A/N: Canon not mine. Enjoy.
There was a compromise of sorts on the day of the wedding.
See, Wash had dreamed of his wife in a gown fitting for the magnificent flower that she would be. As a little child, he would picture enormous ball gowns he only ever seen people wear in the movies he got off the core feeds. As a teen, ball gowns turned into more slim fitting dresses. Hugging the curves of the girls he had crushes all through out his school years. Then later those dresses changed into simple but none the less elegant use of flowing fabrics. The color never changed. White, always white and perfect.
When Zoe finally said yes (while in the middle of a job, with her cleaning a gun and he kneeling beside her chair), she hadn't realize the extent of Wash's expectations.
They both wanted a simple wedding. That they could agree on, but the dress was another matter all together. Going through dozens of dresses and gowns on handfuls of planets, they couldn't find one that Zoe liked and that Wash picked out, and what Zoe picked out, Wash didn't like. None of the dresses Wash picked he actually saw on his wife-to-be, she wouldn't let him. But the ones she did choose and tried on, he did see, and he wasn't even going to pretend to understand why that was. He just let it be.
Finally they stopped talking about dresses all together, it became like one of Jayne's guns. They knew they were eventually going to have to use it, but they didn't want to provoke the topic.
It was Mal that came up with a solution, the day of the wedding.
"Do you trust me?" He said.
They both looked at him and said no.
"Look, this ain't a science. I got this. Hold tight for a coupla hours and I'll see you at the Church."
They agreed mostly because he left them before they could stop him and Zoe was honestly curious to see what the hell her Captain had in store; Wash was antsy.
"You think this is going to end well?" He asks the woman who will be his wife in a few simple hours, she chuckles,
"God no," she leans in to kiss her man, "but it doesn't matter, does it?"
"You know, I still liked the whole being naked idea. That was a good idea." They begin walking toward the small church.
"Don't think being naked in church is looked well upon by the eyes of the Lord."
"Pretty sure we were created naked. Weren't we?" She laughs at him, leaning into his side while the walk.
"There'll be plenty of time to be naked later." Wash's smile becomes brighter at that prospect.
A couple of hours pass and Mal finally finds himself in the church carrying a bag over his shoulder, looking a little more dirty than the last time they saw him.
"Gotten into any trouble, sir?" Zoe asks as Mal is handing over the bag to Zoe casually.
"Naw, no more than the usual scuffle," he brushes some dirt from his coat, "now go around back and change, don't want to keep your husband waiting."
She stares at him for a moment before leaving to change. Wash goes to follow but Mal stops him.
"Nope, Husband don't get to see the dress and all it contains until the wedding," before Wash can protest Mal continues, "now you go get changed, don't want the little misses to wait on you, do you?"
Mal settles himself in a pew and waits.
Jayne arrives just as Wash finishes changing and settles himself at the head of the aisle. Everyone takes their places. When Zoe appears-
When Zoe appears Wash doesn't know which part of his wife to look at. Her face, her hands, her body, for Godsake, her eyes, everything is as it should be; she's not beautiful because that doesn't describe her enough; Wash can't think of a word that would encompass everything that his wife is. Zoe. He decides that all he can call her is Zoe and it is enough and smiles.
She smiles and he forgets about the dress.