The Wedding Planner, page 13
Annabelle checked out what they were doing, as it all began to take shape. It was going to be the wedding of the century, and Faith had used her father’s generous budget well.
There was a rehearsal dinner that night, given by Jeremy’s parents, who were wealthy too, but less willing to go overboard, and they refused to give a dinner for nearly six hundred people, which seemed excessive to them. They limited it to family and people who came from a great distance, and had dinner for a hundred guests at a small exclusive hotel. They appeared to be nice people who lived well, but not on the grand scale of the Alberts. They loved their son and liked Annabelle, and were visibly overwhelmed by the scale and lavish ostentation of the wedding. And Jeremy’s mother admitted in a moment alone with Faith that they had been upset at first by the unexpected pregnancy, but had made their peace with it. It was a relaxed, fun event that all the young people enjoyed.
It ended early, as rehearsal dinners were meant to, according to Faith’s etiquette book, and there was no dancing. Jeremy stayed at his parents’ house that night, so he wouldn’t see Annabelle the next day before the wedding.
* * *
—
On the day of the wedding, a fleet of hairdressers, makeup artists, and manicurists arrived to do Miriam’s and Annabelle’s hair and makeup, and the bridesmaids’ and her sister Eloise’s, who was her matron of honor. They were bowled over by the preparations they saw going on outside. They spent the afternoon getting ready, and Annabelle and her mother had a tearful moment when she put on the dress. She looked breathtaking in it. Faith and Violet were there to help them. Faith was wearing her navy “uniform” as she called it, and looked sober and appropriate. Her hair was pulled tight in a low bun on her neck, as she wore it most of the time. She looked beautiful because she was, but remained as neutral as possible so as not to draw attention away from anyone in the wedding party. Annabelle’s dozen bridesmaids looked well-coiffed, were carefully made up, and were wearing matching taupe-colored organza gowns, which were simple and very chic. Jack had paid for those as well, as part of the budget. Her sister’s was a slightly darker shade. Faith had helped pick them as well, in a color that everyone could wear, and their satin Manolo Blahnik shoes were dyed to match, with cognac-colored rhinestone buckles. All the bridesmaids looked very elegant.
The guests were invited for seven o’clock, with the wedding due to start at seven-thirty. No alcohol was served before the ceremony, according to tradition. Cocktails would be served on the vast front lawn, with dinner sometime between nine-thirty and ten, with the dance band starting to play at the same time. Jeremy and Annabelle had picked their favorite songs.
All five hundred guests had been seated by seven twenty-five. Annabelle needed a few more minutes to compose herself. She had borrowed her mother’s pearl and diamond earrings, she was wearing a blue satin garter under her dress, and Faith handed her a penny to put in her shoe for good luck. She carried one at every wedding to give to the bride, since everyone forgot that part of the rhyme, “and a sixpence in her shoe.” She had given one to Phoebe too, and to her mother when she married Jean-Pierre. Her mother had been amused by the detail, and put it in her Chanel pump for good luck.
The bridesmaids headed down the aisle, which was a long white satin runner that led all the way into the tent set up for the ceremony. It was precisely seven forty-five as Annabelle came down the aisle on her father’s arm, looking elegant and magnificent. She was smiling shyly as Jeremy caught sight of her, coming through the white curtains of the tent. She was a beautiful vision, and Jack had tears in his eyes as he handed her over to Jeremy, lifted her veil, and patted his son-in-law’s arm. Miriam was crying as he took his seat beside her, and dabbing at her eyes with a lace handkerchief. She looked beautiful too in her emerald green satin gown. Her new diamond bracelet was on her arm, with emeralds on her ears. To look at the Alberts, no one would have suspected the recent trauma they’d been through. Somehow, Miriam had managed to save their marriage and her dignity, in spite of everything that had happened, and Faith respected her for that. There was more to her than just flashy clothes and big diamonds. There was a strong woman with a heart and guts, determined to hang on to her husband.
