Spoilers: Takes place before season 5, but it's AU so it could be anytime after Buffy turned 18. There's no Dawn, no Riley, and Spike never was in the picture.

Disclaimer: Joss and all associated own them. I just gave them something to do. Besides. I think this is how

I think he would have handled it.

Dedication: This is for all those who like a happy ending. Almost all of the stuff here actually happened to

me or people I know. Except the, well you'll know it when you read it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"But Giles, I don't want a big wedding. I just want to have you, mom, the gang, and a Justice of the Peace. All that other stuff is just a big headache." Buffy toyed with his sleeve. "Besides, this is the Hellmouth. If we try to do a big wedding, the world will decide to come to an end."

Giles turned to look at her. "I thought all women wanted a big to-do for their wedding. With all the pomp and ceremony the word conjures."

"I don't. I just want to marry you. Not waste money on something that's for everybody else."

Giles was silent for a moment. Then he looked at Buffy, a look of longing in his eyes. "Would it change your mind if I told you I wanted the big wedding?"

Buffy looked at him in surprise. "You? I always figured you would want it to be as quiet as possible."

"Ever since I became a Watcher, I thought I'd never get married. Then after I met you, I knew I wouldn't get married to anyone else. Now that I have you, I want everyone to know how much you mean to me. " He sighed. "But if you say no, I'll do what you want."

Buffy groaned inwardly. "All right Giles. I didn't realise how much it meant to you. Which church did you want to use?"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I knew we should have eloped." Buffy kicked at the stone bench in front of her. They had decided to have the wedding outside of Sunnydale, just to cut down on supernatural interruptions. It was in a little town about an hour away. The inn where they were staying had even been kind enough to let them hold the reception there. Once Buffy was ready, Buffy's mom and Willow had gone on to the church to decorate it. Buffy was in the inn's garden at the moment, waiting for the photographer to arrive to take her picture. To pass the time, she had decided to check out the hedge maze in the center. It had been relatively easy to find her way out, but there was still no sign of the photographer. She went back into the hotel to see if he was inside, only to be met by the manager at the door.

"Ah Miss Summers. I was just coming out to look for you. The photographer called. He's running behind schedual, but says he will be here in plenty of time for you to get to the church."

Buffy gave him a smile, while at the same time fighting the urge to scream. "Thank you for letting me know." She turned and went back to garden. "Great. Now I have to sit here and wait some more. I just hope nothing else goes wrong."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Giles was trying not to let his emotions get the best of him. This was the worst possible thing that could have happened. Well, maybe not, but it wasn't a good thing. They had given him the wrong tuxedo and there was barely enough time to get the right one and get ready in time to be at the church. While he was trying to get out the door to go to the rental shop, the phone rang. Torn between answering it and going out the door, Giles was saved from that decision by Xander coming in to his room. "Xander, get the phone. I'll be back soon." He yelled as he ran past the startled boy. Xander picked up the receiver.

"Hello?"

"Mr. Giles, please. This is Pastor Stevens, over at St. John's."

"I'm sorry. He had to step out for a minute."

"Oh. Well could you please have him call us as soon as possible? We have a problem."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Buffy breathed a sigh of relief. The pictures had finally been taken, and now all she had to do was wait for the limo that was supposed to take her to the church. She looked at her watch. Still a little time left. She decided to walk the maze once more, just to pass the time and give her something else to think about. As she walked, she started to notice that things weren't quite the same as the last time. Deciding not to tempt fate any further, Buffy turned around to walk back out, only to find her way blocked by a hedge that she was sure wasn't there a moment ago. She didn't want to mess up her dress if she could avoid it, so she decided to try and find another way out before she went to the extreme if pushing through the hedge. As she walked, she heard a rustling behind her. "Oh great. The Hellmouth must have followed me here, just for this occasion."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Giles rushed back to his room, panting. The rental shop had been getting ready to close when he got there. Something about broken water pipe. He had been too frantic to pay attention to what they said. Fortunately, his tuxedo wasn't affected by it, and they had been kind enough to exchange it for the way too small one he had been given previously. When he had closed the door, and turned to get changed, he caught sight of Xander's face. "What's wrong?

Xander swallowed and tried to keep out of Giles reach. "The church called. You're going to have to find another place to have the wedding. They got infested with spiders and have to have an exterminator come in."

"WHAT?!"

"Relax G-man. The pastor said to call him and let him know where you're having it, and he'll come over and perform the ceremony." Xander worked his way around the room towards the door. "I'll talk to the inn's manager for you and see if we can do it here."

"What about the bloody guests? There's not enough time to call them all and let them know."

"The pastor said he'd post a sign on the door to let them know where it is." And with that, Xander bolted out the door.

Giles fought down actual tears. He had waited so long for this day and now everything seemed to be going wrong. He started to get dressed and hoped Xander could get the manager to agree on such short notice. That's when he realized that he had forgotten to get any dress shoes to go with his tux.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Buffy continued to try and find her way out of the maze, the rustling getting closer behind her. Finally giving up, she realised she was in the center of the maze. Suddenly there was a roar and something big and blue crashed through the hedge. Not even taking the time to think about it, Buffy kicked at it, only to trip up on her skirt. Cursing under her breath she struggled to get up, the thing rushed at her and tried to grab her. All he managed to get was a handful of her dress. With a ripping sound that made Buffy cringe, she rolled away. Seeing the train of her wedding dress in it's hand, Buffy could no longer fight the anger that had been building since the day before, when that same dress had to be majorly altered from being two sizes too big. She started punching and kicking in a flurry of arms and legs, swearing and cursing the whole time about weddings and dresses. So intent was she on venting that she didn't realize the thing was on the ground, until with a final kick, it's head flew off into the maze, and the creature dissolved into a puddle of watery blue goo. As she stood there staring at it, she realized that it was soaking into the hem of her dress. She jumped back quickly and ran as fast as she could out of the now normal maze.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Xander had never been in such a situation before. The hotel said they couldn't hold the wedding there on such short notice, but had offered to help find a suitable place. When Xander had told Giles this, the young man was surpassed to see Giles break down in tears. While he was trying to comfort the older man, Willow and Joyce knocked and came in.

