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The Victorians were the ones who took weddings—as they did almost everything—to a whole other level. The industrial revolution proved that just about anything could be mass-produced, and soon savvy merchants realized that they could convince their wealthier customers not to be content with mere home-baked wedding cakes and homespun bridal gowns… no!
Now, instead of needing bridesmaids to trick evil spirits or as armed warriors, the modern bride needed them to help with invitations, choosing the cake, floral arrangements, her gown, their gowns—you name it. Pretty crafty of those shop owners, huh?
And so the wedding as we know it today was born. Alleluia… or curses, as the case may be.
Tip to Avoid a Wedding Day Disaster
Wedding costs breakdown, or—who pays for what (Remember, this is traditionally. With today’s more modern couples opting to pay for their weddings themselves, things are changing. But up until recently, the norm was the following):
The Bride:
Thank-you gifts for the maid of honor, bridesmaids, and hostess
The wedding gown, headpiece, and accessories
The groom’s ring
Flower-girl basket and ring-bearer pillow
Hotel accommodations for any attendants who will be arriving from out of town
The Groom:
The marriage license
Thank-you gifts for the best man and groomsmen
The bride’s engagement ring
The bride’s wedding ring
Clothing (tuxedo rental) and accessories
The bride’s flowers
Corsages for mothers/grandmothers and bouto
Clergyman/officiant fee
Limousine service/transportation to and from the wedding and reception
Hotel accommodations for any groomsmen who will be arriving from out of town
The Bride and Groom:
Wedding pictures
Miscellaneous accessories (wedding favors, goblets, napkins/ printed items)
Thank-you gifts for the flower girl and ring bearer
Thank-you cards
Any overnight accommodations for themselves
Their honeymoon arrangements, unless another relative or friend offers to pay for it as a wedding gift
Parents of the Groom:
Dress/suit and accessories
The rehearsal di
Their hotel accommodations
Bridesmaids:
Dresses and accessories
Wedding shower
Groomsmen:
Clothing (tuxedo rental) and accessories
Bachelor party
Parents of the Flower Girl/Ring Bearer:
Dress, suit/tuxedo rental, and accessories
Hotel accommodations if arriving from out of town
Parents of the Bride:
Everything else
LIZZIE NICHOLS DESIGNS™
• Chapter 11 •
Marriage is the perfection of what love aimed at, ignorant of what it sought.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803−1882), American essayist, poet, and leader of the Transcendentalist movement
“What are you and Luke fighting about?” Ava wants to know. She’s cradling Snow White on her slim, ta
“Just wedding stuff,” I lie to her, although I know I should be nicer and tell her the truth, since she has, in a sense, just rescued me. The only problem is… I don’t know what the truth is, exactly.
And I actually have more pressing concerns at the moment. Like why I’m in a stretch limo with Ava Geck.
“Ava, what are you doing here?” I ask. “Why aren’t you in Greece?”
“I couldn’t go through with it,” Ava says simply, then gasps and seizes my arm. “Oh my God! What happened to you? Lizzie—has Luke been beating you?”
I look down at the hives, which have now broken out all over the insides of both my arms. In a way, they do resemble bruises.
“No,” I say with a laugh, because the idea of Luke ever hitting me is so absurd. I could probably knock him clear into New Jersey. “They’re just hives. I get them every time I think about… you know.”
“Butt sex?” Ava asks understandingly.
“No,” I cry, ripping my arm from her grasp. “My wedding. And what do you mean, you couldn’t go through with it? You mean you just… canceled your wedding to Prince Aleksandros?”
“That’s about it,” Ava says with a sigh, patting Snow White on the head as the poor dog trembles in the icy blast from the limo’s air conditioner. “I was just boarding Daddy’s private jet, and suddenly it hit me: I’m about to become someone’s wife. I was like… are you shitting me? I’m only twenty-three! I haven’t even been to college. What am I doing, becoming someone’s wife? So I jumped back into the car and I’ve been riding around ever since, trying to get my head together.”
I gaze at Ava, truly touched by her words. Especially since I’m twenty-three too. “So you’ve decided to go to college? Ava, that is so great!”
“Hell, no, I’m not going to college,” Ava says, looking shocked. “Are you kidding me? I’m just saying there’s so many things like going to college that I haven’t done. I’m not throwing my life away yet on some guy, even if he is a prince. I have shit to do. I don’t know what, but… like, I was thinking I should cut an album. Something classy, you know? Like Hilary Duff.”
I blink at her. “Well… yes. Yes, that is definitely something you could do.”
“And I don’t even have my own clothing line yet,” Ava goes on. “My parents own one of the biggest discount department store chains in the world, and I don’t have my own clothing line yet? What the hell am I thinking?”
“Exactly,” I say. “What the hell are you thinking? Although, Ava… you can do all these things and still be married, you know. It’s not like Prince Aleksandros would try to stop you. Not if he really loved you. He’d probably be proud of you.”
“But that’s just it,” Ava says, looking down sadly at Snow White. “I don’t think he would be. You know… this is partly your fault, Lizzie. My having to cancel my wedding, I mean.”
“Me?” I gape at her, horror-struck. “What did I have to do with it?”
“Because since I’ve been coming to you, and you’ve been, like, helping me with my public image and stuff, Alek’s kinda… I don’t know. Lost interest in me. Like he keeps asking me how come I don’t show my cootchie anymore. I think he liked it when I did stuff like that. Because it drove his parents completely insane. They were totally against his marrying me, you know. Which I think only made him more into me. But now that I’ve started to act a little classier, they’ve been a lot nicer to me. And that’s made Alek completely lose interest.”
My jaw sags. Although I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. This explains so much about Ava’s very conservative choices when it came to her wedding gown. And why she’d come to me in the first place. Sure, she could have gone to Vera Wang, but there’d been a small part of her that had still been rebelling… just a little.
It’s all begi
But in doing so, it sounded like she’d turned off her fiancé.
Oops.
“So you’re calling it off,” I say, “before Aleksandros can?”
“That’s just it,” Ava says in disgust. “I don’t think he ever was going to call it off. That’s how gutless he is. Like, he’ll stand up to his parents by marrying a total slut. But he would never call off the wedding to that slut, because that would make him look bad in the press.”
I reach over and give her warm, bare shoulder a reassuring pat. “Ava,” I say. “You’re not a slut.”
“Oh, I totally am,” Ava says matter-of-factly. “But that’s okay. I’d rather be a slut than a dickless hypocrite, like Alek. I’m just sorry about your dress.”