My Almost Wedding

We were supposed to get married today.

It was going to be a smallish ceremony; we’d whittled the guest list down to eighty (of course you were on it) but we couldn’t seem to get it any smaller because one of us has a giant family and the other one of us manages to make a soul connection with every person he meets, and it’s real, and of course they should come to our wedding, it wouldn’t be the same otherwise.

We’d rented a very pretty pavilion whose windows looked out on gentle hills and a placid lake, which we imagined would look serene in the winter.

I was going to wear — well, I hadn’t found it yet. I was imagining a cross between Dolly Parton and Elsa from Frozen. I had an Archie comic book when I was a kid where Veronica was elected the Snow Queen and Betty was the Snow Queen Runner-Up, and their ensembles were iconic and also on my vision board. I imagined a fur-lined cape. I imagined sequins. I imagined excellent boots.

He was also going to look beautiful, but frankly, it’s easier for him. He’d bookmarked some excellent vintage tuxedo jackets on EBay. He’s tall and thin, so everything drapes.

We were going to arrange our guests in a circle and have all of them give us away. We were brainstorming our own group ceremony. We thought, this is why we have a wedding in the first place: community. It’s a chance…