Your Beauty Never, Ever Scared Me - Wintumn Stories

Our day

Winter and Autumn decided to not dive directly into planning a wedding. They both wanted to take time to enjoy the new step they had taken in their relationship. But that didn't stop everyone from asking about it. Immediately after finding out they were engaged their friends would immediately ask Autumn if they'd set a date yet, where they would have the wedding, what she wanted for a dress and what Winter would wear.

A lot of the decisions fall to the bride when planning a wedding. This always struck Autumn as strange. She never understood why people would say that a wedding was "the bride's day." They were planning this to celebrate the two of them and the love they shared. There'd be no wedding if Winter wasn't there, so she thought the decisions should be made together. But not once had she heard anyone ask Winter if he'd thought yet about what color napkins they were going to have. They'd simply congratulate him and then turn their attention to her.

The questioning made it so much harder for her to want to plan anything at all because she had to face the fact that she had no idea what she wanted. Autumn was never the kind of girl who dreamed about her own wedding. Maybe when she was very young, but that all changed when her mother left. She nearly stopped believing in love altogether when someone who said they loved her more than anything left her without a second thought. Leaving her with a father who never loved her because she "didn't deserve it." And then prom night happened when her brother, the only person left she truly cared for, also seemingly betrayed her trust. He was the last person keeping her faith in love alive and now that was gone. From that day on she was sure she'd never let herself get close enough to anyone to even consider marriage, so daydreaming about the day was a waste of time.

Everything changed when she met Winter. He made her believe in love again. He stuck with her through some of the worst times anyone could ever face and never even considered leaving. Quite the opposite, in fact, as with each rough patch the couple would only get stronger. The love they shared was enough to break through all of Autumn's defenses and prove to her that she did deserve to be happy, to have someone who loved her completely just how she was. She didn't have to be perfect all the time for him to stay by her side. Autumn didn't know she had the capacity to love someone as much as she did Winter. She had never believed in soul mates, but the fact that she and Winter found each other made her sure that there was someone out there for everyone. 

Autumn didn't think she wanted a big wedding. The thought of being married to Winter was so exciting, but whenever she tried to think about the day and how she wanted it to look her anxiety took over. If, legally, they could just wake up one day and say "alright we are married now!" she would have decided to do that. She didn't have a large family that she needed to invite, most of her friends were also Winter's friends, and neither of them were religious enough to want to have a church wedding.

Not to mention the thought of having something lavish and expensive just brought up visions of the childhood she'd rather forget. It made her think of times when her family would have huge parties just to show off to their neighbors. How if they didn't top their last event or anyone said a bad word about the evening her father would scream at everyone that they had let him down, whether they had a hand in planning or not.

The more she thought about it, the more set she became on the idea of having the smallest wedding possible. She wanted to celebrate her love, but in their own way. If Winter objected, of course, she would go along with what he wanted but this seemed like the best choice for them. One night over dinner about two months after the engagement Autumn finally decided to bring it up.

"My sweet, have you given any thought to the wedding?"

"Yes, my love, I have some ideas. Of course, what you want is the most important."

"No, I want us to plan this together. This day isn't just about me, it's about us. I just have one request, my sweet." Autumn continued. "I want to keep it very small, if that's alright with you."

A huge smile crept across Winter's face. "That sounds absolutely perfect."

He was incredibly relieved to hear Autumn say that. He would have happily gone along with anything she decided, of course, but he'd given it a lot of thought and something small just seemed like it would suit them. They had always been a very private couple. They weren't much for public displays of affection and other people's emotions still made Autumn very uncomfortable. So the thought of standing in front of a large group of people and publicly declaring how they felt about each other just didn't seem right.

They both agreed, though, that their families needed to be there; they didn't want to just elope. Winter couldn't stand the thought of his parents not being there to support them and Autumn didn't want to exclude Reece from the day either. Their relationship had gotten so much stronger in the last year that she wanted him to be there with her. And if Reece was coming they couldn't exclude Marjorie. As Reece's girlfriend and Autumn's best friend, she was already family. 

There were also a few traditions that they did want to take part in. Autumn decided she did want a proper wedding dress and Winter wanted an official first dance as a couple. Dancing together was something they loved doing and having a reception would give them an excuse to do so all night.

And, of course, they wanted someone to take pictures of the day. The couple were a lot more sentimental than they would ever let on and couldn't let this milestone go by without some form of documentation. They were both very old school when it came to preferring physical media over digital memories so they had started a photo album documenting their relationship very early on. Also there was an old Knight family photo that had been hanging in Autumn's hallway since she moved in that she could never figure out how to replace. In its place they could hang a picture from the day of the people they truly considered family.

Just like every other part of their relationship, once they made up their minds everything moved rather quickly. They set the wedding for the weekend before their first anniversary, meaning it was only a few short months until they would wed. As soon as they decided on a date they immediately found a perfect venue online. A hotel in town had a gothic looking gazebo that they were able to rent for a few hours and a small banquet room inside that was perfect for the after party.

Their idea for the ceremony would take careful planning. This time they were determined to actually, successfully, keep a secret. They planned to have only family attend the actual ceremony. But they weren't going to find out it was a wedding until they saw Autumn walk down the aisle, that way they wouldn't have to deal with the emotions until after the nerves of the ceremony were gone. The rest of their friends would be invited to the reception thinking they were attending a party to "celebrate Winter and Autumn's first anniversary." There they would surprise everyone with the marriage and spend their evening surrounded by everyone they cared about.

How little time they had to pull everything together didn't worry the couple. They knew it would all come together. And even if it didn't, they would still end the journey as husband and wife. That's all that mattered. Everything would be perfect as long as they were together.