That Wedding (39 page)

We laugh. Ashley's wedding was very yellow.

"Let's go shopping today," I suggest.

"But the Husker game is on soon, and I thought you had a party to go to?"

"Even better," I sort of shock myself by saying. "That means the stores won't be crowded. And we see Neil all the time. It won't kill us to miss it."

Somehow, possibly a miracle sent down from God himself, I'm able to convince Phillip and Mr. Mac that they need to skip watching the game and come with us.

That it's important.

Mrs. Mac sweetened the deal when she promised to record the game and make her gorgonzola stuffed burgers with mushroom wine sauce for dinner. Who could refuse that?

Mrs. Mac and Ashely have been shopping in bridal stores, looking at typical mother-of-the-groom dresses. I suggested we look at holiday dresses instead. Phillip whined and said he couldn't shop on an empty stomach, so we headed to an upscale mall and had lunch first. We even had wine. I joked and told Phillip since he was whining, he needed wine.

As we walk out of the restaurant and head toward the dress shop, Phillip says, "Hey, do you mind if Dad and I go to the jewelry store while you try on dresses?"

I was ready to lay into Phillip because the whole point of this shopping trip is to find his mom a dress and not sneak off to the jewelry store, where they're probably hoping to find a TV.

Phillip's mom looks at me, sees I'm about it blow, and says happily, "That sounds like a plan. We'll text you when we find something."

She makes a beeline to the dress shop, so I follow along. When we get out of earshot of the guys, she grabs my arm. "JJ, you never, EVER, tell your man NOT to go in a jewelry store. Seriously."

And I realize she probably has a point.

We go to a great little boutique that's fully stocked with holiday dresses, so we have a lot of nice dresses to choose from.

"Do you have a preference as to what color I wear?" she asks.

"What do you think would look good?"

"Well, I showed my friends a picture of the bridesmaids dresses and told them your colors. They thought either silver, light purple, dark purple, or black."

"Hmm, I love black dresses, but I'm afraid you'd blend in with the boys. Your son is getting married. I think you should stand out."

With that remark, I make her cry. "I'm so lucky to be getting you for a daughter-in-law," she tells me while wiping the corners of her eyes.

With our criteria in mind, we enlist the salesperson's help and find six dresses for her to try on, but kinda like with my dress, one just stands out.

The dress is a gorgeous deep purple color. It's strapless with an empire waist, and the skirt flows perfectly over her curves. The bodice sparkles with matching purple beading, and the color looks beautiful with her complexion. Phillip's mom is looking hot, honestly, in this dress.

She loves it. She's grinning, holding the skirt, and twirling around. "Do you think I'm too old to wear a dress like this? Everything Ashley and I tried on at the bridal store looked much more matronly. I'm the mother, can I wear a dress that looks like I belong in a nightclub singing?" But then she's like, "But look at the way it twirls when I dance, and it's surprisingly lightweight even with the beading. What do you think?"

"You haven't tried them all on yet, but this is my favorite. You look gorgeous, and I don't think you should look matronly. You certainly don't look old enough to have a son who's getting married."

"You just sold me," she giggles. "But this is fun. I think I'll try on the rest."

"Let me take pic of you and send it to Mrs. D, so we can get her opinion."

I take a pic of her and send it off. She's in a silver sequined gown that's so heavy she can hardly walk when Mrs. D texts back,
LOVE IT!!

She tries on the other dresses then puts the purple one back on. I text Phillip to come look at it.

Phillip says, "Damn, Mom, are you sure that dress isn't too sexy?"

Mrs. Mac blushes, and I could've sworn I saw Mr. Mac slide him a twenty.

After she buys the dress, Phillip says, "Hey, we haven't registered yet, and they have great dishes. Wanna go register? We also need to look at wedding bands."

I've been dreading registering because Lori told me I needed to picture what kind of dishes I would want to serve my children holiday dinners on. What dishes I want to feed Phillip a lovingly made dinner from every night. What color my kitchen would be, so my mixer would match.

Registering felt like an overwhelming task, but it wasn't.

We walked in, looked at the fine china patterns, looked at each other, and said, "That one." Then we picked out flatware, and Phillip's dad picked out a stemware pattern that I love. It's gorgeous heavy crystal, but the glass is cut in a modern way.

Phillip's mom showed us the items that she loves to use when entertaining, and those things that are too much of a hassle to deal with. Like real silver. Yes, it's shiny and gorgey in the store, but who has time to deal with it?

And instead of registering being a chore, it was a breeze. I think Phillip and I were just overwhelmed with all of the possibilities and here, with their help, all the picks we made, made sense. She even suggested we register for a few holiday pieces. She said people will love knowing we'll use them every year.

