Our Favorite Days (My Favorite Mistake #3) (28 page)

T
he minute Hunter was off with the boys, Darah, Renee, Jos and I sprung into action. Well, they did the springing and I waddled along behind them. Even though the wedding was still a few months away, I was paranoid about getting everything done in time. The dresses might require alterations, which would take time to get done. I wasn’t leaving anything to chance.

Mom, Tawny, Hope and Harper met us at the boutique so they could add in their two cents. I had quite the entourage.

“I look fat,” I said, pouting in the mirror.

“You’re not fat,” Darah, Renee, Jos, Megan, Tawny, Hope and my mom said in unison.

“You look purty, Taylor,” Harper said, giving me a thumbs up.

But all I could see in the mirror was belly. Since I was going to be seven months along when I wore this dress, I’d brought a fake belly to add over the one I already had so I could get the fit right.

“So this one is a no?” Stacey, my consultant asked.

“Yeah, I feel like it’s just not right.” I felt bad for being so picky, but this was her job and I was pretty sure she got paid well for it.

She helped me navigate back to the dressing room. This was the third dress I’d tried on and so far I wasn’t feeling it. Unfortunately, my options as a pregnant bride were a little limited. Not that I had really cared what kind of dress I was going to wear before now. I knew some girls planned out their weddings when they were five, but I never had. So now I was totally lost and had no idea what I wanted.

“Don’t get discouraged. We have a lot to try on yet,” Stacey said. She was painfully upbeat and it was almost making things worse.

Stacey helped me out of previous dress and grabbed the next. This one had lace sleeves up top and then a little ribbon just before it flowed out into soft tulle. I loved the ivory color. I didn’t want a glowing white dress and not because of that whole white-purity thing. It just didn’t look good on me.

“Oh,” I said as Stacey arranged the skirt and finished tugging here and pulling there.

“I don’t look like a walking belly,” I said, totally amazed.

“It’s gorgeous on you, really.” She was paid to say that, but I could tell she really meant it. “Want to go show?” I nodded.

I really liked this one, but I wanted to see what everyone else thought. This dress definitely wasn’t what I would have initially chosen, but the longer I had it on, the more I loved it.

The minute I came around the corner, my little entourage gasped. My mom put both hands to her mouth and tears formed in her eyes.

“Stop it,” I said, pointing at her. Now I was getting choked up.

“It’s so beautiful, Tay,” Darah said.

“It’s perfect,” Renee added. Jos gave me a thumbs up and blew me a kiss, while Megan sobbed into a tissue. Tawny, Hope and Mom were clutching onto each other. Harper clapped her hands in glee. It was all very dramatic and wonderful at the same time.

I looked at myself in the mirror and turned side to side.

Perfect. It was perfect. You could still tell I was pregnant, but a pregnant woman wearing a beautiful dress.

“And now we’re going to ‘jack you up’ as we say in the business,” Stacey said, pulling my hair back, pinning it in a loose bun. Then she added the veil. I didn’t want my face covered, but I did want there to be something.

She spread the veil over my shoulders and I lost it. I wanted to blame the hormones, but that wasn’t all of it.

“I’m guessing by the reaction that we like this one,” Stacey said, handing out tissues.

“That’s an understatement,” Mom said, wiping her eyes and then blowing her nose. “Kid, you look so beautiful and I’m so proud of you.” That just made me cry harder. I wiped and wiped my eyes so I wouldn’t drip on the dress.

“Hunter is going to shit his pants,” Tawny said and Mom didn’t even admonish her for cursing in public.

We all laughed and then things calmed down a little.

“Do you want to try on any more, or is this it?” Stacey asked.

“This is it,” I said. “This is definitely it.”

W
ith my dress safely tucked into a garment bag, it was time to find dresses for my bridesmaids, maid of honor, Hope and Mom. Harper’s dress was being custom-made and would be arriving in a week or so. Hope, saint that she was had found it on Etsy and I’d just fallen in love. It had already been a long day, so I was relieved to put my feet up and let them do the work while I watched Harper, who was attempting to touch all of the dresses in the store.

