Chapter 19

Today was the day. I was getting married to Will again. He has booked a castle for us. We all were rushing here and there. My bridesmaids, maid of honour and bride's man were all ready. I wore my dress and walked into the room. Everyone's jaws fell to the ground.

"Vans wow!" they said and I laughed. I enjoyed getting married out of choice to him. The wedding organiser called the bridesmaids and everyone assembled. They walked in hand in hand with the groomsmen.

"When the bride is ready," The wedding organiser said and I took a deep breath. This was it. I was getting married to him. I hold my dad's hand and the doors open for me.

It was an outdoor wedding which had a canopy formed by plants. The centre of it was a stage surrounded with water. I walk in and everyone stands up. The brides song starts and I looked at Will. He looked really happy and he had happy tears. I remembered how he said that he wouldn't cry for me when I will walk in the last time we got married and now he was crying.

His eyes didn't even leave me once this time. My dad gives my hand to Will and he leads me onstage.

"Friends and Family of the Bride and Groom welcome and thank you for being here on this important day. We are gathered together to celebrate the very special love between Vanessa and William, by joining them in marriage.

All of us need and desire to love and to be loved. And the highest form of love between two people is within a monogamous, committed relationship.

Vanessa and William, your marriage today is the public and legal joining of your souls that have already been united as one in your hearts.

Marriage will allow you a new environment to share your lives together, standing together to face life and the world, hand-in-hand. Marriage is going to expand you as individuals, define you as a couple, and deepen your love for one another.

To be successful, you will need strength, courage, patience and a really good sense of humour. So, let your marriage be a time of waking each morning and falling in love with each other all over again," the Officiant welcomed everyone. Will mouthed an 'I Love You' and I returned it back.

"Do you have your vows William?" he asks and he nods.

"When I met you, I had no idea how much my life was going to change. But then, how could I have known? A love like ours happens once in a lifetime. You were a godsend to me, the one who was everything I had ever hoped for, the one I thought existed only in my imagination.
When you came into my life, I realized that what I had always thought was happiness, couldn't compare to the joy loving you has brought me. You are a part of everything I do, everything I think and feel, and with you by my side; I believe that we can overcome anything.
We have already faced a life changing event that most don't experience until much later in life. Although it doesn't seem like it at times, but I consider us quite lucky. Because of this journey that we involuntarily signed up for, I can say with absolute confidence that a year that should have been the worst of my life, turned out to be the best.

I know that sounds unbelievable to those listening, but you and I know what a gift we've truly been given. For me, the gift was your unwavering support. You made me look into your eyes before each meeting and repeat after you, "I'm going to be okay." As I stand here in front of you today, I can look into your eyes and I can promise you that we are going to have a lifetime of being more than just okay.

Because of you, I laugh, I smile and I dare to dream more than I ever have. Thank you for the miracle of you. You are, and always will be, the love of my life, my soul mate, my person," he says and I was in tears.

"Nessie, What can I say that I haven't already said? What can I provide you that I haven't already given? My body, my mind, my soul and my heart. They're all yours. Everything that I have and everything that I am, belonged to you long before today. And I promise that it shall all be yours forever. I will be yours forever. I will follow you anywhere you go and anywhere lead me to. Hand in hand. Heart in heart. Let's get on with this so that we can grow old together!" he said and everyone cheered. This was probably the first time they have seen Will express his feelings. It was now my turn.

"Will, of all the people you've met on your journey and of all the places you've been, somehow and some way, you ended up here—with me. It is the most powerful and humbling fact that I can accept.

I used to think that we met by chance but now I know without a doubt that the universe put you in front of me because we were meant to spend our lives together.

You have filled my life with joy and have given me a sense of peace that I have never known.

You are my best friend, my biggest supporter, and... the best backup singer and dancer a girl could ask for," I say and everyone laughs. Everyone knew that he started singing and even danced for me.
Although today marks the start to the rest of our lives, I know it will not be enough time with you.

I will not take our time together for granted. And because words cannot do it, I promise to show you, for the rest of my life, how much I love you.
I promise to encourage you to follow your dreams.
I promise to make you laugh when you are taking yourself too seriously.
I promise to hold your hand through the good times and through the bad times.
I promise to be loyal and faithful and to put you before all else.
I promise to never stop making up songs for you. Although, I know you wish I would.
And I promise that when we are old and grey, we will look back on our lives together and we have no regrets.
...From this day forward, you will never walk alone," I say smiling and he squeezed my hand. The ring bearers brought our rings and I hold mine.

"With this ring, I thee wed," we say as we slip the rings onto our fingers. I look at mine and realise that my engagement ring and my wedding ring was customized just for me. I smile and look at Will who was grinning.

"Do you take Ms Vanessa Beckett as your lovingly wedded wife?" he asked Will. "I do," he said and it was my turn.

"Do you Ms Vanessa take Mr William Gifford as your lovingly wedded husband?" he asked and I nod.

"I do," I say and we smirk at each other.

"It is such an honour to be officiating your wedding sir and ma'am and with the power vested in me, I pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss your bride," he says and I move forward for the kiss. Will makes a drop and kisses me and everyone cheers.

We walk down the aisle, hand in hand in love this time rather than walking away like total strangers like last time. We cut the cake which was made by the best Pastry chef in France and the Party started.

"Today is a very special day for making memories and to celebrate your love for each other.I know you have had your own relationship challenges already but I admire how your
collective sense of purpose and willingness to hold on has kept your hearts still ablaze with love's refining fire.

That to me is very crucial to building a formidable marriage.

