Wedding Plans

"Rose be sensible!" Lily yelled at her sister. "You are being such a baby! Where is that brave Griffindor, ready to take on anything?" Lily had been yelling at her sister like this for half an hour.

"No!" Rose scream from the safety of her room, where Lily couldn't drag her out. "I refuse to go!"

"Three words. Truth or Dare," Lily taunted. Rose screamed from inside her room.

"You wouldn't!"

"I would so, you don't come and I will bring those pictures to the next Hogwarts reunion," Lily threatened.

"You don't have them!"

"I do too!"

"Fine, but you have to give me those pictures and promise me that you have no more copies," Rose gave in.

"Good, now let's go shopping," Lily said. Rose groaned inwardly.

"Why me? Why me?" Rose asked.

"Because you are the Maid of Honor and it's your job to make sure the bride is happy," Lily told her. Rose whimpered at the thought of shopping. "We're going to look at flower bouquets, that's not that bad."

"I don't mind flowers," Rose said.

"Fine, we can go cake tasting after we go to the greenhouse."

"Got the list?" Rose asked.

"Of course, Mum even marked off the important ones."

"How far are you going to go back?"

"I really don't know," Lily told her. Lily got out the list of ancestors. It went all the way back to Daisy Gardener. Between this first recorded ancestor and Lily, there were twenty-five other names, all flowers. There were other branches off this list, but after a boy was born, the name was circled and it wasn't written whom he married or if he had children. All the family cared about were girls.

The original list was passed always to the oldest surviving female member of the clan. Currently, that was Violet Evans. Both sisters had seen the original list. It was hard to believe that it was written on paper over seven hundred years old. Names were written in different hands, mothers always writing her children's names. Husbands who married into the family would sign their name right next their wife's and a line would be drawn to connect them. The bride wrote the new last name after the old one. No one had ever kept their own last name nor had a child without being married or divorced.

While the last name changed, the tradition of the flower names continued from mother to daughter and all hailed Gardener as the name of their line since she was the earliest name written on the list by Flora Reed Green, who was the first person to write down the names. Legend had it that, before the list and gift of literacy to their family, new mothers would add their daughter's flower to a quilt. Whether this was true remained to be seen, but it was still amazing that the Gardeners had saved this piece of paper that was their family history.

"If you use all of them, you need lily, violet, clover, peony, heather, lilac, camellia, buttercup, sage, iris, daffodil, pansy, jasmine, lavender, laurel, periwinkle, tulip, carnation, dahlia, columbine, bluebell, begonia, dandelion, aster, sunflower and daisy. You can't really do Flora. That just means flower, it isn't one," Rose told her. "That's still a whole lot of flowers to go through and some of those grow on bushes. And if you add rose and petunia, the list is very long."

"I'm impressed," Lily told her.

"Why?"

"You said the whole thing without looking at the family tree. I wonder if I'll have to invite the whole Hyacinth side of the family? I mean, they are related," Lily pondered.

"If you do, that adds Oleander and Narcissa to your list of flowers, you can't invite them without putting their flowers in."

"I know, maybe I should just important names in my bouquets."

"Decide when we get there," Rose instructed. "I can't believe you are getting married in two months. I also can't believe that he asked you two weeks ago and you are already arranging things."

"These things take time to plan. I want to be done before the wedding day. I can just envision what your wedding to Sirius is going to be like, both of you are going to be too lazy to start doing things till the last month and by then all the reception places will be booked," Lily said laughing. "You will probably both be late for your own wedding."

"Who said I'm getting married someday?" Rose asked defensively."

"You did, remember? The only time you would play proper pretend was when we would imagine our weddings. Didn't you always say that you wanted to be married on top of a dragon and carry a sword?" Lily teased.

"I was seven!" Rose protested.

"Let's go, I have an appointment," Lily told her. She apparated away. Rose shrugged and went after her.

"You had an appointment, why did you start bugging me to go forty-five minutes before we had to go?" Rose asked.

"Because I knew it would take you that long to get you going. Now which flowers should I use?" Lily speculated. A woman wearing a dirt-covered apron approached them. She was an older looking woman, past her prime. She wasn't very beautiful and her features showed she had never been, but it was obvious that she had not been ugly. She had a certain wisdom about her.

"Hello, I'm Mary, are you Ms. Evans?" the woman asked.

"Yes, I am," both Lily and Rose said together.

"Twins?" Mary asked.

"We are part of a set of triplets actually. Anyway, I am Lily and this is my sister Rose. I'm the one getting married," Lily informed the woman. She sent a glare toward Rose to tell her to behave.

"Such floral names," Mary exclaimed. "Come this way to look at our selection of flowers." She led them inside the greenhouse. "Now, do you have any flowers you want in particular?"

"Well, I have a list that the flowers have to be from, the problem is choosing them off the list," Lily told her, once again taking out the long list of names.

"I see you have a family history of floral names," Mary said. "Are there any ones you know you want? I'm guessing you want lilies? What kind would you like?"