The ceremony went flawlessly, performed by a minister they knew, and Annabelle had chosen the same vow that Faith’s mother had when she married Jean-Pierre, and it had special meaning when Annabelle said it, with their unborn child as an additional bond between them.
“…With my body, I thee worship…” Jeremy repeated the same words after her in a voice quavering with emotion. The ceremony was very touching. They hurried down the aisle together, as their friends cheered them, after they became husband and wife, and Jeremy kissed her on the lawn in front of the two rose horses and told her she was the most beautiful woman in the world.
Faith and Violet exchanged a smile from their positions, with their radios in their ears. After turbulent months leading up to it, the wedding was going well. From then on, it was a jubilant celebration with excellent wines, delicious food, a band that everyone danced to, and a livelier one later in the evening. The wedding cake was a magical creation. There wasn’t a single thing that Faith wasn’t pleased with, and the Alberts told her several times what an amazing job she’d done.
The photographers from Vogue covering it had been very discreet and left early. The one Faith had hired for the Alberts had four assistants and took photographs of everyone all night.
The party went until four a.m., and as she always did, Faith stayed until the bitter end. The breakdown crews were ready to get started when she left. The bride and groom had left around three. Annabelle hated to leave, but she was exhausted. One of her friends caught the bouquet, and her sister had left with one of the groomsmen at around two.
Faith offered to drive back to the city. Violet was exhausted, and ten minutes after they drove out of the Alberts’ gates, Violet was sound asleep, and didn’t wake up until Faith dropped her off at home.
Faith had that great feeling of peace and well-being she always got with a job well done. It had been one of the most challenging weddings she’d done, and it couldn’t have gone better. She had smiled when she saw Jack and Miriam on the dance floor and he kissed her.
The wedding cake had been particularly beautiful, with miniatures of the two white horses on top. She had thought of everything, and Jack and Miriam had thanked her profusely before they left and retired to their room, well after two a.m. It was the young people’s turn then. Faith wished that all her weddings could be as successful as this one, despite all the dramas they’d been through, with Annabelle’s baby and Jack’s infidelity. But she rarely got to work with a budget as large as this one, and she knew she wouldn’t again soon.
The fireworks show had been particularly impressive at midnight, and added to the festive atmosphere.
As she got undressed in her quiet house, it was almost six a.m. The sun wasn’t up yet, and she could hear birds chirping, already awake, waiting for the dawn. She knew she’d remember the night, and the Alberts, for a long, long time.
She got a small box from the Alberts on Monday. It was sitting on her desk when she got to the office at ten o’clock, and Violet looked mysterious about it. Jack had dropped it off himself on the way to work.
Faith opened it, and a very narrow diamond bracelet sparkled up at her, with a note from Jack and Miriam, “To the best wedding planner in the world. It was fabulous! Love, Jack and Miriam.”
She looked at Violet in amazement. No one had ever given her a gift like it before. Violet helped her put it on. It was a delicate fine line of diamonds, a tennis bracelet.
“You earned it,” Violet said with deep respect. “I’ve never seen a wedding like that.”
“I had a healthy budget to work with,” she said, deeply touched by the generous gift. They were nice people, even if rough diamonds themselves, but she had come to like them in the end, even Jack with his philandering, and roving eye. She had a feeling he wouldn’t get away with much from now on.
“It wasn’t about the money,” Violet said to her. “The flower horses were incredible, and the swans. It all looked so beautiful, and it was fun too. I loved it.”
“So did I. And I think Annabelle and Jeremy did too, even though they didn’t want a big wedding to begin with. They were good sports about it. I tried not to make it too daunting, and to give the whole thing a very personal feeling, which wasn’t easy with nearly six hundred guests.”
“It was magical,” Violet said, as Faith sat back down, wearing her bracelet. It had been a totally unexpected gesture, but it meant a lot to her.
