CHAPTER SEVEN
A few days passed. Ross, Rachel and Joey were sitting, Ross and Rachel looking over wedding plans and Joey gazing at a girl sitting nearby.
'Hey, Joe, you're going to be our minister, right?' asked Ross.
'Really?' said Joey. 'Wow, Ross. Ok, yeah, I'll be minister.'
'Great. Well, that's one more thing sorted. What else do we need?' asked Ross.
Rachel began to count on her fingers. 'We have the dresses, theme, decorations, guest list, photographer, venue for both the ceremony and reception – wait hang on, we still need a cake!'
'How could we forget?' exclaimed Ross, turning a new page on the file.
'How could you forget?' Joey yelped. 'You forgot the cake?'
'Don't worry, Joey, we have all the other food sorted,' Rachel assured him. 'I think just me and you should go get the cake, Ross. We can choose a nice design and everything.'
'Do you know how many people are coming?'
'Around 100 so far,' said Rachel.
'Ok. Well, we should get that sorted,' said Ross. 'Shall we go now?'
'Let me just finish this coffee,' said Rachel. As soon as she had finished, they both got up, said goodbye to Joey (who had now caught the eye of the girl) and left the coffee house, discussing cakes as they left. 'I thought Monica and Chandler's was nice,' said Rachel. 'But if we could have a bit of glitter on ours, that would be nice – flowers and butterflies, too?' Ross gave a deathly look. 'Ok. If not flowers and butterflies, at least glitter. There has to be glitter.'
'Ok, fine. I'll settle for glitter. No flowers or butterflies.'
'What do you want, dinosaurs?' said Rachel. Ross scowled.
'Don't deny it, a mini dinosaur would look cute on a cake,' he mumbled. Rachel sniggered.
They reached a bakery that specialised in wedding cakes. In the window were a number of lovely designs. 'How many tiers do you want?' asked Ross. 'Three?'
'Three would be nice,' said Rachel.
'Can I help you?' asked the assistant.
'We wanted a wedding cake,' explained Rachel. 'Do you do personal designs?'
'We do. Come and speak to our head chef,' said the assistant, leading them through to the kitchen.
The chef was very helpful. Once they left they had a design for a five tier fruit cake with glitter scattered all over it and the words, 'GELLER GREENE' written on the top tier. 'That can be for us six,' said Ross.
Many people had started to reply to their invitations now. Ross's cousins all had and so had his parents; Rachel's family had all said they could come; even some of her high school friends had said they would, much to the disappointment of Monica and Phoebe. Some college friends of Ross's had dropped by to offer their congratulations and to promise to be there, and work colleagues all said they could go. They debated inviting Mark but Ross scowled whenever he was mentioned and Rachel gave up.
Carol came by with Susan and Ben for a quick catch up in the coffee house. As they left they assured them they'd be there, and Ross looked very happy.
'But Rachel can pick what Ben wears!' called back Carol as they swung the door shut behind them.
With two weeks before the wedding, Rachel's mother decided that she would come and stay to help her out with preparations. Rachel made a few weak suggestions that she didn't, but she knew her mother would have to come.
She arrived on a sunny Saturday at midday and sat down for lunch, which Monica had prepared.
'Oh, Monica! How lovely to see you!' said Mrs Greene, bringing Monica in for a tight hug. 'My soon-to-be daughter in law!' she said excitedly. 'And you too, Chandler,' she added, shaking Chandler's hand before sitting down next to Rachel, who was flipping through a magazine.
'So, Rachel,' she said. 'I'm here to help you prepare. There's so much to be done -!'
'Mom, I've picked everything,' said Rachel absent-mindedly.
'The dress? The cake? The bridesmaids? The venue? The musicians? The car? The design? The wedding music?'
'All done,' said Rachel idly. 'All picked out. Monica, Phoebe and Ross helped me out,' she shrugged.
'You did your preparations ... without your mother?' said Mrs Greene, in a horrified and disappointed whisper.
Rachel looked up. 'Well, if I was only starting to prepare now, I wouldn't get much done in time, would I?'
'You could have called! I could have come much earlier if you'd said anything!'
'Me and the girls have been sorting everything and we've done just fine!' protested Rachel. 'And Ross has been helping too. No offence meant, but we've been fine without you!'
Dinner was a rather quiet affair after that. Monica and Chandler made small talk but neither Rachel nor her mother were much interested in it.
Rachel told Ross about this afterwards. He assured her it would all be fine. 'Let's face it, we were fine without her. She just can't believe you're growing up this fast, that's all. To adults, it seems like yesterday she was teaching you how to walk.'
'Ross, I haven't lived with her for about 14 years,' said Rachel.
'I've never understood the mind of the parent, don't ask me!' said Ross. 'Anyway, that chef said our cake would be ready soon. Shall we keep it at ours?'
'I don't know, just don't let Joey know it exists,' sighed Rachel.
Monica was fascinated by the wedding cake and started a series of experiments to see if she could remake it. 'I wonder how well I'd do at a wedding cake business?' she wondered.
'Honey, you're a chef already. One job at a time,' said Chandler, though he was immersed in a comic book.
The babies soon woke up and Monica was occupied by them. Rachel's mother was spending increasing amounts of time out shopping, and almost every day she would come home with a new shipload of expensive clothes and shoes and ornaments. 'I'd forgotten how good it is to shop here,' she sighed happily as she emerged from the guest room in Ross and Rachel's apartment in a fur coat.
Soon a week had passed and it was time for wedding rehearsals and final checks. Rachel became nervous and jittery and spent large amounts of time reciting wedding plans to a bewildered Emma.
'One week to go, man,' said Joey to Ross. 'Have you written a speech?'
'Yep, all done,' said Ross. 'And so has Rachel, I think, but it's hard to get anything out of her these days.'
'Girls,' said Chandler, rolling his eyes as he walked in. 'Monica and Rachel are in the living room, crying over that dress again.'
All three rolled their eyes in unison and headed for a coffee.
