Happy birthday to my fantastic girlfriend! (at least in my time zone). We actually met exchanging PJO headcanons, and I'm pretty sure a bunch of stories on my profile are already dedicated to her. One of the topics that comes to us rather frequently is wedding headcanons. So babe, this is my gift to you: a series of drabbles about weddings. Right now there are 30 something chapters planned out, but I'm 90% sure that as soon as you realise I've posted her birthday story, you're going to give me a list of 30 more chapters to write- so who knows how long this is going to be.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the following characters. Some of the drabbles are based on prompts from a list titled "a bunch of wedding slash engagement themed prompts" by tumblr user plynis, and I'll make sure to specify which ones.

Dedication: to M, because I am dating a giant ball of Cheese. I hope you love this story half as much as I love you.

1. Veil

Sally was mostly unimpressed by bridal shopping as a whole. She and Paul were both enrolled in the school of thought that now that they'd decided they were going to get married, they should get it done and over with. Unfortunately society and the strangely enormous (and judgy) Blofis clan had other ideas and they somehow needed a ceremony and a reception and three different kinds of bridal showers and even a brunch for some reason.

They put their heads down and ploughed through it, which is how Sally approached bridal shopping until her trio of high school best friends reborn as bridesmaids told her to calm herself and look in the mirror for a second. So yes, Sally did cry when she saw herself in the wedding dress she knew she'd later buy. Yes, she cried even harder when her girls announced that they were going to pitch in to split the price four ways. Yes, she texted Paul's gay best friend a picture and she knew that he'd cried even harder. But the fact was that she didn't think of the veil.

"Can't I just borrow one of yours?" Sally asked her friends.

"Mine tore during the reception, remember?" Cath said.

"I used my mother-in-law's," Tonie shrugged.

"I eloped," Brigit smiled sheepishly.

"Come on Sally," Tonie said. "You're doing this right, aren't you? Get a veil?"

Sally always sustained that her veil was beautiful and classic and yes, okay, her stupid best friends were right, she was glad she'd gotten one. But it was picked basically at random, as an after-thought. She didn't know just how much love would end up wound up with the soft, fine tulle.

She'd seen Annabeth wear sneakers with her torn Target dress the first time she and Percy had gone to a fancy museum exhibit at age 13, Percy just as awkward in his button shirt. Then Annabeth had progressed to a nice, clean dress when they hit 15 and she'd gone to a university even with her father- or so it was according to the pictures Percy showed her. By the time Percy and Annabeth had started dating, Annabeth was a master of running and concealing weapons and even more important feeling comfortable in dresses as opposed to forced and restricted and trapped. When prom came around it was glorious and Annabeth had even donned daring, regal heels borrowed from Reyna underneath the long and beautiful sheath of her dress.

Sally hadn't expected all of this progress and growing up to result in her sitting in a bridal boutique as Annabeth stood on a pedestal while a tiny lady busied herself with pins and needles, but she wasn't complaining.

Annabeth, Katie and Piper were filling in Reyna and Hazel, who had just arrived in New York, about the broad details that they'd already planned out such as menu and venue (the wedding was in, let it be known, four months and Sally hadn't yet seen any overwhelming concern or finer detail planning on behalf of her kids).

"Well, because Hera hates us we do have to keep it traditional enough," Annabeth said. "We can't afford having her storm in like the Evil Queen and curse our firstborn, you know?"

"Not with your luck, anyways," Piper said.

Still, they'd managed to incorporate themselves in their nuptials rather well. They were getting married at the Chelsea Piers Lighthouse- somehow the perfect blend of historical architecture and all things nautical. They'd found out that Chiron could legally officiate weddings and had already asked him. The ceremony would last about twenty minutes to form the perfect ratio with a ten hour, open bar party. Annabeth currently looked beyond beautiful in a light, airy wedding dress that was simple enough not to create a fuss or a bankruptcy, but complicated enough in its pinning and shape to yell out 'architect, architect!'

"That's a beautiful dress," Hazel repeated again. She'd been in Vancouver when they went bridal shopping, so she was still dumbfounded by how beautiful Annabeth looked. Sally couldn't blame her, she was too.

Annabeth only smiled in the mirror as an example.

