With help from their families and friends, Cami and David were able organize their wedding fairly quickly. Cami's mother, Jocelyn, was a force of nature who worked tirelessly to help coordinate everything. The happy pair would become husband and wife about four months subsequent to announcing their engagement.
Before the wedding,
Together, David and Cami chose a three carat oval cut diamond engagement ring. It was one of the proudest and happiest moments of David's life when he slipped the ring onto Cami's finger. Cami couldn't stop hugging and kissing David for the first few days after they got the ring. David loved just looking at Cami's hand and seeing the ring there - it made it real. Their status was new and exciting.
Cami wanted to wear her MeMaw's wedding dress for the wedding. David learned that MeMaw is derived from memere (may-MARE) or Cajun French for granny or grandma. Unfortunately, the dress was not in condition that it could be worn or restored, so David paid a seamstress to craft a new gown for Cami, styled to look just like the one her MeMaw wore so many years ago when she was wed. Cami's MeMaw, Violet, had helped to raise Cami, especially with Cami's mother working such long hours at the salon. To honor her MeMaw, when Cami was nineteen, she had gotten a small tattoo of a violet flower on the back of her left shoulder.
Of course, Cami's mother's salon and staff would handle all of the hair styling, makeup, and nails for the entire wedding party.
A college friend of David's would be his best man. Cami's best girlfriend, Ashley, would be her maid of honor.
Cami started taking birth control pills. She and David had discussed things and they had decided not to have children during the first few years of their marriage. They wanted to allow time just to enjoy their life together, and focus on each other, plus it would give them time to save money in preparation for having a family. Cami picked a wedding date which should be just after her period, assuming that her menstrual cycle remained regular leading up to the wedding. The pills would help with that.
They would live in David's two bedroom apartment for a while. David wasn't using the second bedroom, so Cami could use it however she wished. She had decided to make it primarily into a plant room - she always liked flowers and plants and had some skill at nurturing them.
Despite the fact that neither David nor Cami was overly religious, they opted for a modest Church wedding because they felt that it would give more meaning to the promises which they would make to each other.
The wedding would be when it was still warm with just a hint of change of season carried in the wind.
After the wedding,
David would never forget the moment when everyone turned to watch as Cami's father entered the church with his daughter holding his arm, and they began their measured walk down the aisle toward where David stood, waiting. As he beheld his beautiful black wife-to-be approaching, David thought that he must be the happiest, luckiest man alive, and that Cami was the most wonderful, breathtakingly lovely woman he had ever seen.
At the reception, there was a moment when Cami had gone to the Ladies' room and David was alone. Cami's maid of honor, Ashley, approached David closely, cupped her hand against his ear, and whispered, "You're a lucky man, Mister. You better be good to her, or I'll come beat you up..." She then gave him a little kiss on the cheek before stepping back and smiling.
"I will, I promise," David said.
"Good," Ashley replied, and then she was gone as quickly as she had come, tip toe high heel prancing across the reception hall to where one of the other bridesmaids was waving, a little frantically, trying to get Ashley to join her.
Near the end of the reception, the DJ had played a popular upbeat song about brown eyed girls. David would never be able to hear that song again without it being about Cami. She was his brown eyed girl.
David danced with Cami's mother while Cami danced with David's father. It was an evening to remember.
*****
On the first night of their honeynoon, Cami and David stayed in a five star hotel about ten miles away from the church where they had been wed. David still had some student loans to pay, but with his salary, he could afford nice things - maybe not all the time, but tonight was special.
It was new and exciting when checking in at the hotel to refer to themselves as Mr. and Mrs. << >>. David was always observing things around him. He saw a few people glance at him, and Cami, together, with a certain look. Some perhaps thought that he did not belong with her, while others perhaps thought that she did not belong with him. Yet others might be jealous or admiring. None of it mattered to David - he would love and defend Cami with every fiber of his being. He was very proud of her, and of having her as his wife. Few people are fortunate enough to meet and fall in love with someone completely and without reserve, and to have that love returned in kind by the person whom they love. David knew how lucky he was.
Cami had changed from her gown and was wearing a pretty dark green knee length sleeveless dress. The air in the lobby was chill so she snuggled up against David, wrapping her arm around his arm possessively. She heard a woman behind them talking softly to her companion, "There, see those? I want a pair of heels like the ones she's wearing."
Soon enough, David and Cami were settled in their room for the night and had unpacked sufficiently such that they could take a breath. There was a main bath with shower and a second smaller bathroom with a sunken tub. They looked at each other.
Cami smiled and said, "You take the shower and I'll take the tub? Meet you in bed in... mmM, thirty minutes?"