Her gown was in a figure-hugging mermaid style and made of white silk satin. Lace and pearl beading artfully decorated the strapless bodice. Three diagonal rows of lace and beading ran around her waist, hips and thighs, and from knee length the skirt flared out with lace and beading around the hem. Her veil was attached to a pearl tiara, and when she was fully dressed, the gang gathered around, beaming satisfaction in the full effect of the bridal party and telling Tammy she looked breathtakingly beautiful.
I’m the bride, she thought, her heart swelling with happiness as she stared at her reflection in the mirror. The last one. But the best wedding of all because it’s me and I’m Fletcher’s bride.
A mini-bus took them down to Ned’s Beach where all the guests had gathered at the perfectly manicured green park above the cleanest beach in the world. Fletcher’s mother and Lucy’s mother—both of them longtime friends—had the three children lined up waiting for them: Samantha as flower-girl, carrying a basket of rose-petals; Lucy’s son, Mario, and John flanking her as page-boys.
This was the ultimate gang wedding, Tammy thought, thrilled that it had turned out this way with her friends as bridesmaids, their husbands as groomsmen and the children taking part, as well.
The guests were seated on rows of white chairs. A sound system was rigged up in the trees that provided shade and Beethoven’s ‘Song of Joy’ signalled the start of the wedding procession. The children set off down the aisle, John dictating the action—‘One, two, three, throw’—and the others copied his hurling a handful of rose-petals into the air with perfect timing.
It made everyone smile, even Max and Hans and Guy who’d flown in for the wedding. The three men were bachelors and had been very curious about the woman Fletcher wanted to share his life with, having not found one themselves. She’d felt them trying to analyse the relationship, and told them straight out to stop using their brains and get in touch with their instincts.
‘I married her for her smart mouth,’ Fletcher had dryly remarked, his eyes twinkling pleasure in her ability to pinpoint basic truths about life.
‘And no doubt her beauty,’ Hans had put in.
‘Not to mention a very understanding heart,’ Guy had said with a wry twist.
Max had nodded to Fletcher. ‘Look at him. Tamalyn has the gift of making him happy.’
On which point they’d all agreed.
Lonely men, Tammy had thought, just as Fletcher had been, and told them they’d be very welcome in her and Fletcher’s home any time they came to Sydney.
She was glad they were here, glad that so many people had come to share this shining day with her and Fletcher. Friendship, love, caring and sharing…it was what everyone wanted in their lives, what everyone needed, and she had it all today. A song of joy was beating through her as she finally set out down the aisle, walking towards the man who’d made everything right for her.
He smiled his dazzling smile, but this time it radiated love for her, and she smiled her love right back at him.
They stood together, exchanging the marriage vows without the slightest shadow of doubt that they would be kept. The insecurity they had both felt with each other was completely gone. They were one and nothing would ever separate them again, not in their minds and hearts.
The wedding celebrant declared them husband and wife.
They kissed.
As John rushed from his grandmother’s side to join his mother and father, Celine remarked in a tone of immense satisfaction. ‘Well that’s it, gang! Six weddings!’
‘And a baby,’ Fletcher said, scooping John up to be cuddled, his eyes twinkling his pleasure in both his bride and his son.
A baby who hadn’t been planned, Tammy thought, but a child who would always know he was loved.
That was more than good enough.
It was life at its best.