She was still smiling, and she didn’t see Violet go back to her desk, with tears running down her face. She had something to tell Faith, but she didn’t want to spoil how happy she was.
* * *
—
Morgan and Alex called Faith two days after the wedding. They knew that her big Long Island wedding had been that weekend, and they asked her how it was. She described some of it to them, and was proud of the flower horses, but she had to move on from her moment of victory and concentrate on theirs now. It was only six weeks away, and she wanted it to be just as big a success for them. They were focusing on their wedding again, now that they knew their surrogate was pregnant, and they had a long wait ahead of them until March. Two of the embryos hadn’t implanted, which was a relief, so they knew they were expecting a single baby, and it was a girl. They had been nervous about having triplets or twins, but their surrogate had been willing to take the risk, when they put three fertilized embryos back in. But they had seen on a sonogram that she was only pregnant with one. Everything they had done was state of the art and very technical, but the specialist they were using had great results, and it had gone well so far.
They invited her to dinner that Friday night, and she accepted with pleasure, and said that she would ask them any new questions she had then. She had an easy week ahead, recovering from the Albert wedding and wrapping that up.
She was looking forward to seeing them.
* * *
—
She had told Hope all about the Albert wedding and sent her some photos of the décor she’d taken with her cellphone. She decided it was her prettiest wedding so far, even more so than the big wedding she’d done the year before, which was bigger but not as artistic or as personal, and she’d never felt as close to the bride. With the Alberts, she had found herself in the midst of their family dramas, and felt close to them as a result.
Alex and Morgan had told her she could wear jeans to dinner. They were going to eat casually in the garden, and when she arrived, she was surprised to see Morgan’s brother, Edward, there. They hadn’t told her he was coming, and she wondered if it was a setup, which made her mildly uncomfortable, although she had met him once before.
“I hope you don’t mind my intruding on your dinner,” he said pleasantly. “I only found out last night I had to come to a meeting in town this morning, so I asked the boys if I could come over and hang out. I’m going back tomorrow, so it was my only chance to see them, and my son is in the Hamptons for the weekend, so I was at loose ends.”
“Not at all.” She smiled at him. They chatted a little. He said he had found an apartment, not far from her house. He liked it, and it was convenient to his office. He liked to start his day by walking to work before being chained to his desk all day. Morgan said he was an avid tennis player and had won championships in his youth.
“Thanks for the warning.” Faith smiled broadly. “I can hardly hit the ball. Sports were never my strong suit. I was the student, my twin was the athletic one. She still is.”
He found it fascinating that she was a twin, even though they weren’t identical. She said she loved it. Over dinner she showed them some of her photos of the Albert wedding, and all three of them were impressed.
“You’re a creative genius if you designed that décor,” Edward said admiringly. “Those horses are unbelievable, they look real.”
“My florist is an artist. All the credit goes to him,” she said modestly. “I just had the idea. He brought it to life. Everyone loved it.” She showed him the swans too.
“I wish we could have something like that, but there’s no room in the house we’re borrowing, even with a ballroom.”
“Your wedding will be just as special, and it will represent the two of you,” she told them. And it would be more classically elegant and less theatrical, which suited them.
They talked about a variety of subjects over dinner, and it was relaxed and pleasant in the candlelit garden. They had pasta and salad for dinner, and cold chicken. It was a perfect simple meal for a hot night. When they got to dessert, Alex gave a big sigh and said they were wrestling with a difficult decision. Faith was worried that something bad had happened with the surrogate.
“We weren’t sure which route to take, adoption or surrogacy,” Alex explained, “so we decided to sign up for both, and take whichever option came to completion fastest. We both liked the idea of a baby via surrogacy being genetically ours, or one of ours. But we were equally open to adopting a baby we’re not biologically related to. The adoption process took longer and neither of us wanted to wait three or four years for the right one. We’ve been ready for a while. We found a wonderful surrogate, so we went with her.”
