My hair is pulled back into a braided updo, adorned with tiny flowers, and my dress is light, a tulle skirt with floral appliqués on the bodice and around the waist. I’m barefoot, with a rhinestone over-the-top ‘sandal’ that hooks on my toes, and Charlie, waiting at the altar, is barefoot as well.
I hear my cue and I step forward into the next chapter of my life.
As I walk down the aisle, I reflect on our journey, unable to take my eyes off him, looking dapper in his black tuxedo against the backdrop of the clear blue water. I’d told him he didn’t need to go so formal but he said he loved that it made me hot for him when he dressed up, so he had to do it. At the sight of me, Charlie breaks out into a grin, reaching up to wipe his eyes.
I never imagined when I woke up in the hospital that the stranger sitting beside me would become my whole world. I never imagined that I could become whole again or that he would be the one to make me that way.
Looking at him, I barely see the faces of our friends and family that have joined us here, but their presence warms me all the same. Charlie’s mother, stepfather, and brother were delighted to be invited, fences slowly but surely being mended. I’m thankful that he has reconnected with them. Vivian, Ainsley, and Taryn stand to my side, here for the love of both of us.
I barely manage to look back at Vivian as I hand her my bouquet, unable to tear my eyes away from Charlie.
My “Something Old” is a bow woven into my hair, a scrap from my mother’s wedding dress that had survived the fire. We found it during a trip we took to my parents’ house so I could introduce him to them, even if it just meant showing him the place I grew up and going through the boxes of memories that were spared from the flames. The family quilt is resting over a chair in the front row, a photo of my parents sitting on it so I can have them here with me today.
I place my shaky hands in his. Another tear slides down his cheek and I reach up to catch it. He stops me, pressing my hand to his lips.
Our officiant, a friend of Charlie’s from high school who helped Charlie get his new job, starts talking but I can barely hear his words. I get lost in Charlie’s eyes, thinking only of how much I can’t wait to be his wife. He gives my hand a squeeze and I hear my name repeated.
“I’m sorry!” I laugh and wipe at a stray tear, taking the vows handed to me by Vivian and clearing my throat.
“Some people have said that we moved too fast, that we needed more time to get to know each other, but to those people I say, ‘You don’t know us.’ A freak circumstance brought us together, a circumstance that has changed my life in so many ways, most importantly, by bringing you into my life.
“Before I met you, and I can say this with confidence now,” I joke, “I was adrift, barely treading water, unable to keep my head up. It was the blinding light of your car’s headlights that hit the reset button. Because of you, I was able to rediscover myself and I was able to rediscover what it meant to be truly loved and cherished. Every day, I think about how lucky I am to have fallen in love with you. I knew it the first time we kissed. There is no place in the world I would rather be than by your side. There is no adventure too big for us to tackle together. I love you, Charlie Breckenridge. From now until infinity, I bind my life to yours.” I wipe my tears and Charlie takes the vows, sliding them into his pocket.
“Elia Daniels, I love you. I wasted all my best flowery words begging you to take me back, and again when I asked you to marry me, so I apologize if these aren’t the vows you’ve dreamed of.”
We laugh and I can’t help myself. I reach out and cup his face again, his hands closing over mine, holding them there.
“I was asleep in my life before we met. I was going through the motions that I thought I had to go through. Checking boxes I didn’t want to, just for the sake of checking them. The night we met,” he smirks as he says this, as if no one around us knows that his car hit me, “the night we met changed me. It woke me up and I welcomed the challenge of being able to help you heal. So you know I’m already there for the ‘in sickness’ part. You taught me things about myself that I didn’t know: that I like to cook, that I’m a cat guy, and that there is no force great enough to stop me from loving you. I told you once: fate bound us to each other and I wasn’t going to turn my back on something that powerful. Not then, and not now, and not ever,” Charlie clears his throat and wipes at his eyes. I hear his mother start to blubber somewhere off to one side.
“Asking you to be my wife was one of the scariest and most enriching moments of my life. I knew that we had already faced so much together and come out stronger for it and I know that we will face any and all challenges that come our way. I will love you for unlimited lifetimes, as from this day on, I am bound to you.”
Charlie puts his vows in his pocket as well, and we both lean in to kiss, forgetting where we are, but the officiant stops us.
“There is still one more step! Hold on, you two.”
We laugh with him as he asks for the rings. We slide them onto each other's fingers, the waves crashing behind us.
“I now pronounce you partners for life. Now,nowyou can kiss.”
We don’t hesitate. His hand finds the nape of my neck as I stand on my toes to reach his lips. His other hand settles on my side as he dips me backward, instinctively steadying me and holding me so nothing will hurt. Ainsley, Taryn, and Vivian hoot and holler, while my new mother-in-law bawls and cheers. I hope her tears are happy ones, but for the moment, I find I don't much care if they aren’t.
Charlie and I turn from each other and face those who are standing with us. Our loved ones watch us as we walk back down the aisle, hand in hand, into the rest of our lives.