It wasn't at all what she wanted, Lily thought, peering out her bedroom window, but somehow it was better. After all, you can't really have the perfect wedding amongst a war.
Originally, they weren't going to get married until the war was over, they were going to have a big, traditional wedding, but a close call with death had made everyone rethink what they were putting off.
James really had no choice when it came to any of the wedding plans, Lily turned out to be a major control freak when it came to decisions like this.
And so the guest list had gone down from a few hundred to a few dozen, only close friends and family. Nobody picked sides, just a seat. The bridesmaids didn't have fancy dresses, just different pastel coloured sundresses. The groomsmen had simple black pants and white button-downs instead of dress robes. Lily's dress was not at all the fairy tale princess gown she had imagined, but a simple, ivory coloured, knee-length sundress. And everything was cream coloured; the chairs (duplicated from the original in the study), the runner that ran from the back doors to the front of the isle, the roses that adorned every spare inch of the yard. But everything was, somehow, perfect.
Lily watched as more and more people arrived, meandered around, chatted to one another. James was already out there, welcoming guests, making sure everything was right.
"Lily," Marlene said softly from behind her, "We know you wanted a big traditional wedding," She trailed off as Lily turned away from the window to say something in return about how wonderful she though it was.
"So we thought that we should abide by at least one tradition," Alice finished.
Her bridesmaids, Marlene, Dorcas, Alice and Mary all stood there, holding out an item each.
Marlene held out a small silver ring, "Your dad said this was your mums, said you'd need something old,"
Instantly, tears sprung to Lily's eyes, "Thank you," She whispered, blinking them back.
Dorcas dropped a pair of pearl earrings into her hand, "We got these for you yesterday, thought they might go with what this one has," She nodded toward Alice who then stepped forward.
"I had these when me and Frank got married, as you already know," she laughed, dropping a strand of pearls into Lily's other hand before hugging her.
Next it was Mary, "There were so many things I could have given you," She said, holding out a medium sized box, covered in black satin, "but they already gave you jewellery. So, here. They're my favourite shoes, try not to break your neck," She opened the box to reveal a pair of light blue heels.
Lily gingerly sat on the edge of the bed, her tears threatening to fall. "Old. New. Borrowed. Blue." She whispered, looking up at her friends, "Thank you so much,"
-
By 1 o'clock all the guests were seated and in front of them all stood James, Sirius, Remus, Peter and Frank.
James dragged a sweaty hand through his hair, "What if she's gone, Padfoot?" He muttered.
Sirius snorted, "She wouldn't skip out on this, Prongs,"
"Look," Remus said, nodding towards the back doors, they all looked up to see Alice motioning for them to start. James saw Lily's head poking out from behind her and grinned.
As soon as the doors opened and the girls started walking down towards them the music started playing, though it wasn't the song Lily had decided on. A stolen record and some last minute tweaks and James made sure that the only song playing when Lily walked down that isle was Here Comes the Sun. He grinned, watching as first came Alice, then Mary, then Dorcas, Marlene and finally Lily, accompanied by her father.
She looked stunning, her dress was tighter than the bridesmaids, clinging to her every curve and then flowing out at the hip. She wore no veil, letting her hair fall in loose curls down her back and around her face, her eyes gleamed as she laughed, tears were already rolling down her cheeks. Mary's shoes had put an extra two inches on her but she was still dwarfed by James.
"You take good care of her," Mr Evans said to him before kissing Lily on the head and going to his seat.
"Friends," the elderly wizard in front of them started, "family. We welcome you here today to celebrate the love of two individuals, making them one,"
And then he started to ramble on about how love and happiness is exactly what people need in the darkest times. Lily looked out over the crowd, almost all of the Order was there, seated in the front row with Lily's father was Dumbledore, beside them were Amelia and Edgar Bones. In the back row sat Sirius' cousin Andromeda, her husband Ted and daughter, Nymphadora. It was mostly friends and people from the Order since neither of them really had any family left, James' parents had died in a Death Eater attack just after James and Lily got engaged, his mother's side didn't want anything to do with blood traitors like himself and there was nobody left on his father's side. Lily only had her dad, her mother had died of cancer when she was 16 and Petunia hadn't even bothered to speak to Lily in two years. The people seated there, sharing that moment, were the closest thing to family they had left.
"Do you-" the wizard started.
"Yes." James cut in, clutching Lily's hands.
There were a few chuckles from the crowd.
"And-" He started, turning to Lily.