“Did something happen?” Faith asked, looking concerned. She thought maybe she had lost the baby, or maybe they discovered something bad about the surrogate, that she did drugs or had some other risky behavior, or was going to oppose them legally, now that she was pregnant with their daughter. And they were already attached to the idea of their baby girl.
“Yes, something did happen,” Morgan answered. He hadn’t had a chance to tell his brother yet. “We got a call last night from a private adoption agency we used in Florida. They have a baby who sounds perfect for us. A boy. The mother is a young girl from a responsible family. She’s a freshman in college, same boyfriend since she was sixteen, nice parents, everyone is respectable and college educated, her father is a doctor. She got pregnant, and I never understand how that happens, but she didn’t figure out that she was pregnant until she was five months along. She’s athletic and naïve, and was in denial.
“She said she wanted to keep it, but now she and the boyfriend broke up and she realizes she can’t do this on her own. He met another girl at the college he’s attending, so it’s over with them. They’re kids. It sounds like they both have a lot of growing up to do before they have children. They’re babies themselves. She and her parents have decided that the best thing for the child, and the mother, is to give the baby up to people who can give the child a good life, and the baby’s father agrees.
“Florida is one of the better states to adopt from. It’s simple and relatively fast. There’s no revocation period in Florida. The consent for adoption is permanent and irrevocable from the moment it’s signed. The agency has two other couples who are interested, but it’s the wrong time for both of them. It is for us too. We already have a baby on the way, and we didn’t want two at once, like twins, although we would have accepted it if it happened, but we were relieved it didn’t. This baby is due in two weeks, and she could have it any day. They need to know right away. They’d like to set the wheels in motion for an adoption before she gives birth. The sensible thing is to say no, but we don’t know what to do.” They both looked very serious, and it was obvious that they were wrestling with the decision. “Something about this baby feels right to both of us. But they’d be eight months apart. We want a second baby, but not right away. This would be instant family for us immediately, and we’re not even set up for a baby yet.” They looked at each other.
“We’d be parents in two weeks. We wanted some more time for us. We’ve planned everything so carefully. It just seems so fast, and so soon. March gives us time to be organized about it. Can you even get ready for a baby in two weeks? We’ve already passed our home study, so we’re preapproved. In Florida, the mother can sign the consent for adoption forty-eight hours after the baby is born. We’d have to wait about two weeks for the paperwork to clear in an interstate adoption, and then we can bring the baby home. And three months later, the adoption is final. And with no revocation period in Florida, the birth mother can’t change her mind, which is a scenario we’ve always been afraid of with an adoption. We spoke to her father and he says she’s made up her mind that it’s the right thing for the child to give it up.
“It makes me feel like we’re stealing someone’s baby. She wants to know where it is, in the future, so they can meet one day, a long time from now, but she wants no contact, which is also a clean situation for us. I don’t want to adopt the mother too.”
“Sounds like real life to me,” Edward said with a wry smile. “Real life happens to you when you’re making other plans. Morgan knows what happened to me. I was in college, kind of like this girl. Nineteen years old, and my girlfriend got pregnant. She was so afraid of her parents that she didn’t tell anyone, not even me. Fast-forward, we got married, and we had Wesley when I was twenty. His mother was a sweet girl but we had nothing in common except him. The marriage lasted two years. We parted ways when we graduated, and got divorced. And it wasn’t a happy two years. Children are better off being raised by grown-ups than children. Wes had a bumpy start. His mother got into drugs after college. She got off them eventually, but it took a while, so he bounced between two sets of grandparents and me. I was in law school then, and I couldn’t take care of him. Eventually his mother got custody again, but she’s still immature and a little crazy, even now. He and I didn’t really get to know each other until he was in his teens. We’re close now but it took a long time. I had a lot of growing up to do when he was born. So I think this girl is making the right decision. The question here is what’s the right answer for you?
