Author's Note: This story is inspired partially by "Let's get married" by Bleachers and partially by the youtube video "Our Wild Surprise Wedding Story" by Annika Victoria.
Derek stood in the doorway to their parents dining room, watching Casey with his arms crossed over his chest. He knew that sooner or later he would have to step in and pull her away from the stacks of papers. If he didn't, she would go all night and well into the next morning. But for right now, he was content to watch her work. She never got less fascinating to him. With her nose scrunched and her hand furiously scribbling flawless cursive, he was powerless. A feather could have pushed him over.
Suddenly his fiancée made a noise. "I can't do this anymore," Casey hissed wildly to herself while pulling on her hair. She had spent the last four hours surrounded by clippings from magazines, Instagram accounts, and Pinterest wedding boards. They promised her a fairytale wedding was within her reach (and budget). She only had to give up hours of her own time and energy. Frankly, it sucked.
Derek decided that now was probably the moment to step in. "Can't do what?" he murmured as he ran a hand through her hair. The little jolt that went through her body let him know that she had no idea he had been in the room with her for at least five minutes now.
"I can't plan our wedding anymore," she spun around to face him. There was a little pout on her face. "It's actually going to drive me crazy."
While their relationship was near perfect, their financial situation wasn't. As an amateur hockey player Derek only made thirty thousand a year. And even though she had a degree Casey wasn't earning much more. She had been lucky enough to pay for university with scholarships so she didn't have any debt but that didn't mean her teaching career made her rich. After they paid rent to her parents, got groceries, and paid Derek's student loan payments they had maybe a thousand left each month. It was beginning to feel impossible to pay for a wedding on that budget.
And it wasn't like she hadn't known that from the start. She knew it would be a lot of work to get things exactly how she had envisioned, budget problems not included. Casey was a perfectionist, and this was themoment for that trait to shine. But it was sabotaging her instead. The guest list had grown steadily with everyone from their closest friends to people they had crossed paths with only once or twice during college. Nora and Lizzie had been in charge of the food, but once the guest list had gone over 200 Casey had decided on catering. That meant they had to get the best caterer in London because she wasn't about to have guests getting food poisoning at her wedding. From that point, everything had just gotten more and more elaborate.
Having not have been in this situation before Derek was unsure what to do. He had been helping with the planning before but Casey had eventually kicked him out claiming that his tastes weren't refined enough (he couldn't really argue with that). He let out a sigh, deciding he could start with a shoulder rub. "Turn around," he commanded. When Casey turned back around and dropped her head on the table without even a "Der-ek" he knew things were bad.
"You're, like, super tense," he said as he began to knead her shoulders.
"This is so stressful," she said into the table. It was easier to admit defeat when she didn't have to look into his eyes.
They waited in silence for a few moments before Derek spoke again.
"Let's just get married."
Casey sat up so fast that he was worried she might break one of his wrists.
"What did you just say?" She asked as she whipped around to face him.
He nervously cleared his throat. "Let's just get married?" Even though his deliver wasn't his best and he had only had the thought a few seconds before, Derek realized that this would solve all their problems. They wouldn't need to pay for food, or a million guests, or flowers, or any of the other things that made Casey so stressed.
Casey stared at him from slitted eyes. She didn't know if it was the hysteria setting in, but she almost started cackling. This was such a simple solution to their problems. There was no way it was that easy.
"Continue."
Derek rolled his eyes.
"I know you want to have this big, girly, princess wedding but we don't have the budget for that right now, Case. I would like to get married sometime this decade." He blew a quick breath out. "Let's get married now. Just the two of us and Nora and Dad and the kids. All I need is you." The last words had barely come out but he knew it was important that she knew how he felt. He wasn't engaged because he hoped he would have the party of the century. They were engaged because he couldn't imagine a life without her.
Already near her emotional limits, Casey let out a little sniffle. Would she be sad if she didn't have her dream wedding? Yeah. But she also knew she didn't need it. The big party could come later.
"Okay," she said after clearing her throat. "Yeah, let's do this."
And that's exactly what they did.