Disclaimer: I wrote this prior to the 2-8-05 episode, I swear on all that is holy, if you don't believe me ask Fred...anyway any similaries between the two are conicidental. I own nothing.
Chapter 14: You're cordially invited
I, Rory Gilmore,
Happily invite you
To the marriage of my mother,
Lorelai Victoria Gilmore,
To Lucas Daniel Danes,
On Augest 3rd, 2005.
They said it wouldn't last...
But I always knew it would...
Join us as we celebrate our new family.
Haven't we all waited long enough?
It was the day of days…the one so many had waited for, for so long. None had waited as long as Luke or Lorelai though…they had both waited all their lives for this, both had, had the chance with others, but never felt as sure, as they did this day.
"How are we doing?" Richard said walking into the honeymoon sweet where Lorelai was getting dressed.
"We are doing great." Rory said fluffing out Lorelai's train. Slowly Lorelai turned around and let her father see her for the first time in her gown.
Richard did not expect to be taken back by his daughter, nor did he expect to be filled with a flood of emotions he hadn't felt since she was a little girl. He took in a breath and let it out slowly to keep his tears at bay.
"You look…" he said clearing his throat. "You look beautiful Lorelai." He said leaning in and kissing her cheek.
"That she does." Emily said emerging from the other room with Ellie. "And this one is all done too."
"Well look at that." Richard said looking at the four woman standing before him.
"I would rather enjoy a picture of the four of you, you are certainty a beautiful site for an old dogs eyes." Richard said. The women looked at each other and Ellie cooed.
"Four generations of Gilmore women." Emily said blotting a tear away.
"It's really something." Richard said.
……
Upstairs in another room at the Dragonfly, Mazzie and Liz were fussing over Luke like he were a child.
"Hold still." Liz said attempting to straighten Luke's tie again.
"Here let me." Mazzie said stepping in.
"Okay, I think he has been primped enough." Buddy said standing up and walking over to his wife. "Would you ladies give us men a moment?" Buddy said giving his wife a meaningful look.
"Of course." Mazzie said kissing her husband on the cheek.
"We will be out in a second." Buddy said.
The women walked out of the room as Luke examined himself in the mirror.
"You clean up nice." Buddy said patting him on the shoulder.
"It is amazing what a bar of soap and some hair gel can do." Luke said with a smile.
"Uh, Luke…I have something that Mazzie and I wanted to give you." Buddy said pulling a pocket watch out of his inside jacket pocket and presenting it to Luke.
"Oh, Buddy, you didn't have to do this…" Luke said shifting his weight nervously.
"Well, I didn't I mean, I did, but…your dad gave me that when I was the best man at your folks wedding." Buddy said.
Luke opened the watch and choked up a little when he saw the picture on the inside it's lid.
"The picture was Mazzie's idea….it is from their wedding. They would be proud of you son…" Buddy said patting him on the back.
Overcome with his thoughts and emotions, Luke just nodded.
"Are you ready for this?" Buddy asked him.
"I have never been more ready for anything in my life." Luke said with a smile.
"That's a good man." Buddy said.
Just then Sookie popped her head in.
"Are we ready in here?" She asked.
"Yeah." Luke said.
"You look so handsome…oh give me a hug." Sookie said crying and hugging Luke. "You are getting married…" She said. She squeezed him and kissed him on the cheek. "Ooo…oopps, can't have you waiting for Lorelai with lip stick on your cheek." Sookie said licking her finger and going for Luke's face.
"I've got it Sookie." Luke said grabbing a Kleenex and shielding himself from her potential spit bath.
"Okay, okay…on with the show." Buddy said breaking up the insanity for a moment.
……..
There were white tents set up on the lawn of the Dragonfly for the reception. The tables were adorned in simple red table cloths and topped with tall glass vases holding three white Calla lilies each around the bottom of the vase there were tall white candles in varying heights illuminating the tables in their soft light. Under the shelter of the tents a million white twinkle lights hung further illuminating the white canopy.
