Disclaimer: I don't anything or anyone, I just play with their emotions.
Special thanks to my friends who seem to enjoy this immensely (or are just being super nice and lying to me, lol). Thanks again and enjoy.
"R.S.V.P."
"199. There are 199." Alice sighed sadly, checking off the 4 page list and putting it down on the coffee table.
Bella looked up from the stack of books she was organizing, "199, what?"
"Um....now please don't get mad. Just remember I hold your best interests at heart and want to give you a wedding you'll never forget…..and with that comes certain compromises and alterations……small, but you'll totally love it…I'm just sur-"
"Alice?"
"Guests, okay? GUESTS. There are 199. This is sort of throwing me through a loop because I swear we had an even 200."
"TWO HUNDRED? TWO HUNDRE- ALICE!" Bella gasped, "I think this is what happens before you go into cardiac arrest…."
"Bella, breathe. You're being overdramatic."
Silence.
"Bella?"
Bella took a moment to take the information in. This was so NOT what she had signed up for. When she first announced her engagement and reluctantly accepted Alice's help in the planning, she was assured it would be "small, intimate, and only their closest friends and family."
Panic set in.
"199? I don't think we even know 199 people! AND that's put together!"
"Bella, of course you do….I just may have included some extended family."
"Alice, who did you invite? All of Forks, La Push, AND Port Angeles??"
"Don't be silly. I'd never forget the extended family in Seattle, Arizona, and Florida."
"ALICE! This is insane! We asked for a small quiet ceremony, this is sooo not it. How are we even going to afford it?"
"Bella, please. We both know that as a couple you had more then enough money for this, not to mention the honeymoon and the down payment on the very house we're sitting in."
"Still, Alice….I don't think it's responsible. We're not really big "party people." I just wanted a nice small ceremony. It's not about how big, glitzy, and glamorous the wedding is for us. We just want to get married with all of our family and friends present and be able to start the rest of our lives as soon as possible……"
"Oh, Bella" Alice sighed. "You are getting all of that. You just have to acknowledge that when a girl gets married it should be memorable for everyone. INCLUDING, everybody in town. Did you hear that the mayor was coming?"
"ALICE!"
"Kidding, he's going to be out of town. But honestly, did you never dream of a big wedding with a huge dress and the man of your dreams waiting for you at the altar?"
Bella sighed, "Alice, we've been through this. I wanted things to be different. I'm not the same person I was before."
"Says you. Just acknowledge how appealing the idea of MY wedding vision is. AND how happy your groom will be seeing you walking down that aisle towards him surrounded by….."
"Mail's here." Jasper said as he threw down the mail on the coffee table, he wiped his brow and fell into the loveseat. "You know Bella; you should have told Emmett and me how much that old iron wrought bed weighed. Emmett's outside swearing he sprained his groin and will never be able to have kids."
Alice snorted as she reached for the mail, "I seriously doubt that. Plus, considering the way he goes at it with Rosalie all the time, I have a bigger fear for her uterus then anything else. Lord knows, how many little Emmett's will be running around in the future."
"So Bella, have you been told the grand total of guests? There's only a month left until the wedding. I seriously doubt anyone else will R.S.V.P. at a later date. Alice threatened everyone to R.S.V.P. early or not be allowed in."
"I just wanted to be prepared, okay? Weddings can be extremely hectic and last minute additions just spell disaster." Alice grumbled.
"Yes, Jasper." Bella said. "I've been told. Though I wanted a small wedding, I got an Alice Brandon social extravaganza of the year. Complete with doves and ice sculptures and fire breathers am I right?" Alice grimaced.
"Fire breathers? Really Bella, you underestimate me….that's so passé. So Celine Dion Cirque De Solieil Concert… You'll love the doves though."
"Alice, you're giving birth to my first born, I hope you know."
"Oh c'mon Bella! You know he'll love it. He loves showing you off to everyone. And now that you accepted to be his wife? He couldn't be more thrilled. You know that boy thinks the sun rises and sets out of your ass."
"Thanks Alice, you're such a classy friend. Really, I mean it."
Alice looked up from the pile of mail and winked, "Don't you forget it."
As Jasper and Bella laughed off the insanity that the "small intimate wedding" had become, Alice gasped. "What's the matter?" Jasper asked.
"Yea Alice, you look like you saw a ghost."
In her hands, Alice clutched the last R.S.V.P. It should have made everything even. It would have made 200 guests ready and willing to see Bella Swan tie the knot.
Bella pulled the response out of Alice's grasp. Bella almost laughed, so, she wasn't completely wrong…..Alice might as well have seen a ghost. With a sigh she picked up the abandoned list and scanned it for his name.
Upon finding it, Bella checked off, Edward A. Cullen + 1 Guest.