Page 59 of The Wedding

“Photo spreads, huh…”

“If you haven’t heard from a magazine yet, Jamie, mark my words. It’s coming.”

Seena whistled. “You mean I’m gonna be in a magazine?”

Nobody answered her.

“Next, I want to discuss the colors for your wedding. Regardless of what you think you might like already, you must take into consideration that the two most recent high-profile weddings used certain colors that would be uncouth to replicate. For example, the Warner wedding used crimson and black. If you were dedicated to the color red, I would suggest going for as light a red as possible and pairing it with any color but black. Another color to be careful of is emerald green. The Bingham wedding in December used it. I suggest waiting at least a year before replicating a color, and that’s only if you were not involved or close to that couple.”

“I got it. Red’s out.” Not that Monique would care if Jamie used her favorite color in her wedding. “Anything I should be aware of between then and now?”

“Nothing as high profile as Warner and Bingham, but this month I am doing an orange and gold wedding, and in May yellow and blue is happening. I do not think it will create too much conflict if you borrow from those colors for your wedding, though.” Jenny’s smile was more ruthless than reassuring. “To be honest, Jamie, I will be telling my clients for the rest of this year to avoid whatever colors you are using. Etta Coleman having a June wedding? I hope you appreciate how popular this is going to be.”

Jamie’s hands shook in her lap. “Oh, I do.” Her engagement ring nearly cut her other finger. “The guest list is already a mile long.”

“Oh, good! That’s what I wanted to talk to you about next.”

Jamie was held captive for the next hour, being grilled about colors, flowers, religious traditions, and going over a plethora of pre-approved locations for a large wedding like she and Etta were destinedto have.I won’t recognize half the people there. They’ll all be people Etta has done business with or would like to one day.Jamie would be lucky to have a pew dedicated to the certain people she did know. Her family?Good luck.

Natasha was a good sport and asked only minimal questions. Seena, on the other hand, nearly got herself kicked out because she wouldn’t stop barging in with questions about the quality of this, how much of that, and whether she would get to walk with a hot guy. “Come on, Jamie,” she said more than once. “You need to make sure I get paired up with a hot single billionaire. I could even go bi! I’m sure Etta knows some. I need to get paid too!”

These were comments that were funny on the phone or in private, but here in front of Jenny Granger, Jamie nearly sank so far into the couch that she was never to be seen again.

By the time her first meeting with her wedding planner was over, Jamie needed a hard drink. She also needed an excuse to go through the binder she was sent home with, so she had her driver take the three of them farther into town and to a quaint café for lunch.

Bad idea.

“Oh, congratulations!” cried a woman Jamie had never seen before. She had barely sat down, purse on the ground and binder clattering against the table. Now she had to get up again, receive a hug from this strange woman, and pretend she had any idea who she was. “You’ll be the most beautiful bride since my daughter!”

Jamie made sure to buy the hardest drinks they could muster for lunch. Long Island iced teas, martinis, cosmos… Jamie was willing to sample them all if it meant forgetting how stressed out she already was.All this because someone had to get fired at a paper.She took a cursory glance at the binder before shoving it into her bag.No more patience.

“So, where are you going for your honeymoon?” Seena asked over her drink.

“No idea yet. Haven’t had time to figure it out. Etta’s already rearranging her schedule for two weeks afterward so we can even go on a honeymoon.” At least Fourth of July weekend was in there, which meant little in the way of socializing for Etta, anyway.She better not work while we’re on our honeymoon.That’s why she had Adele now. That woman could take over the grunt work while her partner went on her honeymoon.

“You should go to Hawaii.”

“Hm. You think so?”

“Totally. It’s the most romantic place on Earth.”

“If I had the means to go anywhere in the world for my honeymoon,” Natasha said wistfully, “I would do a tour of Europe. I wanna go to Italy, Germany, France… maybe Finland.”

“Finland? That’s specific.” Jamie was already halfway through her drink, and it had yet to hit her.

“I had this stint as a teenager where I was really into Finland. Don’t know what to say.”

“Girl,” Seena began, “if you want to do something like that, then you need to get a guy as rich as Etta.”

They both glanced at Seena. “You never told her, huh?” Natasha muttered.

“Didn’t think it was my place.”

“Tell me what?”

Jamie looked at Natasha before answering. “Don’t think Natasha is going to be marrying a dude anytime soon, even if they are more prevalent in the unwedded millionaires sphere.”

“Oh… oh!”