Footsteps for a Bride-to-Be

May 25th, 2011

7:30am - Our Love Nest

I didn't notice that Michael had woken up in the earlier than me to get Baby Phelps from the room after he cried, and he didn't even wake me up to tell me to get the baby or feed him. I only took notice of the two when I opened my eyes and saw Baby Phelps's head turned my way as he soundly slept on top of his Father, who had his hand on the baby's back as he was fast asleep too. My lips curved to a smile at the sight of the two, and I fell more in love with Michael the more he openly displayed how great of a Father he was to our three month old son.

I tried to not to make a noise or much movements as I got out of bed, but the moment I rolled onto my back, Michael's croaky voice greeted me, "Good morning". I weakly smiled and turned my head to look at him, though his eyes remained closed, he was awake. I rolled back to my side and replied, "Good morning to you too, Daddy Phelps."
"He woke up half an hour ago and you looked pretty tired," He revealed as he finally opened his eyes and turned his head my way. "And I brought him here, but he fell asleep along the way and now we're here."
"I think he loves sleeping like that," I yawned. "He loves sleeping like that on you though."
"But he shouldn't get used to it, because this area belongs to his Mom," He teased as he peeked down at the sleeping baby. A smile curved at the corner of his lips as he added, "I know it's been a while, but I still can't believe that your Dad bought us a house."
"You were the one who read the letter, what did it say?" I mumbled as I shuffled closer to the two of them and stroked Baby Phelps's rounded cheek.
"Um..." He went quiet. "Oh, yeah, he bought us a house at Bolton Hill and that he won't give us the address or the key to it until the end of the wedding. So we can't walk in there until we're married."
"So after the wedding, we're going to be busy moving into our new house?"
"Wait," Michael shook his head while adjusting his position, making sure that the baby didn't wake up. "I think so, but I was thinking that we should move in before we go off on a Honeymoon."
"We don't even know where we're going..." I mumbled. The thought of having my Mom and Step-Father plan the Honeymoon and pay for it all made me shudder. "I wonder what stuff they want us to do. Oh, reminds me, we need to tell them the date of when you want to go..."
"After the Olympics, like, straight after all the promotional appearances and whatever, we go straight to our Honeymoon," Michael sounded like he planned it out already, which made me giggle.
"What about our Baby Phelps?"
"My Mom, I guess, I don't know, but we won't be gone for that long, so..."
"You really thought out the Honeymoon phase, haven't you?"
"And I was also thinking, Anne, since we're meeting Lindsay again today..." He paused and gulped as he reclosed his eyes. "How would you feel about getting married in Hawaii?"
"H-Hawaii?" I stuttered as I repeated what he said.
"You know, at our special spot. I have a feeling that it won't be so secret afterwards, so we might as well."
"You're so attached at that location-"
"-Aren't you?"
"I am..." My voice trailed away as I tried to recall all the memories that and the thoughts and the life-related things that occurred there. I bit my lower lip and rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling, my hands flat on my stomach as I heard him say, "You know, I originally wanted to ask you to marry me last year, during our anniversary at that spot."
I remained silent. Michael probably placed a lot of thought at how he was going to propose, and I loved the way he popped the question, but I got a bit curious on how many ideas and opportunities he actually went through before he finally decided to go on one knee.
"I'll tell you the truth, Anne. I actually don't want a lot of guests, just the closest and most important," He began to explain. "Maybe 100, but that's it. Maybe even less than 100."
A giggle came out of me as I sat up and pulled my knees close to my chest. "So, we're really going to Hawaii for our big day?" I questioned him and his thinking. He was just as part of the wedding as I was, and I suppose he wanted to sort everything out before we met with the Wedding Planner later that day. I was actually surprised at how much he thought about.
"Yes," He nodded. "Around January of next year," He added.
"Why so early? I can wait until after the Olympics, when you've retired."
"I said I would bring a wife, and I will."

Michael was really determined to marry me before the Olympics.

11:55pm - Blue Moon Café

We met with Lindsay Mahoney for lunch again, but that time, Baby Phelps wasn't with us. He was taken care of by his Auntie Lia, who volunteered to babysit since she had been too busy to see the baby lately. I didn't hesitate on agreeing with her, but Michael begged for her to stop calling our son by the nickname that he would never say. He lost the debate though.
The Wedding Planner was earlier than we were. She had a few pieces of paper out, scribbled on a few of them and read through a pamphlet. I gripped onto Michael's hand tightly as we approached her. She made me worry about myself and how I lacked the initial ability to properly plan something as big as a wedding.

