Faded Love - Charles Leclerc

Chapter 45: Mr & Mrs Leclerc

🎶 Sarà perché ti amo — DJ Matrix, Matt Joe, Carolina Marquez 🎶

When we made our way out of the Cathedral, we were met not only by huge cheers from our family and friends, as well as bystanders, but also by showers of rice and flower petals. We shared a kiss on the carpet that was rolled out outside, before we walked the short distance up to the Prince's Palace. Our first stop was taking official photographs inside with the family, the bridesmaids and pages as well as our maids of honour and best men. Then we would move outside to the gardens for more intimate couple pictures before joining the reception.

"Well, hello Mrs Leclerc" Riccardo said and kissed me on both cheeks before taking place behind us for the picture.
"Why are you continuing to stare at me with that look, you haven't even spoken a word since we left the church!" I chuckled at my husband and Charles just leaned in to kiss me.
"I... my brain stopped working, I don't know what to say, I'm just so overwhelmed with happiness" he said and put his arm around my waist.
It was taking ages to get all the photos done, at one point baby JT was screaming, the next moment Amelia was arguing with Oli because he stepped on her toes, then we had to wait for Arthur who seriously had to pee - but in the end everything worked out somehow and after shooting our couple pictures, we finally joined our guests at the reception on the other side of the gardens.

There were so many people and we definitely didn't manage to say hello to everyone or talk to some people as long as we maybe wanted to, but it was wonderful nonetheless. The Prince had been very generous and it was great to see what a deep affection he had for Charles. At around 4pm we left the Palace to drive back to our Hermitage suite, where we would get ready for tonight's black tie affair.

Surrounded by lots and lots of people cheering for us, we walked to the Ferrari and Charles' jaw almost fell to the floor.
"Whose car is this?" he asked as he turned the key that was already positioned inside.
"Yours" I said nonchalantly.
"What?!" he exclaimed and looked at me instead of the street, causing him to almost drive into a policeman who was trying to direct traffic.
"This is my present for you" I said and gave him a big smile.
"If I hadn't married you just mere hours ago, I would do it now" he said and leaned in to kiss me.
"There's another present hidden in this car" I teased him.
"Oh my God, where?" he asked.
"You'll probably see it when we park the car" I said and grinned. I knew that he was so impatient and the few minutes in the car without knowing what it was, were driving him insane.

We arrived back at the hotel where he started looking around the car while I was getting out and holding my dress together with the help of two footmen standing outside.
"I can't find it! What is it?" Charles shouted desperately.
"You're holding it in your hand!" I shouted back.
He looked at the hand where he was holding the keys and he finally read the keychain - his eyes almost fell out.
"You really want me to do this?" he asked incredulously as he had joined me to walk inside.
I put my arm around his waist and nodded. "You'll be a legend. How cool will that be for our kids" I said and smiled.
"Wow, no pressure" he chuckled and we rode the lift upstairs.

Unfortunately, we didn't have a lot of privacy, as the hair and make-up people were already waiting for us in our room. I would have really loved to have some alone-time with my husband, but time was short and we had to drive out half an hour to the evening location. Even though he helped me to open my dress, which I hoped could be a somewhat romantic moment, it wasn't as he got tangled in my veil and the meters of my train and a hairdresser had to pull him out from my dress in order for him to not tear it apart.

My hair was put up in a ponytail, which I was definitely opening up for the dancing, and then I slipped into my evening dress, which was definitely easier to handle than my grand morning gown. Charles put on his black tie and looked even better than in the morning, if that was even possible. At 18.45 sharp, we left the hotel and drove down the coastal road of the Riviera until we turned right at some point to make it to the small Chateau on the hill.

Our evening guests had also changed and we now had a bit more time to talk to our friends and family. Before we went inside for the dinner, Jules' dad held a heartfelt speech about how hard it had been for him to lose a son and for Charles to lose a father, but that in their grief, they had managed to find comfort in each other. Not a single eye was dry after those words and I had to pull myself together before going inside to admire the amazing work Paolo's team had done.

The food was cooked by award-winning chef Alain Ducasse and we were served eight courses in total. Arthur and Oli held a "little brother speech" which was unbelievably funny and it was a wonder that no one had fallen on the floor rolling with laughter. Carmen and Alice held a teary cute girl speech and last but not least, it was Riccardo and Joris' turn.

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen, we think the title 'best men' is very fitting for us, because, well... we are the best men in this room - after Charles of course, don't you worry Mary, he's everybody's gold star favourite boy.
In life, one usually celebrates their successes, but we think it's equally important to talk about one's failures and today everyone will be laughing at Riccardo here." Joris said.
"Thanks man. It all started seven years ago when our poor boy Charles was still head over heels into Mary, but was too stupid to man up and tell her that. So I had to come up with a plan - and no, Charles never knew about this."
They had now pulled up a screenshot of a WhatsApp group called Team Leclerc.
"Every move of Charles and Mary during those two months was meticulously planned by me - and those two didn't even notice, that's how good the plan was." he continued explaining.
"A broken wheel on Marta's stroller - planned. Mary's restaurant choices - also planned by us. Mary's broken down Fiat - well, that was Arthur alone, he cut a cable." Joris said and everyone erupted in laughter, except for me, whose jaw fell to the floor.
"You felon!" I shouted over to his table and everyone laughed again.
"After a night where those two babysat my eldest daughter, I had to find out that she was the worst of all of us: she made those two hold hands and refused to sleep until they did." Riccardo continued and everyone laughed again.
"Even though it didn't work out then guys, we couldn't be happier that you found your way back to each other. There's no Charles without Mary and no Mary without Charles. So let's raise our glasses to Mr and Mrs Leclerc." Joris said and we all raised our glasses.

After the dinner, Charles and I took over the dancefloor for our first dance as husband and wife: it was a special arrangement of Until I Found You, with Mary instead of Georgia used as a name. As soon as the last notes had faded out, Lando's wedding present to us hit the DJ booth: yes, he had gifted us Martin Garrix as our wedding DJ and he couldn't have done a better job, the floor was always full. My personal highlight was definitely when he played the F1 theme song and everybody was already loaded with enough alcohol to jump and sing along to it at the top of their lungs.

We managed to be in the group with the last people standing, composed of Joris, Alice, Oli, Amelia, Lando, Martin Garrix obviously and for some weird reason, Fred Vasseur. Charles and I were loaded into an Uber at 7am in the morning that took us straight to our hotel room where we fell into bed still dressed and were asleep in less than a second.