[OTA] We Are Gathered Here | The Fox-Kattalakis Wedding

[headfollowheart]

A few things had gone wrong, honestly. There had been some confusion in the morning when they’d arrived to decorate the church - a few bouquets on the altar, some green and blue ribbons twined around a few of the posts - and it’d been locked. She’d managed to leave Spade Castle with her dress, veil, the coin from his mother strung on a thin leather thong, the emerald silk sash and Victor’s ring - but of all things, she’d managed to leave her shoes in their box in the closet, and Chives had had to go back for that. Hadyn looked a little green from his adventure shanghaiing Victor with Ben and Elisha, her cousin Sara had in usual Sara fashion managed to break the heel on her left shoe. Nerves finally hit as Chives was braiding her hair, and by the time the veil was settled over the smooth curls, her nails had left indents in her palms.

In the end, though, it was pretty much perfect. Two of her closest friends preceded her down the aisle in soft blue dresses with forget-me-nots in their braided hair and small posies in their hands. She’d walked towards her fiance on her brother’s arm with her hands full of spring flowers, and after the words were said and Victor lifted the veil, they were married. It only felt a little different than before, Zoe thought as their brief kiss ended. But it was different; she was Zoe Fox.

Zoe Fox knew, of course, that Victor Fox would have preferred them to just slip back to their apartment - no big party, no flowing wine and hors d'oeuvres - but she’d wanted something. And he’d given her carte blanche in the end, really; she’d chosen the small reception room that opened out into the Castle gardens, she’d picked the combination of hyacinths, hydragea, and lily of the valley for the table arrangements, the Greek-flavored menu of spanakopita, wild green and strawberry salad, linguine primavera and herb-encrusted lamb. She’d pored over cake designs until she finally picked a vanilla bean cake with strawberry puree filling, decorated in vanilla buttercream. She’d pruned the list of friends, family and acquaintances who might be expected to be invited to the wedding reception until they numbered barely fifty.

Under the strict supervision of Chives, of course the reception looked perfect, she thought as they arrived, and she smiled as she slipped her hand into Victor’s arm and the full skirt of her dress swirled against both of their legs. Perfect, though perfect didn’t matter quite so much to her right now.

Comments

[grrranimals]

"God forbid. It's the perfect dress for these things." She pulls a face, thinking of the two Lindstrom nuptials in June, only cousins, thank God. "Whiskey. Straight up if there's ice, neat otherwise. I've been to a few on the Bowen side of the family. Lindstroms are all dour Lutherans, when they practice at all. What about your bunch?"

[unsungheart]

"It's a hodge-podge," Dillon says as he waves down the bartender. "The Huntlys are nominally Catholic - apparently we left England far enough back? I don't know, Dad wasn't one for ramming it down our throats. And Mom's from Naples, so you know." Absolutely Catholic. "But Grandmama's Presbyterian and the rest are just sort of not much of anything, you know?"

Jess had gotten married in the the Castle, in one of the ballrooms. He imagined he'd have something similarly secular if he got there.

[grrranimals]

Tess smiles thanks to the bartender as she accepts the chilled glass. "Sounds like our lot, though we mostly stick to the two. I think one of the wayward cousins is C of E--the traitor." She's clearly joking. Like many Deck-born, she doesn't lean one way or the other.

She looks over the crowd of party-goers and sighs. "I'll need to avoid home for the next two weeks at least or Mum will drive me bonkers. Maybe I'll luck out and one of the sibs will turn up pregnant again. That ought to distract her."

[unsungheart]

"My brother-in-law is Unitarian." He's not entirely sure what Unitarian entails, except that Jason had been quicker to believe in the Arcana crap than the rest of them.

"Oh, she'll be bugging you for the dress and the veil and the bouquet?" Somehow not surprising, honestly. Mama hadn't started in on him yet, but he was only twenty-four, and his sister was married. Married with a baby at that. "I think Mama had about as much fun as Jess with the dress shopping. There's some vicarious living at the heart of it, I'm pretty sure."

[grrranimals]

"Pretty much. It's not like she need worry about the line dying out." Honestly, she wouldn't be surprised if the four Suits got together and decreed no more offspring from her clan before they hopelessly muddled everyone's bloodlines. She laughs. "She means well, poor dear. Dad's a big sweetheart, so she wants us all to have the same thing."

That would be Tor Lindstrom, not Marc the Bio Dad.

[unsungheart]

"It's...not a bad thought, I suppose," Dillon says slowly as he picks up a beer. "It'd just be nice if they let us live our own lives, you know?" At least that's how the worrying and nagging has felt to him lately. He's fine. Perfectly fine, just not willing to jump back into the pointless rat race.