Jitters

            * * * * *

Author's note:  I am running on the assumption that Meimi and Asuka are Catholic, after all they attend a Catholic school.  So, the wedding ceremony is a Catholic one.  There are two versions of a Catholic wedding and I have selected the longer version which has the Sacrament of Matrimony and the Mass celebrated together.

            * * * * *

Chapter 4:  The Ceremony

            * * * * *

            The guests of the wedding of Meimi Haneoka to Daiki Asuka would recall with amusement that the wedding started about ten minutes late because the groom had fainted and there was difficulty in reviving him. 

            "Ack!" said Sawatari, "What should we do Mr. Haneoka?"

            "Ah, oh, uh-oh, I don't know," replied Genichiro, "Uh, maybe you should go get someone?"

            "Why me?!  I have no idea who to get," snapped Sawatari.

            Genichiro gulped and quickly considered his options.  "IthinkIllgogetmywife."  And he sped out of the room.  Sawatari blinked twice at the rapid departure of the other man.  He looked down at Asuka and decided to try to bring the groom back into conciseness. 

            Genichiro ran back to the bride's room.  He almost ran into his wife as she was leaving the room with Meimi.

            "Uh, honey," he said, "we have a problem.  Could you come with me to our son-in-law's room?"

            Eimi gave her husband a long look that made him fidget and sweat under it.  Then she just sighed and shook her head.  "What happened to him?"

            "Um, well…he fainted."

            Meimi stared at her father with wide eyes and open mouthed.

            "Daddy, why, may I ask, has my fiancĂ© fainted?  You didn't threaten him did you?" interrogated Meimi.

            "Not too badly," fidgeting under his daughter's stare, "but he did seem nervous when I came in."

            "Perhaps Sawatari said something," Seira added.

            Meimi thought about what Seira said for a moment and nodded in agreement.  For she knew all to well that Sawatari had liked her years ago.

            Eimi followed her husband out the door to the groom's room and Seira went out to tell the priest that the ceremony would be starting a little late.

            Eimi was able to rouse Asuka rather quickly.  When asked how she did it she just smiled and said, "I can't tell you trade secrets."

            Finally, the ceremony began.  The priest walked up to the front of the church.  He was preceded by an altar server carrying the cross who was escorted by two more altar servers carrying candles.  They bowed to the tabernacle.  The priest went to stand behind the altar facing the assembly.  The altar servers placed the cross and candles in their appropriate locations (1).  Asuka walked up the aisle to stand in front of the stairs leading up to the altar.  Sawatari escorted Seira up to front where they split to go stand in front of their seats in the pew at the front.  Asuka was looking around nervously; when he looked he made eye contact with Seira.  She smiled warmly at Asuka as he was still very pale and he looked extremely nervous. 

            For some reason Asuka began to feel better once Seira smiled at him. 

            I feel a little better, he thought, maybe because it is about to happen.  That also teaches me not to listen to Sawatari.  I almost can't believe that it is happening. 

            But any future trains of thought were interrupted once Asuka saw Meimi being escorted up the aisle by her father.  She was radiant.  The smile that Meimi wore was one of joy.  There was even a glimmer of tears from suppressed joy.

            Meimi sniffed a little as she walked down the aisle with her father at her arm.  I'm so happy, she thought. 

            Genichiro left his daughter at the side of Asuka and went to stand with his wife.  Eimi could see that he was crying a little and she could hear him mumbling about his little girl being all grown up.  She felt incredible pride to see her daughter marrying.  Glancing over at the groom's side of the room she could see Asuka's dad looking a little tired but beaming at his son.  He had come in a few minutes before the ceremony began because he had been called into work briefly that morning.

            The priest greeted the bride, groom, and those assembled.  The Mass proceeded with the readings, one of which made Meimi giggle some because it could have had veiled references to what she had done when she was Saint Tail, and the Liturgy of the Word. 

            Then priest proceeded to unite Meimi and Asuka in the sacred rite of Matrimony.

            "My dear friends, you have come together in this church so that the Lord may seal and strengthen your love in the presence of the Church's minister and this community. Christ abundantly blesses this love. He has already consecrated you in this baptism and now he enriches and strengthens you by a special sacrament so that you may assume the duties of marriage in mutual and lasting fidelity. And so, in the presence of the Church, I ask you to state your intentions." (2)

            To which, both Meimi and Asuka replied, "Marriage," smiling at each other as they said it.

            The rest of the ceremony continued almost without hitch.  There was one point during the service where Asuka started to wobble and had to sit for a minute. (3) 

            "Are you okay?" asked a concerned Meimi.

            Asuka smiled with chagrin at her, "I guess I'm lucky I didn't pass out again.  I have been feeling faint the whole time."

            "Blessed, not lucky," whispered Meimi back at him.

            "You're right."

            After Asuka was sufficiently recovered the Mass continued with the rest of the ceremony and the Eucharist. 

            After the Mass the guests went to the reception waiting for the bride and groom to show up.

            Sawatari suggested lecherously to one of the other guests, who had been a classmate back on high school, "Maybe they left for the honeymoon early?"

            Lina, who also attended the wedding overheard this comment and felt that he had earned a smack.  So, she gave him one. But not after being threatened by Asuka's father, "Are you insinuating things about my son and daughter-in-law?" he quizzed.

            A few minutes and few smacks for Sawatari later from Lina, Asuka and Meimi arrived. 

            They had changed from the tux and gown to more comfortable but no less nice clothing. 

            "Thank you for all coming," said Asuka, "now let us commence with the reception and dance."

            Meimi's dad came up to Asuka, "May I have the first dance with my daughter?"

            "Of course, sir," replied Asuka.

            After the dance with her father, in which how he constantly told her that she would be his little girl and that if her husband every hurt her he'd come and beat him up, she danced her first dance with her husband.

            "I'm so happy," said Meimi.

            "I am too, though, I still feel a little faint but it is worth it to be with you," he said.

            After a few dances, in which Sawatari danced with Meimi for only one dance due to the dangerous look in Asuka's eyes and one in which Lina danced with Asuka after teasing Meimi about 'stealing her husband', everyone sat down to eat.

            To say the least Asuka was worried about the speech his best man was to give despite Meimi's assurances.

            "Today we are gathered here," started Sawatari, "to honor the union of a very lovely woman I have known since junior to a lug nut (Asuka, "Heeeeeyyyy!!!"  Meimi, "Ssshhhhh.") I have known since the same time."

            "There is not much I can say about these two except that they are an incredible couple.  Despite what they have gone through they have stuck together being loyal to each other when others tried to tempt the other away.  I wish them a long and beautiful future together," said Sawatari as he raised his glass in a toast to Meimi and Asuka.

            The rest of the guests raised their glasses to the toast repeating what Sawatari said.

            Meimi and Asuka looked each other in eyes and they could see that they would have a long and beautiful future together. 

            It was at this point that one of the children in attendance decided to try and see if tapping the glass with a knife meant that the bride and groom had to kiss.  And following the tradition Asuka and Meimi kissed knowing that they would be plagued by that mischievous child (4) for the rest of the reception.  

            * * * * *

Author's notes:

(1)  These locations vary from church to church.  But usually the cross goes to the back and to the side of where the priest sits.  The candles are usually placed on each side of the lectern, that's where the readings are given.

(2) Got the lines from:

(3)  The bride and groom stand fro most of the ceremony and there have been recorded incidents of grooms passing out. ^u^ 

(4)  That was cousin and I at a reception I attended when I was young.  We found out about that tradition and had fun making the bride and groom kiss.  ^_^;

            * * * * *

Look forward to a short epilogue.