Project Equality

The Wedding Party You Didn't Realize You Needed Until Now

Elysia

With our engagement finally announced, Lauren decided it was time to start working on our plans. The first thing she wanted to do was set a date, so we did, for December of 2019. Then she said we should pick our wedding parties. She'd already put together little bags, and while they had no names, there were white ones from her and green ones "from" me. I assumed that was how we would tell everyone who was what, and the fanciest bag was for the bro of honor.

"What?"

"Like, bro of honor and stuff?"

"Bro of honor?" I repeated, looking confused.

"Well, yeah. Like, if we wanted guys in our wedding party, we couldn't call them bridesmaids," she pointed out, laughing. I loved that laugh, and I was going to get to hear it for the rest of my life.

"That's true. Well, I can invite the group over if you want?" I offered.

"Yes! Thank you." She kissed me before going back to what she was doing in some big planning binder.

I sent out a text in the group chat, thinking about who of the other six would be my bro of honor, the one with the speech and the responsibilities and the general honor. But then, of course, I realized that I already knew. It was a shockingly simple choice, when it came down to it.

Then, my dad came in to look at how planning was going and ask if he could help, and I started thinking about my mom. I did that a lot those days, which was new. For almost my entire life, I didn't wonder about her. My dad didn't talk about her. I only knew that shortly after my birth, she fell ill, and died. Now, at eighteen going on nineteen, I heard her voice and saw her face and she told me that even though she didn't know the person I'd become, she was proud of me.

She was proud of me.

Was that what it meant to be a mother? To have a mother? That a woman days from death can look at her child days into life and already believe that this child will do great things? What if I hadn't had such big aspirations? Would she still have been proud? Was I going to make her proud? I didn't know, because I didn't know her. I didn't know anything about her. That was really on my dad, though, because he never told me about her. I still don't know if I wish that he had.

There was a knock on the door, so I put away the thoughts of her for another time. Everyone I'd texted had arrived: May, Ami, Lisa, Hazel, Andrea, Lynn, Viktor, Jen, Sidney, Christopher, Chrissy, David, and Seth. I figured inviting Jacob would be a bad idea, since I'd hated him violently since the seventh grade and I really didn't want him in my wedding party. It seemed I made the right call once Ami quickly filled us all in.

"You just dumped him?" I asked, a little in shock. "I mean, good for you, I think?"

She looked incredibly unfazed, which was odd. This was her first breakup - her first final breakup, that is - and Jacob was her first ever date friend. Amilia was a very emotional person, but in that moment, she seemed different. She seemed stronger than she usually was.

"He asked me to marry him, and I realized that it wouldn't be good for either of us. I was emotionally dependent and he was . . . whatever he was."

"Good for you, Ami," May said, patting her shoulder with her left hand. I mention that it was her left hand, because on it, I saw a gorgeous, vintage looking ring that was most certainly not the promise ring Lisa had given her a year or so ago (okay, I don't actually remember when that happened). I looked at Lisa, and sure enough, there was a big, sparkling, old-but-expensive ring on her hand. I wanted to ask, but I also wanted all of the attention on me and Lauren for the moment, so I didn't. It was pretty clear that we weren't the only ones getting married, though.

"Okay, so we brought you here today, because I want to arrange our wedding parties and stuff before we get too into anything else," Lauren said, getting everyone back on track.

"I want to plan!" Jenna said, raising her hand. We already knew this, of course, so we had been planning on letting her do most of the difficult things that we really didn't want to do ourselves. She loved that kind of thing.

"And we want you to plan," Lauren assured her. "We'll talk about that in a bit. First, I want to talk about who's standing on whose side of the aisle, or as I've so deemed them, bride's bros." She picked up her five non-big-and-fancy bags and began passing them out. She clearly had a plan. I didn't, so I figured I'd just choose whoever she didn't. Except the bro of honor. I'd have to fight to the death for that one, but knowing that Lau was usually down for fights to the death, it wouldn't negatively affect the wedding. "So, Andrea, I would like you to be on my side."

"I'd love to, Lauren," Andrea replied, smiling kindly and hugging her.

"Then, Jen, I'd love to steal you as well."

"Of course, Lauren!"

"And Chris! It's really been a while since we've hung out, but I always saw you as a friend. So, if you would?"

"Of course I will." Come to think of it, Chris maybe came to Club once a month through the last two years of high school after coming out as aro, but I felt like it had been forever since we'd spoken.

"And Sidney, we got to know each other quite well during the past couple of years. Thank you for being a straight ally, and a true friend. People like you make the world better. Will you please be on my side of the aisle?"

"Of course," Sidney said.

"Finally, Seth," she said, turning to one of the two guys we'd become quite close to in recent times. They did, after all, help me set up my proposal. I, in turn, got to know something about them.

"Of course, Lauren," he replied.

I grabbed the five bags that were less fancy and tried to think. Surely there were five of the remaining seven people who I felt specifically close enough to. I started with David. "David?"

"Well, I would love to," he replied.

"And, um, Viktor," I continued, handing off the bag. "Amilia, my dear friend, and Lynn, because you brought me into the group all that time ago. And then, Lisa." I nodded, confident in my decision.

"What about us?" Hazel asked, pointing to herself and May.

"May Bean," I said, turning to her.

"It is okay if I am not in the wedding party," she said, nodding to me.

"May Bean," I repeated, smiling at her.

"You only call me May Bean when you are going to tease me," she said.

I handed her the fancier of the bags. "I want you to be my maid of honor, May."

She looked surprised, I think, but I couldn't see her eyes, so who knows. I like to think she was surprised. "Of course I will," she said before crushing me in a hug.

"Wait a second," Hazel said, figuring out what was happening. "Lau?"

"I want you to be my bro of honor," Lauren said, handing her the last bag.

"Yes! Of course, yes. Oh, this is going to be lovely! I'll do anything you need. Every day until the day of the wedding, I am here to do your bidding."

"Thank you," she laughed.

"Okay, so why am I here, then?" Chrissy asked.

"Well rumor has it that you have some training in the field of photography," Lauren explained. "We were wondering if you could photograph our engagement pictures, and the wedding."

"I would love to," Chrissy replied.

That was it. Everything was pretty much set.