"I'm surprised you went so quickly," Reyna said. "Dress, shoes, everything is already done. Percy even has a ring."

"Wait- veil," Piper said. "I'm sorry, my cabin used to overflow with wedding magasines. Do you have a veil?"

Annabeth frowned. "No, not… Not really…"

"Oooh," Piper said. "Hera's going to be pissed."

"Will she?"

"Jason was on Olympus recently for pontifex maximus business and I went with him and she saw me and I got all the scoop," Piper said.

"I don't want to buy a veil just because Hera's a-"

"Let's not say mean things in a bridal shop," Katie intervened soothingly.

Annabeth exhaled instead, but the sigh spoke for itself.

"Did you want to use mine?" Sally asked.

"What?" Annabeth asked.

"I still have my wedding veil in a box somewhere," Sally said. "Do you want to use it? It's fairly plain, it'd go well with your dress as well."

"Yes," the seamstress piped up. "Use mother's veil. The more often veil is used, the more luck it gives to new wedding."

"Really?" Annabeth asked. "I don't think I knew that."

"I promise it is true," the seamstress said. "You will see."

"Case closed," Piper said. "You've got a veil, everybody's happy."

Annabeth looked at Sally, and Sally could tell.

Hazel's hands were shaking as she tried to smooth down the fabric of her dress.

"Hazel," Sally said softly. "Calm down. Your dress fits beautifully whether or not the second fitting was done and you look stunning."

Hazel nodded nervously and took a deep breath, which sounded sickly, almost like a rattle was lodged in Hazel's lungs. Hazel tried to clear her throat, as if that would make it disappear. The cough was actually the exact reason why the second fitting hadn't happened, why the wedding had been planned so quickly and then pushed forwards anyways.

At the last winter solace Hades had announced that things in the Underworld were finally back to normal after the Doors of Death incident, and that now the underworld's pantheon could focus more heavily on collecting the souls who had escaped during the war and who still roamed the world. Three days later, Hazel had spent Christmas in the ER, unable to breathe, as if she was choking on thin air. The doctors said it was as if she had fluid of some sort in her lungs, and Hazel had immediately fallen back to the way she'd died in the forties, breathing in dust and oil. She may be Hades' favourite daughter, but Frank and Hazel's race against time had begun, just in case. And the first order of business? Get married. So here they were two months later, with as small of a wedding as demigods could get away with in downtown Ottawa. Hazel's lacy heels were from an antique shop she and Nico went to regularly, and her dress had been pulled off the rack recently. Sally already had a beautiful picture of her, wrapped in a white blanket quilted by Grandmother Zhang, and smiling outside, against the snow.

"I'm nervous," Hazel said. "Our wedding wasn't meant to be a show but I know how many gods are sitting there waiting and-"

"Don't mind them," Sally said. "They weren't even officially invited. I think you have enough on your mind already. I promise that you're going to have a beautiful day, even if you think that you forgot something."

Hazel's eyes widened. "Veil. I didn't think of the veil."

"I know you didn't, but I did," Sally said, taking a paper bag out of her purse.

The tension flooded out of Hazel's body just as the tears flooded her eyes. "Is it yours?"

Sally nodded and kissed Hazel's cheek. "I know it'll only be it's third time used, but you deserve all the luck in the world."

It was a good thing that Paul had told Sally who was calling when he passed her the phone, because Piper was ranting at about 100 miles an hour as soon as she

"I thought I could get away with it since I'm marrying her champion, but apparently Hera found out and she's pissed and so she told my mom and my mom has been popping up in my dreams and making my siblings nag me and honestly I might murder Lacy if I get another text but it's too late to order anything because apparently this is the kind of thing you need order because of capitalism and I don't even know anymore but weddings are seriously starting to piss me off so I know it's last minute but I'm really sorry to bother you but-"

"Do you need to borrow my veil?" Sally asked, smiling. She could picture the frustrated Piper she was now talking to now, and put that image right up against the nonchalant and happy Piper who'd been sunk on her couch playing video games with Percy, talking about how even if Hera was forcing a shotgun wedding now that Piper was pregnant after tolerating years and years of them dallying around, she and Jason were trying to be completely untraditional to piss of Hera as much as possible until they got murdered because, in Piper's words: 'Romeo and Juliet wasn't even that nice of a story to be honest'.

