All Yours Somehow

“John?” I rolled over and groaned. Opening my eyes, I realised I was in bed alone. I groaned again and sat up in bed. “Fucking tour,” I mumbled.

I stepped out of my bed and began to walk around my house. It was far too empty with John around but once again he was on tour so it was something I just had to accept. One good thing about being on the road with The Maine was that I could get on with wedding plans with his ridiculous suggestions.

After making myself a quick breakfast then showering and getting dressed, I pulled out my phone and searched for the right name.

“Hello?” a groggy voice said from the other end.

“Holly? Please don’t tell me I just woke you up?”

“No...” she said, although I knew her tone.

“HOLLY! Don’t lie, I’ve known you too long to know the sound of your voice when you’ve just woken up,” I told her.

“Sorry, Han, I know you’re really excited about today. Eric came over late last night and-”

“And that sentence can finish there!” I interrupted.

“Yeah, alright, it’s not like I haven’t had to hear about yours and John’s sex life before,” she laughed. “I’ll be ready as quick as I can and be over at yours, promise.”

“You better, we’ve got a long day ahead of us,” I told her. “Now I just need to find out where Summer is.”

I hung up from Holly and immediately rang my sister.

“Hello?” she said as she answered.

“Sum, where are you?” I asked.

“I’m about to leave home. I’m not late, am I?” she asked, sounding surprised.

“No but I’ve just had to wake Holly up and was hoping I didn’t have to do the same with you.”

“Don’t worry, as I said, just walking out the door, see you in 10 minutes,” she told me.
“Alright, thanks Sum.” I said as I ended the call.

I had been engaged about seven weeks now and today was the day I felt like I’d been waiting my entire life for- I was going to try on wedding dresses. So far John and I had made a few plans and had some ideas for what we each thought we wanted for our wedding. There were things we agreed on and things we didn’t at the moment, but one thing that was entirely my choice was the dress.

Once both Holly and Summer had arrived, the three of us got in my car and made our way to the first place I wanted to try. As a girl, I’d always had an idea of the kind of dress I wanted for the big day and since Holly was my maid of honor and Summer was my other bridesmaid, I had asked them both to come with me to help find the perfect dress.

“Hi, I’m here to have a look at some wedding dresses?” I said as we walked into the store.

“OK, my name’s Clarrisa, I can help you with that,” a young woman said. “So do you know what kind of style you want to go for?”

“I’m thinking strapless and quite a big skirt on it,” I told her. “And I’d quite like it to have some beading or something on it somewhere.”

“Alright, I think we’ve got a few that should meet that description!” Clarrisa smiled and led us towards the rails of dresses.

Over the next two hours I tried on eight dresses. Four were immediate ‘no’s. They didn’t suit my frame, I didn’t like the material they were made of and they just weren’t ‘the one’. Two were nice but even Summer and Holly admitted they couldn’t picture me standing next to John in them.

Then came the other two dresses. One was exactly as I imagined my dream dress to look like. It was strapless, fitted to my hips with a large skirt. The top was heart shaped around my chest and had a beaded pattern over it, with continued around the back down the lace up for the bodice and down the back of the skirt to the train.

“Oh Hannah, that is gorgeous!” Holly gasped as I stepped out of the fitting room.

As I saw my reflection in the mirror, a smile spread across my face. I loved how the dress defined my shape, thanks to the lacing pulling the dress in and giving me an amazing waist and the bodice pushing my boobs up to give me one hell of a cleavage.

The other dress was once again strapless, as I’d always wanted but it was different to the last. It was fitted to my body slightly lower and the skirt was much more gathered than the other. There was no beading or jewels but there was a simple band of color around the middle with a flower attached. I had never thought I’d like a dress like this but something drew me to it.

This time when I came out of the fitting room, Holly ad Summer didn’t say a work. Instead, their mouth dropped open before turning into smiles. I looked at myself in the mirror and then turned to face the side, then looked again. This dress was similar yet stunning. The gathering in the skirt gave it structure whilst the straight, slim fitting top half showed off my toned figure,
“Well?” I asked, turning back to my sister and best friend. “What do you think?”

“It’s gorgeous,” Summer said. “Really, really nice.”

“She’s right,” Holly nodded. “This dress is incredible. You look tiny!”

“Thanks guys,” I smiled. “But I’m not sure about it,” I sighed, sliding my hands down the dress. “It’s just so different to what I’ve always dreamed.”

“You’ve be surprised how many women come in here telling me exactly what they want and then eventually leave with something totally different,” Clarrisa explained.

“It is lovely though,” I said. “I’m just not sure whether I’d be comfortable in it on the actual day.”

After changing back into my own clothes, we made our way back to my house. It was a hot Arizona day so the three of us sat outside in my backyard.

“Have you had any thoughts about a bachelorette party yet?” Holly asked.

“God no, that’s the least of my worries,” I told her. “All I know is that for his bachelor party, John wants to take all the guys to Ireland to- in his words- ‘revisit his roots’.”

“So basically get drunk the entire time he’s there?” Holly asked with raise eyebrows.

“Basically? Yes,” I nodded. “But then what else would John do but get drunk?”

“Well, as your maid of honor, it’s my duty to make sure you have the best bachelorette party ever!” she grinned,

“Oh god,” I groaned. In the months since we graduated college, most of us had calmed down the partying side of our lifestyle. That’s not to say I didn’t still enjoy a night out every so often, I just left the drinking more to John now. Holly, on the other hand, hadn’t left that behind. She still went out a lot and would still find any excuse for a party.

“Don’t ‘oh god’ me, Hannah. This is your last night of freedom, we gotta make it big!” she said, excitedly.

“No, we don’t,” I said,getting up and walking into the house.

“Oh please,” Holly whined, running in after me and sticking her bottom lip out.

“Alright, alright. What did you have in mind?” I asked, turning to face her.

“So I was thinking Vegas...”

Here we go, I thought to myself.