her. It seemed as though everyone was doting on her, but I didn’t mind. It made me happy to sit with my husband and show off our baby, even if it took up the entire night. It was, after all, the first time that most of them met her.
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