For colors, I wanted to go with the shades from a peacock feather. I mean, what else would I do?

Mom found an absolutely stunning royal blue lace dress that made her look like she was my older sister, and Tawny found an olive green silk dress that made her skin glow. Jos, Renee, Megan and Darah found dresses in different styles, all in varying shades of blue from light to turquoise. Hope’s dress was an unbelievable shade of blue silk that was almost purple. It made my head hurt how gorgeous she looked.

They all stood together in front of me.

“Momma, you’re a princess,” Harper said and Hope blushed.

“Thank you, sweetheart.”

“Wow. You are all ridiculously beautiful. How did that happen?” They laughed. I was shocked that I got not only my dress, but all of their dresses in the same day. That just didn’t happen ever.

We all went out to dinner together to celebrate.

“Have you guys picked out names?” Mom asked. I groaned.

“We’re making a short list, but we are not telling anyone because we can name our children without the input of the peanut gallery, thank you very much,” I said, glaring at all of them.

“We just don’t want you giving your kids crazy names. What’s wrong with that?” Renee said.

“When you become a human factory, then you can be in charge of naming babies. But these two are ours.” I put my hand on my belly and one of the babies gave me a little bump, as if to say “That’s right, Mom.”

“I think we should have a toast,” Tawny said. “To Taylor and Hunter and the two little Zaccadellis. May their lives be filled with hope and happiness.” We clinked our glasses together and I thanked them all for being such good sports.

Not one of them had hesitated when I’d sprung the idea on them. They’d just dropped everything and asked how they could help.

I was so beyond lucky.

W
e hit the jackpot the next day at the craft store when we found bundles of peacock feathers.

“What if we do them as arrangements with these flowers,” Megan had suggested. She had already done a bunch of planning for her own wedding, so she’d brought me a stack of magazines and sent me tons of pictures to get me inspired. Along with the feathers, we found containers for the centerpieces, ribbons, bows, candles and a kit to etch wineglasses with our names and the date on them as favors.

We also found a purple headband that we were going to put feathers on for Harper, who was going to be our flower girl. Her dress was white with colored ribbons flowing from a belt that had a peacock feather on it. Hope had sent me a video of Harper wearing it and singing “Here comes the bride” at the top of her lungs. It was going to be so painfully cute.

By the end of day two, I was so tired I wanted to cry, but we had gotten so much done. Mom had taken the gowns and all the other supplies to stash at her house. The only things left to deal with were the cake, the menu and making sure that everything made it to the location and got set up on time. Thankfully, I had minions for a lot of that.

I was starting to feel like this idea hadn’t been completely insane in the first place.

“This is so cool,” Jos said, sitting next to me on the couch. I had my head resting on my hand and the other on my belly. Spawns were dancing away in there.

“Yeah? You don’t think it’s sappy?” She laughed.

“Of course it is. That’s what makes it so great. Seriously, Hunter is going to die.” I honestly didn’t know how he would react. I just hoped he was going to be happy.

It was a little weird planning everything without him, but I knew he would have just told me to do whatever I wanted anyway. He was good like that.

“I hope he loves it,” I said through a yawn.

“He will. He definitely will.”

T
he boys came home from their weekend none the wiser that we had done anything but sit around, watch movies and paint our toenails.

Hunter came back much more relaxed and I kicked myself for not making him go sooner. The two of us were going to be parents, but that didn’t mean we weren’t still people. It was hard to remember that I was still Taylor when all I could think about was Spawns.

T
he weeks dragged on and Spawns, and by extension I, got bigger. I worried every single at appointment that Dr. Howard would tell me that something was wrong with one or both of the babies, but so far everything was progressing just the way it should be. The wedding plans were moving along as well. I’d finalized the menu, picked the cake (one main cake—half chocolate with Nutella filling and half red velvet—in tiers of peacock colors, along with cupcakes to supplement.) We’d also gotten a lot of the centerpieces done.

More than once, Hunter caught me talking details with one or more of my friends, but I just told him that it was baby stuff and he seemed to accept that. I thought it was because he was so distracted by everything, including the addition.