"Oh my. Still haven't found a place for the wedding yet?" Willow asked as she offered a tissue to Giles. This produced another round of sobs from him. "I guess not."

Joyce took in the scene in front of her. She had not been happy to hear about the wedding when they first told her, but seeing how much it affected him, she realized how much he loved her daughter and all her objections melted away. "We'll find something. I'll talk to the hotel…"

Xander piped up. "Already did that. They said they couldn't, but they'd look for us."

"Well I'll just see if we can hurry that along." Joyce said with a determined face as she turned and left.

Willow stood up. "I'm going to see if I can find Buffy. She might have some ideas."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Buffy went back into the hotel. There was still no sign of the limo driver and she was getting angry again. As she was about to get into the elevator, Willow came out of it. "Oh Buffy there you are. Giles is crying and we need to find a place for the wedding and there's no shoes and the spiders were everywhere and…"

"Will, calm down. Giles is crying? What happened?"

Willow took a breath and started from the beginning. As she told Buffy about the problems they had encountered so far, Buffy felt as if the wind had been knocked out of her. When willow finally finished, Buffy decided to go to the manager's office to see if they had found anything yet. Her mother was standing there talking to him as Buffy approached, and started to smile at her daughter until she saw the state of Buffy's dress.

"Buffy! What happened?"

Buffy tried to smile as she looked at the manager for a second. "I got stuck in the hedge maze and 'something' got ahold of my dress. I had to 'fight' to get away."

Joyce mouthed a silent "Oh." Before she shook herself. "Everything's all right now though. Right?"

Buffy nodded. "So any idea where this wedding is going to happen?"

Joyce smiled. "Mr. Williams here just arraigned it for us to use the town park. Now lets get back to your room and see if we can get you cleaned up."

Willow, who had followed Buffy over said, "I'll go tell Giles and Xander. Then I'll call the limo company and tell them there's been a change of plans."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A short time later, Buffy sat in the hotel lobby. The dress had been cleaned up and repaired as much as possible, she once again looked like the perfect bride. The others had gone on ahead to the park to set up, the pastor having agreed to meet them there. The limo had been told that they would be going there instead of the church, and now all she had to do was wait. She checked her watch again and realized that the limo was late. She went over to the front desk to se if the driver had called.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What do you mean you don't have the bride?"

All heads turned towards Giles and the limo driver. Giles quickly got himself under control. "You were called and told that the wedding would be here instead of the church. Where in there were you told that you didn't have to pick up the bride?"

The driver shifted uncomfortably under the weight of a "Ripper" stare. "Sorry, but no one told me I was supposed to pick her up in the first place. All I was told was that I was supposed to drive from the church to the hotel. Then dispatch said it was the park instead of the church"

Giles let out a loud groan of frustration. "Fine. Go away." The driver turned and ran. "I'll go and get her myself." Several voices yelled "NO!"

"It's bad luck to see the bride…" Willow faltered to a stop when she realized how ridiculous that sounded.

Xander reached into his pocket, looking for his keys. "I'll go get her G-man. I'll even put the top up so her hair doesn't get all messed up." He continued to check his pockets. "Or I would, but I think I left my keys back at the inn with the rings."

Giles just glared and handed the boy the keys to the Citroen. "Don't burn out the clutch." As Xander ran for the car, Giles added, "And don't call me that!"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Drive faster Xander!"

Xander pushed Buffy's skirt out of the windshield for the tenth time. Even with the train gone, her skirt still filled up the cramped space in the car. "I'm going as fast as I can Buff. Remember whose car this is."

Buffy sighed and looked out the window.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The wedding itself went off without further problems. Although Giles was so awestruck at how beautiful Buffy looked, it took the pastor three tries to get him to say his vows. Buffy's mom and Willow cried on each other's shoulders for most of it, and Xander let roll a tear or two. With everything that had happened today, the relief was almost a physical force. Every once in a while, they each looked around, as if to be sure nothing else was going to happen. Then, just as the pastor told Giles he could kiss his bride, the skies opened up in a sudden and unexpected downpour. As everyone rushed to their vehicles to go to the reception, Giles and Buffy just stood there.

Giles kissed Buffy. "You know rain on your wedding day is supposed to be lucky."

"Wished it started sooner then. But we finally did it. Even if there were blue monsters and bushes with a mind of their own." Buffy said as she smiled up at her husband.

Giles got a concerned look on his face. "Blue monsters? What did it look like? Were you hurt?"

Buffy silenced him with a kiss. "No going into watcher mode. You're gonna be too busy being honeymoon guy. " Seeing that Giles wasn't going to be happy until she told him about it, Buffy gave in. "There was only one. I'll fill you in on the way to the inn." With that she led him to his car.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As they got into the car and started off, a passenger in a plane flying over head looked out his window and chuckled. "That was fun. Can't wait until their first anniversary." Ethan said as he settled back into his seat to enjoy the flight.

End.