Leaping for Your Dreams

Mondays, I hated them, this one, however I truly was going to _loathe_. Today was the day that we did the seating chart via conference call. Lils had come down from Detroit for this. It had been so much fun catching up with her on Sunday. Now we were waiting on Aleks to call and say she was ready to go on her end. She had her mom with her and Sid and his mom were at the table.

When she finally called we’d been playing a game of hangman. I answered my laptop and there they were in living color. “Hey Mal, Mom. How’d the fitting go?”

Mom gushed. “Oh My God she looks incredible! I took some pictures, let me connect to the computer and I’ll share them!”

Aleks was clearly horrified. “Mom! Sid’s right there!” She pointed at him.

It was like she hadn’t seen him at all. Of course he’d been suspiciously quiet as soon as Aleks came on the screen. I snuck a look and he was trying to make himself smaller. Oh tricky boy. I chuckled. “I think he’s trying to not be seen so he can get a sneak peek. Email them to me.”

Lils grinned. “Great to see you Mal, how’s the head?” Yep she’d seen the Eastern Finals.

Mal laughed. “I stuck with beer all night so I was fine the next day. Feels so surreal though. Practice this morning; about half the guys still had hangovers. Suicides killed them. I mean when Holts was passing them like they were standing still…”

We all chuckled. “Ok with kids and everyone we’ve got 92 people for the reception. How the _hell_ are we going to do all of this?” I asked. I had opened up a diagram of the room. “We’ve got 2 pillars we have to work around as well. Where are we starting?”

Lils grinned. “The easiest place to start is to put in the extras first. The dance floor, Dj Table, Gift Table: those items. That way we see how much space we have left. Now I know you’ve got like 18 kids that will be there, with everyone. I see there are a total of 92 people. What if we did 3 tables of 6 for the kids? How many are in the wedding party itself?”

I looked that up. “Aleks and Sid, plus 4 attendants and 3 Significant others, so… 9.”

Aleks did the math. “So you’re saying have the kids tables set at 6 a piece, the bridal party table at what 10? And where does that leave everyone else?”

Sid was looking at the list of names. “I think we have more guys than girls on here, even with the wives.” He counted again. “Yeah, there’s no way we can make the table even.”

Trina groaned. “This wouldn’t have happened if we had it in Nova Scotia.” That started a fight between everyone but Lils and myself. I looked at her and sighed.

A few minutes later Aleks had had enough. “Stop! This is _Our_ Wedding, _we_ wanted it where it would be easy for our friends to get to. It _just_ so happens that the midway point between the two weddings _we_ are attending this summer is Windsor. Not everything can be _just_ _Your_ way Trina.” Normally Aleks called her mom, so this was a warning to everyone.

Trina sat there gaping a bit and blinking a lot. Sid touched her on the arm. “Mom, we’re not trying to be unreasonable. We have friends from all over North America coming in for this, a few staying here from Russia too. It makes more sense for us to have it where they all can converge than somewhere that it’s difficult for them to get to.”

Trina wasn’t _quite_ pouting but it was close. “I don’t see why you can’t have it in your home town or at least in Pittsburgh.”

Aleks sighed and looked at Sid pleadingly. He got her hint. “Mom, I don’t want my wedding to be turned into a circus. If we have it in Cole Harbour or in Pittsburgh it will be. Windsor is _Aleks’_ home town, I think it’s a fair compromise.” He looked at Aleks. “I’ve already made her compromise on so many things for so long. Made her _wait_ for so long.” He turned back to his mom. “We should have done this a couple years ago but I listened to you and dad and put off asking. I’m _not_ making her wait any more.”

None of the rest of us had dry eyes. It was the sweetest and most grown up thing I’d ever heard him say to either of his parents. Dabbing at my eyes I cleared my throat, it was time I took control back. “Mrs. Crosby, we’ve nearly got the planning done. Rooms are booked for the entire wedding. We’ve got transportation arraigned for everyone, even across the bridge to the reception and back. We’ve also done a pretty good job of _not_ blowing the cover for this either. Only those invited know when and where. There _are_ no reporters invited. Right now we control _everything_ about how this gets out.” I flipped through the pages in front of me.

“Now I was going to wait and ask Sid and Aleks this in a week or so, but I might as well ask it now. Do either of you want to release a picture or any news to anyone? If so, whom.” I looked back and forth for a few seconds.

