Twenty-five
OnceAdeleandMarcushad decided on the timing, we’d been able to plan the rest of the wedding day and confirm any provisional bookings we’d made.
I wasn’t at all surprised at how well Jasper and I worked together, but I was surprised, and more than a little disappointed that nothing more had happened between us.
He had come to retrieve his ladder, two days after that luncheon at the sailing club, but he’d been oddly distant and I wasn’t sure why. We were still flirting on the phone, and our texts were sometimes close to the mark, but now when we met in person, he seemed intent on keeping a physical distance of at least three feet between us. Every time I moved closer to him, he inched further away.
‘Do you think he’s changed his mind?’ I asked Lucy.
‘Surely if he had he’d tell you,’ she replied. ‘But why don’t you simply ask him? I know you like to keep your cards close to your chest but you’re not usually backward in coming forward when you’ve got something to say.’
‘But I might scare him off for good if I say something and he’s not ready. Or he’s gone off the idea.’
‘Leave it for another week then and see how he is then. His nose should be almost healed by then. Perhaps he’s just holding back until he’s sure he can … take things further.’
I hoped she was right.
We did have a few more niggling issues before the wedding day, like having to chase some responses to the wedding invitations, and the band we’d booked pulling out just one week before.
Adele and Marcus took the view that if people didn’t reply to the invitation by at least the week before, we’d cross them off the guest list. I decided to send out an email to the tardy ones advising them of this, and that produced a sudden influx of RSVPs. At the final count, all invitees were attending, which totalled one hundred people. There could’ve easily been more but Adele and Marcus had made a decision about that too.
‘This day is for us and our friends and families,’ Marcus said. ‘Between us we know nearly everyone in Fairlight Bay, I think. We’re going to say it’s only for those closest to us and if others don’t understand or feel left out, well, so be it. The sailing club function room isn’t large enough to accommodate many more and we want to have it there so we’re sticking to our guns.’
As for the band, well, that was due to a rift between its members, which had ended in a punch up and now they weren’t talking to one another. This time Marcus did insist on them refunding the deposit, which they did.
Luckily, Jasper’s dad knew someone whose son was in a band and although all the members were younger than twenty-one, they had a surprisingly varied repertoire. The best part being that they had a cover version of Bryan Adams’ song, that Marcus had played on the day of that taster lunch at the sailing club. As that was Adele’s favourite, it was decided to have that playing as Adele and Marcus came out onto the balcony to say their vows.
The only other issue was that Adele’s wedding gown needed to be let out at least twice. Perhaps I shouldn’t have said she could have those biscuits. She was eating for two though, and she had a human being growing inside her so as far as I was concerned, she could eat as many biscuits as she liked.
Considering all the drama and accidents we’d been through, we were all lucky to get to the wedding day in one piece.
The flowers were sublime, both the ones for Adele’s bouquet and those for the tables in the function room at the sailing club. There was also an arch erected on the balcony beneath which Adele and Marcus would stand to say their vows, and that too had flowers intricately woven around it. It smelt heavenly for anyone standing within a few feet of it.
‘I hope it doesn’t attract wasps and bees though,’ Lucy said.
There was a similar arch erected at the fence line of End Cottage, with flowers woven into that one too.
In addition to the floral arch on the balcony, there was bunting made up of pretty white hearts edging all the walls and windows and doors. There was even some hanging along the guttering on our cottages. Jasper had put that up. So he must now be able to climb a ladder. That was interesting.
We were lucky with the weather and the entire week leading up to the big day was gloriously sunny and warm but not too hot, and thankfully, not humid.
Noelle made the table decorations and they were stunning and cute. She’d made little people who looked a lot like the bride and groom and each table had a happy couple standing beneath a floral arch. Again the flowers were heavenly scented blooms of Adele’s choosing.
The cake, which was being made by one of Lucy’s employers at Fairlight Bakes, was a three-tier confection of fruit cake covered in white icing, strewn not only with flowers made from fondant icing, but also with fresh, edible viola petals. There was a bride and groom and the petals were like confetti.
In addition to myself, the bridesmaids were Noelle and Lucy, and Melody was to lead the way onto the balcony as a flower girl too. She had a white wicker basket filled with more beautiful petals, including some violas, and she would be scattering them as she walked.
The bridesmaids’ dresses were stunning. They were A-line, V-neck, floor-length Chiffon with a sort of ruffle tie knot affair at one side on the waist. It was more for a hint of decoration than anything else. The dresses were a colour called Tahiti which was something between lilac and purple, but they really were gorgeous and they all fitted perfectly because Lucy had made each one. The adult versions had a long split on the same side as the knot, beginning just below the hip and going down to the floor. Melody’s had a long bow down that side instead.
Eliot would be taking photos both at the Registry Office and throughout the time we were at the sailing club. And, as it happened, Adele and Marcus decided they wanted Noelle, Alec and Melody, Lucy and Sam, and myself and Jasper at the Registry Office but as it was just for the signing of the papers, we all wore smart dresses and suits and then went back to our respective homes to get changed for the main event.
Cars took us all to the Registry Office in Fairlight Bay for ten a.m. and from there back home to change.
Adele had told Lucy, Noelle and me on a little hen night, two nights before her big day, which was the four of us going out for dinner, that the reason she and Marcus had selected ten a.m. was so that they could go home to End Cottage and have sex as man and wife, as soon as they’d tied the knot, and then have a little nap before the event at the sailing club.
I liked her thinking, so much so that when Jasper still hadn’t taken the initiative by the time I got home from that hen night, I phoned him and told him what Adele and Marcus had planned.
‘I was wondering if, instead of you going home to your parents’ to get changed, after the legal bit of this wedding is done and dusted, you might like to take a leaf out of the bride and groom’s book and come back to Far Cottage with me.’