"Hey Lindsay," Michael greeted as he tugged me towards her. We shook hands, kissed on cheek and the whole greeting process before we all took to our seats. We ordered first before she took out her notepads once more and placed it in the middle of the table to show us what she had been scribbling around.
"Okay, so I need the names of your Wedding Party," She instructed as she clicked her pen and looked at me right in the eyes. I slightly shivered from the sight of her blue eyes as she waved her pen about waiting for my response. "Whenever you're ready, Roxanne," She added.
I had to shake my head to clear my blank thoughts and nodded. "Um, yeah, well my Maid of Honour is Liana Grace, the two other Bridesmaids are Tiffany Pritchard and Jessica Robinson, and the Flower Girl is Taylor Flickinger," I answered straight away. Michael teased me for being quite polite and well-mannered as well as stiff whenever I was around the Wedding Planner, and he wasn't sure why I had acted that way - I didn't know either. I cleared my throat as she turned her attention towards my fiancé and asked him about who he chose to be by his side.
"I have two Best Men, my son, Mitchell, and Derek Fitzgerald," He calmly replied, and he even stole a glance from me just to show off how calm he was compared to my stern posture. "My Groomsmen are Chris Donald and Owen Hughes," He ended while tapping on my thigh with a grin.
I could only glare at him while Lindsay scribbled down something, but my attention went back to her once her eyes moved towards us again and asked, "What about the amount of guests you're intending to have?"
"A little under 100, but make it 100 because some of them might bring their Families," I blurted out. I was about to say that I was still unsure, but because Michael had told me that he didn't want too many people, it stuck into my head and that came out of my mouth without me realizing it. Well, I realized it as soon as she wrote it on the piece of paper in front of her.
Even Michael was surprised with what I said.
"Why don't you two tell me what your dream wedding is and then we'll try to incorporate that?" She quizzed as she leaned back on her chair, the notepad in her grasp and the pen tightly gripped between her fingers while she stared us down so sternly.

We spent a good hour in the café, maybe even two, since we went into detail with our descriptions. And it amused me that I opened up more about what I wanted, and that made Michael look at me with a pleased expression as though he wanted me to be that open. Although, he whispered to me when Lindsay went to the bathroom that he was happy that I told the truth about what I wanted.

"Okay, so to summarize it," Lindsay began to speak as soon as we finished everything. She flicked through all the pages that were stained by black ink and had her handwriting everywhere. "Hmm, so we've got the Bride and Groom's parties sorted. We have the location of the wedding, the amount of guests... Um, certain shades of blue are the motif of the wedding, and there's the venue that I need to contact. Since you two are planning to marry out of Baltimore, we'd need to set a date to fly there and sort out some food tasting and get the venue sorted. Airline bookings are a must, but that can be sorted after the wedding invitations are sent out," She continued on. "We've got the ideal location of the wedding to take place, um, we have the official to perform the ceremony, and now we need the date."
Michael and I turned to each other and realized that we forgot to figure out the exact date, but he reached for my left hand and tapped on it before he answered, "Ideally, I want to marry her on..."



June 1st, 2011

Our Wedding Planner, Lindsay Mahoney, called nearly every day to inform us all the updates. She flew out to Hawaii two days ago to sort out everything else there and would contact us to ask about the dates we may decide to go and deal with the things she told us that we needed to do. We also informed the Bridesmaids and Groomsmen of their roles, but we've never told our Maid of Honour and Best Man just yet, since we wanted to tell them in person about the whole thing.
Lia and Derek weren't in Baltimore for the past few days due to their Speedo endorsement for the couple swimwear, and they arrived two days ago. They invited us to a double date in their home and catch up, and Michael thought it was the perfect situation to tell them about their roles for our big day. I was excited to tell my best friend and her beau that they had quite a big role in our wedding, and we already mailed out our "Save the Date" cards out to all our guests that we finalized yesterday.

"We need to personally give Lia and Derek their one," Michael instructed me.

7:20pm - Lia and Derek's House

"Oh my God, Mitchie, look how much you've grown from the past few days I haven't seen you!" Lia exclaimed as soon as I entered the door to their home. It was only Mitchell and I that arrived first while Michael was at his training session. My best friend lifted the baby out of the stroller and cradled him out of the hallway, leaving me to put away the stroller and baby bag that I carried, though it was fortunate that they only lived ten minutes away, so walking was no big deal.
"Hey Monkey," Derek greeted me as he closed the door and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. He gave me a playful poke on the cheek as he whispered, "I heard from a little birdie that the wedding is all sorted, well, nearly, but it's been pieced together."
"I know, I was stressing over it not too long ago," I muttered as I rubbed my cheek at his random prod.
"Anyway, I've thought out the Bachelor Party for your fiancé," He confessed as he quickly let go of me and escaped ahead to the living room, where Lia lay herself down on the floor, next to the blanket, where Baby Phelps had rolled onto his tummy and stared back with a big grin on his face.
"This smile of his... It looks exactly like his Dad's goofy smile," My best friend mumbled while I lay close to her and eyed my son. I began to laugh and rolled so that my head would lean on her butt and I lightly poked at her waist to make her leap and laugh too. "Hey! No tickling!" She laughed as she slapped my finger away and we both looked back at the laughing baby.
"Aw, he looks like me, but he has his Dad's smile and laugh," I commented and reached over to give Baby Phelps a light pinch on the cheek and said to him, "You don't know how much your Dad loves you."
"I've known Michael Phelps for a while, possibly longer than you, Monkey, and I couldn't imagine him acting the way he is with kiddo over there," My best friend's Husband commented as he came back from the kitchen with a platter of snacks that were clearly prepared by my best friend, four wine glasses and a bottle of champagne. He placed all of them on the coffee table as he took a seat on the sofa and added, "He matured so quick and I can't believe that what you say about his responsibilities are true, because when I asked him the other time, he admitted it. It must be because he loves his kiddo too much."
"You know what shocks me?" Lia included herself in. "The fact that you say that he wakes up in the middle of the night, after a long day of training, just so you wouldn't wake up when the baby randomly cries, and then you see the two of them sleeping so calmly together."
"You saw the photos, they're real, and I've caught them so many times too." I giggled and continued to stare into the brown eyes of my son, the same brown eyes that resembled the man I was going to marry. I leaned over to give the baby a kiss on the forehead before I pushed myself to my feet and moved to the sofa, stepping on Lia's butt along the way.
"Michael says the kiddo is the Best Man." Derek waved his hand when the baby looked his way.
I didn't say anything because I didn't want to ruin anything. Michael was sure taking his precious time.

