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.