Sid sighed. “If we’re gonna do it, we might as well let Pat and his people handle it. Release one or two pictures of the two of us in our wedding stuff and a press release. I mean that _is_ kind of his job.”

Aleks sighed. “If we’re going to have him do it, let’s have him _know about it before hand. That way he can be ready to do that. He said he’d meet me in LA when we got out there, but I’d like him to know before that even.”

I nodded and Sid spoke up. “I need to call him today anyway. I’ll let him know we’d like him to do this.” He made a note on his paperwork.

“Good, now back to the tables. Lils I like that idea of having separate tables for the kids. Could we put them close to the dance floor so that they can burn off energy if need be?” She nodded.

Aleks grinned. “That sounds like a great idea. How are we going to get everyone else seated though?”

Sid grinned. I wrote the idea down. Lils also grinned. “8 tables of 8 would give you enough room for everybody. Especially if we have kids tables and a table for 10 for the bridal party.”

Mom piped up. “I know this is the kids wedding but I would like to have tables reserved for the families. I don’t care where everyone else sits. I just want for us to be close.”

Aleks giggled. “That’s a great idea mom. Have reserved tables for our families, the kids and the bridal party and let everyone else sit where they want.”

Sid spring boarded off of that idea. “Better yet. Have those reserved, but have it family and kids first just in case the kids want to sit with their folks or something like that. Bridal table is 100% reserved; everything else is family/kids first then everyone else. This way our families have the option of sitting close or going and mingling with others.”

Lils grinned. “That saves us all sorts of time, having only a couple of signs instead of place cards. My boss is going to love this idea. May even have to steal it for other weddings who can’t decide.”

With the layout easily set from there, I noticed that I got an email from Aleks while we were chatting. I opened it and smiled. She did look incredible in the dress. Sid was going to be blown away.

That jogged my memory. “Sid, who’s standing with you? You need to make sure they have tuxes and everything they need.”

He grinned and passed me a page. “We’re taken care of. Jack Johnson is my best man, cause with him and you Aleks and I wouldn’t have met and Armdog is also standing with me cause well I wanted him to.”

“Great. That’s taken care of then.” Sid nodded. I glanced at the page and saw that he had emailed Jack and Melissa the information. Smart boy. I do have one thing I’d like to ask about and it’s kind of sensitive. Do you want to publicly acknowledge the miscarriage at all?” I knew it was a sore spot but if there was anytime to say yeah we’ve had some sad stuff happen it was now.

Aleks sighed. “Most everyone who’ll be there already knows. Maybe not the reception, what about the Rehearsal Dinner instead?” She looked down the table.

Sid looked at her. “You’re sure?” She nodded. “It’s up to you Daph, if you want to say something, we will.”

She smiled a bit sadly. “I found a poem that helps. I’ll send it to you.” I felt like I was intruding on a private moment right now.

Sid smiled at her. “I can’t wait. Are we about done here? I still have to repack for my trip to get Taylor.”

I looked over at Lils who was wiping tears away. I caught her eye and she nodded. “I think so. Thanks for coming in and helping. You guys are awesome for all these ideas.”

Lils piped in. “They’ve made our jobs easier, that’s for sure. My boss is thrilled that we’re hosting Aleks’ reception. I haven’t told him who she’s marrying.” That made everyone laugh. “You’d never be able to get rid of him if I did.”

I hated to leave the meeting on a semi sad note, but we all had things to get done before the sun rose next. “Ok I’ll keep everyone in the loop with what’s going on as usual. You two just keep chipping away at the lists I’ve given you and we’ll be set to go.”

Aleks and mom waved and logged off. I looked at Sid. “Don’t make her do that if it hurts her more.”

“Trust me I won’t, but I do think that acknowledging the loss is a good thing. Hopefully things are going to go smoothly. I’m worried about this being the perfect day for her.” I noticed Trina had stopped as Sid spoke.

I nodded. “We’ll just have to work together to make it perfect. She’s busy right now so we’ll pick up the slack. Give and take, that’s what makes everything work.”

“She’s given quite a lot, it’s time for her to do some taking.” Sid said, smiling. We hugged as he got up to leave. “Once Taylor gets here she’s gonna want to know everything, you mind if I bring her by?”

“Mind if Tay comes by? Me? You _better_ bring her by.” Yep, I loved Taylor too; we understood each other well.