As the sun began to set in the west and the heat from the day had finally broken, the fireflies began their dance under the trees and in the cool damp grass. The isle was set up under the two oak trees on the east side of the Inn. A white carpet lay in the grass separating the two sets of white chairs on either side of it. Candelabras of white and cream candles lit the isle on each side. At the end of the isle almost directly between the two old oaks stood the chuppa that Luke has built Lorelai all those years ago.
At about 5:30 the guests began to filter in armed with their handkerchiefs and Kleenex to dry the tears they knew they were certain to cry this night. Not tears of sadness, not a one, all tears of happiness from seeing two people who were close to so many, find happiness and never ending love in each other.
Buddy and Luke took their spot at the end of that isle as the towns people looked on in silence. A string quartet situated to the far left of the chuppa took it's cue and began to softly play.
In the honey moon suit only a few feet away…Lorelai looked at herself again in the mirror. Her ivory colored dress was simple and flowing, she wore no shoes on her feel, much to the chagrin of her mother. Her hair was done in her usual beautiful waves, with just a few twists with small flowers peaking out. She took in a deep breath as she turned to her daughter.
"You look beautiful mom." Rory said allowing a tear to form and fall in the corner of her eye.
"Don't you go crying on me now…" Lorelai said blotting the corners of her eyes.
"I love you." Rory said, handing her mother her bouquet of white lilies and red roses and kissing her on the cheek. "See you out there?" Rory said.
"See you out there." Lorelai whispered as Rory walked out of the room with Ellie, Sookie and Davey.
At the end of the isle sat a white wagon filled with rose petals. Rory sat her daughter still to small to walk down the isle inside and handed three year old Davey the handle to pull her down the isle. Everyone chuckled as they passed, not only because Ellie had taken to eating the roses, but also because of the sign attached to the back…it read in big red letters; The Bride is Coming. Once at the end of the isle Sookie pulled the kids off to the side to sit with she and Jackson. Rory then made her way down the isle to wait for her mother.
In the room Lorelai and Richard stood in silence waiting for their cue, as the cello began to play Richard patted Lorelai's hand in the crook of his arm and smiled.
"They are playing our song." Richard said with a smile kissing his daughter on the cheek and clearing his throat as he walked her out the door.
Everyone stood when they saw Lorelai and Richard appear at the end of the isle. Slowly, they walked down the isle. Luke looked as though he could be knocked over with a feather at the sight of his bride, and when their eyes met, they both smiled that smile everyone had come to know and love, the one that was only meant for the other. Lorelai laughed nervously as she wiped a tear away. Lorelai locked eyes with her Luke and everyone around her disappeared. Once at the end of the isle Richard looked a Lorelai one last time, and kissed her cheek. And everyone saw as he whispered something in her ear, but no one heard but Lorelai as he said the words that were said so few times between them through the years.
Lorelai smiled as her father took his seat by her mother who was busy blotting her eyes with her handkerchief. As Luke took Lorelais hand and placed in his arm, she felt more sure of that moment than any moment before or since.
The couple whispered 'I love you' to one and other as they turned to face Reverend Skinner who began their ceremony.
"Good Evening, we all know why we are gathered here tonight. We are all joined here as the sunsets to celebrate the joining of Luke and Lorelai in Holy matrimony. When they asked if I would perform the ceremony for them tonight, I was honored. It seems to all that this night has been a lifetime in the making. They have known each other since Lorelai first blew into our sleepy little town almost twenty one years ago. They have been close friends in the more recent years, and over the last two years we have all been lucky enough to watch that friendship turn into the kind of love that only a rare few are lucky enough to find. He was the one that she could turn to when she needed someone, and slowly she fell in love with the man who started off as just a friend. She was the bane of his existence, having loved her silently for years and not saying a word until the faithful night two years ago when he, with a kiss, let her know, all the things he had been feeling for her for years. So tonight, as the sun sets in the sky, it also sets on their lives as single people, and it will rise tomorrow, a new day and the start of a new life, that they will share with one and other forever." The reverend looked up at the couple and their gathered guests and smiled.
