Guys I am so incredibly sorry for the months of no update. I had to turn in applications for my Doctoral internship and it's a big step in my schooling and its incredibly important and expensive. All my time has been going to that and my free time has been eaten up by anxiety over those applications. I can't apologize enough, but school had to come first.

A month later the moms had made good on their offer to help Callie and Luca look for reception spots that were nearby to the church. That weekend, Luca was free and so was Stef, leaving the two of them to look for sites together while Callie was at work and Lena was at a conference in LA. They were currently standing in the lobby of one of the hotels on the couple's list, waiting for the event coordinator to meet them. Stef looked around at the lobby before returning to sit next to Luca on a sofa in the waiting area near the check in desk.

"This place almost makes me wish Lena and I had had a more public venue for our wedding."

"Almost huh? From what I hear and the pictures I've seen, you guys had the perfect venue. Trust me, we'd be getting married in your backyard if Callie didn't have to invite certain people from work."

"Gotta love work politics I guess. But you guys are having the rehearsal dinner at our place. That'll be enough to make Callie happy." Right at that moment the event coordinator came out and introduced herself to Luca and then to Stef. She began walking with the pair trailing behind her while she pointed out the architecture and other various selling points.

"About how many people are you expecting for the reception?"

Luca pulled out the binder from his briefcase and flipped to the page that outlined the reception. He had laughed at Callie when she made this binder, but now it was serving them both well as they made these plans without the other person present. This way he knew exactly what Callie wanted and what she couldn't stand.

"If everyone RSVPs, 150, but we are expecting closer to 120."

"Well, we can accommodate up to 300 so something half that size would leave you with a lot of space for the dance floor, DJ, band and anything else you want to have. Will you need to have the reception catered by us or will you be using an outside vender?"

Again, Luca checked the binder and smiled.

"It would appear my wife had dinner here last month with one of her superiors and she loved the food, so I believe that means we will be going with your in house catering services." Stef touched his arm and smiled.

"Honey, don't you want to try the food first to see if you like it. It's your wedding too." Luca smiled for a moment and turned to the young woman who was helping them.

"Tell me, does your catering menu include any type of steak?"

"The best cut you'll find in San Diego." Luca smiled and looked at Stef while shrugging his shoulders.

"As long as I can eat a steak and drink a beer after my wedding we could have this reception on the moon. If Callie liked it then it had to have been good. She can be picky about her food when it's not homemade, as you well know." Luca looked back to the woman.

"Well, you were at the top of my wife's list and I think this place is amazing. So the real question is, do you have an opening on our wedding day?"

"Let's pull up the calendar and check." The young woman took out her tablet and punched a few buttons before showing the screen to Luca and Stef.

"What date had you decided on?"

"March 24th." After looking through the tablet in front of her the woman smiled and showed the day to Luca.

"You just got very lucky Mr. Russo, we had a corporate event planned here for that day, but they had to move it up a week so if you can put a deposit on it today, then I believe we have a deal." Luca pulled out his check book, but instead of writing a check he simply took a loose one out and handed it to the woman.

"I believe this is what you quoted me on the phone for the deposit." The woman took the check and smiled, marking the date as reserved in her tablet that was linked to the hotel's system.

"Well then Mr. Russo, you have yourself a reception location. On your way out we can stop by my office and I'll give you a packet that details our services from catering to tables and chair rentals." With this big item checked off the to-do list, Luca invited Stef to grab lunch on their way back to the house and as Luca left the hotel parking lot Stef spoke up.

"You called Callie your wife in there. How'd that feel?" Luca smiled big, so much so that his teeth were showing.

"Just wanted to hear how it sounded. I liked it. It feels…better than just calling her my fiancé."

"I know what you mean, calling Lena my wife instead of my partner makes all the difference sometimes."

A beat of silence went by before Stef broke the silence again.

"That deposit was not cheap, that much I know and Callie would've had you write your own check if you were paying for it so who just paid for that reception deposit?"

"Stef…I value my life WAY too much to ever look your mother in the eye and tell her no." Stef shook her head and had to laugh.

"Of course my mother gave it to you."

"Don't worry, I made her promise not to pay for anything else and to please count this and the church reservation as our wedding gift because that's already way too much money. She promised, though I'm not sure how much I should believe her."

"My mother is of the mind that since she missed out on spoiling Callie as a child she should be able to do so now that she's an adult. I'll have a talk with her."

"Stef, really, it's fine. She just wanted us to have the venues that we dreamt of and she wanted to be a part of that process. She promised no more writing us checks." Stef let it go, knowing that deep down her mother would do as she pleased, but that this was not her wedding to call the shots on. If Luca said he handled it, then Stef knew to back off. Once back at the house Luca stepped out of the car and noticed the front door open. All he heard after that was Stef let out a happy yelp before running up the steps. Luca eventually saw Brandon standing in the doorway, currently being hugged to death by his mother. Once he was behind Stef the older woman let go of her son and Luca offered Brandon a quick hug before ushering them all inside.

"I thought you weren't coming out to help us interview DJ's till next week?"

"I got some extra time off from work, have a few job interviews lined up while I'm here and I figured I could help you at the same time." Stef fussed over Brandon for a while before going into the kitchen to start dinner and Luca took this moment to grab Brandon and enlist his help in something special for the wedding.

"So Callie and I are picking songs to dance to, but Jude asked to sing a song for her with some special video presentation and it gave me an idea to have one of you guys sing a song that I picked out for Callie. I can sing ok, but you and Jude would do so much better and this way I can dance with Callie while you guys play the guitar."

"Whatever you need. I'm sure Jude would be happy to help too. I take it you have some songs in mind." Luca reached into his pocket for his phone and pointed out the two songs to Brandon and Brandon had to smile. They were sappy love songs, but he knew they were coming from a sincere place with Luca.

"If you give me a couple of weeks I can order the sheet music for them both and you can take your pick." Luca smiled and hugged the other young man tightly.

"She's gonna flip, it'll be great."

So it was short and maybe ended kinda weird, but I want to move this along a bit since I took so long to update. People wanted to see Callie get hurt at work and if that's still what you want then I'll probably do that in the next chapter. Otherwise it would be more wedding stuff. Let me know and thank you for sticking with me if you are still reading this.