Nearly an hour later, Michael arrived, and he looked fresh and clean as though he went home first to get himself ready for the dinner with our best friends. I greeted him with a big kiss on the lips before he left my side to lift his son from the blanket and held him close into his body. I wrapped my arms around myself and watched the two interact. Their similar goofy grins were plastered on both their faces, though one had flashed his white teeth while the other didn't even have teeth yet. Lia and Derek were busy arranging the table and setting dinner up that they didn't notice that the Olympian had already arrived.

"You're quite a sexy Dad," I whispered to Michael while leaning on the door frame.
He turned his head to me with a chuckle. "Well, if that's the case, I should do it more often," He teased back and returned his attention to the baby, whose eyes slowly closed while being held by him.
"And you have the magic touch," I smirked. I arranged the car seat and watched Michael place the sound asleep baby into the car seat. When Baby Phelps was out of his grasp, I quickly wrapped my arms around his neck and tiptoed to plant my lips against his again.
He was really attractive when he displayed the attributes of an amazing Father.
"I need to practice carrying-" He said as we parted from our kiss and bent down to swoop me off my feet and lifted me from the floor. I pressed against him as soon as I felt the breeze beneath me and begged him to put me down. I was a coward when it came to heights. "-you. I have to carry you on our big day."
"Not in here," Derek groaned as soon as he walked into the living room. "Come on, Monkey, you know that we don't like having your lovebird germs all over the place."
"Oh shut up." I laughed at his expression as Michael gave me a peck on the cheek and put me back down. I straightened my top before I followed the host to the dinner table where all the food was neatly arranged. I gasped at the sight.

Throughout dinner, we talked, laughed and reminisced of our times in Ann Arbor. We all realized how far we've gotten ourselves, how mature we suddenly got and how immature we still were. We managed to stray to different conversations, but we still got to the point where it got to the day I walk down the aisle to marry the Olympian beside me.
"Well, before we go any further about the wedding planning, we have something to tell you guys," I announced as I placed the fork that I nibbled on back on the plate. I leaned back on my chair and lower to reach into my bag, where the announcement card was, well, I had to rummage through my bag a bit to try and get a hold of the car and pulled it out.
"Is that the Save the Date card?" Lia clapped her hands excitedly.
I nodded and reached out to give it to her, and she practically snatched it out of my hands to take a good look at the announcement card. She got fidgety in her seat as she showed it to Derek and tried not to scream with excitement.
"Oh, well, you know that it's pretty obvious that you'll be my Maid of Honour, right, Lia?" I added.
And that was when she screamed, even though she knew that she was the Maid of Honour. Actually, she covered her mouth and screamed because Baby Phelps was sound asleep in his car seat. We all peeked to check if he heard, but he only shuffled to change position and continued on snoozing. We then let out laughs as Lia suddenly began to start crying, she leaned her head against Derek's chest and sobbed.
"See why they're best friends, Mike?" Her husband joked as he comforted her.
"Reminds me, you're my co-Best Man, Derek," Michael replied to his comment.
Derek narrowed his eyes and asked if he was sure, since they only knew that Baby Phelps was originally given the spot of the Best Man. "Thanks man, that's like... Damn," He mumbled under his breath as Lia finally sat up straight and lifted the announcement card, a big grin on her face, even though her eyes were slightly red and swollen, but she looked confident and nodded so many times.

"Anne, I accept being your Maid of Honour in your wedding on January 27 2012."

Yeah, January 27, one of Michael's favourite dates.
It wasn't because we had our first sexual encounter on that date, but because he told me that it was the first time he realized that he began to think of a future with me. I couldn't wait, so mark it on your calendar!