Hearing this admission, Luis softened his voice.
‘I have a suggestion. We hire someone. A wedding planner. You’re a dreamer, Danny. I don’t know where we would be without your dreams. But turning dreams into reality is tough. It’s logistics. And spreadsheets. This is too stressful for you on your own. You have a job with long hours; we don’t have our families helping us. We’re on our own. You’re pulling in so many directions. Everything needs to be perfect but not too perfect. It needs to be traditional but not too traditional. It needs to be respectful of the conventions but not conventional. Fun but not funny. Hiring a professional, someone who has done it many times, will make it more enjoyable for both of us.’
Accepting a cup of strong black coffee Danny calibrated his mind to the idea.
‘Are they expensive?’
Luis nodded.
‘But they’ll save us money too. They negotiate better rates for venues and catering. And Danny, I love you, but you are a terrible negotiator.’
Danny knew this to be true.
‘I ask the price; they tell me the price. How am I supposed to know that isn’t the price?’
Serious, Luis asked for confirmation.
‘You agree that a wedding planner is a good idea?’
Part of Danny felt that he’d failed and was having responsibilities taken away from him.
‘Should I be negotiating right now?’
Luis shook his head.
‘No.’
Without making a conscious choice to do so, Danny echoed the exact wording Luis had used in the Highlands.
‘Okay, Luis. Let’s hire a wedding planner.’
He couldn’t tell if Luis noticed or not.
Chapter SeventeenThe Wedding Planner
Overcoming his initial resistance to hiring a wedding planner Danny found a list of the city’s top event organizers, immediately ruling out the renowned planners located in Kensington who required minimum spends of fifty thousand pounds and specialized in oligarch and celebrity weddings. Near the bottom of the list, he chanced across the website for a small company called ‘Red Jacket Event Planners’ which stated in their business biography that they only started planning weddings once civil partnerships became law. The offices for ‘Red Jacket’ were in the theatre district near Covent Garden where the supernatural thriller The Woman in Black was still running at the Fortune Theatre. After graduation, he had applied to work there backstage, recalling a young man with many ambitions except thatone day he might be married. Located on Maiden Lane, Red Jacket shared a shabby Victorian building with casting directors. In the communal area Danny passed aspiring actors seated outside audition rooms studying monologues. He climbed the uneven stairs arriving at a narrow corridor with a brightly painted red door at the far end.
The reception was furnished with a circular mahogany table, decorated with a vase of white hydrangeas, one day past their best, a wooden magazine rack of glossy bridal magazines and a seasonal fruit platter worthy of a still life portrait. As a first impression it announced that this company was playful yet precise with a sense of genuine delight in the ceremonies they helped organize. But the quest for a perfect wedding had begun to stir memories in Danny of the body issues he suffered as a young man, never thin enough or strong enough. Before Luis, no matter how hard he tried, he wasn’t the physique other guys wanted. He was too scrawny, too quirky-looking, closer to an alley cat than a pedigree. At one point he dropped to five per cent body fat and would suffer from constant colds as if his body could tell that it was a disappointment.
A fresh-faced young man greeted him, dressed in a double-breasted red jacket the same shade as the front door. He shook Danny’s hand explaining that he was the junior associate of Jasper, the founder of the company who would be with him shortly. Taking a seat, Danny flicked throughthe magazines which included Bridal Monthly and World’s Best Weddings. He wondered if this ceremony could ever truly be co-opted for two guys if the central creative force always seemed to be the bride. Observing Danny’s reaction to the bridal selection the young man retrieved a separate set of magazines called Just for Him, crudely produced, amateur by comparison, printed on pamphlet paper. He explained that the magazine was self-published by an Australian wedding shop, the first intended solely for straight grooms. It ran for only three editions, with a print run of a few thousand before closing due to lack of interest. Danny asked if there was a magazine for gay couples. There was nothing. The young man said, ‘That’s why we’re here.’
Wondering why he felt it necessary to lower his voice, Danny supposed that if they were pigeonholed as exclusively gay it would be the end of their business. No planner could survive without a slice of the straight marriage market.
Exactly on time, Jasper opened the double doors to his office. Concise and compact, no more than five foot seven, wearing the same style of double-breasted red jacket as his colleague, he shook Danny’s hand with the aura of a concierge from a grand European hotel, brimming with knowledge and excited to share it. Assessing his client, he observed the frayed trousers, scuffed Puma trainers and striped John Smedley sweater. More significant than hisclothes, Danny was attending the appointment alone. Jasper ushered Danny into his office, guiding him away from the formality of the desk towards the sofa by the bay window. He pulled up a chair as if he were a marriage therapist, with a Moleskine notebook resting on his knee and a handsome Waterford fountain pen in his hand.
‘Tell me the dream.’
Unsure what to say, Danny remained silent. He didn’t have a vision for this marriage; he hadn’t collected a selection of magazine clippings. Even after proposing the big day remained vague in his mind. Tongue-tied, he didn’t know what to say. Jasper prompted him, ‘In your email you said your fiancé’s name is Luis Lagana. Which is a Spanish name, yes?’
Danny nodded.
‘Luis was born in Cádiz.’
Jasper wrote his first note. Danny checked to see if the ink was red. It was black.
‘Were you interested in marrying in Spain? I’ve helped arrange international weddings in France and Italy, but Spain also has many fantastic locations.’
Danny quipped, ‘Luis would be happy getting married in a London register office next weekend if it was down to him.’
