Ch. 21 Venues

November 10th, 2000

"Malfoy, party for two," Draco gave his name at the front desk.

"Yes, sir. If you'll give me a minute, please," the receptionist smiled before checking her books. Draco gave Anya a smile and pulled her even closer. "Ah- yes. Here we are. Welcome to Kensington's Palace Orangery. If you'll just follow me this way, please."

"This place looks amazing!" Anya gushed as she looked around. "If we don't choose this place for our venue, we could always think about coming here for the honeymoon or maybe an anniversary... Or maybe just a night little weekend getaway!"

"That sounds like a grand idea, but how about we choose a place to have the actual wedding party first?" Draco suggested with a slight tease.

Anya blushed. "Sorry... I guess I'm getting a little ahead of myself."

Draco simply smiled in return. "Don't be sorry- I feel the same way. Do you realize how anxious I am to be able to call you my wife?" They stopped to wait where the receptionist told them to and when she left, he turned his full attention to Anya, pulling her flush against him. "Next year can't come soon enough. I still say that we could just elope right now."

"Down boy!" Anya giggled. Her laughter died on her lips when he pulled her even closer and kissed her.

"Excuse me? Mr. Malfoy?" The two pulled apart to see a blonde woman standing there with a clipboard in her hands. "I'm sorry to interrupt," she said, her face bright red from having walked in on the snogging couple. "My name is Jessica Hills, I'm the concierge here. I'll be giving you the tour."

"Draco Malfoy," he introduced himself with a smile and a handshake. "And this charming lady here is the future Mrs. Malfoy, Anya Collins," he said, positively bursting with delight at mentioning how Anya was his future wife.

"Pleasure to meet you," Anya said politely, her cheeks a rosy pink.

"A pleasure to meet you too. And congratulations to you both," Jessica replied. "Well, perhaps you could tell me a bit about what you're looking for?" she suggested.

"Well, we're thinking of a winter wedding... Forty guests or so, and that's including both of our immediate families. The meal is being catered by my cousin, buffet-style. And as for atmosphere, we're looking for something that's a little modern but still has that classic feel to it," Anya described.

"I think we have just the thing," Jessica smiled. "If you'll follow me, please." And with that, she led the happy couple to one of the reception rooms. "Now as you can see, this is one of our sample settings," she began as she led them inside and showed them the table arrangement. "Each table is set for six people, and we have three different choices of settings which you can see here." One was a five-piece setting in white with a thin black detailing of swirling patterns around the rims and edges with silver-plated cutlery, another was a basic four-piece in solid white and silver cutlery, and the last was a five-piece set in black with gold trim around the edges and gold-plated cutlery. "We have a wide selection of fabrics that we use for chair covering along with complimenting ribbons to decorate. We also tend to decorate for the holidays, as you can see." She nodded towards the twinkling white lights wrapped around the fake white bark trees. "Any questions so far?"

"I take it that the stage over there is for a band?" Draco asked.

"Yes, but if you'd rather, a stand can be prepared for a DJ," Jessica replied.

"How many wedding receptions have you had, just out of curiosity," Anya asked.

"We've had on average about four or five wedding receptions here a year." Jessica clearly knew her profession well. She handed over a few cards. "The hotel has contacts with several photography agencies should you be looking for one. Each has their own website for you to see samples of their work. Anything else?"

Anya smiled. "I think you've covered everything we could think of," she answered.

"So I think the final question that remains is whether or not this is the venue we want," Draco added.

"Why don't I give you two a few minutes to talk amongst yourselves, then?" Jessica suggested before leaving the room, closing the door to give them privacy.

"Well... What do you think, love?" Draco asked once they were alone.

"Personally, I love it. But..." Anya trailed off, slightly wringing her hands with frustration. "But I'm worried about the guests. Most of them are or grew up around muggles or lived a very muggle-like lifestyle, but the purebloods- the Weasleys, for example... I just have this funny feeling that bringing them to an environment surrounded with non-magical people could be disastrous. I mean-what if something happened and someone accidentally casts a spell?" she commented.

"The only purebloods that are coming to our wedding are the Weasleys, my mother and grandmother. Besides, everyone knows that we can't perform magic while in muggle society unless its of dire need. There's nothing to worry about." Draco took her hands in his, stopping her nervous fidgeting. "Look... Forget about everyone and everything- is this what you want?" he asked.

"Don't you mean 'that we want'?" Anya questioned.

Draco shrugged it off. "It doesn't matter to me where we have the wedding or the reception. Hell, if you wanted to, I'd say let's get married on your Aunt Joy's ranch and have the reception in the stables!" He held up her left hand. "The only thing that I care about is my placing that ring on your finger that tells everyone that you're mine. So I'll ask again- is this what you want?" he asked again. Anya nodded and Draco kissed her on the nose. "Good."

"We've got our venue!" Anya giggled before practically launching herself into his embrace. "I can't believe it! We really found our venue!"

"We sure did," Draco grinned back.

When Jessica came back into the hall, they filled out the paper work needed and chose the date- December fourteenth of the next year.

Draco would anxiously be counting down the days.