The Third Wedding

Chapter 18: The Rose Wedding (Part 1)

The wedding was pink, yellow and white. It wasn't the wedding that Sondra had imagined, but she'd only been given four weeks to plan it.

"It looks beautiful," Juliana smiled to Sondra.

Sonny looked at her mom and shook her head, "Some of the decorations are still falling down, and I-" she held her tongue. The situation that happened the night before had her feeling uneasy.

Juliana studied her daughter, realizing something was bothering her, "I wanted to thank you."

Sondra smiled softly, "for what? Planning it! I'm the maid of honor I guess it comes with the territory."

"No i wanted to thank you for planning your own, because Rosalina would never have been able to pull this off the way you have."

Sondra smiled and looked down. "I guess that's true."

"I'd better go see where Rosa and Garth are at," Juliana excused herself.

Sondra looked out over the balcony that overlooked the ballroom. She sighed heavily her mind felt gross and conflicted.

"You seem bothered," Maisey said walking beside her friend, "come let's get you ready for the wedding." She took Sonny's hand and walked with her to the princesses bedroom.

"I really really want to like Garth," she admitted to Maisey, "but I have such a bad feeling, like I'm genuinely scared of him."

"Oh?" Maisey sat Sondra down and began to do the brunettes hair, "is there a story behind this."

"Can this stay between us?"

"Always."

"About a week or so ago Garth asked me about what kind of hobbies Rosa had."

"Did you tell him about the roses? She loves the roses." Maisey brushed her hair.

"Yes! And a few days ago Rosa came and...she yelled at me."

"What why? That doesn't sound like her."

Sondra turned to face her, "She told me 'Garth doesn't like floral walks, and I was out of line to pressure him to do so.'"

"So..." Maisey stared at her, "he twisted everything you said."

"I'm not saying that....but...I do feel like that's true." Sondra sighed heavily turning back to face the mirror.

"I'm glad that Princess Rosalina is happy and all...but..."

"But what Maisey?" Sondra paused curious if other people sensed the displacement that she did.

"I didn't get a good feeling about him when I first met him, he's charismatic and funny but something felt off, I just hope it gets sorted out." Maisey studied Sondra as she began to put the princesses hair in a bun, "there's something else, isn't there?"

"Yesterday...it was the day before the wedding, my parents the king and queen, they knew Rosie was freaking out about Garth getting moved in, his family hadn't been really helping with that so my parents did. We were moving him in until really late so we were just a little behind on the wedding decorations. On the carriage ride from his place to the castle he started talking about my parents, about how they were cruel to procrastinate his moving, and how it interfered with their wedding, and how they were just horrid."

"Oh, Rosa called off the wedding then?" Maisey let Sondras hair down.

"No, Rosalina agreed with him. I'm terrified that he'll say something to them, or what if he talks about everyone this way? I just, I'm so scared Maisey."

"Hopefully..." Maisey sighed, "look, your concerns are legitimate, and if Ashton ever spoke like this I know you'd put him in his place, but, let's just chalk this up to wedding jitters for now and see where it goes?" She tried to force a smile as she finished Sondras hair.

"I hope you're right," Sondra said softy.

"I hope so too..."

***

The decorations were as beautiful as they could be for short timing and a budget, which the king and queen were surprised about due to the fact that they offered to help financially. They hoped their contribution had been spent wisely.

Sondra wore a pink and yellow gown with lace, it wasn't particularly her style, but she knew it was Rosalina's and they'd spent a while picking dresses that would compliment her style. Each bridesmaids dress had a beautiful rose flower print on it. Maisey wore one, Ann and Ella both wore them as well as Victoria.

"Hello beautiful," Ashton said softly as he took Sondras hand, "did I mention that you're the most beautiful thing that I've had the pleasure to see today?"

"Ash, you really can't be saying stuff like that at another woman's wedding," Sonny shook her head at him.

He chuckled, "Ann is excited to hold Rosalina's veil as she walks down the isle," he looked around, "everything looks beautiful."

"Leo and Victoria picked up the cake and it was too late of notice to hire servers so they'll be doing the food service, and I don't want them to overwork themselves, we also had them bring doughnuts so hopefully that will be less work and some of the decorations have been falling down and I-"

Ash cut off Sondra with a soft kiss, "it's beautiful, where are the bride and groom anyway?"

Maisey rushed up to them, "so they were on their way to pick up some last minute details and um...their carriage wheel fell off, they sent their coachmen to fetch another carriage."

Sondra felt her eye twitch, she had to save this wedding even if it killed her. "Maisey, you follow up with that. Ashton I need you to check on the bridesmaids and get them out here socializing with everyone. I'm going to go talk to the band and see if we can get some music going, we are going to stall, this wedding HAS to be perfect!"