"Deffinately." She said.
"I presume you have vows?"
They both nodded vigorously.
James cleared his throat,"I, James Charlus Potter, take you, Lily Marie Evans, to be my wife. To have and to hold. To have super amazing sex." He added the last part as a whisper for her ears only. "To love. Through the war, through life, in sickness, health, and in troubled times. Until we meet on the other side." He slid the gold band onto her finger.
Lily smiled, "I, Lily Marie Evans, take you, James Charlus Potter, to be my husband. To have and to hold me, through love and war, mischief and misfortune, in sickness and in health." She slid the gold band onto his finger. "Until we meet on the other side."
"I guess you know what comes now," The wizard said.
Lily grabbed James' face and pulled it down to her as he grabbed her by the hips and lifted her up. Their lips met briefly once and then again in a long and deep kiss as everyone clapped and cheered.
When they pulled away from each other, they were engulfed in a group hug from their friends, all laughing and cheering.
"Now I'm no good with speeches so excuse me if this sucks." Sirius cleared his throat, " When I first met James," He started, standing behind his seat at the top of the long u-shaped table in the yard.
"Here we go," James muttered.
"Merlin, he was a lurid little git, still is, he's just grown about a foot and a half. So we met on the train, same compartment we met Lily in. Poor girl was having a rough morning. He was a bit of a prat to her, to be honest, we all were. Well, except Moony, here," He patted Remus on the shoulder, "somehow he managed to be friends with her and James at the same time.
"And one day in our fourth year, he told us that he thought he was in love. Naturally, we all laughed and told him he was being stupid." He continued, "So for two years he acted out and ruffled his hair to get her attention, until one day in fifth year they were fighting near the lake and he just sort of yelled out 'Go out with me, Evans?" and she told him she wouldn't even pick him over the giant squid, which I suspect really damaged him." He added to Lily. "And so for the whole summer he compared himself to the giant squid and tried to figure out what it had that he didn't. Every morning at breakfast he would ask me 'What has that damned squid got that I haven't, Padfoot?' and every morning I'd reply 'No idea, Prongs, maybe the ability to not have to think about senseless things for three months,'" There were a few chuckles from the crowd. "I don't know what happened when I wasn't around, but somehow by Christmas that year they had become friends. Then came the fights about nothing and the prank war. I'll tell you one thing, don't get on their bad sides," He chuckled, pointing to the girls.
"I guess all the things they did helped to deflate his ego, because somehow James got Head Boy. We still think Dumbledore was barking mad to do it, but it meant that James spent more time with Lily, and they soon became very good friends. So it wasn't a surprise when they started dating, and the rest, I suppose, is history. Thanks for coming," He raised his glass to James and Lily and sat down.
Marlene was the next to get up; she spoke about how she met Lily and really what was happening on the other side of Sirius' story.
Remus stood up after her and made a short speech about the schemes James came up with to catch Lily's attention and how he had paid him to mention all the great things James did or how funny he was, or his abs.
Dorcas was after him, reminiscing their school days, embarrassing a few people, namely James, Sirius and Marlene.
Then Lily's dad got up and thanked everyone for coming and made a toast, " To James and my darling Lily," he said, holding up his glass, "congratulations, I wish you both an eternity together. To the happy couple!"
Everyone held up their glasses and called, "To James and Lily!"
Lily laughed and kissed James softly on the lips, "I love you," she whispered.
A lot of the music was by The Beatles, their favourite muggle band.
Their first dance was to Let It Be. Lily wrapped her arms around his neck, James wrapped his loosely around her waist.
"Here Comes the Sun?" She questioned as they swayed around the dance floor.
James grinned, "Well I wanted at least one thing to be my decision,"
"But why that song?"
"Because," He leant down to whisper in her ear, "my life without you is like the world without the sun,"
Lily smiled and brushed her lips against his, "That's sweet and sort of morbid when you think about it." She smiled.
"It is," he agreed.
The festivities continued into the night until slowly, around midnight, everyone started to leave for home.
Lily stood at the fireplace in the entrance hall, thanking everyone before they flood home.
She walked her dad to the front door after everybody had left.
"Congratulations, Flower," He murmured, kissing her on the head.
She wrapped her arms around his waist, "Thank you, daddy,"
"I love you," He said, giving her a squeeze before leaving.
"I love you, too!" She called after him.
She had always thought it was cliché but no Lily really knew why people said that their wedding day was the best one of their lives.