"If you would turn and face each other." The reverend instructed. "The couple has prepared a little something that they wanted to say to each other, they will do this now. Luke…"
Luke's eyes locked on hers as he began to speak.
"You know I am not a man of many words, and I don't know what to say other than, it's you...it has always been you. And today I am proud that I am not just going to be your husband, but also a step father to your equally amazing daughter and grandfather to Ellie. And I promise that I will always be the man, that the three of you can count on."
Lorelai squeezed his hands tightly as she smiled and teared up.
"Luke,…for a long time…you were just the guy behind the counter who kept me in coffee. Over the years you have come to be known as several other things to me…Mr. Backwards Baseball Hat, my Ice Man, my Burger Boy, my Coffee King, my Hero. But no matter what I have called you, no matter how cute the nick name or title, I gave you…none of them no matter what they were, is as good as the one I get to call you from now on, and that is my husband. For a long time I thought…and I was saddened by the fact that I knew that Rory was growing up with out a guy in her life, I was sad I was raising her without a guy in mine, but I also knew it couldn't be just any guy either. Then, about two years ago, it occurred to me, when you kissed me for the first time right over there…that she wasn't growing up without a man in her life, nor was I raising her without a man in mine. You have always been there for Rory and I, through thick and thin,…you have always been the guy we could turn to when we needed something fixed, when we needed to be fed, when we needed coffee, and you were always there, when I needed a good friend to talk to, or to cry to, you were there when Rory needed you too you were there the day she graduated high school, the day she went off to Yale, the night Ellie our beautiful granddaughter was born, you have always been there, and I promise you I will always be there for you just like you have always been for us. You are my knight in flannel armor…" She said with a laugh and a tear.
"May I have the rings?" Rev. Skinner asked turning to Buddy who placed the two rings in his hand.
"Luke do you promise to love, Lorelai, through the good times and the bad, in sickness and in health, for richer for poorer, forsaking all others until death parts you?"
"I do." Luke said looking into Lorelai's eyes.
"And do you Lorelai, do you promise to love, Lorelai, through the good times and the bad, in sickness and in health, for richer for poorer, forsaking all others until death parts you?"
"I do." Luke said.
"May I have the rings please?" Reverend Skinner asked taking the rings from Buddy.
"May these rings serve as an outward symbol of the internal love you have for one and other…Luke please place this ring on her finger and repeat after me…I Lucas Daniel Danes, choose you Lorelai Victoria Gilmore above all others to be my wife," The Reverend said.
"I Lucas Daniel Danes, choose you Lorelai Victoria Gilmore above all others to be my wife, " Luke repeated.
"And I offer you this ring as a token of our love and with it join my life with yours."
"And I offer you this ring as a token of our love and with it join my life with yours." Luke said sliding the ring onto Lorelai's shaking finger.
"Lorelai…please place this ring on Luke as you repeat after me…I Lorelai Victoria Gilmore, choose you Lucas Daniel Danes above all others to be my husband," Reverend Skinner instructed.
"I Lorelai Victoria Gilmore, choose you Lucas Daniel Danes above all others to be my husband," Lorelai said fumbling the ring a bit getting it to his finger.
"And I offer you this ring as a token of our love and with it join my life with yours."
"And I offer you this ring as a token of our love and with it join my life with yours." Lorelai said sliding the ring all the way onto his finger.
"By the powers vested in my by the state of Connecticut, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Luke, you may kiss your bride."
Luke turned and looked at Lorelai for a moment before he placed his hand on her cheek and gently kissed her their first kiss of their life as husband and wife.
"Ladies and Gentleman, may I introduce Mr. and Mrs. Luke and Lorelai Danes."
Everyone stood up and clapped as Luke and Lorelai turned to walk back down the isle. Rory followed quickly behind them, in the excitement and illation of the moment, Luke and Lorelai didn't notice the person who snuck in and took the last seat in the back row, but Rory did and she knew before the night was over, she was going to have to come face to face, with him.
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Do you want to know who it is? Cool, I will tell you...once you let me know what you think...I know...I am evil...buwahh ha ha ha!