Page 28 of June Bride
Not that Brandy had much opportunity to think about them when everyone was ushering her out of the house and to the start of the ceremony. Guests, dressed in suits and lovely dresses, sat in the rows upon rows of chairs meant to accommodate up to three hundred people. Murmurs erupted around Brandelyn, who could hardly avoid attention before reaching the head of the aisle created on the sprawling lawns of Waterlily House.
She had already forgotten about supposed changes by the time the sun beat down upon her bare shoulders. This was it. It was happening. She was getting married, and soon everything she had spent her whole life dreaming about would come to fruition.
How was she supposed to hold back the wibbling lips and tears sure to ruin her mascara?
Whispers of her stunning beauty erupted into the air. The live pianist from the Baptist church switched from a classical number to “In the Air Tonight,” one of Brandy’s favorite songs.
Orchid petals were already strewn about the walkway. Lizzie looked over her shoulder with a reassuring smile before their father appeared to take Brandy’s arm.
“Oh, my, look at my gorgeous princess.” He beamed in pride, although his nervous sweats already permeated his face and suit. Brandelyn overlooked that to instead rake in the compliments.T-minus ten until we walk down the aisle…“I can’t believe this is happening. My oldest girl is getting married.”
“Come on, Daddy, don’t make me cry.” It was bad enough her stepfather leaped into the aisle to snap a few pictures on Cathy’s behalf. They had to wait for Debbie to whisk him away before the pianist switched to the wedding march. Three hundred guests stood. Brandelyn put on a big grin as she kissed her father on the cheek and turned the corner to gasps of delight. “I’ve got time to cry later!”
Her smile fell off her face as soon as she looked down the aisle.
Karen stood there, ready to officiate the wedding. So did Lizzie and Anita, two bridesmaids in matching pink dresses.
Yet Sunny was nowhere to be seen.
“Uh…” Brandy almost missed her cue to begin her walk down the aisle. What was supposed to be a blessed moment of lifelong triumph was suddenly bogged down inpanic.“Where’s Sunny?” she asked through a gritted smile.
Her father hadn’t heard her. He didn’t seem to think anything was amiss as he took the lead. Brandelyn searched for Debbie’s face in the crowd and sent her the most anxious expression she could muster. She received two thumbs up, as if that made everything better!
“What is going on?” Brandy hissed in Anita’s direction as soon as she was up front. Karen avoided eye contact. Lizzie was only checked-in long enough for a photograph. Beyond that? Brandy was still on her own. “Where the hell is my fiancée?”
Anita, who was pink with pride, jerked her head toward the aisle. “Why don’t you chill out a bit and go with the flow, huh?”
Brandelyn couldn’t say she appreciated that sentiment. Yet what other choice did she have? As soon as her father went to sit down, she was alone with nothing but her bouquet and hubris. After exchanging a pathetic look with Karen, Brandy turned around in her designated spot and tried to keep smiling for the cameras.
The wedding march continued. Brandy squared her shoulders and faced the head of the aisle.
The murmurs were renewed as soon as Sunny appeared. Apparently, she had bucked their rehearsed movements in the name of stealing the spotlight to herself.
Not that Brandy could blame her. She had never seen such a beautiful bride before.
Sunny wore a simple sleeveless gown that boasted a plain, heart-shaped bodice and a skirt made of yards of tulle. Her short, feathery blond hair held no veil, but the sparkling barrettes she wore above her bangs drew Brandelyn’s eye as if that had always been the plan. A small bouquet of pink and purple pansies was clutched in one of Sunny’s hands as the other held her skirt high up enough for her to walk in white ballet flats.
Everyone ooh’d and awed. The photographer went nuts, taking pictures of both Sunny and the shocked expression on Brandelyn’s frozen face.
The selfish side of her demanded to know why all of her plans had been so unceremoniously overthrown. She knew she had told Sunny she could wear her dress, but did that mean she got to walk second? That she stole Brandy’s thunder as the consummate bride on her wedding day?Thiswas what everyone would remember from the ceremony. Brandelyn was no longer Princess Diana.
Sunny was.
Yet the overwhelming feelings bubbling within Brandelyn told her selfish side to shut the hell up.
She’s so beautiful…Perhaps everyone around her assumed that the tears welling within Brandy’s eyes were because her attention had been stolen. In truth, she was overwhelmed by the radiant woman walking down the aisle as if she had been born to become a blushing bride. It was a side to her Brandelyn had never seen before.Here I am, sharing it with three-hundred people.She was sharing the happiest day of her life with three-hundred lucky people.
Mostly with Sunny, who reached the end of the aisle with a smile on her pink lips.
“Hey,” she said, handing Anita her tiny bouquet and reaching to take Brandy’s hands. “We look pretty good together up here, huh?”
Karen sighed in reverence while the pianist stopped playing and the guests sat down. The hush falling over the wedding ceremony would be the last time either of them beheld silence for the rest of the day.
It was the moment for Brandelyn to look back on the past forty-two years of life. Forty-two years of hoping, praying, and planning. Everything in her romantic heart had led up to this precious moment. The most important vision her subconscious insisted upon was mired in self-doubt and confusion as she looked upon the cute woman in a simple, cheap wedding dress. What was that feeling in Brandy’s chest? Disbelief? Fear? Anxiety?
Perhaps the answer was more benign than that.
Maybe she simply couldn’t handle how perfect this blessed moment was.
THE END