"I don't know, does it matter?" Lily asked.

"Of course it does, different flowers have different meanings in different cultures," Rose explained.

"Very knowledgeable," Mary commented.

"How about you show me some lilies and I'll pick the ones I like best?" Lily suggested. Mary nodded and went off into the back room.

"So I'll need lilies, roses, petunias, violets and daisies. Those are for sure, and then how about we also get heather, jasmines and carnations. That sounds like a nice mix," Rose offered. "How about you get Queen Anne's Lace."

"Why? No one has been named after that," Lily said.

"Queen Anne's Lace is pretty and it's impossible to name someone after it since they can't be called Queen Ann," Rose commented. Before Lily could reply, Mary was back. Lily looked at the flowers.

"I love this one," she said, " but it's so pretty that I don't want to cut anymore. How about this one?" Lily picked up the white Lily.

"Purity and Innocence in the European tradition and death in the Asian," Rose recited.

"I like this flower, doesn't really matter what it means," Lily told her. "I know you hate red roses, so I'm going to get yellow."

"Friendship," Rose said quickly.

"How did you become an expert on flowers?"

"Hello? I'm a," Rose trailed off trying to think of a proper muggle position in which she would know flowers, "herbalist. I need to know these things."

"Funny how little we know about our sisters. Is your other sister names after a flower as well?" Mary asked.

"Yes, her name is Petunia and our mother is Violet so we're going to need those flowers. We need daisies; everyone in our family has always had daisies at their wedding. Heather, jasmine and carnation as well," Lily instructed.

"Of course. Would you like them in any particular order or color?" Mary asked.

"I'll leave that to you. We need to go shopping for the bridesmaid dresses now," Lily said. Rose groaned. Mary smiled a knowing smile.

"So it is set for August 7th and you need flowers for both the church and the party. You gave us all the information when you called the other day, so we are all set. It was nice meeting you, Miss Evans," Marry said putting out her hand, which Lily shook. "And you as well, Miss Evans." Rose shook the woman's hand as well. The sisters exited the building and found a spot where they could apparate.

They arrived in Diagon Alley and made their way out to the muggle side.

"Do we have to wear muggle dresses?" Rose whined.

"Yes, both Mike and are muggle born and we want a muggle wedding."

"Fine," Rose said reluctantly.

"I'm getting married in two months!" Lily squealed.

"I know! I still find it strange to think I'm going to be the only unmarried one," Rose complained. "Do we have to go dress shopping?"

"Yes, in here," Lily told her, shoving Rose into the store in the process. "They sell wedding stuff here so we can look at dress for you and for me. Here's a nice one." Rose tried on many dresses for Lily.

"Look, here's one, let's take it," Rose told her grabbing a random dress.

"You didn't even look at it!" Lily protested. Lily took a look at the dress herself. "Why didn't I see this before? It's perfect. Thanks Rose!" Lily went to hug her sister.

"So we can go and eat cake?" Rose asked.

"Course not, try it on, I want to see how it looks," Lily told her.

"Only if you try on something as well."

"Baby," Lily told her.

"Prat," Rose retorted.

"Fine, I'll try on a dress." Lily grabbed a random bride's dress off the rack. "I think we have the best luck when we just grab things off the racks." Rose nodded. The two girls went to change. Rose came out first and she heard appreciative whistles.

"You clean up nice Rose!" Remus teased.

"Yea, one of the first time I've seen you when you don't have burnt spots on your clothing and spilled potions as well," Peter said.

"Shut up!" Rose exclaimed. All the other occupants of the store stared at her.

"You look beautiful, you always do," Sirius assured her and leaned in to kiss her. Rose turned her head.

"If I always look beautiful, how come it took you longer than usual to pick your jaw off the floor?" Rose asked teasingly.

"Because you look even more beautiful," Sirius told her, trying to cover up. Rose smiled and gave him a kiss.

"Rose, who's there?" Lily asked coming out. She was trying to do the lace on the back of the dress. She turned around without seeing. "Help please." Rose was a little too involved with Sirius to help, so James stepped forward and did the ties for her. He stepped back as Lily turned around.

"Oh hi! I guess the EX maid of honor was too BUSY to help me out," Lily said with mock seriousness. That caused Rose and Sirius to break apart quickly. "Why didn't you tell me these prats were out here? We can try to get them to buy tuxes now." Lily had an evil grin on her face.

"Run while you can," Rose whispered. Sirius nodded solemnly.

"No running, if you want to come, you need tuxes," Lily told them. "Go on." Sirius, Remus and Peter all went diligently to find a tux that fit them.

"James, James," Rose asked, elbowing James, who was staring at Lily as she made sure the others actually tries on tuxes.

"What?" James said, coming back to life.

"Go try on a tux or try to run away, I'll support you either way," Rose joked. "Go on now, Lily will hex you into the next dimension if you don't so I would get going." James obediently went to try on tuxes. Rose sighed. This couldn't possibly be good.