After a thoughtful pause, Jasper wrote his next note.
‘Is that why Luis isn’t here today?’
Danny shook his head.
‘No, it wasn’t that he couldn’t make the time. He didn’t want me to feel demoted after the engagement party.’
Curious, Jasper asked what had happened at the party. Danny summarized the drunken revelry. Jasper said it sounded like a fun night, which Danny accepted.
‘But it’s not what we want for the wedding.’
Jasper asked directly, ‘What do you want?’
Danny was honest.
‘I don’t know. I don’t know anything about weddings. I never imagined I’d have one. I’m worried that I’m doing everything wrong.’
Jasper screwed the lid back on his fountain pen and tapped the top against his notes, realizing that he wasn’t dealing with someone who needed help with specifics or logistics; Danny needed help with the concept of weddings themselves. Affixed to the page was a printout of the email Danny had sent him.
‘You and Luis have been together twenty years – that’s a remarkable achievement.’
The compliment caught Danny off guard.
‘But we never made a big deal about it. We just got on with life, you know?’
Jasper shook his head.
‘No, tell me.’
Danny expanded, ‘When we met – we’d been throughtough times, changing cities, losing our families. Our faith. I was partying too much. Luis was working too much. We were different kinds of lonely. I was lonely in a nightclub. He was lonely in an office. Being together was like being in a life raft. We clung on to each other. It never crossed our mind to celebrate. The relationship was a form of survival.’
Jasper was moved by this description, understanding its deeper resonance.
‘What could be more romantic than that?’
Danny agreed, except with one important qualification.
‘We’re settled now. We’re not lost. We have friends. A home. Careers. A life together. I don’t know what we’re even celebrating at this point. Except I know that I want it. A celebration. Even if I don’t know what it is.’
Standing up Jasper walked to the window, resting on the ledge.
‘Weddings should be an expression of you and your partner. There are no other rules. There is no right or wrong. The only weddings that struggle are the ones trying to be something they’re not or the ones trying to fix something that’s broken. Weddings can’t make a sad person happy, or an unloved person feel loved. They can be magical but they’re not magic.’
Quite unexpectedly Danny observed, ‘I just have this feeling that marrying Luis might be the best thing I do in my life.’
It was hard to tell if Jasper was charmed or concerned.
‘There it is. That’s my brief. No frills, no gimmicks. Let’s not gild this lily.’
Danny was so desperate to work with Jasper that he began to worry that he wouldn’t be able to afford him. Jasper handled the issue of money with tact.
‘In New York City the average spend is seventy-five thousand dollars. In Alaska it’s fifteen thousand dollars. Does that mean weddings are better in New York City? No, of course not. It means the venues and catering are more expensive.’
Danny thought on the numbers.
‘We’re closer to Alaska than New York.’
Jasper said, ‘That’s a parameter not a problem. I can still arrange a wonderful wedding. The issue with the other planners is that they charge a proportion of the budget, so the bigger the budget the bigger their commission. I charge a flat rate. I have no incentive to upsell.’
