Chapter 5: Planning

Sam and Ainsley had been engaged for about one month and since the engagement, nothing hadbeen planned for the big day. They did, however, accomplish moving Ainsley's belongings to Sam's apartment. Ainsley thought it was time to get started, so during her and Sam's lunch break, Ainsley brought up some magazines to Sam's office. She greeted him by saying, "Hey Sam," and then leaned over his desk for a kiss.

"What's all this?" asked Sam as he pointed to the stack of magazines Ainsley had just put on his desk. He grabbed one and started to look inside.

"Wedding magazines. We need to start planning and since it's our lunch break, I think we should start now. And don't think you can get out of it, because I just checked your schedule with Ginger and you are free."

"Okay," was all Sam could say, but he wasn't too surprised that Ainsley had checked his schedule. "Where should we start?"

"I thought we could just look through some of these magazines and get some ideas for now. I was hoping we could at least pick out a date," said Ainsley.

"Okay."

"Do you want to start with the date?" asked Ainsley.

"Umm… Sure."

"Okay." Ainsley began talking fast, like she when she met Leo for the first time. "This year is going to be very busy for you since it's an election year and you will have to travel a lot and write for the President. So I think we should wait until after the election, which would mean we would probably get married in late November or in December. January and February are two busy months too with the Inauguration if the election goes good. That would leave us with a spring or summer wedding, but I don't want to wait until summer to get married because summers in D.C. are so humid. So to sum it up, the best time to get married would be in December or in the spring."

"Right," said Sam who so overwhelmed on how important a date could be.

"Can I just say that my family may not be too happy visiting in cold weather."

Sam took Ainsley's hint. "So you want a spring wedding?"

Ainsley put a smile on her face. "That sounds nice."

"Before I forget, the President is wondering if you would want the Rose Garden or the East Room for the wedding."

"Really? The East Room sounds nice for the reception, but I kind of wanted the wedding in a church. What do you want?"

"Getting married in the Rose Garden sounds nice. Not many people out there can say they got married in the Rose Garden."

Ainsley took some time to think about the Rose Garden. "Let me think a minute." After about thirty seconds, Ainsley decided that the Rose Garden would be nice for a spring wedding.

Sam noticed Ainsley began writing quickly on a note pad. "What are you writing?"

"Oh, just some notes about our wedding. So far I have spring wedding, ceremony in the Garden, and reception in the East Room."

"What if it rains?"

Ainsley thought again. "We could probably have the ceremony in the Dining Room and reception in the East Room."

Sam held up a magazine with a picture of a man in a light blue tux with a long coat. "Write down in your notes that I'm going to wear a normal tux and not a tux that is 'fashion forward' or whatever this magazine is calling them."

Ainsley started to laugh at the thought of Sam wearing a tux that was not black. "Sure."

"Have you thought about bridesmaids yet?" asked Sam.

"Yeah. I'm thinking of my sister, Nicole, Donna, and CJ. And Nicole's kids, Jacqueline and Matthew, could be the flower girl and ring bearer- unless you know other kids."

"Sounds good."

"Have you thought about who will be your groomsmen?"

"Probably just Toby and Josh and maybe Charlie."

"Okay. Let's keep this quiet for a while and then we can take the staff out for dinner. We can ask them to be our groomsmen and bridesmaids."

"Sure." Sam flipped a page in the magazine. "Wow! Look at these cakes!"

"Now I get to pick out the menu and cake!" teased Ainsley.

"These things are amazing!" exclaimed Sam as he was still admiring the cakes.

"We also need to pick colors."

"Colors?" asked a confused Sam.

"Yes, colors. We need to pick colors to go with our wedding. Like a theme," explained Ainsley.

"We are going for tradition, right?"

"Yeah. We also need something that goes well with the East Room, which has gold curtains."

"Blue?" suggested Sam.

"I like blue. I was thinking red. We can't have red and blue together because it would be too patriotic."

"The President may like those colors," said Sam who was smiling at the thought of having red, white and blue centerpieces.

Sam and Ainsley went back and forth between blue and green, blue and pink, red and pink, blue and gold, and then red and gold. Between the discussions over colors, the couple didn't notice Leo standing at the doorway.

Leo interrupted their conversation. "I think blue and gold would look nice."

"Then blue and gold it is. Good afternoon, Leo," said Ainsley with a pleasant smile.

"Hello," replied Leo. "Sam, I need you to look this over and brief the President about it by three o'clock."

"Alright. We are just about done talking about weddings anyway."

"Okay. I'll see you later. Bye, Ainsley," said Leo as he turned and walked out of Sam's office.

"Bye, Leo," said Ainsley as she began to gather some of her stuff. "I'm going to leave the magazines here since I don't feel like carrying it all over the White House. I'll call you later about what time we should head home."

"Okay. Bye."

Ainsley bent over Sam's desk to give him a kiss before she turned and walked out of the office.