When we were done, Phillip took me over to look at wedding bands. I was a bit overwhelmed by all the sparkle in the case, but I didn't see one that was slightly curved like my ring. "I don't think any of these will fit my ring. I don't really need a wedding band, Phillip. My engagement ring is enough."

"No way, Princess. You're not getting out of wearing a wedding band that easy. I want everyone to know you're married." He touches my ring finger. "I also heard you talking to Lori about what kind of band you thought would look pretty, so I had one made. We snuck over here earlier to see if it was finished. Wanna see it?"

I have to control myself not to jump up and down in the middle of the store and scream,
Of course, I wanna see it!!!

A salesperson brings out a box and sets it in front of me. I slowly open the lid.

"Holy shit!" I say loudly. Everyone in the store turns to stare at me.

I lower my head and say breathlessly, "Phillip, it's gorgeous."

My engagement ring has an X on each side that's filled with baguette diamonds. The wedding band has three rows of the same baguettes. I take my engagement ring off, so I can try it on.

Phillip slides the band on my finger. "Just think, the next time I put this ring on your finger, we'll be saying our vows. What do you think about writing our own vows?"

I'm pretty sure I'd agree to just about anything right now. Vows, murder, cheating, armed robbery, yeah, whatever, I'm in.

I hold the ring up, watch it sparkle in the lights, and then put my engagement ring on top of it. "Sure, Phillip. Vows, yeah, we can do that." I look at my hand some more. "Wow, this is pretty amazing."

"I think you're just easy to impress with a little bling."

He gives me a sweet kiss on the cheek while I think,
This is a hell of a lot more than a little bling
.

I decide to take a lesson from Mrs. Mac and not say a word. Because if he wants to think this is a little bling, I can't imagine the day he tries to impress me with some big bling.

We're worn out from our annual Thanksgiving football game and stuffed from Thanksgiving dinner, but we headed to the bar to meet up with our friends. It's become a tradition too.

Danny and Lori are in town, so they joined us.

I ask Lori, "Have you thought of any baby names yet?"

"A few. I kinda like Sloan or Carly for a girl. And we've been thinking about some meaningful names. Like Hayden Fry was a great football coach, so Danny thought Hayden might be cool for a boy. I don't know that much about football, so I suggested Madden."

"I love that name!"

"I do too, but he thought it was hilarious that the only name I knew was from an Xbox game. Of course, he idolizes Tom Osborne, the great Husker coach, but I don't care for either Tom or Osborne as a first name. Danny thought Osborne Diamond sounded super awesome. I didn't mind that until he told me he'd call the kid Ozzy. Um, no. I don't think so."

Phillip, who's been drinking all day and is a little tipsy, says sillily, "I know! You could name your daughter Carat. Get it? Carat Diamond."

Katie and Lisa both say at the same time, "Hope! What about Hope Diamond?"

I didn't partake in the drinking today.

I know, shocker, right?

I didn't drink earlier because I'm so competitive when it comes to the annual football game. Then after the game, when I was stuffing myself with turkey and all sorts of other goodies, I kept drinking water. I'm hoping the water will absorb some of the hundred million calories I consumed and will quickly flush them out of my body. I want to make sure my wedding dress fits!!

Phillip's doing shots with the boys, so I'm being responsible and am just sipping on a martini. I wanted a raspberry martini, but Lori made me get a cosmopolitan just so she could smell it. After a few minutes of her sniffing my drink, I begged the bartender for a nonalcoholic version. Now she's torn between loving the feel of the martini glass in her hand and being horrified that people will think she's drinking alcohol.

She rolls her eyes at Phillip's suggestion of Carat Diamond and continues our conversation. "I think Damon is my favorite for a boy."

"Damon Diamond. I like that."

"Another Big D," Joey says, slapping Danny on the back.

"Really, it should be Double D," I stupidly say. It causes all the guys to hoot and holler.

What is it about boys and boobs?

Neil yells, "Double D! Aw yeah, baby. Gotta love those. You should definitely pick a D name for your daughter. Lori's got big cans, maybe your daughter will too."

All the guys laugh and start coming up with D names. They throw out Darcy, Daisy, Daniella, and Dani."

Danny says, "We can't give a girl the same name as me, that would be dumb. I do think Destiny would be kinda cute though."

Joey giggles. "Destiny Diamond. That totally sounds like a stripper name. That'd be so hot."

"You know, I've kinda been freaking out over being a father, but then I read in a men's magazine somewhere that as long as you can keep your son off the pipe and your daughter off the pole, that you've done a good job."