Desires and Contracts

Ch. 20

I woke up to my alarm blaring. I turned over to shut it off and saw that today was Thursday, May 14- the day I try on wedding dresses. I planned on not being too picky because there was a short amount of time to have the dress altered so hopefully, I find the dress I like today, preferably before 2 pm because that was when our cake-tasting appointment was. I had an appointment at a Bridal Shop in Beverly Hills at 9 am and I asked Tara, Natalie, and Mrs. Diamond to accompany me. Since that store was about 30 minutes away from me, I had to be ready by 8:20 at the latest because I hate being late.

After I made my bed, I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and shower. I decided to wear a teal-colored long-sleeve shirt with black jeans paired with my black 2-inch heels. I put my hair up in a ponytail, put on some makeup and jewelry, and then headed to the kitchen to eat a light breakfast. Around 8:15 I texted all three women that I was ready and will be heading out soon. Kelly and Tara said they'll head out in 5 minutes while Mrs. Diamond said she was on her way to the shop. I grabbed my purse and walked to the bus stop. It should be here any minute, and thankfully the bus goes to the street over from the shop so I was in luck. I arrived at the shop at 8:48 and Mrs. Diamond was waiting outside the shop for me.

"Good morning Mrs. Diamond! How are you?"

"Hi sweetie! I'm so excited! How are you?"

"I'm doing okay, feeling a bit nervous to be honest. I think Tara and Kelly are on their way."

"Oh don't be nervous! This'll be fun! Oh, look! I see the girls there." Mrs. Diamond pointed towards the left side of the street and sure enough Tara and Kelly were walking together towards us. We all greeted one another and I introduced Mrs. Diamond and Tara since Kelly and Tara seemed to already have met. Right when we walked in, a woman in her early 40s greeted us with a high smile.

"Welcome! You must be Skylar! My name is Cherry. My you are so beautiful, no wonder the Xavier Diamond has taken an interest in you. So how are you all doing today?"

We all said that we were doing well as Cherry walked us over to a sofa area and asked me some questions about what type of dress I would like. I tried on a few dresses and some were really pretty while others weren't really my style. After about 2 hours, I tried on one more dress and instantly fell in love with it. When I walked out to show the girls, they were in awe! Mrs. Diamond said I looked beautiful. Kelly said the dress highlighted my figure. Tara said Xavier wouldn't be able to keep his eyes off of me. I genuinely loved the way I looked in this dress. It wasn't too fancy and big and it also wasn't really tight and revealing. Cherry placed a small tiara on my head to tie the entire outfit together. Once I decided that this was the dress I wanted, Cherry and her assistant took my measurements and then took me over to the front counter to pay for the dress. I know Xavier said that he would cover everything but I couldn't let him do that. I needed to pay for something since it's my wedding too so I pulled out my credit card and paid for the dress. Surprisingly, it wasn't too bad. With the measurements, tiara, heels, and also the request to have it altered really fast the total was about $6,000. I definitely expected it to be more, although $6,000 wasn't something I would have prepared to pay I knew that I would be happy in this dress so it was worth it. I also had Tara and Kelly try on bridesmaid dresses, which only took about an hour since they liked my color choice and all they had to do was select their own dress style and get measured. As for Natalie, the dresses for children were only in specific sizes so Kelly looked at the ones that she thought would fit her.

I decided to text Xavier to let him know that I was done. He said he was still finding his suit, so Tara and I decided to hang out for a few hours until he was done and it was time to go to the cake-tasting appointment. Tara and I went shopping in some nearby stores while Mrs. Diamond and Kelly headed back home since they had some errands to run. Tara purchased some new makeup and jewelry for the wedding while I bought new jewelry to go with the wedding dress. Around 1:30 pm, Xavier texted me that he was all done. He offered to pick me up from the shop but Tara already said that she'd drop me off, so I told Xavier that I'll just meet him there.

...

I was currently with a designer for Gucci, who was going to design and tailor my suit for the wedding. Austin had used this tailor for his wedding so I completely trusted her to make my suit as well. I had to try on a few suits to see what I liked and honestly, it was so tiring. I thought it was boring to watch people try on clothes, but I think it's slightly more boring to actually try them on and show them to the designer. Mark and Austin came along with me that way we could get their suits done as well. After about 3 or so hours, all of our suits were designed and our measurements were taken. I ordered the gold-colored ties and pocket squares as well. I texted Skylar that I was done and she said that she'll meet me at the bakery.

I parked in the parking lot next to Tara's car. They were sitting inside the car and laughing about something when I pulled up next to them. Skylar saw me and waved which led Tara to turn around and wave as well. Skylar got out of the car as I did the same and we walked into the bakery together as Tara drove away.

"How was dress shopping? Did you find anything you liked?"

"Yeah, I did! It took a little while but I found a dress that I'm absolutely in love with! Did you find a suit?" When she talked about her dress, her eyes sparkled and it was the cutest thing ever.

"Yes, I got one custom-made. It took so long for me to make up my mind on what style and color I wanted but I'm just glad it's over with."

When we walked inside the bakery, I told the girl working there that we had an appointment for 2 o'clock. She looked at her schedule and said that the baker will be with us shortly. After a few minutes, a short middle-aged man wearing a black apron with the shop's logo on it came up to us. He introduced himself and led us to the back room. There were 10 different types of cakes lined up on a table along with 8 slices of cake, each with a different flavor. The baker talked us through the details and designs of each cake and then moved on to the slices. He told us about the ingredients, the flavors, and which ones could be made gluten-free or vegan. Skylar and I tried each flavor but I knew that she would like the red velvet one because that's her favorite. My favorite was lemon cake, especially with strawberry filling. After trying them all, we decided to buy the two-tier cake with the first one being red velvet and the second tier being lemon.

Afterward, we headed to the custom card store to pick up the invitations and began personally addressing them to the guests. That took us about 2 hours but once we were done we mailed them out.