No Matter What

Annie's Wedding

My eyes shot open as someone banged on my door.

"Come on, Ayla! We only have five hours to go!" Annie said from the hallway.

"I'm up! I'll be there soon," I said, pulling the covers off myself.

I carefully got out of the bed and went into the bathroom to freshen up. I took a shower, put on my stretch mark cream, and changed into my mint green robe that said "bridesmaid" on it. I truly felt like a warrior for making it to twenty-five and a half weeks.

Once I was ready to go, I went and opened the curtains, admiring my view of Allistar Lake. The lake was finally thawed out and the trees had little green buds on them. The sky was completely blue and cloudless.

It was a rare, warm weekend here in the Adirondacks. It was going to be fifty-five degrees today. If we were actually on par with the rest of the world, that equals almost thirteen degrees celsius. Much better weather than I expected us to have for this time of year. We really lucked out.

I grabbed my magenta void, along with my dress bag, and went up to the top floor, where Annie's suite was. We rented out all the rooms here at the Lakeview Inn, the town's only bed and breakfast. No one wanted to be here at this time of the year, so all ten rooms were open.

When I got to her room, Annie seemed like she was already in a panic, but everything was fine. Abbie and I were already there, so it's not like she had a whole big bridal party she was waiting on. The b&b owners even put out a basket of muffins and danishes for us to snack on, along with some tea and coffee.

"Annie, calm down, we're literally completely good," I said to my frazzled sister.

"I'd be a lot more calm if the bakery didn't mess up my order!" she said, showing her email app opened on her phone. "They mixed up the colors in the wedding cake and the gender reveal cake two weeks from now!" She sat down on the couch. "And worst of all...they told me in the confirmation email for today what colors were inside the cake! So now I know and the whole thing is ruined!"

"Well it looks like you ruined it for Ayla and I too, since you said colors," Abbie said.

My jaw dropped and my heart fluttered. This was just not what I was expecting at all today.

"Okay, here's what we'll do: just don't tell anyone else. We can at least leave it as a surprise for Dawson," I said.

"I know, but I just feel like this day is ruined. Who wants to go to a wedding and have a cake that's cotton-candy flavored? I specifically ordered the black forest cake flavor because it was elegant!" Annie said.

"It'll be fine. There's literally nothing we can do, since that's the cake they made and that's the one they're delivering. At least it's going to look like a wedding cake on the outside. So in the pictures, no one will notice," Abbie said, hugging her.

"I just can't believe you're having a boy and a girl," I said. "Isn't that exactly what Dawson wanted?"

"Yeah, so he'll be happy, at least," Annie said.

"Let's get you cheered up, huh? There's no reason to be sad. Things always get screwed up on a wedding day. Let's just have breakfast and get our hair done!" Abbie said.

We had coffee and watched Annie's favorite show, A Castle of Shadows on her laptop. I'll never understand why people were so obsessed with the hot guy vampires. In my opinion, I thought Talia was the sexiest one on the show, from the very few episodes I'd seen.

About a half hour later, the hair stylist and makeup artist came in. We traded on and off with hair and makeup. Abbie and I were in elegant updos while Annie had her hair down and curled. I sent lots of pictures to Connor. I couldn't wait to see him later. His response was exactly what I thought it would be:

Absolutely beautiful! You look stunning babe! Love you! See you soon!

Once we had our makeup and hair all set, the photographer came in. We took photos in the suite and then went down to the veranda of the b&b to take more photos with the lake behind us. Annie looked like an angel in her maternity wedding dress with all the sparkles on top. I was so glad we found one that fit her personality.

We did lots of fun poses, but some nice ones too. Then, Annie and I took some pictures with our dad and grandparents. After that, it was time for the ceremony. Just like we rehearsed the night before, I was going to walk down the aisle with Dawson's little brother, Dante.

We made our way to the beach, where our family and friends were all seated in white chairs adorned with green bows. A beautiful archway was set up, where Dawson stood proudly next to the rabi.

I met up with Dante, we linked arms, and walked down the aisle, which was a white cloth over the sand. It was definitely not the best thing to do in heels, but somehow I made it. Connor was sitting on the very end of the front row. He looked so handsome in his dress shirt and tie. His wheelchair was nowhere to be seen. He was sitting next to my grandparents in the white seats. I told him not to spend over a thousand dollars on a beach wheelchair just for this occasion, so my uncles carried him from the street to his chair. I was just glad that he could be here.

"You look amazing!" he mouthed to me.

I smiled and blushed. I didn't really like attention, but I felt really confident in the forest green dress I picked out back at the bridal shop. It wasn't tight around my baby bump and it fit me well.

Beautiful orchestral music started playing and Annie came into view with my dad as they started walking down the aisle. It was time to get this show on the road.