Fiona has always been a sucker for weddings.
Big, small, fancy, laidback – any kind of wedding invariably makes her feel warm and smiley and sends her in a dizzy tailspin of ideas about her own future nuptials. She knows exactly what kind of colors she wants (Tiffany box blue and cream), what flowers will be the centerpieces (white roses, her mother's favorite), and what her dress will look like (the Faye, from Vera Wang's 2012 fall collection). The only thing that she doesn't have is a clear picture of whom she'll be marrying. It'll be a girl, that much is for sure, but their facial features have never been clear enough for her identify them. If she squints, she sees dark hair and a smile so wide that it looks almost painful, but that's it.
After she comes home from a family wedding, after she shimmies out of her dress and shucks off her heels, she always finds herself wrapped up in her too-large bed and wondering if she'll ever find someone that she wants to spend the rest of her life with. She falls asleep with a crease in her brow and visions of taffeta and guests dancing to the traditional wedding classics, and always wakes up a little more determined to find her soulmate.
She knows that she has time – she's only eighteen, after all – but when she hears that Drew and Bianca are engaged she can't help but feel a stab of jealousy and an irrational need to find that kind of love right now. Fiona loves Imogen. There's not a shred of doubt about that, and she gets a flurry of feelings behind her ribcage whenever Imogen does something as little as glance up and smile in her direction, but she's not sure if it's a marriage kind of love. If it's an everlasting thing, where they'll have kids and grow old together and have matching tombstones (it's a morbid thought, but that's where they'll end up, right?).
That kind of thinking is absolutely shattered when the two of them agree to be present at Drew and Bianca's wedding in Vegas. As they're following Bianca down the aisle Fiona catches a glimpse of Imogen's wide smile to her left and she's suddenly jolted to the flashes of her wedding that she's always imagined, with the bride with the dark hair and prettiest smile Fiona could ever imagine. It's like the world is tilting on its axis and everything is finally coming together.
Fiona knows that she could marry Imogen. That she will marry Imogen. They'll have their kids and they'll grow old and they'll have matching tombstones. But most important, they'll have the fairy tale wedding that every girl deserves, and Fiona is one hundred percent willing to concede her visions for what Imogen wants, as long as it's her at the end of the aisle and her that Fiona will come home to each and every day.
When Drew and Bianca exchange rings Fiona finds her gaze stuck on Imogen, not paying attention to the bridge and groom at all. Imogen must feel the same way, because she lifts her gaze from her bouquet to meet Fiona's eyes. She winks at her and mouths "I love you," and Fiona's heart positively explodes.
—
Eighteen is way too young to get engaged in her opinion, so Fiona waits a few years.
They make it through college – they go to schools hundreds of miles away, but they make it work for four years – and they get their first apartment together in Toronto. It's tiny, the heat doesn't work half the time, and their landlord is staunch about his "no pets allowed" rule, but it's theirs. They have dance parties in the kitchen, watch terrible reality television in the living room on furniture purchased at Goodwill (something that would have horrified Fiona years ago but now she's just glad they have a couch at all), and they spend more than their fair share of time in the bedroom.
It's only fitting that that's where she chooses to propose, instead of at a fancy restaurant or on a destination vacation. She manages to cajole Imogen into taking one Friday off and having a movie marathon with her. The theme is predictably romance movies, and when Imogen sighs wistfully at the end of Can't Buy Me Love and snuggles closer, Fiona knows that it's time. She slips her hand out of her sweatshirt pocket, where it's been wrapped around the small velvet box for the duration of the marathon, and takes a deep breath. Imogen turns her head to raise an eyebrow questioningly at her girlfriend's sigh, and Fiona can't force the words out of her throat out of pure nervousness.
So she holds up the box, flips open the top, and hopes that Imogen gets the message.
Barely five seconds goes by before a "Yes, yes, oh my God, yes!" comes tumbling out of Imogen's mouth, and Fiona finds herself tackled right off of the couch and onto the cold hardwood. She doesn't even mind that there will probably be a nasty bruise on her back tomorrow, or that they've knocked over their glasses on the coffee table, because Imogen is laughing in her ear and she's holding on to Fiona like she's the most precious thing in the world.
—
Her wedding isn't at all how she pictured it. They wind up having it at a nice country club with a fall theme (Imogen's favorite season is autumn, and she has a love of the color scheme that goes along with it). Fiona's dress isn't Vera Wang and isn't the style she thought she would go for, but according to Holly J it's perfect on her. They don't serve filet mignon with sautéed mushrooms and peppers on top, and there are no white roses on the tables.
None of that matters to her in the end, because when the doors open and Imogen is standing at the end of the aisle, with her dark hair swept up into a neat bun, glasses traded for contacts, and wearing a beautiful ivory gown, Fiona isn't even aware that there's anything or anyone in the room but her. It's not until Fiona makes it to the end of the aisle and her father moves away from her that Imogen's face breaks out into the most glorious smile that Fiona has ever seen, and she can't help but match her.
They keep the ceremony short and perform their own vows. Fiona stumbles through hers a little, has to improvise when she forgets several lines, but they make her mother and Imogen's mother tear up all the same. Imogen has memorized her favorite poem by her favorite author and recites it confidently, eyes never leaving Fiona's.
The applause when they kiss is positively thunderous. It echoes the ringing of Fiona's heartbeat in her ears, and she finds that she's never been so sure of anything in her entire life than she is about her decision to marry Imogen Moreno.