"Yes please," Piper said.

"This must be exhausting for someone who was all for never getting married and faking it until you made it," Sally said.

Piper groaned. "And the baby's kicking like crazy."

"You're pretty good about lending out that veil," Paul said as they looked through the apartment looking for the aforementioned veil. Sure, they had plenty of time until Miranda Gardner walked down the aisle; but demigods were dramatic and unpredictable, so Sally rather not push their luck. "Like, when my sister got married she wouldn't let anyone hug her when she was wearing her dress. She was so protective."

"It's for luck," Sally said as if that alone explained this nearly unquestioned sharing that could even implicate shipping the veil to the other side of the country. Really it was because the mere thought of saying no bred visions of cement statues and painful memories of bruises and cuts and black eyes and burst lips and sleeping on the couch and trying to become invisible in your own home and her things being broken and her son being insulted and getting sworn at and belittled and embarrassed and... and...

"Everyone deserves a happy marriage," Sally said. "I mean, I'd wish this on anybody."

She kissed Paul.

Reyna was mixing concealers and bronzers like a pro to hide the tattoo on her arm. There were so many bars under the two crossed torches, Piper had never gotten around to counting them all. Besides, nowadays Reyna always covered it.

"Are you nearly done?" Piper asked.

Reyna nodded. "What about you, is everything ready out there?"

"Yup," Piper said, popping her 'p'. "Cristian can't wait to see you. Lucky him, you look gorgeous."

"Thank you," Reyna said furrowing her eyebrows as she dabbed on more concealer. It was actually ridiculous, this rule that Reyna had to keep the stupid thing hidden. Unfortunately Reyna had only found out after the wedding gown –a sleeveless, regal, form-fitting dress- had been selected, hence the makeup.

She pulled her hoody down over her bridesmaid dress and sat on a corner of the table that wasn't covered in the thousand and one varieties of makeup needed. A tattoo like the ones legionnaires had were nearly impossible to cover, Piper had heard that much.

"Need help? I always do his for Jason when he has job interviews and whatnot," Piper said.

"I know how," Reyna said.

"Yes, but you're stressed right now."

Reyna handed her the concealer and Piper got working.

"I think that it's a load of shit that you need to cover it. Also New Rome's loss. But I think you're doing the right thing," Piper said. "If Rome won't let you marry a mortal and keep your status in Rome, then I think you made the right choice by packing up your things and leaving. Cristian is incredible for you and you for him."

"I don't know about all that 'New Rome's loss' bit," Reyna said. "But I don't regret resigning and giving up my titles. As long as Octavian's not alive to hear it."

"Fair enough," Piper admitted. "Still, it's not easy when people bully you out of who you are. I mean, you had to move, you had to get a new job, you had to give up communications with New Rome… Seriously, what an outdated load of crap. Jason told me you aren't even allowed to have a ceremony in Latin or use the- the… oh, what's it called? The traditional veil. The orange one that wards off monsters and evil spirits and stuff?"

"The flammeum," Reyna said. She tried to sound casual, but she answered too quickly.

"The flammeum," Piper repeated. "I know Jason was kind of nervous that I wasn't wearing it at our wedding. So Annabeth, Hazel and I tried to find a compromise and this is what we came up with."

She pulled something out of her hoody pocket and gave it to Reyna.

"It's Sally's veil," Piper said. "She let me use it last year and I never got around to bringing it back to her, but she said she'd love for you to wear it if you want. We figure that it has a different kind of luck to it, but it's still lucky. Besides, you can handle the monsters and evil spirits yourself."

Katie Gardner had been hit with a demigod's worst nightmare: monsters on the day before her wedding.

Most of her and Travis' apartment had been thrashed even after they'd made it out to safety and before they got backup and managed to get rid of the pack of hellhounds. Still, most of the damage had been repaired.

"Travis borrowed a suit from Percy," Annabeth explained quickly, "and Piper went up to Olympus herself and begged to Aphrodite. She got all pitiful and batty-eyed and everything, so Aphrodite just poofed a new dress into existence for Katie. They're going to give tiny vials of monster dust as their wedding favours and use Ring Pops for their vows since the insurance on the wedding bands won't replace them quickly enough."

"Did Katie find another veil?" Reyna asked.

