Shells

Chapter 57

Premise: 1 year later-- the wedding!

Song: A Thousand Years by Christina Perri (but I would wait to start it until Lydia starts walking down the aisle)

For so much of their youth, Lydia and JJ willed time to go by faster because the faster that time went, the closer they got to being free from their father's. But they had no idea how quickly time would begin to fly once they had finally been freed. When JJ proposed to Lydia, they started wedding planning right away because they wanted to do it next summer and a year is not a lot of time for planning.

It wasn't surprising that they wanted a beach wedding, but they wanted to make it different from all the other beaches they had been on. So, they had planned their wedding to happen in Hawaii. All of the pogues had managed their cut from the gold very well, so they could all afford it.

(a/n see below for the collage of all the things I will inevitably fail at describing accurately)

Even though they were traveling pretty far for the wedding, they still wanted something simple. The beach was set up with pink flowers lining the aisle and at the end, there was a pergola that had pretty pink curtains on it. Of course the bridesmaid dresses were pink and had off the shoulder sleeves. JJ then matched his tie to the pink and the bouquet Lydia would carry was full of varying shades of pink flowers.

Finding Lydia's dress was fairly simple. The girls took a trip over to Chapel Hill one day and Lydia instantly fell in love with a dress. It was mostly lace with a pretty flower pattern, flowy sleeves that went to her elbows, and a v-neck cut on both the back and the front of the dress.

Picking out their wedding bands was probably one of the easiest parts of planning. They knew they didn't want something traditional and JJ liked the idea of doing a black band for himself (to match all the other rings he wore) and a silver band for Lydia (to match the engagement ring). They also got the others' names engraved on the inside, along with their wedding date (Lydia had JJ engraved and vice versa).

Before they knew it, they were in Hawaii, on the day of their wedding, getting ready. For once in her life, Lydia wasn't anxious. Her relationship with JJ was always the one thing that she was absolutely sure of. If anything, Lydia was anxiously waiting to officially be his wife.

"Okay, and that covers your makeup and hair" said the woman they hired to do all the girls' makeup.

"Are you ready to get in your dress?" Kie squealed, both her and Sarah were already in their dresses

"Yes, please! God I am so ready to see JJ and be his wife" Lydia walked over and unzipped the bag that her dress was hanging in

"He's definitely going to burst into tears when he sees you" Sarah noted

As simple as Lydia's dress was, it took two people to help her get into it. There were buttons down the back that needed to be buttoned, and there was a zipper. Not to mention Lydia isn't the most coordinated of people. But eventually they did get her into the dress and ready to walk down the aisle.

JJ and Lydia spent a lot of time talking about whether or not Lydia wanted to walk down the aisle alone, and if she didn't, who they would ask to do so. Lydia thought about asking Katrina but their relationship really hadn't progressed all that much and she was still invited to the wedding. After a long phone call with Pope, Lydia and JJ had decided that they wanted to ask Heyward to do it.

Heyward was never very expressive of his emotions, but he cried like a baby when they asked him. He felt so honored that they thought of him, after watching the both of them grow up together. They also invited Mike and Anna Carrera because they had been so good to Lydia over the years. And Wheezie, now an 18 year old, finally free from Tannyhill, was asked to be the ring bearer since they literally ran out of friends to put in that role. Their wedding, much like their friend group, would be fairly small.