Page 10 of Our Big White Lie
“Let’s, um…” I cleared my throat. “Look, we don’t need anything huge and fancy. You and Dad are super generous, and I appreciate it, but let’s maybe… see if we can stay under that amount? Likewayunder it?”
“I’m onboard with that,” Tori said without hesitation. “Plus, I’ve seen what people can do on shoestring budgets. It makes it more special and personal, you know? Like DIY stuff and hiring friends?”
“That’s a wonderful idea,” Mom said. “But don’t think you have to go inexpensive on something. This is your wedding—if you want it, wewillmake it happen.”
I fought back a wince. Tori and I had enough to fund a reasonably nice wedding, and the less of my parents’ money we spent, the better. “I’m sure we can keep it to our budget. I don’t want to spend?—”
“Ava. Honey.” Mom took my hand and squeezed it. “I only have one little girl. I never thought you’d even want a wedding, but now that you’re having one, I want to splurge.”
My throat tightened. “But… I don’t want to go nuts over… I mean, it’s just one day, you know?”
“It is. But it’s a big, important day.” Mom glanced at Tori. “I want you both to have the day that makes you the happiest. If that means writing a few checks…” She waved a hand. “I don’t care.”
My head swam. Crap. Where was I supposed to draw the line now? I didn’t want to cheap out on this, but I also didn’t want to spend all my parents’ money on something that wasn’t real.
Tori collected her thoughts before I did. “Okay, so that gives us a budgetceiling. We know how much we potentially have to work with, but we can still be frugal about things.” She paused.“Like, the officiant—maybe we could ask Marco?” She turned to me. “What do you think?”
“Oh! He’d be perfect!”
“Marco?” Mom asked.
“Myotherbest friend.” Tori smiled. “He can perform weddings.”
“You met him last summer,” I told Mom. “He came to the Fourth of July barbecue with his husband.”
Mom’s eyes lost focus. “Was he… which one was he? The one with the tattoos?”
“No, that was Josh. Marco was?—”
“Oh!” Mom straightened. “The one who burned his finger lighting fireworks!”
I snorted. “Yep. That’s Marco.”
“Oh, okay. Well, he’s lovely, so if he wants to do it, then…” Mom put the officiant information on a chair so it was out of the way. “One less thing to worry about.”
“Assuming he’s onboard,” I said.
“I’m pretty sure he will be.” Tori was already typing out a text. “I’ll grab coffee with him tomorrow and see what he says.”
“Perfect. Do you know what he charges?”
She gave a haughty scoff. “He’ll get wine and cake, and he’lllikeit.”
I giggled. “Fair enough.” That man was forever in Tori’s debt. An actual therapist would’ve made bank charging for all the hours she’d spent listening to him and giving him advice, and she’d saved him an absurd amount of money by fixing both his and his husband’s laptops. He’d invoice us for this at his own peril.
Okay, wewouldpay him if he actually charged us anything, but we’d also give him grief about it until the end of time.
Marco wasn’t clergy—he wasn’t even religious—but he’d done whatever paperwork the state required so he could officiatesome of our friends’ weddings. He was also super close to Tori; he’d probably be thrilled to marry her, and having him do the honors would no doubt mean a lot to her whether this was real or not.
Worked for me.
With an officiant potentially squared away, we started working our way through the stack of potential vendors. I’d always known weddings were a ton of work, but it blew my mind how manydecisionshad to be made. We had to figure out a color scheme and then filter every other decision through that—the invitations, flowers, décor, the damn napkin rings or whatever.
“Oh myGod,” Tori muttered. “Why is this all socomplicated?”
“Because it’s a wedding,” Mom chirped. “You do all the grunt work now, and it pays off in a beautiful party and gorgeous photos.” She winked at Tori. “It’ll all be worth it—trust me.”
Tori and I both made disgruntled noises, which got a laugh out of Mom.