"No," Annabeth said. "Shit! Katie's the one who loves veils!"

"Shit, I think I still have Sally's," Reyna said dashing off into her apartment, in the spare room that was still full of unpacked boxes. "Call her and tell her not to panic!"

"We're trying not to create anything new for the wedding," Grover said. "Nature spirits usually have very small weddings. It's bad enough that we have to get married in the city…"

Juniper had recently needed to be transplanted and removed from camp because of a bug among the nymphs. Despite how homesick Juniper was and how much she missed camp and the other nymphs, the hatred of the city had spawned a desire to create something good, and the way they'd almost lost each other had the carpe diem effect of creating a wedding.

"Ask Juniper if she wants my veil," Sally said. "I have it here somewhere. I think."

"Actually, Lou Ellen has it," Annabeth said. "Remember? Her brother magicked hers into a bird a few days before her wedding."

"No," Piper said. "Actually, Lacy has it. Lou Ellen gave it over because Lacy and Nyssa accidentally got the same veil, but they didn't want to be identical on their wedding day."

"I thought Lacy had given it back," Sally said.

"Yes, but Lou Ellen's wedding was after," Annabeth said.

"Not that long after," Piper said. "Because Drew had it around the same time, don't you remember? She wanted a lucky veil but she refused to wear her stepmother's, so she couldn't wear her mother-in-law's to avoid creating drama…

"Wherever it is, I'm sure Juniper would love the offer, Sally," Grover said, his head spinning. Why was everyone getting married at once?

"I didn't think I'd look good in a veil," Clarisse shrugged when Sally asked. "I don't look good in delicate things. It's like dressing up a monster truck."

"Nonsense," Sally said clucking her tongue. "You'd look beautiful in anything Clarisse. Just because you're tall and strong doesn't change anything. I mean, look at yourself in the mirror. Can you really tell me that you don't look amazing?"

Clarisse grinned. "I do look good."

"Exactly," Sally said. "Now. It's a bit last minute, but I can run home and get you a veil if you want it, sweetheart. All you have to do is ask."

"I'm glad you decided to adopt all of us, Mrs. Jackson," Clarisse smiled.

It was when Clarisse gave her back the veil three days later that she collapsed.

"Hey Mom," Sophie said. "Did you know that the more a wedding veil is worn the luckier it becomes for the bride's wedding?"

"I've heard about that superstition," Annabeth said. They were sitting at the kitchen table, licking envelopes to try and get the invitations sent out by morning. Sophie's fiancée Lizzie was sitting with them, trying to make herself useful despite how little she actually cared about how the wedding happened compared to the fact that the wedding WAS happening.

"I don't really want to buy a veil anyways," Sophie said. "Do you know where I could get one?"

"Actually, yes," Annabeth said. She smiled, thinking of frantic phone calls to figure out who had the veil, of touching moments, of Katie crying of relief, of Hazel twirling and wrapping herself in the tulle, of Hera politely congratulating Piper on 'growing up and doing the right thing', of relatives pointing to several different wedding pictures and noticing how similar Annabeth, Piper, Hazel and a number of others looked…

"Wait a second, I think I know where it is," Annabeth said. She stepped out of the kitchen and came back holding a box entitled "WEDDING" in which spare invitations and photo albums and a seashell necklace were stashed.

"Liz, get out," Sophie said.

"Oh, I see how it is," Lizzie said.

Sophie laughed. "I'm sorry, you're just not supposed to see this, it's like the dress. Maybe. Anyways, I'm not risking it. I'll see you at home, okay?"

"Okay," Lizzie said. She got up and kissed Sophie before waving to Annabeth and excusing himself.

Annabeth smiled and took out a tulle wedding veil wrapped in kraft paper, unfolding it gently.

"I don't think I could count on just one hand how many people have borrowed this veil," Annabeth said going around the table. "Your grandmother lent it to everybody, saying she wanted everybody to have beautiful marriages."

"This was grandma's?"

"Umm hmm," Annabeth said. She took a few pins out of her hair and clumsily fastened the veil in Sophie's hair. "She'd have offered it to you herself if she was here, but she'd love to know that you wore it too."

"She never met me," Sophie said.

"She wouldn't have needed to to love you," Annabeth said kissing Sophie's cheek.