Marriage is a test of real love and you should expect both good and bad times, including some rough storms. Riding through these storms together, leaning on each other for strength and courage as allies, strengthens the marriage bonds.

As long as you weather the storms together, your marriage will endure. No matter what, keep your sense of humour and you'll make it through these storms just fine, with love

So, don't forget to still love -it -out so your love for each other grows so strong each and every day.

May you come to love each other like never before and may you grow in love so
your kids can feel the warmth that comes from your tender hearts.

I wish you well and God bless you," my parents say and I smile.

"I may be a little more than biased, but I am sure I am not alone when I say that [groom] is a person who is kind and generous. He has a heart of gold.

As Will's parents, it can be very tempting to take all of the credit for the wonderful person that he has grown up to be. While we did our best to be great parents and to raise him with good values in a loving home, at the end of the day, we are not responsible for the person he is today.

The plain truth of the matter is that Will is the main person responsible for who he is now. And this person that sits before all of us today is a person of exceptional character. He is a beautiful individual, inside and out and I am so blessed to be his mother. I could not have asked for him to be any better than he is.

Believe me, I do not just say this because he is my son. He is someone who I know makes the world a better, happier place. But Vanessa, she makes him even better than he was before because she just brings out the very best qualities in him.

Just when I thought my son could not be happier, Vanessa came along and changed his world for the better. And during their relationship, she made him want to be the best person that he could be. And I really do thank her for that. Thank you Vanessa," his parents say and walk down the stage.

"Good evening everyone! I hope you're all having a lovely evening and I'd like to thank you all for coming out and celebrating with us tonight.

I'd like to take a few moments to talk to you about my best friend, Vanessa, and her old husband, Will," she says and we laugh.

I've been Vanessa's best friend since we were little girls. I remember how we used to play dress-up and dream of the weddings we would have when we were grown up. I'm sure that the wedding that has taken place here today far surpasses the childhood dreams I know Vanessa had about her big day!

Vanessa is one of the most loving, caring and kind people I've ever met. She has a fantastic sense of humour and a sharp wit — so look out, Will! All kidding aside, though, I couldn't be happier to honour my best friend on her wedding day.

I wish you two all the love and happiness in the world. How blessed you are to celebrate your love on this beautiful day. I know there are many happy years of love and togetherness ahead for you.

Let's all raise our glasses to the bride and groom, and wish them a lifetime of love and joy!" Spencer says and we gets off stage.

"Well if you haven't guessed I'm Elijah and for those at the back if you can't hear me, don't worry. You won't be missing much.

The best man has three main jobs on the wedding day: get the groom there on time; don't lose the rings and giving a side splitting speech, to paraphrase Meatloaf "I will do anything for love... but two out of three ain't bad"

I level with you here, that's probably one of the funniest jokes I've got, so if you didn't find it funny, well, the next four to six minutes are going to be very long.

Will and I meet nearly 13 years ago and when Vans and Will announced that they were giving their marriage another chance and that they were getting married again, I was over joyed, and even more so when Will asked me to be his best man. But, naturally I did have some questions. What had I done to deserve such an honour? What would I need to do? ...Then it dawned on me he just wanted to look taller on the photos. Well I say dawned on me, within two minutes he came out and said it.

I asked other people that know him to give me words to describe him: Arrogant, selfish, vain, you can't really argue with someone's mother can you? He was an asshole to Vanessa too but the fact that she changed him into what he is now is incredible. Thanks Vans," he says and I smile.

"I have pretty much called him every four letter word and insult but loyal is always in there. The few times I have needed to turn to someone, he's been there.

The day of course has gone so smoothly and beautifully. And everyone has played their part, the gorgeous bridesmaids, my fellow best-man, the great families and of course the stunning Bride, Vans. But thanks need to go to the rest of you who have all turned out to support Will and Vans even on a Thursday, because there's no better way to thin a guest list than a mid-week wedding.

I'll admit I don't know Vanessa very well, in fact I had only met her thrice or so, but you can see the joy on his face when he talks about her how much she means to him. In the past few months, Will has become a much better-rounded person and I would put that down to Vanessa.

I have been blessed to be surrounded by happy marriages, some long, some still relatively new and I would like to be able to count this one in that, which means I would really like to give Will and Vans some marriage advice. However, to my parents' disappointment, I'm single. I'm fine with it, it has been a series of choices for me to be single, choices granted not made by me... so, always salt your pasta!?

We can find people that we enjoy being around but we can also find someone that we have such strong emotional ties to that we want to spent the rest of our lives with and throw huge party to celebrate the fact that two people have such passion for each other, and I find that amazing.

I have been given the final speech and so have the honour of giving the final toast. So would you all join me in raising your glasses to not only the wonderful couple but to the many years of happy marriage I wish for them," he says and we hugged him.

It was time for our first dance and Will took my hand.

"You look wonderful in that dress," he says and I blush.

"Thank you and you look as handsome as ever," I say as I kiss his jaw.

"You know, I did everything quite opposite to the first time we got married?" he asked and I nod.

"I remember everything. How you said you wouldn't cry as you saw me walk down the aisle. How you didn't look at me once let alone being nice to me and now here you are, doing everything differently," I say and he smirks.

"I love you Nessie," he says and I was so happy.

"I love you too Will and I swear I will kick your ass if I see you anywhere near that Penelope bitch again," I say and he laughs.

"Never my love. I am all yours now," he says kissing me and I kiss him back, smiling. I guess this was what I always asked for.

Life didn't go the way I hoped for but at the end I know that I have a husband who loves me as much as I do. I agree that we had our troubles but we learnt how to overcome it. I am so happy that we gave our love a second chance and we ended up here.

The End