The Dream Wedding

It was a month before Jane's dream wedding. She had envisioned it since she was six after reading one of her mother's wedding magazines. She imagined having a destination wedding in the country where she would have it in her family vacation home, with the perfect gown, a sixteen layer cake with vanilla frosting and handwritten vows. She had shared these ideas with her mother, Frances, who helped her with what was needed and putting money aside. Frances believed that her own first wedding to Jane's father, Ralph, was a disaster. In the morning hours before the wedding, he had finished two beer bottles. Frances could smell the beer under his breath as they were exchanging vows. Then at the reception, he drank three glasses of wine with the steak dinner. To Frances' embarrassment and horror, Ralph interrupted the toast spoken by Rose, Frances' long time friend and bridesmaid and Jane's godmother. He then went into a drunken slurred speech with what Frances believed that may have been insults towards her father, who knew they were directed at him. After walking off, he accidentally bumped into the waiter, knocking him over and spilling two plates of steaks onto Frances' mother. Frances was not happy about the incident and did not speak to him during the beginning of their honeymoon. By the end of the honeymoon, they went back home and Ralph apologized to her parents for the reception fiasco wanted to fix things between all of them. However nearly half a year after Jane was born, Frances and Ralph were still living with her parents and the tension between him and them had gotten worse. It was mostly that Jane was thrown into the mix, as Ralph was sleeping off a couple of beer cans on the couch and Jane was crying from upstairs. Frances came home from shopping and quickly ran upstairs to tend to Jane. She was not happy with Ralph and nearly tripped over a beer can. She thought it was time to take Jane and find a new place to live until she and Ralph patched up things between them. A couple of years later, their second daughter Jessica was born and Frances had secured a job as a elementary school teacher while Ralph went to work as a sportswriter. But he would sometimes come home drunk and asleep on the couch after away games. This was frustrating for Frances, especially after one night when they had a argument and he left after throwing a bottle against the wall. The whole event had Jane thinking different about love and marriage and was concerned about how things were going to be for her and Jessica. By the time she entered ninth grade, Jane fell in love with Daniel who was in her first period algebra class. They called each other almost every weekend and Frances received the bill. Eventually she got over the bill upon Jane telling her about Daniel and invited him to dinner to meet him for the first time. It was the summer after their freshman year of college when Daniel proposed to her and she accepted. By the time Jane, Jessica, Frances, Daniel, Rose and several groomsmen and bridesmaids went to the vacation house, they were surprised to see who would be coming. There was a knock on the door and Daniel thought it was his family as they took a flight from New York. Instead it was Ralph who was ready to walk Jane down the aisle. Jane hold nothing against him after those years but Frances was very upset and concerned. The whole family were able to look past those events and Ralph got to know Daniel better. The next day was the wedding and Ralph walked her down the aisle and she and Daniel exchange vows. Jane finally had the wedding of her dreams.