The Girl Who Was Taken (Renesme Cullens Twin Sister)

Eighty-Two

He drove like a mad devil all the way there, and we were only one minute late. He parked in the lot, and I slid my heels off in the car so we could run, but after grabbing my bouquet of ferns and white roses, I forgot to pick the heels up and take them with. We rushed around the yard, it was spacious, I knew it well, having helped set everything up just yesterday. But I hadn't imagined what it would be like filled with all the people. The venue was only supposed to hold three hundred and fifty people, and we were lucky to have a nice day to hold it outside. But as we rushed around the bend and came upon the seating area that surrounded the isle, I saw that I had to walk a much longer way than we had anticipated. There were so many people there that all the chairs were filled, and more were standing around the edges and gathering toward the back. But everyone turned to look at us, the ones who were seated stood up, and Edward held his elbow out for me to grab, and I took it to steady myself.

A live orchestra, because Renesme wouldn't have anything less, began to play a different tune, slower, more formal, setting the pace for how fast we were allowed to walk. And even after having practiced this march down the aisle several times at the rehearsal dinner, (Paul made me restart again and again so he could relive the moment, he said), I still found my feet unsure, wary of the bumps and dips in the grass, the scatter of flowers that felt like silk on the bottom of my feet. But walking barefoot down the aisle gave me a stronger connection to the earth, made me more sure of where I stood. I looked around at all the people and faces and recognized almost everyone. They watched, some stern, most smiling. My human relatives and the vampires were on one side of the aisle, while the Quileute were on the other with a good number of Werewolves that Paul had met during his escapades around Europe. It was a stark divide. The farther down the aisle I got, the more the faces meant something to me. Jasper and Carlisle, Charlie and Sue, and Renee were seated in front, the row behind them had Amun and his coven, and other friends of the Cullen's behind them. On the other side was Richard and Paul's mom. The rest of the pack that didn't get the honor of being groom's men. All the children and their families and extended families.

Looking to the end of the aisle, I let my eyes wander across the bridesmaids first, standing in a line. Alice, Jane, and Renesme, wearing dresses of a light bronze, and Leah and Emily too, with colorful traditional dresses. The groom's men, Embry, Quill, Seth and Sam stood in a line to the other side, wearing colorful traditional Quileute regalia like a rainbow. And after looking at everyone except Paul, I finally had to let my eyes rest on him as we walked closer. His face was lit up, and my stomach dropped out of me from the nerves. He was wearing mostly white with colorful embroidered flowers along his arms, and tassels and feathers. Our eyes locked as I walked the rest of the way, and I almost forgot everyone else was there. Edward kissed my temple, and then let me go, and went to sit down next to his father. Paul reached his hand out and I took it.

Billy was sitting before us in his wheelchair, and he began the ceremony. There were many traditional prayers, and songs. We shared tobacco and smoked, and exchanged wedding rings and wedding vows, and then Paul's mom and Esme came up to wrap a white blanket over mine and Paul's shoulders, bringing us closer together to start our new life together under the same shelter as Husband and Wife.

With that, the ceremony was done, and the reception could begin. We had a lot of food for everyone who ate. The vampires understood that they should have eaten before they came, but still held their champaign flutes and hors d'oeuvres and pretended to be human like they had for the past thousands of years. I sat next to Paul at the bridal table in the big barn, so we could look out over the guests. There were speeches from so many people, and gift giving, which some got quite expensive seeing as most of the vampires had stocked up some major wealth so a couple tens of thousands of dollars for them probably seemed like nothing. Edward and his parents gifted us a house. It was a big surprise, meaning that all the saving Paul and I had done these last couple months was now free to go somewhere else. There was a lot of singing too, and then the dances started, beginning with traditional Quileute dances, and then opening up the dance floor to everyone.