Legacy of the Dreams

Chapter 70 - Visiting After Dinner

The adults gathered in the Abernathy's living room having coffee after supper while they talked.

"So tell me," Julie said to Ashley, looking at her expectantly.

"You want to hear about the wedding?" Ashley asked.

"Yes. I want to hear about everything," Julie assured her.

"Weddings are so exciting," Cindy agreed. "But they do take a lot of planning."

"Yes, they do," Julie said. "Have you managed to start any of that?"

"Well, we have a date and the church is reserved, and so is the restaurant at my uncle's golf club for the reception," Ashley said.

"When's the date?" Alan asked curiously.

"March 24th, the Saturday before Spring Break," Matt said. "We're planning the ceremony for the afternoon, so hopefully it won't interfere too much if you all want to go to Temple in the morning."

"It was nice of you to consider that," Greg told the young couple.

"I'm sure we can work around whatever time you set," Elliot said.

Matt nodded vaguely but Ashley grinned.

"What time were you thinking of?" Julie asked.

Matt exchanged a look with his fiancée. "What did you and your mom decide on, Ash? Two o'clock or later?"

"We haven't. We have the church for the entire afternoon and Pastor Wilbury suggested we pray on it before we decide," Ashley said.

"A reasonable suggestion," Greg said.

"What about a dress?" Cindy asked. "Have you started looking?"

"Yes ... every weekend I've had free since I moved home again for the summer," Ashley said.

"Yeah, between the two jobs she's working and all the wedding stuff her mom and her do every weekend, I hardly get to see her anymore," Matt complained.

"It's like that before a wedding," Alan said sympathetically. "It gets better once you start those pre-marriage classes ..."

He trailed away, realizing as he made the comment that not everyone he knew attended a program of that sort.

"Did they help?" Matt asked curiously.

"They did for us," Cindy told him.

"Where did you take yours?" Ashley asked.

"Through our temple," Alan said. "Does the church offer something similar?"

"Some do," Susan said.

"Yeah, they do," Matt said. "We've been talking to Pastor Wilbury about it. He has a session starting in September he's recommending for us."

"In September? If your wedding isn't until March, isn't that a little early?" Julie asked.

"The course runs weekly for twelve weeks ... with time off for the holidays," Matt explained. "The September session ends in January, but the next one doesn't start until January and ends in early April. Since our wedding would be in the middle of that, we thought it would be too late for us."

"Oh," Julie said. "That sounds different from what we did."

"Us too," Alan said.

"Why? What did you do?" Matt asked.

"Ours were three nights a week for the month before we got married," Alan explained.

"It wouldn't be bad to do it early," Cindy commented.